Survivor Alleges Banks Enabled Epstein’s Sex-Trafficking Network

A woman identifying herself as Jane Doe has filed lawsuits against Bank of America and the Bank of New York Mellon (BNY), claiming the financial institutions knowingly facilitated Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation. The lawsuits allege that both banks provided services that allowed Epstein to send payments to his victims over several years.

Bank of America, the second-largest bank in the US, declined to comment, while BNY did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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Details of the Lawsuit

Jane Doe, who says she was abused by Epstein, alleges that she met him in 2011 while living in Russia and became financially dependent on him. She claims Epstein raped her, forcibly touched her, and forced her to engage in sexual acts with other women over 100 times between 2011 and 2019.

She alleges that:

• She opened a Bank of America account in 2013 at the direction of Epstein’s former accountant, Richard Kahn.
• Kahn regularly sent funds for her rent through the account.
• In 2015, Epstein allegedly added her to a payroll for a “sham company”, with payments routed through her Bank of America account.

The lawsuit claims these transactions should have raised red flags for Bank of America, noting that Epstein had previously pleaded guilty to state-level prostitution charges in Florida in 2008.

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Allegations Against BNY Mellon

The lawsuit against BNY Mellon alleges that the bank provided a line of credit to MC2, a modeling agency run by Epstein and French scout Jean-Luc Brunel, which was allegedly used to traffic victims. According to the complaint, BNY processed $378 million in payments to women trafficked by Epstein.

Both lawsuits assert that the banks failed to file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) with the US Department of the Treasury, which could have alerted law enforcement and potentially stopped Epstein sooner.

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Legal Context and Congressional Investigation

Epstein died by suicide in jail in 2019 while awaiting federal sex-trafficking charges, sparking ongoing scrutiny of his connections to influential figures and institutions. Jane Doe’s legal team is represented by Boies Schiller and Edwards Henderson, who previously secured settlements totaling hundreds of millions against Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan over their alleged ties to Epstein.

“As Congress works toward unraveling how Jeffrey Epstein orchestrated his criminal sex-trafficking enterprise for decades without detection, we are taking another important step forward toward justice for survivors,” said Sigrid McCawley, Jane Doe’s attorney.

The House Oversight Committee is actively investigating Epstein’s financial network and the roles banks may have played in facilitating his crimes.