A Georgia man claims he was duped into buying a luxury charter jet company that belonged to Jeffrey Epstein and is suing the co-executors of the disgraced financier’s estate to get his money back.
Thomas Huff, a Cobb County aviator, met with Epstein a few weeks before the Manhattan millionaire was arrested and charged with sex trafficking underage girls in 2019. Epstein sent his Gulfstream G-IV to Georgia and successfully sold Huff on buying a controlling interest in JEGE, Epstein’s charter jet company.
The problem, according to the recently filed lawsuit, was that Epstein sold the controlling shares without disclosing he “was engaged in a massive criminal enterprise involving rape, sex trafficking, sexual abuse, physical assault, blackmail, intimidation, fraud, and deceit,” according to court documents.
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Huff claims he would have never considered buying JEGE if he knew about the alleged dirty deeds ahead of time and said once Epstein’s underage antics made headlines, he tried to stop the sale.
“Upon Mr. Epstein’s arrest and his crimes against children becoming public knowledge, Thomas Huff contacted Jeffrey E. Epstein’s counsel and gave him notice of rescission of the purchase agreement,” the lawsuit states. “This was rejected by Jeffrey E. Epstein.”
Less than a month after selling JEGE, federal agents raided Epstein’s New York home and arrested him on allegations he preyed on underage girls, one as young as 14.
Huff’s lawsuit claims JEGE hasn’t been able to shake the “stigma of Jeffrey Epstein.”
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When Huff purchased the company, JEGE had more than $3.5 million in assets. Its value depreciated more than $1.5 million almost immediately after Epstein’s arrest made headlines.
“Mr. Epstein committed fraud by failing to disclose a material fact that could not have been known through any amount of due diligence by Thomas Huff,” the suit states.
It’s unclear why Huff wasn’t aware of Epstein’s prior arrest in Miami, which was reported by national media outlets in 2006. In that case, Epstein was arrested by the Palm Beach Police Department on state felony charges of procuring a minor for prostitution and solicitation of a prostitute.
Huff’s attorney, Jeff Banks, told the Daily Beast that people have used the Gulfstream’s registration number to monitor the aircraft’s whereabouts and that such scrutiny has negatively affected Huff’s ability to use it.
“A lot of people track the plane, who flies on it, and of course, harass those people, and they don’t want to lease the airplane anymore,” Banks said, adding that he personally reached out to Epstein’s legal team to cancel the deal but “their thought was, ‘Well, you should have known he was this terrible person.'”
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“They had somebody contact me and say that if I’d done research, I could have figured out what a sleaze he was,” Banks said.
The Washington Examiner was unable to reach the attorneys working on behalf of Epstein’s estate.
Epstein took his own life in a New York jail cell in August 2019. The two prison workers tasked with monitoring him were accused of sleeping and browsing the internet while he killed himself.
