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Deutsche Bank's headquarters in Frankfurt am Main: $75 million for plaintiffs in the Epstein case

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DANIEL ROLAND / AFP

Deutsche Bank has reportedly agreed to a $75 million settlement in the civil lawsuit over deals with sex offender Jeffrey Eppstein.

The bank wants to settle a class action lawsuit in which it is accused of having profited from the sex trade of the late hedge fund manager Jeffrey Epstein, as reported by the Wall Street Journal and the Reuters news agency, citing lawyers for the plaintiffs. The financial institution had previously requested that the lawsuit be dismissed.

With the settlement, the claims from a class action lawsuit in Manhattan are said to have been settled. A court has yet to approve the settlement, according to Reuters.

According to Reuters, a spokesperson for Deutsche Bank referred to a 2020 statement according to which the bank admitted a mistake in accepting Epstein as a client – that was between 2013 and 2018. The institute has also invested more than four billion euros to improve controls, among other things.

In civil proceedings, there is a lower threshold for a verdict in the USA than in criminal proceedings: In civil law, it is sufficient for the jurors to consider a crime to be more likely. In criminal proceedings, guilt must be proven beyond doubt. Most civil litigation ends in a settlement.

Lawsuit also against J. P. Morgan Chase

At the end of November, a group of unnamed women filed lawsuits against Deutsche Bank and the U.S. bank J. P. Morgan Chase. They accuse them of having profited financially from the late hedge fund manager, who was accused of sexual exploitation of young people.

The banks deny the allegations. The women had not been able to demonstrate that the institutes had violated laws against human trafficking, they argued. They are not responsible for the abuse by Epstein and are not obliged to protect the women from Epstein.

The extent to which the settlement could have an impact on the lawsuit against J.P. Morgan Chase initially remained unclear.

In 2020, Deutsche Bank was ordered to pay a fine of $150 million by the U.S. financial regulator in the Epstein case. The financial institution had failed to detect and prevent "suspicious transactions" of its customer amounting to "millions of dollars," it said at the time.

Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to forcing a minor into prostitution. He received an 18-month prison sentence for this. After being arrested again on sex trafficking charges, he took his own life in custody in August 2019 at the age of 66.

hba/Reuters