Sigrid S. McCawley
Sex-Trafficking Litigation · Financial-Institution Liability · Class Actions
The survivors I’ve had the privilege of working with have changed me. They’ve given me hope.
The Case Against Financial Infrastructure
Sigrid S. McCawley helped extend Jeffrey Epstein survivor litigation to financial institutions whose accounts, transaction systems, compliance decisions, and internal warnings formed part of the evidentiary record.
The JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank class settlements reached final approval in 2023 and created funds totaling $365 million for survivors.
From the Abuser to the Account
McCawley’s bank cases grew from years of representing Epstein survivors in claims involving Epstein, his estate, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Prince Andrew. Counsel later developed claims against JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank by examining whether financial services, transaction monitoring, internal escalation, and reporting decisions supported or concealed a trafficking venture.
Bank records became central evidence: transaction histories, customer-monitoring alerts, suspicious-activity reports, internal communications, and the dates when investigators and compliance personnel acted.
A Class Built from Common Questions
The JPMorgan case established an earlier procedural bridge from individual transactions to class treatment. Judge Jed Rakoff certified a Rule 23(b)(3) class and identified common questions about whether a trafficking venture existed, whether the bank participated and benefited, what it knew or recklessly disregarded, whether it obstructed enforcement, and whether it owed and breached a duty to Epstein’s victims.
JPMorgan argued that causation, coercion, releases, defenses, and damages required individualized decisions. The court agreed that individual issues remained but held that they did not displace the common questions about the bank’s conduct and knowledge. Its numerosity analysis cited 137 applicants to the Epstein Victims Compensation Program as a reasonable indicator that joinder would be impracticable, while recognizing that the figure was not a precise class count.
Certification was not a liability judgment. The court expressly declined to decide whether JPMorgan knew or should have known of trafficking at any particular early date. It appointed Boies Schiller Flexner and Edwards Pottinger as class counsel and authorized representative litigation of the common issues.
Two Banks, Two Final Settlements
The JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank cases reached completed class settlements in 2023. JPMorgan agreed to a $290 million fund, and Deutsche Bank agreed to $75 million. The class periods differed because the institutions served Epstein during different spans.
The court-supervised process included notice, claim review, allocation, payment, and resolution of disputes under the settlement agreements. The funds allowed eligible survivors to seek compensation without requiring every class member to present the complete history of abuse in a public trial.
Neither settlement was an admission of wrongdoing. Both ended disputed claims through final judgments and placed administration under continuing judicial supervision. McCawley worked with David Boies, Andrew Villacastin, other Boies Schiller Flexner lawyers, and co-counsel in developing and resolving the bank cases.