CHARLOTTE AMALIE — Jeffrey Epstein’s estate coexecutors were “indispensable captains” of his criminal enterprise to traffic girls, according to a complaint from Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George.
The amended complaint, filed Wednesday, names coexecutors Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn as defendants in their individual capacities, alleging their involvement in running Epstein’s trafficking operation for years.
Indyke and Kahn “categorically reject” the new allegations, according to Dan Weiner, an attorney representing them.
“The facts are clear: neither Mr. Indyke nor Mr. Kahn had any involvement in any misconduct by Mr. Epstein of any kind, at any time,” Weiner said. “It is enormously regrettable that the Attorney General chose to level false allegations and to unfairly malign the Co-Executors’ reputation without any proof or factual basis to do so.”
Epstein had pleaded not guilty to federal charges stemming from an indictment accusing him of running a sex trafficking ring of underage girls, some as young as 14.
The 66-year-old multimillionaire financier was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in August 2019, where he was awaiting trial. New York City’s chief medical examiner said the cause of death was suicide by hanging.
Attorney General George says the latest civil complaint involving his estate is based on newly obtained evidence allegedly ties the co-conspirators directly to victims of Epstein, including the execution of at least three arranged marriages.
The amended complaint alleges that Kahn and Indyke facilitated the legal and accounting work necessary in the schemes to force “American female victims to marry foreign victims to avoid their deportation” and then threatened one not to get a divorce.Kahn and Indyke, with Epstein, “held and managed at least 140 different bank accounts for Epstein and Epstein-owned entities, many of which existed only to transfer payments to other entities,” according to the complaint.
One account, for which Indyke had signatory authority, issued payments totaling over $2,500,000 “to dozens of women with Eastern European surnames, purportedly for hotel expenses, tuition, and rent, and to, again, the immigration lawyer in New York who was involved in one or more forced marriages arranged among Epstein’s victims to secure victims’ immigration status,” according to the lawsuit.
After Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea in Florida to two charges of soliciting prostitution from a minor, he refocused his trafficking operation on Eastern European women, the complaint said.
The complaint also alleged that criminal trafficking and sexual abuse of young women and female children were still occurring on his island property up until Epstein’s death in prison in 2019.
“Air traffic controllers and airport personnel have reported seeing, as recently as 2018, Epstein leaving his private jet with young girls who appeared to be between the ages of 11 and 18 years,” the complaint said.
The new complaint in the ongoing litigation comes a week after George sought to freeze the assets of the estate, which she said are now valued at more than $240 million. That’s almost 60 percent lower than the estate’s starting valuation less than 18 months ago, according to court documents
.A defense memo filed by counsel for the coexecutors, maintains the estate funds have gone toward “the estate’s payment of over $200 million in U.S. and French inheritance tax, estate income tax, personal income tax, gift tax and property taxes” and over $90 million in payments to the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program, plus costs to defend more than 30 lawsuits against the estate asserting abuse from Epstein.
A judge has not yet ruled on the government’s request to freeze the estate assets.
The Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program paused payouts last week because the estate was low on cash to fund the remaining claims to victims, the program’s administrator announced.
The fund has paid out over $57 million to claimants so far, according to a defense counsel memo. Counsel for the coexecutors argued the court should deny the request to freeze the assets and requested the attorney general remove present liens on the Virgin Islands’ properties so they can be sold to fund the program, Weiner said.
“The Co-Executors continue to diligently attempt to raise additional funds for use in that Program,” Weiner said.Epstein maintained a home on Little St. James, which he acquired in 1998, and purchased nearby Great St. James in 2016, according to a lawsuit filed last year.
AG George filed a lien against Epstein’s estate in January 2020 after filing a lawsuit against the estate, according to court documents.
“One year ago, on January 25, 2020, my office first filed a civil suit against the Estate of Jeffrey Epstein. Despite the Estate’s continual refusal to cooperate with discovery, documents and information obtained from third
parties, my office has uncovered extensive evidence about the lengths that Epstein and his co-conspirators went to conceal and protect their long-running sex trafficking operation, and many other fraudulent actions,”
Attorney General George said. “This new filing lays out some of the additional information the Attorney General’s Office has learned through its investigation. My office is taking every step under the law to ensure the victims, our Government, and our residents obtain the answers they deserve. I commend my team for the work they have done and for their dedication to the work yet to be done in this
case.”