New class-action lawsuits allege that Bank of America and BNY Mellon enabled Jeffrey Epstein’s trafficking of underage girls, in part by failing to report suspicious activity linked to the financier until after his death in 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported.
In the case against Bank of America, a Jane Doe plaintiff who says she was sexually abused by Epstein from 2011 to 2019 alleges that she opened an account with the financial institution in May 2013 under the direction of Epstein’s accountant, who transferred roughly $14,000 into it. Epstein and the accountant used the BoA accounts created under her name through 2019, according to the lawsuit cited by the Journal.
The lawsuit against BNY Mellon claims that, since at least 2006, the bank maintained a relationship with MC2, a modeling agency linked to Epstein and French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, and that funds moved through BNY were used to facilitate trafficking. Brunel, arrested in 2020 on sex-trafficking charges, died in jail in 2022, the newspaper said.
The cases were brought by attorneys, including Brad Edwards and David Boies, who previously sued JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank over Epstein ties. Those banks settled in 2023 for $290 million and $75 million, respectively, without admitting wrongdoing.
Congressional scrutiny of banks’ handling of Epstein-related transactions has recently intensified.
Epstein’s estate recently provided lawmakers with a list of more than 20 banks that held his or his entities’ accounts, including several used in his later years. In some cases, banks filed suspicious activity reports (SARs) only after Epstein’s 2019 arrest, years after many transactions occurred, lawmakers have said.
Bank of America filed SARs in 2020 covering $170 million in transactions between Epstein and billionaire Leon Black, who has said payments were for estate and tax services vetted by Apollo Global Management’s board. BNY filed SARs covering $378 million through Epstein accounts, according to the Journal.
Read more at The Wall Street Journal