Court ruling in Epstein lawsuits part of a disturbing trend

“…The plaintiffs—which include Epstein accusers and the government of the Virgin Islands, where Epstein had a private island—say the banks should have dropped or rejected Epstein when he was accused of or plead guilty to sex crimes. Epstein was a client of JPMorgan from 1998 through 2013 and became a client of Deutsche Bank in 2013. In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to soliciting a minor for prostitution. He was later accused of sex crimes involving 40 girls, but died before the resolution of that case.

The implications in these suits are chilling, no matter how unsympathetic Epstein may personally have been. They suggest that mere allegations against someone should warrant financial institutions canceling their accounts—something that seems not only unfair on its face but also likely to hamper a person’s ability to defend themselves in court. A society where private businesses must reject anyone accused of crimes or face criminal liability themselves is perverse, frightening, and antithetical to civil liberties. Even the expectation that someone who had pleaded guilty to any crime should be excluded from banks doesn’t seem desirable…”