People inside the offices of JP Morgan Chase in New York City.
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A New York federal judge on Monday ruled that the U.S. Virgin Islands and women who accuse the late investor Jeffrey Epstein of sexual abuse can proceed with lawsuits claiming that JPMorgan Chase knowingly benefited from participating in Epstein’s sex trafficking scheme.
The judge also allowed parts of a separate, similar lawsuit by Epstein’s accusers against Deutsche Bank to proceed.
The ruling by Manhattan District Judge Jed Rakoff came in response to motions from JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank to dismiss the three lawsuits.
While Rakoff agreed to dismiss multiple counts of each of the cases, he allowed other counts to remain and to head toward trial.
In the case against JPMorgan filed by a woman suing on behalf of other Epstein victims, Rakoff sustained the claim that the bank “knowingly benefited from participating in a sex trafficking venture” led by its client Epstein.
The judge also said the accusers could pursue claims that JPMorgan “negligently failed to exercise reasonable care to prevent physical harm;” that the bank failed to exercise reasonable in providing non-routine banking for Epstein, and that the bank obstructed enforcement of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
In the Virgin Islands’ suit, Rakoff sustained the government’s claim that JPMorgan Chase benefited from participating the Epstein’s sex trafficking, which included shipping women to his private island in the U.S. territory.
He dismissed all other claims in the Virgin Islands and accusers’ cases.
JPMorgan declined to comment on the ruling.
Epstein, a wealthy former friend of Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew, killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal child sex trafficking charges.
— With additional reporting by CNBC’s Eamon Javers
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