The controversy around the late Jeffrey Epstein, a disgraced financier accused of running a sex-trafficking ring and who died in 2019 in jail awaiting trial, continues to cause headlines. The German bank has reportedly agreed on a legal settlement to resolve a proposed class-action lawsuit.

Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay $75 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging that Germany’s largest bank facilitated Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring, the Wall Street Journal quoted lawyers. who sued the bank on behalf of alleged victims, as saying.

A woman who is listed anonymously as Jane Doe in court papers filed the suit last year in New York on behalf of herself and other accusers of the disgraced financier, the publication said. She claimed that Deutsche Bank did business with Epstein for five years while knowing that he was using money in his bank accounts to further his sex-trafficking activity. 

The Doe plaintiff alleged that she was sexually abused by Epstein and trafficked to his friends from about 2003 until about 2018; she was also paid in cash for sex acts. The lawsuit alleged that Deutsche Bank ignored red flags including payments to numerous young women. The settlement is expected to compensate dozens of accusers. 

Deutsche Bank declined to comment on the WSJ story when contacted by Family Wealth Report. A spokesperson referred, however, to a statement the bank made in 2020: “We acknowledge our error of onboarding Epstein in 2013 and the weaknesses in our processes, and have learnt from our mistakes and shortcomings. In recent years Deutsche Bank has made considerable progress in remedying a number of past issues, including investing more than €4 billion [$4.34 billion] to bolster our controls, as well as training and operational processes. Further, we have increased the size of our global Anti-Financial Crime team to more than 1,900 employees.”

Epstein died by suicide in a federal jail in New York in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex-trafficking charges. 

The bank didn’t admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement, according to people familiar with the matter, the WSJ added.

The Epstein scandal has affected a number of banks. For example, in November 2021 Jes Staley stepped down as chief executive of UK banking group Barclays amid pressure from regulators about how he described his relationship with Epstein.

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority – the two principal watchdogs in the UK – told Barclays and Staley their preliminary conclusions from their investigation into the matter. Staley was also a senior figure at JP Morgan before moving to Barclays. JP Morgan has accused Staley, its former head of private banking, of "intentional and outrageous conduct" in concealing information about Epstein, with whom he had been friends. The lawsuit seeks to force Staley to return eight years of compensation and reimburse JP Morgan for damages the company might incur in the other lawsuits, a report had said.

Staley has reportedly acknowledged having been friendly with Epstein, but expressed regret for their relationship and denied knowing about the financier's alleged crimes. As subsequently reported in late April, Staley said in court filings that JP Morgan was using him as a “public relations shield” in its legal battle over working with Epstein and trying to “deflect blame” from its failures.