The U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstein’s estate Wednesday to seize the late billionaire convicted sex offender’s two private islands and other assets and businesses he operated in the U.S. territory.
The lawsuit, filed by Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George, alleges that Epstein, 66, used the island Little St. James to traffic and exploit young girls for “nearly two decades” after purchasing the property in 1998.
The lawsuit also seeks to stop Epstein’s executor Darren Indyke from establishing a fund of Epstein’s assets to compensate the financier’s victims. In order to receive a payout from the fund, victims would be sworn to confidentiality.
George wants to kill the confidentiality agreement to prevent Epstein’s estate from protecting the dead man’s reputation and his accomplices from alleged crimes.
The lawsuit says Epstein continued to traffic young girls to the estate after a 2008 plea deal in which he agreed to register as a sex offender. Epstein, using a network of accomplices and shadow groups, would fly girls to Little St. James for days at a time and force them to perform sexual acts on him and his guests.
Little St. James was located too far away from any other land mass for girls to escape the island. The lawsuit details separate attempts by two girls to flee from Epstein’s island. Both times, Epstein organized search parties and caught the victims attempting to swim away from the island. He held one girl hostage by confiscating her passport. He threatened the other with physical violence if she attempted to escape again.
The lawsuit also alleges Epstein tracked his victims after he took them back to their homes. He kept a database of victims’ contact information and offered them financial, career, and educational assistance to perform sexual acts and recruit other girls into his network of victims.
Epstein purchased Little St. James for the purpose of trafficking young girls to a secluded place away from public view. In 2016, he purchased Great St. James, the island nearest to Little St. James, through a straw purchaser to protect against people trying to glimpse his operations on Little St. James and to create an additional barrier against escape.
Epstein was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 days after he signed a new will in the Virgin Islands. New York officials ruled his death a suicide. Epstein was being held on charges of trafficking and abusing young girls at his properties in New York and Florida.
