A US judge on Wednesday pushed back Leon Black’s scheduled deposition as part of a civil lawsuit brought against Bank of America by women who accuse the bank of facilitating their sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein, after a lawyer for the billionaire Apollo Global Management co-founder said the bank and the accusers may settle.
“The parties are very close to resolving this dispute,” Black’s lawyer Michael Carlinsky said in a telephone hearing before Manhattan-based US District Judge Jed Rakoff.
The judge rescheduled the deposition for March 26. It had initially been scheduled for March 16.
The lawsuit alleges the nation’s second-largest bank ignored suspicious payments by Black to Epstein.
Rakoff last month ruled that the accusations that the bank recklessly disregarded information that Epstein engaged in sex trafficking were sufficient to let the proposed class action lawsuit proceed.
Lawyers for the accusers and Bank of America did not confirm Carlinsky’s assertion about settlement talks.
Sigrid McCawley, a lawyer for the accusers, said, “I take issue with the appropriateness of raising parties’ discussions in this context.”
Bethany Biesenthal, a lawyer for Bank of America, said: “We also take issue with Mr Carlinsky’s characterisation of the discussions, if any, as to the parties.”
A trial in the case is currently scheduled for May 11.
A spokesperson for Black declined to comment. He has previously denied wrongdoing and said he was unaware of Epstein’s criminal conduct.
Bank of America declined to comment on Wednesday. The bank has previously said the plaintiff in the case, referred to as Jane Doe, had “at best” alleged that it banked high net-worth clients affiliated with Epstein, and did not show it intentionally obstructed law enforcement.
Epstein died in a Manhattan jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking. The office of the New York City medical examiner ruled his death a suicide.
In 2023 Doe’s lawyers reached settlements on behalf of other accusers of $290m (R4.79bn) with JPMorgan Chase and $75m (R1.24bn) with Deutsche Bank. Neither bank admitted wrongdoing.
Black stepped down as Apollo’s chief executive in 2021 after a review by an outside law firm found he had paid Epstein $158m (R2.61bn) for tax and estate planning.
Reuters
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