JPMorgan Chase (JPM) said Monday that it has reached a preliminary settlement on a class action lawsuit with an unnamed victim of convicted sexual predator and financier Jeffery Epstein.
Multiple media reports suggest the settlement could be as much as $290 million, citing one of the victim's lead attorneys.
The suit was brought last year by a woman known only as Jane Doe, who accused the bank of enabling Epstein's crimes by maintaining him as a client at the bank for nearly fifteen years.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon was deposed in the suit last month with respect to his knowledge of the bank's connections with the disgraced financier, who hung himself in a Manhattan prison cell in August of 2019 while awaiting trial over sex trafficking charges.
Dimon told lawyers for the victim that he had never met or communicated with Epstein, with the bank adding that he "does not recall ever discussing his accounts internally, and was not involved in any decisions about his account" at the investment bank.
A trial had been scheduled for October 23 before Judge Jed Rakoff of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
"The parties believe this settlement is in the best interests of all parties, especially the survivors who were the victims of Epstein’s terrible abuse," JPMorgan said in a brief statement.
JPMorgan said litigation linked to its allegations that the U.S. Virgin Islands was "complicit in the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein”, as well as its claims against former executive Jes Staley, remain outstanding.
Staley, who was asked to step down as CEO of U.K.-based Barclays late last year, is being sued by JPMorgan over his own ties to Epstein, who was a client of the investment bank between 2000 and 2013 even after pleading guilty to a prostitution charge brought by the state of Florida in 2008.
JPMorgan shares were marked 0.1% higher in early trading following news of the potential settlement to change hands at $141.14 each.
