*

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 declined to comment in paragraph 2)

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 ) and BNY declined to 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 ), the second-largest U.S. bank.

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.