If you’re wondering why Bank of America needs to charge fees… “Bank of America Pays $72.5 Million to Settle Lawsuit by Epstein Victims” (New York Times, yesterday):
The lead plaintiff in the Bank of America lawsuit, an unidentified woman, came to the United States from Russia in 2011 when she was about 20. The lawsuit said Mr. Epstein had sexually abused her at least 100 times and coerced her into a “cultlike life,” in which she was totally dependent on him.
In 2013, Bank of America opened an account for the woman, then 22, at the direction of Mr. Epstein’s employees, even though she spoke little English and had no job or discernible source of income — all potential red flags for sex trafficking, the lawsuit said.
The two law firms representing the victims, Boies Schiller Flexner and Edwards Henderson, could be eligible to receive fees totaling 30 percent of the settlement amount, according to the court filing.
Note that Boies Schiller Flexner was Theranos’s law firm, absolutely critical to keeping the fraud going according to the book Bad Blood, and David Boeis was actually a Theranos board member (see Evaluating trustworthiness; lessons from Theranos).
So… this woman got paid to have sex with Jeffrey Epstein from age 20 to age 28. In addition to whatever she got paid at the time, e.g., via the Bank of America account at issue, she would have received about $3.5 million from JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, and the Epstein estate. Let’s say with this latest settlement she’ll be up to $5 million, all tax-free because it will be payments for damages suffered. She says that she had sex with Jeffrey Epstein 100 times so that works out to $50,000 per sex act plus whatever Emmanuel Goldstein paid her on a current basis.
Loosely related… “[OnlyFans] proves that, when given the choice and opportunity, many women will choose to enter the prostitution industry voluntarily”
Coerced with money? Like a job? Are there not tens of millions of people in the US that feel trapped in their job due to, you know, needing money?
A personal anecdote. I had a static bank account at BOA for 3-4 years, they charged me a bunch of money for having kept it active. I think it was around $20 – $25 a month, maybe not worth much in Dr. Greenspun’s world, but it added up for me. Whereas, Coastal Credit Union, NC didn’t charge me anything. They actually credited a couple of dollars in interest over the 3-4 years. As a result, I shut all association with BOA, and have only CCU account now.
The $72.5 mil may be picked up by insurance. If not, it is probably deductible as a business expense. The real issue is the jury system in civil cases. A jury will be 6 or 12 doofuses off of the street. Probably lower IQ than average since high IQ people typically avoid jury duty. The jurors then have the ability right alleged wrongs by spending someone else’s money – remember what Milton Friedman said about that. Couple that with each side bears its own costs so a lawsuit is more or less a free option for the plaintiff. Britain got rid of civil juries in the 1980s. I am not aware of any country in the world that does not have some form of a loser pays system. Our legal system is American style corruption with way more litigation than elsewhere in the world and it survives because it provides a very nice living for lawyers, judges, court personnel and, yes, expert witnesses. And remember too that the B of A board is also spending someone else’s money- that of the shareholders.
> his creation proves that, when given the choice and opportunity, many women will choose to enter the prostitution industry voluntarily…Despite having no barriers to […]
I was thinking about this yesterday. A profound observation, speaks more about the American flavor of capitalism, just like your book, and for women who subscribe to the capitalism derived values strongly, than women’s nature in general, IMO.
I wonder if there exists, say a Swedish equivalent to this, if this is to be generalized to women’s behavior in another flavor of capitalism.