U.S. Virgin Islands Seeks $190 Million From JPMorgan in Epstein Lawsuit
The government of the U.S. Virgin Islands said in a court filing on Friday that it is seeking at least $190 million in penalties from JPMorgan Chase for the bank’s failure to detect and report the sex trafficking operation run by the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein in the U.S. territory.
Lawyers for the Virgin Islands disclosed the sum in a legal filing in response to a request from the federal judge in Manhattan overseeing the lawsuit it filed against JPMorgan last year, which claimed that the bank turned a blind eye to Mr. Epstein’s activities.
In the filing, the Virgin Islands’ attorney general’s office said it also wants the nation’s largest bank to put in new policies to prevent it from providing financial services to human traffickers.
“We are pursuing this enforcement action because JPMorgan Chase’s institutional failure enabled Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking,” said U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Ariel Smith in a statement.
Source: The New York Times
