(NewsNation) — Two of Jeffrey Epstein‘s closest advisers can be sued by victims for allegedly aiding and abetting the financier in his sex trafficking crimes, a U.S. judge has decided.
According to Reuters reporting, Manhattan U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian rejected arguments made by Epstein’s former personal lawyer, Darren Indyke, and accountant, Richard Kahn, that aimed to block victims from filing class action lawsuits.
The pair cited previous victims’ settlements and promises not to sue, with Indyke’s lawyer, Daniel Weiner, adding the pair “emphatically reject” the accusations that they were complicit in Epstein’s decades of criminal activity.
One plaintiff’s signed release covered her claims against Kahn and Indyke, a condition Weiner thinks covers roughly 134 other women impacted by Epstein. According to Weiner, those dozens of women were awarded $121 million from Epstein’s estate through a victim compensation fund, identical to that plaintiff’s release.
He added that more than 50 other women who settled their claims separately signed releases that were “virtually identical” to the compensation fund’s language.
The class action has been put on hold, though it is still possible for some to seek that status in the future. Subraman opted to let victims, like Jane Doe 3, file a motion for class certification “at the right time and with the right record.”
Sigrid McCawley, a lawyer for the victims, shared in a statement that she is “thrilled” survivors will “proceed against Epstein’s right hand money men to hold them accountable.”
Epstein’s accomplice and former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, is in the process of appealing her 2021 conviction and 20-year prison sentence for helping him sexually abuse teenage girls. Epstein killed himself in jail in 2019, just one month after he was arrested.
