Then-U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman announces charges against Jeffery Epstein on July 8, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
Deutsche Bank officials attended meetings inside Jeffrey Epstein’s home “when victims were present,” lawyers for those survivors alleged in a blistering legal brief.
The brief, written by prominent attorney David Boies, names the names of the Deutsche personnel whom he claims interacted with the victims and raised questions about Epstein’s sex trafficking.
“Epstein had been running the venture with JP Morgan, where Paul Morris ‘had been a member of the team servicing Epstein’s account’ and was aware of the venture,” the filing states. “In November 2012, Morris joined Deutsche Bank, ‘bringing with him the knowledge he had acquired at JP Morgan about Epstein’s sex-trafficking venture and conspiracy’ — beyond the knowledge that Deutsche Bank already had at this time due to Epstein’s widely publicized conviction and conduct.”
In November, Epstein victims filed multiple class action lawsuits against Deutsche and JPMorgan, calling them “complicit” in the dead predator’s crimes. Both of the banks have tried to dismiss the lawsuits, and Deutsche recently argued that a settlement agreement signed by one of the victims absolves them of liability.
The survivors’ lawyers said that Deutsche cannot “hide” behind that deal.
“Even if the court considered the settlement agreement at this stage, its plain language demonstrates that the parties did not intend for the release to benefit Deutsche Bank,” the legal brief says.
In their complaint, the survivors accuse Deutsche of violating the Trafficking Victims’ Protection Act, and the German lender denies their allegations, which the bank claims are too amorphous to stand up in court.
Attorneys for the survivors claim that the bank knew from the earliest stages of its relationship with Epstein roughly a decade ago.
“Beginning around November 2013, Epstein began using Deutsche Bank to send sizable wire transfers to his sex-trafficking co-conspirators, whose names had been made public years earlier,” the brief states. “Further, in 2014 and into 2015, an internal department alerted Deutsche Bank management about ‘Epstein’s sex trafficking,’ but management chose to ignore it.”
The brief also alludes to Charles Packard, the head of the bank’s American wealth-management division, who was featured in a New York Times investigation on the subject.
“On January 22, 2015, Deutsche Bank’s senior management actually ‘met privately and in person with Epstein at his New York home,’ ‘Packard asked Epstein about his involvement in sex trafficking,’ and observed victims present in the home,” the brief states. “And ‘other Deutsche Bank employees also met with Epstein personally outside the bank and made observations consistent with Epstein’s daily sex trafficking activities, which included being surrounded by certain of his victims.'”
The survivors allege that Deutsche created a scheme to avoid “Know Your Customer” (KYC) restrictions that would have unearthed more information about Epstein.
“If that were not enough, a confidential witness reported that ‘Deutsche Bank had a KYC ‘special deal’ for Epstein and other high-net-worth individuals’ who ‘were not required to submit to the normally required KYC documentation,'” the brief states. “Deutsche Bank gave Epstein this ‘special deal’ because ‘applying standard KYC regulations would have more fully exposed Epstein’s sex-trafficking venture.'”
Deutsche declined to comment on the filing.
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