Bank of America agrees to pay $72.5 million to settle Epstein lawsuit

Leon Black used Bank of America while paying Epstein $170 million, according to the lawsuit.

Bank of America agreed to pay $72.5 million to settle a lawsuit that alleged the bank kept ties to people close to Jeffrey Epstein and failed to flag suspicious payments between the convicted sex offender and his associates and victims.

The proposed class-action lawsuit was filed last year on behalf of a woman who said she was sexually abused and trafficked by Epstein between 2011 and 2019, as well as on behalf of other victims.

The proposed class-action lawsuit was filed last year on behalf of a woman who said she was sexually abused and trafficked by Epstein between 2011 and 2019, as well as on behalf of other victims.

The lawsuit alleged that Bank of America “financially benefited” from Epstein’s circle and failed to file suspicious activity reports with the government, despite the information it gleaned from the accounts it provided to those around him. Unlike other lawsuits against banks that resulted in settlements, this suit wasn’t primarily about Epstein having his own accounts at Bank of America.

Epstein was indicted in 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges involving underage girls and had more than a decade earlier been convicted of soliciting prostitution from a teenage girl.

Bank of America said the settlement wasn’t an admission of wrongdoing.

“While we stand by our prior statements made in the filings in this case, including that Bank of America did not facilitate sex trafficking crimes, this resolution allows us to put this matter behind us and provides further closure for the plaintiffs,” a spokeswoman said.

The settlement still requires court approval.

According to the lawsuit, it was a Bank of America account that former Apollo Global Management Chief Executive Officer Leon Black used to pay Epstein some $170 million over the years. A settlement between Black and the U.S. Virgin Islands included “an admission that ‘Epstein used the money Black paid him to partially fund his operations in the Virgin Islands,’” the lawsuit said.

A spokesman for Black declined to comment. Black has previously said he paid Epstein for estate planning, tax work, structuring of art entities and philanthropic advice and that he didn’t engage in wrongdoing. Black had been set to be deposed as part of the Bank of America lawsuit before the sides reached a settlement.

Bank of America was also aware that known associates of Epstein had accounts, including Ghislaine Maxwell, the lawsuit alleged.

In 2013, a woman referred to as Jane Doe opened an account at Bank of America at the direction of Epstein associates as part of a “plan to defraud immigration officials,” according to the lawsuit. The woman had lived in Russia when she met Epstein in 2011 and was sexually abused by him “on at least 100 occasions” between then and 2019, the suit said.

Epstein and associates used the Jane Doe accounts for years, including at least one until 2019, the lawsuit alleged. One account was used to “regularly provide Jane Doe with reimbursement money,” from Epstein’s accounts at other banks including Deutsche Bank, the suit said.

JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank have agreed to pay what together amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars to settle similar lawsuits in recent years. Those lawsuits focused on accounts that Epstein held in his own name.

Write to Gina Heeb at gina.heeb@wsj.com