New York on Tuesday fined Deutsche Bank with 150 million dollars in penalties over its links to Jeffrey Epstein, the deceased child sex offender and investor.
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The problematic banking activities include payments to individuals who were publicly alleged to have been co-conspirators in the sexual abuse of young women, in addition to payments to Russian models, the regular said.
According to Superintendent of Financial Services, Linda Lacewell, Deutsche Bank failed to adequately monitor the activities of customers that the bank itself deemed to be high risk.
“In the case of Epstein in particular, in spite knowing his terrible criminal history, the Bank inexcusably failed to detect or prevent millions of dollars of suspicious transactions,”Lacewell said.
The penalties are for significant compliance failures in connection with Deutsche’s relationship with Epstein and correspondent banking relationships with Danske Bank, Estonia, and FBME Bank.
The state regulator said it was the first such action against a financial institution in relation to its dealings with Epstein.
Earlier, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is accused of helping Epstein procure underage girl, was arrested on federal charges.
Her next hearing is scheduled for Friday in New York.
Epstein died in 2019 in prison and the cause of his death was said to be suicide.