Jeffrey Epstein trafficked girls in Caribbean until 2018, lawsuit claims

New evidence shows Jeffrey Epstein sexually abused and trafficked hundreds of young women and girls on his private Caribbean island, some as recently as 2018, significantly expanding the scope of his alleged conduct, a top law enforcement official said in a lawsuit filed on Wednesday.

Epstein, a wealthy financier who died by suicide in a Manhattan jail last year, was bringing girls as young as 11 and 12 to his secluded estate in the Virgin Islands, known as Little Saint James, and kept a computerised database to track the availability and movements of women and girls, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit, which was filed by Denise George, attorney general of the Virgin Islands, broadened the dimensions of the wrongdoing in which Epstein was said to have engaged. He had been charged by Manhattan prosecutors in July with sexually exploiting dozens of women and girls in New York and Florida, but they did not point to any actions beyond 2005.

In August, Epstein hanged himself at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, where he was being held awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. Prison guards had not checked on him for hours on the night he died, and the circumstances surrounding his death are now the subject of at least three federal investigations.

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In the weeks before Epstein killed himself, he and his lawyers vigorously denied the criminal charges. His lawyers had previously said he had been law-abiding since his 2008 conviction in Florida for solicitation. The suit was filed against Epstein’s estate and seeks the forfeiture of Little Saint James and Epstein’s second private island, Great Saint James, as well as the dissolution of numerous shell companies he established in the territory that officials have said acted as fronts for his sex trafficking enterprise.

As part of its policies, the government of the Virgin Islands could take any assets recovered from Epstein’s estate and consider disbursing them to women and girls who were victimised by him in the region, Ms George said.

Sex-trafficking scheme

The new accusations – which draw both from independent investigations by Ms George’s office and court documents from cases across the country – argue that Epstein ran a decades-long sex trafficking scheme that had a primary nexus in the Virgin Islands.

“Epstein clearly used the Virgin Islands and his residence in the US Virgin Islands at Little Saint James as a way to be able to conceal and to be able to expand his activity here,” Ms George said.

The suit underscores the legal complications of reckoning with such wide-reaching crimes as those Epstein is said to have committed. Ms George’s suit is the first filed against the estate by a government entity, but it joins a field of similar claims filed by more than a dozen women.

It remains unclear how Epstein's assets, which are valued at about $500 million, could be allocated. "We don't have a long history of figuring out what to do in cases of human trafficking," said Bridgette Carr, director of the Human Trafficking Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School, who consulted with George's team on the case. "I think this litigation and the courts are just trying to come up with the best, imperfect solution."

Epstein's executor, Darren Indyke, did not respond to a request for comment. George said she believed the case could chip away at the region's reputation as a notorious haven for the rich and powerful.

“We will not remain complacent, and we will enforce our laws whatever way we can,” George said. “It doesn’t matter the social status of the person. It’s that the laws apply equally.”

Impunity

The court documents said that Epstein operated with impunity for years at Little Saint James and Great Saint James, which he obtained through a straw purchaser in 2016. As recently as July 2018, Epstein refused to permit an investigator from the Virgin Islands Department of Justice to enter Little Saint James, claiming the island’s dock was his “front door,” according to the lawsuit.

The investigator was doing routine monitoring of Epstein because he was a registered sex offender.

Epstein's victims included aspiring models from South America, according to court documents. Epstein used a ring of associates to rotate the women and girls in and out of sexual servitude, using fraudulent modelling visas to transport them across state lines and international borders, the lawsuit said. He tracked their availability and proximity using the database, court documents said.

The suit also said air traffic controllers in the Virgin Islands observed Epstein leaving his private plane in 2018 with girls who looked as young as 11. In one undated incident detailed in the lawsuit, a 15-year-old girl attempted to swim off Epstein’s island and escape after she was forced to engage in sex acts with Epstein and others. The girl was found, and held captive on the island after he confiscated her passport, the suit said.

Prosecutors in New York have said their investigation has continued and anyone who helped Epstein could face criminal charges.

The lawsuit in the Virgin Islands appears to be the first filed against the estate in that jurisdiction. Epstein maintained his legal permanent residence – and his estate – there. He hastily filed his will in a Virgin Islands court just days before he killed himself.

Ms George’s lawsuit also seeks to head off an effort by Epstein’s executor, Indyke, to turn Epstein’s vast wealth into a victim’s compensatory fund. Indyke’s proposal, which is currently being litigated in a separate Virgin Islands case, imposes confidentiality on any claimants, Ms George said. – New York Times