NY judge approves $73.5 million settlement between Epstein victims, Bank of America

Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News on Aug 27, 2026

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NEW YORK — A federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday approved a $72.5 million class-action settlement reached between victims of Jeffrey Epstein and Bank of America.

Manhattan Federal Court Judge Jed Rakoff greenlit the agreement at an hourlong conference, hailing the outcome as a significant step toward accountability while acknowledging nothing would ever undo the pain caused to Epstein’s victims.

“No amount of money can ever fully compensate Epstein’s victims for the harm they’ve suffered,” Rakoff said.

Amid endless reporting about the need for those who facilitated Epstein’s abuse to be brought to justice, Rakoff said, “There are cases, including very much this one, where that hasn’t just been talk, it’s reality.”

“It is thanks to plaintiffs’ counsel that a substantial number of Epstein’s victims are receiving substantial amounts of money and that some at least modest justice is thereby being accommodated,” the judge added.

Women abused or trafficked by Epstein or anyone associated with his sex trafficking ring between June 2008 and July 2019 will be covered by the settlement, attorneys for the women previously said. About 60 women are slated to receive payouts.

Before rubber-stamping the agreement, Rakoff found the settlement class had been properly certified. The suit filed in October 2025 alleged that Bank of America, for years, ignored “a plethora” of evidence that Epstein was sexually abusing vulnerable teenage girls and young women for the sake of making a profit.

It said the financial institution showed “absolute loyalty” to Epstein and conferred a veneer of institutional legitimacy that enabled him to operate an international sex-trafficking organization under the guise of noncriminal business activities.

The October lawsuit accused Bank of America of waiting far too long to alert law enforcement to Epstein’s suspicious behavior, endangering countless women.

It wasn’t until after Epstein’s 2019 death in a cell at the now-shuttered Metropolitan Correctional Center, awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, that Bank of America filed suspicious activity reports, known as SARs, raising concern over $170 million in suspicious transactions between Epstein and Wall Street billionaire Leon Black, according to data released last year by the Senate Finance Committee.

Similar settlements were reached in actions brought against JPMorgan Chase, which shelled out $290 million to at least 100 victims of Epstein in June 2023, and Deutsche Bank, which settled for $75 million the same year. Like the one approved Thursday, neither of those settlements included an admission of wrongdoing.

The Daily News reached out to Bank of America and attorneys for Epstein victims for comment.

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