Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay $75 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging it assisted Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a Jane Doe last year and it named herself and other accusers.
Deutsche Bank was accused of conducting regular business transactions with the disgraced financier for five years while it knew that he was using funds in his accounts to advance his sex-trafficking activity.
The plaintiff alleged that, from 2003 to 2018, Epstein abused her, and she was paid for sex acts.
Epstein was facing sex-trafficking charges in 2019 when he died by suicide in a federal jail in New York. He was 66 years old.
The settlement does not include an admission of wrongdoing, according to the report, which cites people with knowledge of the agreement.
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Deutsche Bank spokesman Dylan Riddle declined to comment on the settlement but told The WSJ that the bank has invested 4 billion euros and increased staff dedicated to addressing financial crimes.
The $75 million is believed to be the largest sex-trafficking settlement involving a financial institution, attorneys from the law firms Boies Schiller Flexner and Edwards Pottinger who represented the plaintiffs said in a joint statement.
“This groundbreaking settlement is the culmination of two law firms conducting more than a decade-long investigation to hold one of Epstein’s financial banking partners responsible for the role it played in facilitating his trafficking organization,” the statement said.
