By: Ellen Cans
The compensation fund set to pay restitution to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims paid out nearly $121 million before it closed on Monday. The eve also marks the two-year anniversary of the pedophile’s death.
As reported by the NY Post, payouts began being distributed by the Victims’ Compensation Program over a year ago. The fund made offers to pay a total of nearly $125 million to about 150 women, but ended up paying out $121 million, according to fund administrator Jordana Feldman. If victims chose to accept the funds offered them, they were obliged to sign a release not to bring any further legal action against the estate.
Epstein, the multimillionaire financier, reportedly killed himself in a Lower Manhattan jail cell on Aug. 10, 2019 at age 66, while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking and other charges. The compensation fund for Epstein’s sex-abuse victims received roughly 225 claims, from which 150 were deemed credible and given various payout offers. Roughly 92 percent of the victims who got offers accepted them, the fund’s administrator told the Post.
The payouts were funded by Epstein’s account, which at one time had been valued at up to $634 million. Determining which cases were credible and the amount of the payout offers were decided not by Epstein’s estate handlers but by a confidential and impartial process which let the women resolve their claims without the public scrutiny of a court case, and which also saved them the cost of litigation, Feldman said.
“Every claimant had an opportunity to be heard in a safe space, to share the intimate, personal, often harrowing accounts of what they endured and how it has affected them,” Feldman said in a statement. “I am proud of what we were able to accomplish with this Program, but also recognize that no amount of money will erase the years of pain these victims have endured because of Jeffrey Epstein,” Feldman said. “My hope is that the Program provided his victims a meaningful measure of justice and a step on the path toward healing.”
Some of Epstein’s victims are still opting to fight their cases in court instead of settling, including two more women who have filed new lawsuits against Epstein’s estate. Both of the women claim they were sexually abused multiple times when they were underage, and continue to endure emotional and physical suffering. They also both say they were prevented from filing the suits before his Aug. 2019 suicide because “Epstein and his co-conspirators” intimidated and threatened them and their families if they spoke out.
