U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein appears in a photograph taken for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services' sex offender registry March 28, 2017 and obtained by Reuters July 10, 2019. New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
(Reuters) - Deutsche Bank AG has agreed to pay $75 million to settle a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging the lender facilitated the late Jeffrey Epstein's sex-trafficking ring, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing lawyers who sued the bank on behalf of alleged victims.
The suit was filed last year in New York by an anonymous woman on behalf of herself and other accusers, alleging Deutsche Bank did business with Epstein for five years knowing he was engaged in sex-trafficking, the newspaper said.
Deutsche Bank did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Dylan Riddle, a spokesman for Deutsche Bank, declined to comment on the settlement but said the bank has invested more than 4 billion euros, the equivalent of $4.34 billion, to bolster controls, training and operational processes, and had increased the size of its workforce dedicated to fighting financial crime.
"In recent years Deutsche Bank has made considerable progress in remedying a number of past issues,” he said.
The bank did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter.
This week, Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk was subpeonaed by the U.S. Virgin Islands for documents in its lawsuit accusing JPMorgan Chase & Co of enabling Epstein's sexual abuses.
The U.S. territory did not seek to question Musk under oath and its effort to subpoena him does not implicate him in any wrongdoing.
In a March ruling, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan said Deutsche and JPMorgan must face lawsuits accusing them of enabling Epstein's sex trafficking, giving the plaintiffs a chance to prove that the banks knowingly benefitted from involvement in his sex trafficking.
Deutsche was also sued in 2020 by investors who claimed shareholders lost money because of Deutsche Bank's dealings with Epstein, who died in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail.
(Reporting by Rahat Sandhu in Bengaluru; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
