Khaberni - "Bank of America" announced its agreement to pay $72.5 million to settle a civil lawsuit filed by women who accused the bank of facilitating their exposure to violations linked to convicted American businessman and minor trafficking suspect Jeffrey Epstein.
"NBC News" reported today, Sunday, that the bank stated it "bears no legal responsibility or charges in the lawsuit, but decided to reach a settlement to end the legal proceedings for the plaintiffs' benefit," and the bank confirmed it will pay the amount to the victims.
The case dates back to a class-action lawsuit filed last October, by a woman who accused the bank of ignoring suspicious financial transactions linked to Epstein, despite having extensive information about his crimes, motivated by profit.
In contrast, the bank denied these allegations, asserting that the services provided were routine for individuals who were not known to be connected to Epstein at that time.
This coincides with another lawsuit filed last Thursday by former victims of Epstein against the U.S. government and Google, due to the accidental disclosure of victim identities among a large batch of documents published by the U.S. Department of Justice online.
The Department had published in January this year 3 million documents related to the investigation of the accused, including his connections with prominent figures, but officials found themselves in an awkward position after leaving victims' names unredacted, while their identities were supposed to be concealed.
The plaintiffs stated that the Department of Justice "disclosed the identity of nearly 100 survivors of convicted (Epstein) sex crimes, published their personal information, and revealed their identities to the world."
They added, "Even after the government acknowledged that disclosing this information violates the survivors' rights and withdrew it, electronic entities like Google continue to republish it, refusing victims' pleas to delete it."
The lawsuit indicates that Google still displays personal information of victims in search results and AI-generated content, as New York Times journalists also found dozens of images of nude women showing their faces in the documents.
The lawsuit further states that "the survivors now face renewed trauma, as strangers contact them, email them, threaten their physical safety, and accuse them of conspiring with Epstein, whereas they are in fact his victims."
The plaintiffs claim that the government violated the 1974 Privacy Act, and Google violated California's privacy breach laws, causing psychological harm due to negligence, and illegal commercial practices.
It should be noted that billionaire Jeffrey Epstein was accused of running a wide network of sexual exploitation of minors, some of whom were as young as 14 years old, and was found dead in a New York prison in 2019 during his trial.
The case files included names of prominent global figures, such as former British Prince Andrew, U.S. President Donald Trump, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, late singer Michael Jackson, and former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson.
