Bank of America has agreed to pay $72.5 million to settle a proposed class action lawsuit alleging the bank facilitated financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operation, according to a Manhattan federal court filing released Friday evening.
The deal, which requires sign-off from a judge, would pay “all women who were sexually abused or trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein, or by any person who is connected to or otherwise associated with Jeffrey Epstein or any Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking venture, between June 30, 2008 and July 6, 2019, inclusive,” the filing said.
Lawyers have said they are aware of “at least 60 women who were victimized by Epstein” during that time period, the filing added.
US District Judge Jed Rakoff, who is overseeing the case, gave the parties a March 27 deadline to file the terms of settlement and an April 2 hearing to decide whether to approve them.
Bank of America said in a statement that the deal allows it to “put this matter behind us and provides further closure for the plaintiffs.” The bank continues to deny wrongdoing: “Bank of America did not facilitate sex trafficking crimes,” it said.
Epstein, known for rubbing elbows with titans of industry and political powerhouses, was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell the morning of August 10, 2019, while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
JPMorgan agreed to pay $290 million, and Deutsche Bank agreed to a $75 million payout, to settle similar lawsuits brought by the same group of lawyers representing Epstein victims.
Rakoff previously tossed a parallel lawsuit the attorneys brought against BNY — formerly Bank of New York Mellon Corp. — but allowed portions of the case against Bank of America to move forward.
At the start of his Congressional deposition Friday, Bill Clinton addressed the trove of photos of himself with Jeffrey Epstein released by the Justice Department last year.
In opening remarks posted on social media, the former President said he didn’t have any knowledge of Epstein’s sex trafficking operation — despite anyone’s “interpretation of those 20-year-old photos.”
“I had no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing,” Clinton said of the convicted sex offender, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. “No matter how many photos you show me.”
Clinton posted the remarks ahead of his closed-door deposition in Chappaqua, New York, before members of the House Oversight Committee, which has been investigating Epstein’s connections to powerful people.
In December, in response to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the Justice Department released several photos showing Clinton with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, who is now serving a 20-year prison sentence for trafficking girls to Epstein for sex. The photos show Clinton and Maxwell swimming together in a pool, along with a woman whose face is redacted. They also show Clinton in what appears to be Epstein’s private jet with a female, whose face is redacted, on his lap.
The photos also show Bill and Hillary Clinton at parties and dinners with Epstein.
A photo of former President Bill Clinton, Ghislaine Maxwell, and an unidentified woman was included in the Justice Department’s Epstein files.
Department of Justice
The former president has long maintained he had no knowledge of Epstein’s sexual abuse. Epstein occasionally visited the White House while Clinton was president, and Clinton has said he traveled internationally with Epstein on his private jet four times between 2002 and 2003, following his presidency, for Clinton Foundation initiatives. There’s no indication the two were still in contact by the time Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor in Florida in 2008.
“As someone who grew up in a home with domestic abuse, not only would I not have flown on his plane if I had any inkling of what he was doing — I would have turned him in myself and led the call for justice for his crimes, not sweetheart deals,” Clinton said in the opening statement of his deposition.
Maxwell appeared to have her own relationship with the Clintons.
Epstein files previously released by the House Oversight Committee include a photo of “Margaritaville” singer Jimmy Buffett, his wife, Bill Clinton, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Jeffrey Epstein.
House Oversight Committee
She worked to obtain funding for the Clinton Global Initiative, records released by the Justice Department show. Maxwell also said in an interview with Justice Department Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche last year that she was closer to Clinton than Epstein was.
“President Clinton was my friend, not Epstein’s friend,” she said.
“President Clinton liked me, and we got along terribly well. But I never saw that warmth, or however you want to characterize it, with Mr. Epstein — so I didn’t see that,” Maxwell said in her interview. “I didn’t see President Clinton being interested in Epstein. He was just a rich guy with a plane.”
Bill Clinton’s deposition on Friday follows Hillary Clinton’s on Thursday. She said she didn’t think she ever met Epstein. She has said she met Maxwell on “a few occasions” in social settings.
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee said they would publicly release videos of the depositions of Bill and Hillary Clinton, as they did with a deposition of Les Wexner, the billionaire founder of L Brands, who previously hired Epstein as a financial fixer.
Clinton’s deposition marks the first time a former president has been compelled to testify to Congress pursuant to a subpoena.
Democrats on the committee say Clinton’s deposition marks a precedent that should require President Donald Trump, who has also been photographed with Epstein, to testify before the committee.
If you are a survivor of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline (1-800-656-4673) or visit its website to receive confidential support.
This story is available exclusively to Business Insider
subscribers. Become an Insider
and start reading now. Have an account? .
Børge Brende, the long-serving head of the World Economic Forum, is stepping down.
His resignation comes after the WEF launched an independent review into his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Emails released by the Department of Justice appeared to show Brende had dinner with Epstein three times.
The president and CEO of the World Economic Forum, Børge Brende, has announced he will step down in the wake of an investigation into his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
“I believe now is the right moment for the Forum to continue its important work without distractions,” Brende, who led the organisation behind the annual Davos conference for over 8 years, said.
The WEF co-chairs, André Hoffman and Larry Fink, said the independent review, which was made public earlier in February, found “there were no additional concerns beyond what has been previously disclosed.”
Emails released by the Department of Justice appeared to show Brende had dinner with Epstein three times in 2018 and 2019.
In a statement to Reuters earlier this month, Brende said he was “completely unaware of Epstein’s past and criminal activities.”
Hoffman and Fink said Alois Zwinggi will serve as the WEF’s interim president and CEO.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
This story is available exclusively to Business Insider
subscribers. Become an Insider
and start reading now. Have an account? .
Longevity influencer Peter Attia has stepped down from his role as a CBS News contributor.
Attia’s name appears in the Epstein files over 1,700 times.
Attia also stepped down from his role at David Protein and is no longer listed as an Eight Sleep advisor.
Peter Attia, a popular longevity doctor with ties to Jeffrey Epstein, has stepped aside from his new role as a CBS News contributor, a person familiar with his decision confirmed to Business Insider.
The 52-year-old influencer, known for his podcasts and videos about living longer and his book “Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity,” was brought on by CBS News’ top editor, Bari Weiss, in late January, along with more than a dozen other new contributors.
Days later, the latest round of the Epstein files was released. Attia appears over 1,700 times in the files, which include crude emails he sent about women’s genitalia that he later called “embarrassing, tasteless, and indefensible.”
“The man I am today, roughly ten years later, would not write them and would not associate with Epstein at all,” Attia said of his emails with the disgraced financier and convicted sex criminal.
Attia has also stepped down from his role as chief science officer at the protein bar brand David Protein and is no longer listed as an advisor at Eight Sleep.
Other famous and powerful people, including former Prince Andrew, have also faced consequences after appearing in the Epstein files.
On Thursday, Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. It was his 66th birthday.
The former prince served as UK trade envoy from 2001 to 2011, and the Epstein files appear to show Mountbatten-Windsor forwarding emails with his official work reports to the disgraced financier in 2010 and 2011.
“Following a thorough assessment, we have now opened an investigation into this allegation of misconduct in public office,” Oliver Wright, the assistant chief constable with the Thames Valley Police, said. “It is important that we protect the integrity and objectivity of our investigation as we work with our partners to investigate this alleged offence.”
King Charles released a statement about the arrest on Thursday.
“I have learned with the deepest concern the news about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and suspicion of misconduct in public office,” it said. “What now follows is the full, fair, and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities. In this, as I have said before, they have our full and wholehearted support and co-operation.”
“Let me state clearly: the law must take its course,” the king’s statement went on to say. “As this process continues, it would not be right for me to comment further on this matter. Meanwhile, my family and I will continue in our duty and service to you all.”
Police were photographed at Sandringham estate in Norfolk, where Mountbatten-Windsor had been living, as well as his previous residence in Berkshire, on Thursday, carrying out searches of the properties.
The police released Mountbatten-Windsor “under investigation” around 11 hours after his arrest, AP reported. He was photographed leaving the Aylsham Police Station in a car.
Jeffrey Epstein shared emails, flights, and meals with some of the richest people on the planet. Here’s how these billionaires made their money and how they were connected to Epstein. Read more below:
A list of people facing consequences over the DOJ’s release:
Casey Wasserman is selling his high-profile sports marketing and talent agency after his correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell surfaced in the Epstein files.
The entertainment executive informed the Wasserman Group’s 4,000 staffers about the sale in a memo on Friday.
“At this moment, I believe that I have become a distraction to those efforts,” he wrote. “That is why I have begun the process of selling the company, an effort that is already underway.”
In January, the Justice Department began to release more than 3 million pages of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
The names of numerous prominent people, such as Bill Gates and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, have shown up in the documents. While appearing in the files does not mean a person is associated with Epstein’s crimes, some have nonetheless faced a public fallout by association.
Every time Lauren publishes a story, you’ll get an alert straight to your inbox!
Stay connected to Lauren and get more of their work as it publishes.
In Wasserman’s case, the documents revealed that the entertainment mogul flew on Epstein’s jet with several people, including former US President Bill Clinton. He also exchanged emails with Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking girls for Epstein. Wasserman’s emails with Maxwell were dated 2003, long before police began to investigate Epstein and over a decade before police arrested Maxwell.
Wasserman issued an apology following the revelations, but a backlash from his roster of top talent had already begun. Singer Chappell Roan, Olympian Abby Wambach, and others said they intended to leave his agency over his association with Epstein.
“It was years before their criminal conduct came to light, and, in its entirety, consisted of one humanitarian trip to Africa and a handful of emails that I deeply regret sending,” Wasserman wrote in the memo to staff on Friday. “And I’m heartbroken that my brief contact with them 23 years ago has caused you, this company, and its clients so much hardship over the past days and weeks.”
Read the full memo Wasserman sent to his employees:
Team:I wanted to write to you all directly to share a few important updates. Over the past couple of weeks, I have spoken to many of you directly — and I wish I could have spoken with every one of you because you all have put your hearts and souls into this incredible organization.First and foremost, I want to apologize to you. I’m deeply sorry that my past personal mistakes have caused you so much discomfort. It’s not fair to you, and it’s not fair to the clients and partners we represent so vigorously and care so deeply about.The pain experienced by the victims of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell is unimaginable – and I’m glad, as I’m sure you all are, that those who helped them commit their crimes are rightly being held accountable.Hopefully by now you know the facts about my limited interactions with those two individuals. It was years before their criminal conduct came to light, and, in its entirety, consisted of one humanitarian trip to Africa and a handful of emails that I deeply regret sending. And I’m heartbroken that my brief contact with them 23 years ago has caused you, this company, and its clients so much hardship over the past days and weeks.Other than my children and my fiancée, there are two things that matter most to me in this world: this company that I founded 24 years ago, and the dream I’ve pursued for more than a decade of bringing the Olympic Games back to the city I love.This organization, its leadership and the entire team mean the world to me. Our 4,000 employees are the absolute best in the business. I see you put it all on the line for your clients every day. Our clients expect — and deserve — world-class representation. And that’s exactly what they get because of all of you.At this moment, I believe that I have become a distraction to those efforts. That is why I have begun the process of selling the company, an effort that is already underway. During this time, Mike Watts will assume day-to-day control of the business while I devote my full attention to delivering Los Angeles an Olympic Games in 2028 that is worthy of this outstanding city.I so appreciate the passion and fight you bring to your jobs. It’s why you succeed.I am beyond proud of what this company has accomplished to date and excited to watch its next chapter.All my best,Casey
Casey Wasserman announced on February 13 that he is selling his talent agency after his name appeared in the Epstein files, sparking a growing fallout.
Soccer player Abby Wambach and singer Chapell Roan earlier said they were parting ways with Wasserman’s agency.
Wasserman flew on Epstein’s jet with a group of people that included former President Bill Clinton. The files also show Wasserman and Ghislaine Maxwell exchanging racy and flirtatious emails in 2003, well before police began investigating Epstein, and over a decade before Maxwell’s arrest on sex-trafficking charges in 2020.
“Casey – I will be coming back to NY torn late afternoon,” Maxwell wrote in one email. “I shall be wearing a tight leather flying suit.”
Wasserman said in a statement that he regretted his messages with Maxwell, which took place “long before her horrific crimes came to light” and that he never had any personal or business relationship with Epstein.
Wasserman announced his intentions to sell his agency in a memo to staffers, which the agency shared with Business Insider.
“I’m deeply sorry that my past personal mistakes have caused you so much discomfort. It’s not fair to you, and it’s not fair to the clients and partners we represent so vigorously and care so deeply about,” Wasserman wrote. “The pain experienced by the victims of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell is unimaginable – and I’m glad, as I’m sure you all are, that those who helped them commit their crimes are rightly being held accountable.”
Wasserman wrote that he had “become a distraction.”
“That is why I have begun the process of selling the company, an effort that is already underway. During this time, Mike Watts will assume day-to-day control of the business while I devote my full attention to delivering Los Angeles an Olympic Games in 2028 that is worthy of this outstanding city,” he wrote.
On July 6, 2019, federal agents arrested Jeffrey Epstein aboard his private jet, which had just landed in New Jersey from a trip to Paris.
At the same time, another set of FBI agents raided his mansion in Manhattan. They took photos of everything, from a taxidermied tiger in the library, to framed pictures of Epstein with Donald Trump, Pope John Paul II, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman scattered across his desks.
The agents also seized more than 70 computers, iPads, and hard drives, as well as boxes of shredded paper and financial documents. They sawed open a metal safe and found even more hard drives, along with a binder of CDs, 48 loose diamonds, and a Saudi Arabian passport with his photo.
Six weeks later, after Epstein killed himself in jail while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, agents raided his US Virgin Islands estate, where they seized even more electronic devices and documents.
On January 30, the US Department of Justice put much of that material on the internet.
It created an immediate explosion of news. The public already knew that numerous powerful people in politics, business, and academia spent time with Epstein even after he had already registered as a sex offender, in 2008. The files demonstrated a vaster scope than previously known.
Emails show Tesla CEO Elon Musk and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick made plans to visit Epstein’s island. Epstein exchanged crude emails with Virgin founder Richard Branson and other businessmen. The UK’s ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, resigned from the Labour Party after the files revealed a photo of him in his underwear and emails showed him sharing government secrets with Epstein. Kathryn Ruemmler announced she would resign as the top lawyer at Goldman Sachs after emails showed years of warm — and at times intensely personal — emails between her and Epstein. The documents disclosed that prosecutors investigated sexual abuse allegations against Leon Black, a billionaire acquaintance of Epstein, but did not charge him. A financial document which had been kept secret since Epstein’s death showed he asked his girlfriend to marry him and planned to give her $100 million and all of his properties.
The records also include a number of unsubstantiated tips sent to the FBI, which include unproven allegations about President Donald Trump.
Before the release, the public knew there was more to the Epstein story.
A glimpse of the Epstein files was shown in the criminal trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, which I covered for Business Insider, in Manhattan federal court in 2021. Victims testified about how Epstein and Maxwell would name-drop Trump, Bill Clinton, and Prince Andrew, showing them how many friends he had in high places.
After the jury found Maxwell guilty of trafficking girls to Epstein for sex, I filed my story, and then got drinks with a few other journalists who covered the five-week trial, including Julie K. Brown, the Miami Herald journalist whose stories about Epstein’s abuses led to his arrest.
It had been a grueling trial, filled with horrific testimony from women who had recounted the darkest moments of their lives. The trial took place in December, requiring journalists to show up at 4 a.m. in the 20-degree weather to get a seat in the courtroom.
We were happy for the trial to be over and for the jury to reach its verdict. But a question hung in the air. Was what we heard at the trial really all there was to say?
Questions about Epstein and his sex-trafficking operation continued to persist in the years following the trial. How did Epstein get so rich? Was there any truth to rumored connections to the CIA or the Mossad? Did Epstein traffic girls to some of his powerful friends, as some victims alleged? Did he really kill himself in prison, as authorities concluded, or was he assassinated to cover up an elite pedophile ring, as some theorized?
Civil lawsuits generated new revelations. A judge in New York unsealed documents from a long-running case that Epstein’s most outspoken victim, Virginia Giuffre, filed against Maxwell. Groups of victims sued big banks, accusing them of ignoring red flags about Epstein’s finances. (Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan each settled class-action lawsuits with victims; similar lawsuits against Bank of America and BNY Mellon are pending.) JP Morgan and the US Virgin Islands government filed lawsuits in which each accused the other of facilitating Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation. And a compensation program identified 150 victims.
The lawsuits delivered a steady drip of details: how Epstein trafficked girls and hushed them up with money, more names of people in his orbit, and the financial red flags waved before banks. A Justice Department inspector general report analyzing the circumstances of his death concluded that poor management at the federal jail created the conditions that allowed him to kill himself. Another Justice Department report criticized Alexander Acosta, the prosecutor who gave Epstein a plea deal in 2007 on light charges, for “poor judgment,” but found nothing that substantiated a vast conspiracy. (The latest file release includes a copy of the robust indictment prosecutors had initially drafted, with 19 victims.)
As theories about Epstein continued to swirl online, the Justice Department refused requests by journalists and Epstein’s victims to make the files public.
On a credenza in his Manhattan mansion, Jeffrey Epstein kept photos of himself with some of the most powerful people in the world.
US Department of Justice
By the 2024 presidential campaign, speculation about Epstein had reached fever pitch among members of Trump’s political base, who had for years been steeped in other conspiracy theories, including QAnon. Podcasters and journalists pressed Trump to promise to release the Justice Department’s vast trove of Epstein files.
The issue was potentially awkward for Trump. Epstein was affiliated with prominent Democrats, including Clinton, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, and diplomat Bill Burns. But Trump and Epstein had been friends in the 1980s and 1990s, both spending time together in the Manhattan and Palm Beach social circuits. Epstein also forged close ties with Steve Bannon, Trump’s former White House advisor, in the months before his arrest on sex-trafficking charges.
Shortly after Trump won the presidential election, Giuffre — who was a teenager when Maxwell recruited her from Mar-a-Lago, where she worked, and brought her to Epstein for sex — urged him to release the files.
“We need someone who despises these sick people with the power to help make it easier to hold these monsters accountable, no matter how much $$ they have,” she wrote on X. “God bless you and Thank you for caring!”
When Trump took office in January 2025, the job of releasing the Epstein files fell to his attorney general, Pamela Bondi.
For months, Bondi promised but failed to provide any substantial new information about Epstein. Then, in July, the Justice Department and FBI abruptly announced they would not release any more Epstein files after all. On Truth Social, responding to backlash from his supporters, Trump praised Bondi, called the Epstein files a “hoax,” and urged his supporters to “not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.”
Todd Blanche, the No. 2 official in the Justice Department, and Trump’s former personal lawyer, traveled to Florida to interview Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence, for reasons that remain unclear. Then she was mysteriously transferred to a nicer, lower-security prison also for reasons that remain unclear.
By law, the Epstein Files Transparency Act requires the Justice Department to make public everything they have about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell — even a photo of them riding horses together in the countryside.
US Department of Justice
Trump’s and the Justice Department’s perplexing handling of Epstein brought fresh attention to the story. I spoke to four people who had access to the Justice Department’s files, and who said there was no trace of intelligence material, which would have been the case if Epstein or Maxwell’s crimes were tied to the CIA or Mossad. The New York Times produced deep investigations into Epstein’s ties to JPMorgan and how he accumulated his wealth by exploiting his network and his complicated relationships with his two main patrons, Black and fellow billionaire Les Wexner. The Wall Street Journal found a copy of a 2003 book of birthday well-wishes, prepared by Ghislaine Maxwell, which included an apparent letter from Trump.
These developments together created the perfect storm and prompted Congress to take ook action.
In August, the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Justice Department for its Epstein-related records. It also issued subpoenas throughout the year to Epstein’s estate, former Justice Department officials, Clinton, and banks where Epstein had accounts.
Republicans and Democrats on the committee released tranches of various “Epstein files,” most of which came from his estate. It put out a copy of the “birthday book.” prepared for his 50th birthday. A letter attributed to Trump is accompanied by a crude illustration of a female body, calls Epstein a “pal,” and says that “enigmas never age.” Trump is suing The Wall Street Journal over a story it published earlier about the letter, which his lawyers maintain is a fabrication.
The Epstein files contain many birthday celebrations for Jeffrey Epstein, including a now-infamous book of letters from acquaintances prepared for his 50th birthday.
US Department of Justice
The most potent revelations came from tens of thousands of emails, text messages, and other files from Epstein’s estate. Some of those emails included cryptic references to Trump. In one email to Maxwell, Epstein called Trump “the dog that hasn’t barked.” In another, Epstein told writer Michael Wolff that Trump “knew about the girls.”
Larry Summers, the former treasury secretary and Harvard president, was removed or resigned from various positions after it was revealed that he sought the Epstein’s advice for pursuing an extramarital affair. Prince Andrew stayed in touch with the pedophile long after he previously said they cut ties. The House Oversight Committee also released numerous photos of Epstein hanging out with Branson, Bannon, Noam Chomsky, Woody Allen, and other powerful and influential people.
The flood of revelations now pale in comparison to what we’ve learned from the files in the Justice Department’s possession. At the time, they raised the question: Why was the Justice Department resisting calls to release the files?
Public pressure — including from Epstein’s victims, who wanted more transparency from the government — led to a flood of support for the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The law required the Justice Department to do what it had initially promised: release all of its Epstein files. It allowed minimal redactions to protect the privacy of victims and gave a 30-day deadline. In November, both houses of Congress passed the bill. Trump — seeing any veto would be overridden — signed it into law.
When the December 19 deadline arrived, the Justice Department published several hundred thousand documents. There were a lot of photos of Clinton, including one of him in a pool with Maxwell, and more photos of Epstein’s home and his friends. Emails between prosecutors provided insight into how they built the cases against Epstein and Maxwell, although many of them were redacted. There was very little information about Trump.
The redactions in the Epstein files often appear to have no rhyme or reason. Melania Trump’s face is redacted from a famous photo of Epstein, Maxwell, and Donald Trump.
US Department of Justice
In court filings several days later, the Justice Department revealed that it still had to review several million Epstein-related documents. It had blown past its 30-day deadline.
On January 30, Blanche announced that the Justice Department would keep its promise and release whatever Epstein files it could — millions more pages.
He said the department would withhold another 200,000 documents, asserting legal “privilege,” even though the law doesn’t allow for that.
The redactions in the files are inconsistent and baffling. Victims’ names, which were supposed to be kept secret, have been exposed. In one photo, Melania Trump’s face is blacked out, even though the photo — of her, Epstein, Maxwell, and the president — had widely circulated for years.
There are other odd omissions. The Epstein files have surprisingly few financial records. An interview with Kristin Roman, the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy on Epstein’s body, is missing. There’s an incomplete record of prosecutors deciding which of his acquaintances they would face criminal charges.
Members of Congress who have been permitted to view the unredacted files have pushed the Justice Department to make more documents public. The House Oversight Committee is scheduling interviews with people who might know more about Epstein’s activities.
