Epstein Files: What the $72.5 Million Bank of America Judgment Settled

Archive review · August 2026 court record. A federal judge approved a $72.5 million civil settlement in Jane Doe v. Bank of America, a case brought on behalf of women who accused the bank of facilitating Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking. The figure is the size of the settlement. It tells us nothing about what any one survivor received, and it is not a criminal fine.

Start with the signed judgment

At the August 27, 2026 hearing in Manhattan, Judge Jed Rakoff said he would grant final approval, Reuters reported. The written order and final judgment, signed August 28 in the Southern District of New York, is docket entry 165 in case 1:25-cv-08520-JSR. It certifies a class for purposes of the settlement and dismisses the litigation and the released claims with prejudice.

Certification for settlement purposes identifies the group covered by the agreement as the court defined it. Dismissal with prejudice ends the released claims; it does not turn each allegation in the complaint into a finding of fact. In particular, the order is not a trial verdict on whether the bank knowingly assisted Epstein. Bank of America denied facilitating sex trafficking, as Reuters reported and as reflected in the parties’ settlement papers.

How to read the money figure

The settlement administrator’s document index links the complaint, the settlement stipulation and the preliminary approval order. Read them in that order if you want to see how the allegations, the parties’ agreement and the court’s review differ. The March 27 stipulation sets out the bank’s payment to a common fund. The final order gives that agreement legal effect. Neither document is an accounting of payments made to individual class members.

The administrator’s dated notices distinguish the June 12 questionnaire deadline from the August 27 approval hearing. Those dates describe the original process, not a new invitation to file. This article does not reproduce private claims, questionnaire responses or survivor identities.

Which settlement was this?

This was a private civil class action against Bank of America in federal court in New York. The U.S. Virgin Islands’ $75 million agreement with JPMorgan Chase involved a different defendant and a government plaintiff. The New York regulator’s Deutsche Bank consent order is yet another kind of record. In the Epstein Files collection, start with the parties and the docket number before comparing dollar amounts. They tell you whose case ended and which claims were resolved.

Photo credit: Ajay Suresh · CC BY 4.0. Resized for publication.

Editorial note: This article draws on the linked sources and may include clearly labeled opinion or unconfirmed reports. We have not independently verified every source claim. Publication does not establish an unconfirmed claim as fact; developing details may change.