The New York Times on Saturday revealed that the billionaire who donated $130 million to the government to keep the military funded during the lockdown is Timothy Mellon, the octogenarian heir of the Mellon banking family fortune. Trump earlier called the donor "a friend" and a "patriot" - but the name was not revealed until the NYT report.
But, with the revelation, certain misleading claims are going viral, especially in relation to a lawsuit filed by a woman against the Bank of New York Mellon, a publicly owned company formed over the merger of Mellon Financial, formerly owned by the Mellon family, and the BNY, for allegedly helping with the operations of disgraced financier, Jeffrey Epstein. Filed on October 16, the lawsuit is the latest in a series of allegations against major US banks over their alleged involvement in Jeffrey Epstein's operations.
This lawsuit has resurfaced amid the news of Mellon donating $130 million to help with the payment of military salaries amid the government shutdown. However, the links are unfounded as neither Timothy Mellon nor the Mellon family has any ties to BNY Mellon.
After the merger of Mellon Financial and the Bank of New York in 2017, BNY Mellon became a publicly traded company, and the Mellon family did not have any stakes in the newly formed entity. Institutional investors like Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street hold controlling stakes at BNY Mellon.
{{/usCountry}}After the merger of Mellon Financial and the Bank of New York in 2017, BNY Mellon became a publicly traded company, and the Mellon family did not have any stakes in the newly formed entity. Institutional investors like Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street hold controlling stakes at BNY Mellon.
{{/usCountry}}Notably, despite social media speculating that Mellon could have links to Epstein, there is no known association between him and the deceased sexual offender.
The BNY-Epstein Lawsuit: Details Explained
The lawsuit was filed by an alleged Epstein victim identified only as Jane Doe, who alleged that Bank of New York and the Bank of America funneled millions of dollars to victims of Jeffrey Epstein shortly before his death in prison in 2019. As per the lawsuit, BNY and BOA allegedly paid over $378 million to women who were trafficked by Epstein.
"BNY for years processed $378 million in payments to women trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein," it states. "BNY had a plethora of information regarding Epstein's sex trafficking operation but chose profit over protecting the victims."
Meanwhile, BNY has dismissed the lawsuit, calling the allegations in it meritless. "The claims in the lawsuit are meritless, and we will vigorously defend against it," a spokesperson of BNY said in the wake of the lawsuit.