Bank of America Pays $72.5 Million Over Epstein — Three Banks, $437 Million, Zero Admissions

Bank of America agreed to pay $72.5 million on March 27 to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging it helped facilitate Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking operation. The settlement — the third by a major bank — brings total banking payouts to Epstein survivors to $437.5 million. The same week, Reuters revealed UBS helped Ghislaine Maxwell purchase her New Hampshire hideout, and Congress released depositions showing Epstein's lawyer and accountant were never interviewed by federal investigators.

A woman identified only as Jane Doe was living in Russia when she met Epstein in 2011. She was paid through a Bank of America account. She was controlled — financially, emotionally, psychologically — for eight years. She was raped on at least 100 occasions. She escaped only when Epstein died in his jail cell in August 2019.

That's the lead plaintiff. There are at least 60 more.

Three Banks, One Pattern

Bank of America is the third major financial institution to pay Epstein's survivors without admitting wrongdoing. JPMorgan settled for $290 million in 2023. Deutsche Bank paid $75 million the same year. Now Bank of America adds $72.5 million.

The core allegation is identical across all three: the banks provided services, processed transactions, and ignored red flags. The lawsuit claimed Bank of America failed to file suspicious activity reports — legally required alerts meant to flag potential money laundering or fraud — until after Epstein's death.

One transaction stood out. Leon Black, the billionaire co-founder of Apollo Global Management, transferred $170 million from a Bank of America account to Epstein, described as payment for "tax and estate planning advice." Plaintiffs called Black a "critical witness." He was scheduled for an eight-hour deposition. Then the settlement was announced, and the deposition was cancelled.

Black isn't a defendant. He denies wrongdoing. His spokesperson declined to comment.

The UBS Thread

The same day the Bank of America settlement dropped, Reuters published an investigation into UBS's role in financing Ghislaine Maxwell's life on the run.

Maxwell's final residence before her July 2020 arrest was a 156-acre New Hampshire estate called "Tucked Away." The $1.1 million property was purchased in cash in December 2019 — four months after Epstein's death. Reuters found the money moved through UBS-managed accounts, tracing a web of wire transfers to the address at 338 Washington Road, Bradford, New Hampshire.

Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking in December 2021. UBS took her on as a client despite years of public reporting on her ties to Epstein.

Congress Fills the Gaps Investigators Left

Three days before the bank settlement, on March 24, the House Oversight Committee released deposition videos of Epstein's longtime lawyer Darren Indyke and accountant Richard Kahn.

Both testified they were never interviewed by federal investigators. Not the FBI. Not the DOJ. Not any law enforcement agency.

Indyke handled Epstein's legal affairs. Kahn managed his finances. Between them, they had access to the paper trail of Epstein's entire operation. Neither was questioned by the people charged with investigating it.

Both denied knowing about Epstein's crimes. Kahn said Epstein told him the 2008 Florida conviction involved an adult woman, not a minor. The depositions raised more questions than they answered — particularly about why the Department of Justice never pursued the two people with the clearest financial visibility into Epstein's network.

Who Covered What

US media covered the Bank of America settlement heavily. CBS, NBC, CNBC, the New York Times, Fox — it was lead news across the political spectrum. The deposition story got strong pickup from Politico, NBC, and the Guardian.

European coverage was thinner but present. Le Monde (France), DW (Germany), and the BBC ran the settlement. Reuters broke the UBS-Maxwell investigation from its Frankfurt and London bureaus — a European story about a Swiss bank that got more attention outside Europe than within it.

Asia-Pacific carried wire pickups. India Today ran the UBS-Maxwell angle. Australia's The Nightly covered the Bank of America settlement. But no original reporting, no editorial framing, no questions asked.

The Middle East, Africa, and Latin America were functionally silent. No major outlets from these regions produced original coverage.

The Gap That Matters

The perception gap here isn't about the event itself. Everyone with access to Reuters or AP could run this story. The gap is about context and follow-through.

US audiences got the settlement as a story about justice for survivors. That's true. But it's also a story about how different countries report the same story differently — because almost no US coverage asked the structural question: why did three of the world's largest banks process these transactions for years?

The European angle — UBS financing Maxwell's hideout — is arguably the bigger story for global financial regulation. Yet European outlets mostly left it to Reuters. Swiss media barely touched it.

And the regions where banking secrecy, financial opacity, and trafficking intersect most acutely — the Middle East, Africa, Latin America — produced nothing. That silence isn't neutral. When institutional accountability stories don't travel, the institutions face less pressure to change.

Three banks have now paid $437.5 million. None admitted wrongdoing. Epstein's lawyer and accountant were never questioned by the investigators meant to hold the network accountable. The money moves. The questions remain unanswered.

Who benefits from that silence?