The late Jeffrey Epstein’s estate is being sued by the US Virgin Islands over his alleged widespread sex abuse, Reuters reported last week.
The complaint was filed on Wednesday (15 January 2020) by the Virgin Islands Attorney General, Denise George. It claims the late Epstein who had been facing sex offence charges when he died last August raped and trafficked dozens of young women on the private Caribbean island that he owned.
The complaint significantly broadens the scope of the financier’s alleged crimes, saying they took place from 2001 to 2018, targeting girls who appeared to be as young as 11 or 12.
Estate worth $570m plus
What it seeks is civil penalties from the estate, which is estimated to total $577.7 million, and the complaint also wants forfeiture of Epstein’s two private islands, Little St James and Great St James.
If the lawsuit is successful, it could reduce the amount of money available for the other Epstein accusers—more than 20 women who are suing his estate after his suicide while in custody lost them the chance to see him convicted of his crimes.
The estate’s executors, Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn, have set up a fund to compensate the victims. A lawyer acting on their behalf included a statement from the executors which rejected the Virgin Islands Attorney General’s contention that the fund for victim’s means claimants must agree to confidentiality requirements, and that it is not supposed to shield anyone from liability.
Died in custody
Epstein died while in custody on 10 August when he died by suicide, having pled not guilty to abusing and trafficking women and girls in the Manhattan and Florida areas over a period of three years in the early noughties. He was 66 at the time.
He had pled guilty to a state prostitution charge in Florida in 2008, and was given a 13-month jail sentence as a result. This is now widely thought to be too lenient.
According to the Virgin Islands complaint, Epstein aided by accomplices, “trafficked, raped, sexually assaulted and held captive” young women and girls at his island properties where he was registered as a sex offender in 2010.
‘Hideaway’ property
According to the complaint, Epstein kept a computerised database where he tracked girls who could be sent to his property in Little St James. The island was bought in 1998 as a “hideaway” where he could traffic them for “sexual servitude, child abuse and sexual assault”.
The financier allegedly bought Great St James via a straw purchaser, hiding his identity and preventing people from monitoring him on the island, and also preventing victims from escaping there.
The complaint added that as recently as July 2018, Epstein refused to allow a Virgin Islands investigator and US marshals to enter Little St James beyond its dock.
Read previous Epstein articles.
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