Bank of America, the second-largest bank in the United States, has agreed to pay more than $72.5 million as part of a settlement to resolve a lawsuit filed by victims of Jeffrey Epstein. The victims accuse the bank of facilitating and profiting from the sex trafficking operations of the convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in New York, alleges that the bank profited from its relationship with Epstein and ignored signs that its accounts were being used for the abuse of minors. The settlement, which still needs to be approved by a judge, covers people who were victims between 2008 and 2019, the year Epstein died by suicide in a New York prison while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. According to the lawsuit, Bank of America also provided financial services to Epstein's associates, such as Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted in 2022 of trafficking minors, and Leon Black, a former executive at Apollo Global Management. The document claims that the bank failed to properly monitor the accounts and report suspicious transactions in a timely manner, including a $170 million transfer from Black to Epstein. In a statement to The New York Times, the bank denied facilitating sex crimes and said the settlement seeks to “provide closure for the plaintiffs.” This is the third settlement between Epstein's victims and banks accused of facilitating his crimes.
