NEW YORK (Reuters) -A U.S. judge said on Monday JPMorgan Chase & Co must face a lawsuit by the U.S. Virgin Islands accusing the bank of enabling the late financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking.
The judge also said JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank AG must face lawsuits by two women who said Epstein sexually abused them, and who also accused the banks of enabling Epstein.
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan dismissed some claims in all three lawsuits, but said the plaintiffs can try to provide that the banks knowingly benefited from participating in Epstein’s sex trafficking venture.
The judge said he would explain his reasons for the rulings in due course.
Epstein had been a client of JPMorgan from 2000 to 2013, and of Deutsche Bank from 2013 to 2018.
Both women, each known as Jane Doe 1, have said the banks turned a blind eye to Epstein’s abuses because he was an important client, and that numerous cash payments came from the banks to pay Epstein’s victims.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein owned a private island, sought to hold JPMorgan liable for Epstein’s misconduct there.
Both banks have said they had no legal duty to protect the women from Epstein, and denied accusations they knew about his abuses.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Richard Chang)
