Jeffrey Epstein property settles Virgin Islands intercourse trafficking case for over $105 million

The property of deceased intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein and associated entities agreed to pay the U.S. Virgin Islands greater than $105 million as a part of a settlement in a intercourse trafficking and youngster exploitation case, the territory’s lawyer basic mentioned Wednesday.

The settlement additionally required the defendants to pay the Virgin Islands half the proceeds from the sale of Little St. James, the personal island that was owned by Epstein and was allegedly a significant hub for his yearslong legal intercourse trafficking enterprise, mentioned the Virgin Islands Division of Justice.

The property may even pay $450,000 to deal with damages round a separate island Epstein owned, the place the company mentioned it discovered that he “razed the stays of centuries’-old historic constructions of enslaved employees to make room for his growth.”

And the Virgin Islands will recoup greater than $80 million in financial growth tax advantages “that Epstein and his co-defendants fraudulently obtained to gasoline his legal enterprise,” the company mentioned in a information launch.

The funds can be remodeled the interval of no a couple of 12 months, the information launch mentioned. The settlement doesn’t embody admissions of wrongdoing by the property, its co-executors, Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn, or the opposite defendants.

“This settlement restores the religion of the Individuals of the Virgin Islands that its legal guidelines can be enforced, with out concern or favor, in opposition to those that break them,” Virgin Islands Legal professional Normal Denise George mentioned within the information launch. “We’re sending a transparent message that the Virgin Islands won’t function a haven for human trafficking.”

Daniel Weiner, an lawyer for the Epstein property, famous in a press release to NBC Information that the settlement “doesn’t embody any admission or concession of legal responsibility or fault by the Property or another events, and the Co-Executors deny any allegations of wrongdoing on their half.”

“The Co-Executors finally concluded that the settlement is in the perfect pursuits of the Property, together with its collectors and claimants, to keep away from the time, expense and inherent uncertainties of protracted litigation,” Weiner mentioned. “The settlement is per the Co-Executors’ said intent and follow since their appointments to these roles — to resolve claims associated to any misconduct by Jeffrey Epstein in a way delicate to those that suffered hurt.”

Weiner’s assertion additionally famous {that a} fund to compensate Epstein’s victims has paid over $121 million to 136 individuals, and that the property intends to “wind down its remaining actions” within the Virgin Islands “as quickly as practicable.”

Epstein, the previously rich and well-connected financier who was mates with former Presidents Invoice Clinton and Donald Trump, killed himself in a Manhattan jail one month after his arrest in 2019 on legal intercourse trafficking fees.

The Virgin Islands introduced civil claims in opposition to Epstein’s property in 2020 below a regulation much like the federal RICO Act, which goals to fight organized crime.

The case alleged that Epstein masterminded a legal enterprise by means of which many “younger girls and feminine youngsters have been intercourse trafficked, raped, sexually assaulted and held captive” at Little St. James, the island Epstein purchased in 1998. A few of these ladies had been as younger as 13 years previous, the lawsuit alleged.

The announcement Wednesday night famous that proceeds from the sale of Epstein’s island will go towards a belief devoted to funding efforts to assist victims of intercourse trafficking and sexual abuse.

Final 12 months, a jury convicted Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s shut affiliate and his accused procurer of younger ladies, on a number of felony counts. A federal choose in April denied Maxwell’s request for a brand new trial.