Orrock LXXXVI XLVIIFrom the invaluable #joycevance For example, the complaint against Bank of America alleges: “Rather than merely providing routine banking services to Epstein, Bank of America went far beyond what a non-complicit bank would have done and instead assisted Epstein in setting up the necessary financial structure to operate his sex-trafficking venture.”
🧵 Julie K. Brown, the reporter responsible for putting the Epstein story on America’s front burner, retweeted Goldstein, commenting: “The Leon Black thing is about to explode. They can’t keep a lid on it forever.”/2
Leon Black is an American private equity investor. He co-founded Apollo Global Management, which is billed as one of the world's largest alternative investment firms. It makes investments in asset classes other than capital stocks, bonds, and cash. Black was Apollo’s CEO until 2021, when he resigned amid revelations of his business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. To give you some idea of how well he has done, he recently sold his Beverly Hills home for $47 million, according to the Wall Street Journal./3
Oregon Senator Ron Wyden is the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee and someone who understands what is meant by “follow the money.” He retweeted Julie K. Brown’s tweet. “Stay Tuned,” he added./4
The lawsuit starts with a charge based on an unusual criminal-civil hybrid theory. It involves a provision in federal criminal law that can be enforced only by the DOJ. However, the law also specifically allows victims to recover through a civil lawsuit.
18 USC 1595 reads: “An individual who is a victim of a violation of this chapter may bring a civil action against the perpetrator (or whoever knowingly benefits, or attempts or conspires to benefit, financially or by receiving anything of value from participation in a venture which that person knew or should have known has engaged in an act in violation of this chapter) in an appropriate district court of the United States and may recover damages and reasonable attorneys fees.”/5
There are other counts alleging that the bank participated in sex trafficking and obstructed investigation into it. And there are two final counts alleging the bank was negligent and failed to take reasonable steps that would have prevented harm to the survivors.
Given these allegations, the news that a settlement is imminent should certainly raise the temperature at the White House. Before the war in Iran began, the contents of the Epstein files and the names of those implicated in them seemed to be all anyone was focused on. Bill and Hillary Clinton testified before we bombed Iran. Shaiel Ben-Ephraim, an analyst and former Israeli diplomat, noted that once that happened, Google searches for the Epstein Files “plummeted.” What more had the White House hoped to prevent from being disclosed? It appears that at least some of it is about to come to light./end