By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK, March 3 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge granted preliminary approval on Tuesday to an agreement for Jeffrey Epstein's estate to pay as much as $35 million to resolve a class action lawsuit that accused two of the disgraced financier's advisers of aiding and abetting his sex trafficking of young women and teenage girls.
Boies Schiller Flexner, a law firm representing Epstein victims, announced the settlement on February 19. On Tuesday, Manhattan-based U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian said the agreement appeared fair. The judge scheduled a hearing for September 16 to consider granting final approval.
The deal would bring an end to a 2024 lawsuit filed against Epstein's former personal lawyer Darren Indyke and former accountant Richard Kahn, who are co-executors of Epstein's estate.
Epstein's estate previously set up a restitution fund that paid out $121 million to victims. The estate also paid $49 million in additional settlements to victims.
Daniel Weiner, a lawyer for Indyke and Kahn, said neither man admitted wrongdoing or conceded misconduct as part of the settlement.
"Because they did nothing wrong, the co-executors were prepared to fight the claims against them through to trial, but agreed to mediate and settle this lawsuit in order to achieve finality as to any potential claims against the Epstein Estate," Weiner said in a statement.
Sigrid McCawley, a lawyer who brought the case, said in a statement, "We are pleased we could take another step forward on that long road for the survivors and provide some sort of justice."
Epstein died in a New York jail in August 2019. His death was ruled a suicide.
Millions of documents released this year by the Justice Department from its investigation into Epstein have shed light on his social ties to wealthy and powerful people around the world.
In the 2024 lawsuit, lawyers at Boies Schiller Flexner said Indyke and Kahn helped Epstein create a complex web of corporations and bank accounts that let him hide his abuses and pay victims and recruiters. Indyke and Kahn were "richly compensated" for their work, the lawsuit said.
The Boies law firm previously helped obtain $365 million of settlements with JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank after accusing them of missing red flags about Epstein, once a lucrative client.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Daniel Wallis and David Gregorio)
