Epstein estate agrees to $35 million settlement in victim class action

By Jan Wolfe

Feb 19 (Reuters) – Jeffrey Epstein’s estate has agreed to pay as much as $35 million to resolve a class action lawsuit that accused two of the disgraced financier’s advisers of aiding and abetting his sex trafficking of young women and teenage girls, according to a court filing on Thursday.

Boies Schiller Flexner, a law firm representing Epstein victims, announced the settlement in a brief filed in federal court in Manhattan.

The deal, if approved by a judge, would bring an end to a 2024 lawsuit filed against Epstein’s former personal lawyer Darren Indyke and former accountant Richard Kahn, who are co-executors of Epstein’s estate.

Epstein’s estate previously set up a restitution fund that paid out $121 million to victims. The estate also paid out $49 million in additional settlements to victims.

Neither Indyke nor Kahn “made any admission or concession of misconduct” as part of the settlement made public on Thursday, their lawyer Daniel H. Weiner said in an emailed statement.

“Because they did nothing wrong, the co-executors were prepared to fight the claims against them through to trial, but agreed to mediate and settle this lawsuit in order to achieve finality as to any potential claims against the Epstein Estate,” Weiner said.

Weiner said the settlement would provide “a confidential avenue for financial relief” for Epstein victims who have not already resolved claims against the estate.

Epstein died in a New York jail in August 2019. His death was ruled a suicide.

In the 2024 lawsuit, lawyers at Boies Schiller Flexner said Indyke and Kahn helped Epstein create a complex web of corporations and bank accounts that let him hide his abuses and pay victims and recruiters, while leaving them “richly compensated” for their work.

The Boies law firm previously helped obtain $365 million of settlements with JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank after accusing them of missing red flags about Epstein, once a lucrative client.

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)