Latest / The Epstein Chronicles / FirstBank Puerto Rico Moves to Dismiss Epstein Victim’s Lawsuit (8/3/26)

Transcript

FirstBank Puerto Rico Moves to Dismiss Epstein Victim’s Lawsuit (8/3/26) · The Epstein Chronicles

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. A couple of months ago, some Epstein survivors
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: got together and they filed a lawsuit against several different banks,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: and one of those banks was the First Bank of
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Puerto Rico. Well, now the First Bank of Puerto Rico
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: is moving to dismiss that lawsuit, and they're claiming that
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: the court doesn't have the jurisdiction it needs to pursue
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: a lawsuit against them, And of course the survivors lawyers
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: have pushed back and called that complete bs. So today
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: we have an article from the Saint Thomas Horse and
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: the headline First Bank Puerto Rico moves to dismiss Epstein
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: victim's lawsuit. This article was authored by C and Cobb.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: First Bank Puerto Rico has asked a New York federal
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: court to dismiss a civil complaint alleging it aid to
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking operation, arguing that the court lacks
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: jurisdiction and the lawsuit provides no evidence that the bank
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: had any knowledge of or participated in the convicted sex
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: offender's scheme. No, they had no idea what they forget
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: to leave out is that they had an idea, they
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: just ignored it. When you have a bank like this,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: there's all kinds of regulation. You should have multiple layers
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: of protection when it comes to people that are engaged
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: in fraud, money laundering, whatever it might be. And the
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: simple fact is the vast majority of these banks bypass
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: those safeguards so that they can continue to do business
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: with Jeffrey Epstein. And that's because the juice to them
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: was worth the squeeze, all the people Epstein could bring aboard,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: all the money that he was moving through the bank,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: and all the pockets that he was filling. First Banks
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: thirty three page memorandum supporting its motion to dis and
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: it's The suit brought last month by an Epstein victim
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: proceeding anonymously and identified only as Jane Doe, was filed
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: late Thursday in District Court for the Southern District of
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: New York. The case is assigned to Judge Jed Raykoff,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: who's presided over several other civil suits by Epstein victims
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: against the banks they say enabled them, as well as
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: the Virgin Islands complaint against JP Morgan Chase that resulted
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: in a seventy five million dollars settlement in September of
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty three. So Judge Raykoff, as you all know,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: has some experience with this, and so far he hasn't
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: been very friendly to the banks. So I don't know
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: if First Bank is going to be successful here with
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: their jurisdictional argument, but it's pretty much all they have
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: to go on. Right when you don't have the evidence
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: or the facts backing you up, it becomes a battle
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: of loopholes and technicalities. And it's not just obviously the
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: First Bank of Puerto Rico that's doing this. That's what
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: most of these corporations do, whether it has to do
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: with Epstein or not. Those represented by Boys, Schiller and
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Flexner LLP of New York and Bradley Jay Edwards of Florida,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: the same firms that have won settlements for scores of
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Epstein victims, including against his estate, which is headquartered in
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: the US Virgin Islands. First Bank Puerto Rico and its
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: parent company, First Bank Corp. Are represented by Holland and
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Knight LLP and William Cutler, Pickering, Hell and Door LLP.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, how many more partners do you need on
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: the name Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hall and Door LLP. Everybody
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: has to have their name on the firm wall. What
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: I think they're missing is another nighbor to noting First
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Bank's long relationship with Epstein from around nineteen ninety eight
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: through twenty twenty after his All Gifts twenty nineteen deaths
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: while in federal custody on sex trafficking charges. Dawes lawsuit
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: accuses the Institution of participating in and financially benefiting from
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: the disgraced Financiers International Trafficking Operation for more than two
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: decades in violation of the Trafficking Victim Protection Act and
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: the New York City Gender Motivated Violence Protection Act. So
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: that's why they're claiming the jurisdictional issue, because they're trying
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: to use New York laws against a bank that's based
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: in Puerto Rico. So that's where the jurisdiction comes in. Now,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: of course, there's going to be loopholes and technicalities as
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: well as it continues to move forward, because there always are.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: My guess they'll eventually settle for how much I don't know,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: but that's been the mo As a result, First Bank
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: acquired a plethora of information that could have put Epstein
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: in prison years earlier if it had simply properly reported
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: what it knew to the authorities, According the ninety one
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: page complaint, instead, it chose to profit to the detriment
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: of hundreds of victims, it says. For example, a US
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Treasury Department report referenced in the complaint noted that from
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: two thousand and three to twenty nineteen, there were more
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: than four thousand, seven hundred and twenty five wire transfers
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: totaling one point eight billion, involving Epstein and dissociates, including
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: his attorney Darren Endyke, accountants Harry Beller and Richard Kahn,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: and the US Virgin Islands tax attorney Erica Keller Halls.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: And if you were wondering why they didn't hit them
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: with RICO, this is why I'll just point it out again,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: because nobody wants to talk about it for whatever reason.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: But the truth is, if they would have just used RICO,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: all these people would have been caught up, including a
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: guy like Ted Wade. You're going to send seven million
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: dollars to somebody who's engaging in a criminal conspiracy. I mean,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: if you were related to El Chappo and El chop
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Will sent you that money. How do you think the
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: government would have reacted? So what's the difference? I'll tell
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: you there is no difference besides the fact that Jeffrey
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Epstein was friends with some very very powerful people. First
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Bank of Puerto Rico fortully disputes that characterization, saying those
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: complaint provides no evidence that any of its employees had
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: any sort of relationship or direct involvement with Epstein, let
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: alone contemporaneous knowledge of trafficking. While the lawsuit cites the
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: two thousand and three Vanity Fair story and news reports
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: when he was convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: in two thousand and eight and Florida earning him a
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: place on the Sex offender or registry, the bank said
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: that there is no evidence that any of its employees
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: knew of or saw those articles at the time. Boy,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: that is a weak ass argument. You mean to tell
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: me that nobody in your regulation department had any idea
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: who you were doing business with. That is a problem
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: unto itself. So how many other unknown scumbags are banking
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: at First Bank Puerto Rico as we speak? Does a
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: full audit need to be conducted, I would say, so
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: will that happen? Of course not, but it should. Moreover,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: it had a legitimate reason for keeping Epstein's accounts open
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: after his twenty nineteen arrest, including compliance with criminal activity
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: leans and account freezes by law enforcement. The bank states
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: it also filed a Suspicious Activity Report or SAR, noting
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: one point seven million dollars in suspicious transactions just eleven
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: days after the arrest. That filing demonstrates assistance to law
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: enforcement as soon as the bank became aware of an investigation,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: not obstruction. It says. The ideal with sars is to
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: use them previous to all this happening, so that Finsen
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: the Financial Regulatory Board can be aware of what's going on.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: So if you do it retroactively, then who are you
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: helping besides yourself? And if you don't do it in
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: a timely manner like right away, then you're in violation.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: And there's literally no gray area here. We're talking about
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Title thirty one laws. Folks. First Bank is at least
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: a fifth financial institution to be targeted by the same
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: group of plaintiff lawyers over alleged links to Jeffrey Epstein.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: The three hundred and nineteen paragraph complaint cuts and pace
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: from those past pleadings and had the benefit of three
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: point five million pages of publicly released documents pursuant to
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: the Epstein Files Transparency Act that was passed by Congress
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: and signed into law last November. According to the memorandum,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: as a result, the complaint is filled with allegations of
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: misconduct by other entities, but short on one key ingredient
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: fact sufficient the state of claim against First Bank. It says, yeah,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: I have my doubts. Okay, I have my doubts, and
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: I think that First Bank is sounding a whole lot
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: like JP Morgan right now. Remember how JP Morgan was
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: carrying on at first. We're never going to settle. We're
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: going to see this out till the end. We did
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: nothing wrong. What did they end up doing? I have
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: a funny feeling that's what we're going to see here too.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: The few facts it does include show that First Bank
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: provided routine banking services that cannot support claims under the
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Trafficking Victims Protection Act or the New York City Gender
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Motivated Violence Protection Act. This deficiency is fatal and the
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: complaint should be dismissed with prejudice. It says, by comparison,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: the Epstein victim's successful suit against Deutsche Bank relied on
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: allegations at a JP Morgan affiliate actually trafficked women and
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: girls on a company aircraft that it ignored oversight measures
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: imposed by its own risk committee, facilitated transfers to non
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: co conspirators, and provided Epstein to one hundred thousand per
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: year in cash through services characterized as far from routine,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: according to the memorandum. Likewise, a claim against Bank of
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: America survived because it allegedly provided direct banking services to
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: a trafficking victim despite having every reason to know that
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: the victim had no ability to earn legitimate income in
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: the United States, and serviced MC two or MC squared,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: a modeling agency used to recruit victims, despite suspicious and
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: non routine circumstances, It says. The complaint against First Bank
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: alleges nothing comparable. The memorandum concludes, I have a funny
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: feeling the court is going to feel differently when all
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: said and done. I think the court's going to feel differently,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: and that's because this bank was obviously a plan ball
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: with Epstein. The question is to what level at most
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: plantiff provides conclusiony allegations at Epstein received an undefined preferred
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: customer designation, had certain routine fees waived, and opened accounts.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Those allegations describe ordinary customer service, not extraordinary or specially
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: tailored assistants. The bank states any First Bank customer with
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: a similar balance would have automatically received the same routine treatment.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: It says, unable to allege participation through any kind of
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: direct or active engagement, Dough largely repackages the same theory.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: This court has previously rejected that processing allegedly suspicious transactions
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: by itself constitutes participation. According to the memorandum, allegations concerning
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: transfers to First Bank customers and em Rodriguez, who manage
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Little Saint James Epstein's private island off Saint Thomas, and
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: former First Lady Cecial DeJong, his longtime office manager, fair
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: no better. The bank says, the complaint does not allege
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: that either recipient was a trafficking victim, recruiter, co conspirator,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: or a participant in any alleged trafficking venture, nor does
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: it allege facts suggesting that either transfer was processed in
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: a non routine way, funded trafficking activity, or otherwise furthered
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: the alleged venture. At most. Plaintiff alleges that transfers should
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: have been viewed as suspicious because they involved round dollar amounts.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: These transfers, like the rest of Plaintiff's allegations, are insufficient
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: to establish active participation, the memorandum states. In fact, the
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: list of Epstein's accounts detailed in the complaint comes from
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: a First Bank letter that demonstrates the bank's compliance with
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: a law enforcement subpoena, proving that it did not obstruct
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: the law. It says, I think the real question is
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: how many stars did they file and when did they
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: file them? And if they weren't filed regularly leading up
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: to Jeffrey Epstein's death and arrest, then I think that
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: their argument is doa because if you didn't file those stars,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: then you weren't doing your job. At bottom, the complaint
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: alleges that, knowing anything or everything we do now, First
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Bank should have done more to prevent Epstein's crimes, but
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: obstruction cannot be pled in hindsight. An obstruction claim requires
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: knowing interference with the law enforcement investigation. Here, there are
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: no facts suggesting anyone at First Bank was even aware
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: of an effort to enforce the TVPA from two thousand
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: and eight to Epstein's twenty nineteen arrest, and a allegation
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: that once it became aware, the bank did anything other
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: than aid the investigation by filing us are and responding
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: to subpoenas the memorandum states. According to the court docket,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: those opposition to First Bank's motion to dismiss is due
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: August thirteenth, and First Bank has until August twentieth to reply.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: So this is in the early stages and we have
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: no idea how it's going to end up. So what
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: we'll do, like usual is follow along and when we
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: have some more information one way or the other will
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: get that added to the catalog. All the information that
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: goes with this episode mode can be found in the
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: description box