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IPFS News Link • Human Trafficking

US Virgin Islands Demands $190 Million From JPMorgan Over Jeffrey Epstein Relationship

• https://www.zerohedge.com by Tyler Durden

In a Friday court filing in Manhattan, the USVI also said it wants JPMorgan to commit to reforms that would prevent the bank from enabling human trafficking in the future. Epstein notably had a private island in the USVI where he brought many of his victims - and an unreleased list of associates who abused them.

"I am gratified that the victims have received some measure of compensation from the bank, but more needs to be done to hold JPMorgan Chase accountable and to ensure this does not happen to another generation of women and girls," said USVI AG Ariel Smith in a statement, Bloomberg reports.

Last month JPMorgan settled with a group of Epstein victims for $290 million without admitting liability. The USVI suit seeks damages over the bank's relationship with the dead pedophile which spanned 1998 to 2013.

The bank says the Friday filing by the USVI does not comport with previous "settlement conversations" between the parties, according to a spokeswoman, who added: "As for the USVI's misdirected damages theories, they are not well-founded and are being challenged by JPM in court."

JPMorgan has argued that the USVI suit is flawed because the territory itself facilitated Epstein's crimes. For instance, the bank has noted that Cecile de Jongh, the former first lady of the USVI, worked for Epstein and helped arrange visas and travel for women he brought there. Epstein in return paid the Skidmore College tuition for one of De Jongh's children and provided many other benefits.


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