Two More Banks Have Been Implicated in Jeffrey Epstein’s Crimes

An anonymous survivor claims that Bank of America “knowingly provided the financial support and the veneer of institutional legitimacy" for Epstein's sex trafficking.

By Audra Heinrichs | October 27, 2025 | 4:40pm

Photo Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images Latest News

Two More Banks Have Been Implicated in Jeffrey Epstein’s Crimes

In June 2023, JP Morgan settled with scores of survivors of Jeffrey Epstein to the tune of $290 million. The bank didn’t admit liability in Epstein’s international sex-trafficking operation, but it did concede that the women “were the victims of Epstein’s terrible abuse.” Now, two more banks are being forced to reckon with allegations that they, too, were party to Epstein’s crimes.

This month, an anonymous survivor sued both Bank of America and Bank of New York Mellon (BNY), alleging that the banks had unlawfully enabled Epstein. The woman, who met Epstein in her native Russia in 2011, says she was trafficked and abused by Epstein until his death in 2019. According to the lawsuit, in 2013, his accountant instructed the woman to open a Bank of America account to allow for money to be wired to cover her rent. The banking transactions, as the suit notes, should have raised red flags with the bank.

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“A review of Jane Doe’s account history will show incredibly alarming and erratic banking behavior, as Epstein, through one of his loyal employees, would utilize Jane Doe’s account, often without her knowledge, to conduct business in amounts that were not typical for Jane Doe, and that would have in fact been impossible based on Jane Doe’s income or typical pattern of deposit,” the lawsuit alleges.

“Epstein committed these crimes by means of not only his own extraordinary wealth and power, but through access to funding and financial support from both individuals and institutions, including BNY,” one lawsuit claims. “Egregiously, BNY had a plethora of information regarding Epstein’s sex trafficking operation but chose profit over protecting the victims.”

The Bank of America suit detailed similar claims, alleging that the institution “knowingly provided the financial support and the veneer of institutional legitimacy for Epstein and his co-conspirators to fuel their international sex trafficking organization under the guise of non-criminal business activities.” Furthermore, the filing said that Bank of America also neglected to advance suspicious activity reports against Epstein.

Legal experts told the Guardian that while the suits are unlikely to be successful, it would become a potential “PR nightmare” for the banks to fight the suits given the public’s investment in the pursuit of justice for survivors. “No one wants to go litigate any of the Epstein-related cases,” former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani said.

The JP Morgan suit was prompted by claims filed by an unnamed woman, identified only by the pseudonym Jane Doe. According to Doe, JP Morgan not only knew of Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation, but continued a beneficiary relationship with him for 15 years. Doe, who alleges that she was raped and trafficked by Epstein, sued the bank on behalf of a “large number” of fellow survivors. The suit was filed in November 2022, and claimed the number of women who allege Epstein abused them over the period in which he remained a client of JP Morgan could rise to over 100. Notably, the bank maintained a relationship with Epstein even after his 2008 guilty plea to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. The bank didn’t drop him until 2013.

“We all now understand that Epstein’s behavior was monstrous, and we believe this settlement is in the best interest of all parties, especially the survivors, who suffered unimaginable abuse at the hands of this man,” JP Morgan said in its statement. “Any association with him was a mistake and we regret it. We would never have continued to do business with him if we believed he was using our bank in any way to help commit heinous crimes.”

Though any amount of money isn’t justice, here’s hoping the same outcome will prevail for the plaintiff of these new suits.

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