Lance Gooden: “It is really not always the case that the government gets a cut of these settlements. Let me give one example. A recent…”

“It is really not always the case that the government gets a cut of these settlements. Let me give one example. A recent and shocking example involves the Epstein scandal. JPMorgan Chase entered into a $75 million settlement for its role facilitating Mr. Epstein's heinous practices. It has been reported--of course, we don't know all the details here-- that of the $75 million settlement that they had in the Virgin Islands, $30 million went to charity--we don't know which ones--$25 million went to enhance Virgin Islands infrastructure--I am sure that was all appropriately spent--and $20 million went to attorneys' fees. None of it went to the U.S. Treasury. We now have reports of another settlement that they are working on with the Justice Department. We don't know where that went. Again, I will bring you back to this graphic I have. Of all the settlement funds, no one in this Chamber, no one in this building, no Member of Congress knows where 98.6 percent of that money went. Whatever you are hearing about how great these settlement slush funds are by the other side, they are only talking about what they think they know of the 1.4 percent, and what they think they know is what they are told because there is no accountability for these funds.…”