Deutsche Bank Settles Over Ignored Red Flags on Jeffrey Epstein

“It is our duty and our social responsibility to ensure that our banking services are used only for legitimate purposes,” Mr. Sewing said in his message to employees. “That’s exactly why we should always examine things critically, ask questions and speak up.”

The settlement is just the latest black eye for Deutsche Bank over legal and regulatory mistakes. Those include punishments by federal and state regulators, as well as the British authorities, for failing to stop Russian money laundering. And in 2015, Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $2.5 billion in penalties to settle accusations that it had manipulated the London interbank offered rate, or Libor.

Deutsche Bank has also attracted scrutiny for its relationship with President Trump and his family. It has been the long-running lender for Mr. Trump and has been the target of subpoenas from congressional investigators and state prosecutors.

Some of the payments Mr. Epstein made from his Deutsche Bank accounts were “inherently suspicious,” regulators wrote. Those included multiple settlement payments totaling more than $7 million and payments totaling more than $6 million for what regulators said appeared to be legal expenses for himself and for people the settlement identified as co-conspirators.

Other transactions — even if harmless — should have raised alarms, regulators wrote.

One of Mr. Epstein’s personal lawyers made $800,000 in withdrawals for Mr. Epstein over a four-year period. Regulators said the bank never got a good explanation for those withdrawals, except that Mr. Epstein needed the money for travel, expenses and paying tips.

According to the settlement, the unnamed lawyer twice asked bank officials how much money could be withdrawn without triggering some kind of alert. Suspicious that he was attempting to circumvent federal regulations that require cash transactions of $10,000 or more to be reported to the government, bank employees spoke to the lawyer.

The settlement said the lawyer denied trying to avoid such a report, and bank officials allowed him to continue making withdrawals on Mr. Epstein’s behalf — including taking out $100,000 at a branch on Park Avenue, not far from Mr. Epstein’s townhouse.

David Enrich contributed reporting.