*

Woman known as Jane Doe seeks damages from banks over

Epstein

ties

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Doe's lawyers secured settlements from JPMorgan ( JPM ), Deutsche

Bank

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Epstein case causes political headache for Trump

administration

(Adds BNY lawsuit throughout, statement from Jane Doe's lawyer

in paragraph 11, details from lawsuits in paragraphs 10, 13-19)

By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK, Oct 15 (Reuters) - A woman who says she was

abused by the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein

sued Bank of America ( BAC ) and the Bank of New York Mellon ( BK )

on Wednesday, alleging the banks knowingly provided

financial services that enabled his sex trafficking operation

for years.

Bank of America ( BAC ), the second-largest U.S. bank, declined to

comment. BNY did not immediately respond to a request for

comment.

The woman, referred to in court papers as Jane Doe, is seeking

an unspecified amount of damages from both banks.

She is represented by law firms Boies Schiller and Edwards

Henderson, who previously secured settlements of $75 million and

$290 million with Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan ( JPM ),

respectively, over their alleged financial ties to Epstein.

Neither Deutsche nor JPMorgan ( JPM ) admitted wrongdoing in agreeing to

settle.

CONGRESS PROBES EPSTEIN CASE

Epstein died by suicide in 2019 in jail while awaiting trial

on sex trafficking charges. The circumstances of his death, as

well as his social relationships with wealthy and powerful

individuals, fueled theories that others were involved in his

crimes.

His case has become a political headache for President Donald

Trump's administration. After pledging during the 2024 campaign

to release files from the Justice Department's investigation

into Epstein, the administration reversed course this year,

prompting an outcry from Trump's conservative base and members

of Congress.

The House Oversight Committee is now investigating the Epstein

case.

In both lawsuits, Jane Doe said she met Epstein in 2011 while

she was living in Russia. She said she became financially

dependent on Epstein, who raped her, forcibly touched her, and

forced her to engage in sex acts with other women at least 100

times between 2011 and 2019.

"As Congress works toward unraveling how Jeffrey Epstein was

able to orchestrate his criminal sex trafficking enterprise for

decades without detection, we are taking another important step

forward toward justice for survivors," Sigrid McCawley, a lawyer

for Jane Doe, said in a statement.

DOE SAYS EPSTEIN PAID HER RENT

Jane Doe said she opened a Bank of America ( BAC ) account in 2013 at

the direction of Richard Kahn, Epstein's former accountant, and

that Kahn regularly sent her money for rent through the

account.

Lawyers for Kahn did not immediately respond to a request for

comment.

Doe said in 2015, Kahn's assistant told her that Epstein was

adding her to the payroll for a "sham company" and that she

would receive funds through her Bank of America ( BAC ) account. She

said she did not know the purpose of those payments.

Her lawyers wrote that those transactions should have raised red

flags for Bank of America ( BAC ). Epstein had pleaded guilty to

state-level prostitution charges in Florida in 2008 as part of

an arrangement that allowed him to avoid federal prosecution.

The lawsuit against BNY said the bank gave a line of credit to

MC2, a modeling agency that the lawsuit said Epstein and French

model scout Jean-Luc Brunel used to traffic victims. In total,

BNY processed $378 million in payments to women trafficked by

Epstein, the lawsuit said.

Brunel was arrested in December 2020 and was found dead in jail

in 2022, according to Parisian prosecutors.

Both lawsuits said the banks should have filed Suspicious

Activity Reports with the U.S. Treasury Department. The lawsuits

said such reports could have helped law enforcement stop Epstein

sooner.