The U.S. Virgin Islands is suing JPMorgan for allegedly helping Epstein with his alleged sex trafficking across Florida and the U.S. territory by “channeling cash” to support his operations and hide his conduct.

The U.S. territory’s complaint was submitted last month, but it wasn’t until Wednesday that the nature of the claims became known. In the lawsuit, Chase is accused of taking part in a sex trafficking enterprise.

The bank declined to comment on the situation on Thursday.

Epstein was arrested and charged with federal offenses in 2019 after it was claimed that he had sexually assaulted numerous youngsters over the years in exchange for money. The lawsuit claims that Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to similar sexual activity with minors in Florida.

Authorities in the Virgin Islands claim that Epstein wired money from a Chase account as payment to the girls, most of whom were from Eastern Europe.

According to the lawsuit filed by the prosecutors,

“these women were trafficked and subjected to abuse at various times between at least 2003 and July 2019, when Epstein was apprehended and imprisoned, and that these women received payments, frequently multiple payments, between 2003 and 2013 totaling more than $1 million collectively.”

The lawsuit claims that Chase’s private banking branch supervised 55 distinct accounts for Epstein between 1998 and 2013.

The lawsuit asserts that Jes Staley, who supervised that division between 2008 and 2012 and later became CEO of Barclays and Epstein, communicated via more than 1,200 emails. The lawsuit also claims that Staley and Epstein had grown close over time.

During that month, a second image of a young woman was received by Epstein in a blank email, according to the lawsuit.

The court documents have been altered to hide the images of the photographs Epstein and Staley are alleged to have exchanged. A Staley attorney told The Telegraph in the U.K. that “our client had no involvement in any of the alleged crimes perpetrated by Mr. Epstein.”

The lawsuit claims that Chase could stop doing business with Epstein in 2006, 2010, and 2011 but instead opted to do so.

The lawsuit claims that despite knowing Epstein was an exceedingly high-risk customer from the start, JPMorgan made numerous decisions throughout the relationship to continue serving Epstein’s accounts because of his vast wealth and connections to other high-net-worth people.

Staley took over as CEO of the British investment bank Barclays in 2013 after leaving Chase. Staley left Barclays in November 2021 after British authorities began inquiring into his connections to Epstein.

Epstein, a registered sex offender who lived in the U.S. Virgin Islands, committed suicide in 2019 while being detained in a New York jail pending trial. A federal judge also sentenced Epstein’s longtime partner Ghislaine Maxwell to 20 years in jail last year for encouraging him to recruit women.

Chase closed all of its Epstein accounts in 2013.

The bank provided support to federal investigators looking into Epstein’s sex business.