Banks sued over links to Epstein

JP MORGAN and Deutsche Bank are being sued by the lawyer who led action against Prince Andrew over claims that they enabled the sexual abuse of late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Class action lawsuits filed in New York by David Boies on behalf of Epstein’s alleged victims claim that the banking giants turned a blind eye in order to “churn profits”.

The suits claim that the banks “knowingly benefited and received things of value for assisting, supporting, facilitating, and otherwise providing the most critical service for the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking organisation”.

The anonymous claimants are seeking unspecified damages and are being represented by Mr Boies, the lawyer who acted for Virginia Giuffre in her case against Prince Andrew that ended with a settlement.

JP Morgan, where Epstein was a key client, is accused of financially benefiting from participating in the alleged sex trafficking by providing financial support from 1998 to August 2013.

Deutsche Bank is accused of knowing that it would earn millions of dollars from its relationship with Epstein.

A source close to JP Morgan said the bank ended its relationship with Epstein “long before his ongoing misconduct became known. Since then, it has cooperated with investigations into Epstein and others”.

A spokesman for Deutsche Bank said: “We believe this claim lacks merit and will present our arguments in court.”

JP Morgan and a lawyer representing Jes Staley, who handled JP Morgan’s relationship with Epstein and later became chief executive of Barclays, both declined to comment. None of the allegations made against Mr Staley in the lawsuit has been publicly proven.