Minimal St. James Island, one particular of the properties of financier Jeffrey Epstein, is found in an aerial perspective close to Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands July 21, 2019.
Marco Bello | Reuters
An expense firm led by the billionaire Stephen Deckoff has bought two personal islands in the U.S Virgin Islands earlier owned by the late notorious sex felony Jeffrey Epstein, Deckoff verified to CNBC on Wednesday.
Forbes initially described that Deckoff, the founder of the non-public fairness organization Black Diamond Capital Administration, acquired the two islands for $60 million, a lot less than half of their first inquiring value.
One of the islands was employed by Epstein to sexually abuse younger women for yrs, according to courtroom filings.
“Mr. Deckoff options to create a condition-of-the-art, five-star, environment-course luxury 25-area vacation resort that will help bolster tourism, develop work, and spur economic enhancement in the region, although respecting and preserving the vital setting of the islands,” according to a push release about the sale.
SD Investments, which is led by Deckoff, announced the acquire.
“A major portion of the sale proceeds are being paid to the Governing administration of the U.S. Virgin Islands beneath a earlier declared settlement settlement concerning the federal government and Mr. Epstein’s estate,” the launch explained.
Epstein’s estate and similar entities in November agreed to spend the govt of the Virgin Islands a lot more than $105 million to settle statements of sexual intercourse trafficking and kid exploitation. That deal necessary the estate to spend the Virgin Islands half of the proceeds of the sale of the islands, Very little St. James and Good St. James, and yet another $450,000 to handle damages on Terrific St. James, in which Epstein experienced razed the remnants of structures that ended up hundreds of decades instructed to make place for enhancement.
Through a quick mobile phone interview with CNBC, Deckoff confirmed he had purchased the islands.
“No comment,” he stated when questioned about his ideas for it.
Deckoff then hung up.
Small St. James handles much more than 70 acres, and Great St. James is additional than double the dimension of its neighbor.
The invest in was noted on the similar day that CNBC unveiled that attorneys for the U.S. Virgin Islands and an accuser of Epstein’s will depose JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon commencing on May 26.
The USVI and the nameless woman accused JPMorgan in civil federal lawsuits of benefiting from Epstein’s sex trafficking of youthful girls at his Virgin Islands property. Epstein was for decades a customer of JPMorgan Chase, and had millions of pounds in deposits there.
The lender denies the allegations in the lawsuits. But it retained Epstein as a client right until 2013, 5 several years just after he pleaded responsible to a Florida state court docket charge of soliciting sex for cash from an underage woman.
Multiple ladies have mentioned they have been raped or sexually assaulted on Minor St. James, wherever Epstein experienced a mansion. They integrated Virginia Giuffre, who has alleged she was sexually abused there, and in other spots, by Prince Andrew, the young brother of King Charles of Terrific Britain.
Andrew has denied her assert, but in February 2022 agreed to a confidential settlement with Giuffre to end a civil lawsuit from him in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
The USVI’s lawsuit against JPMorgan notes that Epstein “was a resident of the Virgin Islands and he maintained a residence on Minimal St. James, which he acquired in 1998 and in 2016 he also obtained Fantastic St. James.”
The islands were collectively valued at $86 million immediately after Epstein’s demise in August 2019, when the previous friend of Donald Trump and Bill Clinton committed suicide in a Manhattan jail a thirty day period right after currently being arrested on federal youngster sex trafficking costs.
“The Epstein Organization in 1998 acquired Little St. James in the Virgin Islands as the perfect hideaway and haven for trafficking younger females and underage women for sexual servitude, little one abuse and sexual assault,” the suit suggests.
“Minimal St. James is a secluded, non-public island, nearly two miles from St. Thomas with no other residents,” the match noted. “It can be visited only by personal boat or helicopter … Epstein experienced easy access to Minor St. James from the personal airfield on St. Thomas, only 10 minutes away by his personal helicopter, but the women of all ages and kids he trafficked, abused, and held there were not ready to leave devoid of his authorization and guidance, as it was much too much and perilous to swim to St. Thomas.”
The lawsuit goes on to say that in 2016, Epstein utilised a straw purchaser to conceal Epstein’s identity and bought Great St. James the nearest island to Minimal St. James.
“By then, Epstein was a convicted sex offender,” the match suggests. “The Epstein Business purchased the island for far more than $20 million for the reason that its contributors wanted to ensure that the island did not come to be a foundation from which others could look at their actions or visitors.”
It adds: “By acquiring possession and management of Great St. James to the exclusion of some others, the Epstein Organization established supplemental boundaries to prevent individuals held involuntarily on Very little St. James from escaping or acquiring support from many others.”
Epstein’s former paramour and longtime procurer Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced past June to 20 many years in jail for recruiting and grooming teenage ladies to be sexually abused by Epstein.