by Pam Martens and Russ Martens at Wall Street on Parade
Yesterday, at 9:33 a.m. ET, JPMorgan Chase and the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner, issued a terse joint statement indicating that they had informed Judge Jed Rakoff’s federal court in Manhattan that claims against the bank for aiding and abetting Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking of underage girls had been settled by the two sides. The settlement will require court approval.
Law partner David Boies later confirmed to the press that the dollar figure for that settlement was an astonishing $290 million, despite the fact that the lawsuit was brought by just one women, Jane Doe 1.
After Jamie Dimon, the Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, had argued for months that the bank was not responsible for Epstein’s sex crimes and trafficking of young girls, why would the bank flip on a dime on June 12 and decide to effectively admit its guilt by agreeing to pay $290 million to settle the case?
The answer to that question is what else was happening in Judge Jed Rakoff’s court yesterday – which is actually quite a lot.
For starters, Jane Doe 1 became a lot of Jane Does, all potentially willing to bring more horrific stories and headlines implicating the bank for functioning as a cash conduit for Epstein’s crimes. (The bank had allowed tens of thousands of dollars in cash to be paid out monthly to Epstein from his accounts at the bank despite years of warnings from its own compliance staff that Epstein was a registered sex offender and under investigation for sex trafficking of underage girls, according to internal bank documents submitted to the court.)
Jane Doe 1 was able to become a multiple threat to JPMorgan Chase because yesterday Judge Rakoff entered an Opinion and Order certifying the case as a Class Action. Rakoff’s order explained the broad scope of the class being certified as follows:…
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