The estate of Jeffrey Epstein has agreed to pay more than 100 million dollars to the U.S. Virgin Islands to settle claims that the disgraced financier used the territory for his decades-long sex traffickers operation.
The office of the attorney general in the U.S. Virgin Islands brought a lawsuit over three years ago.
The estate of Mr. Epstein agreed to pay back tax benefits that one of his companies received from the Virgin Islands. The government will be able to get half of the proceeds from the sale of Little Saint James. The sale could bring in over 50 million dollars.
The U.S. territory was deceived into giving lucrative tax benefits to the Southern Trust Company. Ms. George argued that Mr. Epstein was able to sexually abuse young women because of that.
Ms. George said that she was honored to have met the three young women who were victims of sex slavery. Our work has been fortified by the strength and courage of all of the survivors.
The estate did not admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
After paying hundreds of millions of dollars to victims, lawyers and the IRS, Mr. Epstein's estate had just $22 million in cash on hand at the end of June. The remainder of the estate's assets are locked up. It will take up to a year for the estate to come up with the money.
Despite whispers and allegations that he had sexually abused teenage girls and young women, the secretive financier forged close associations with a long list of wealthy men, politicians and celebrities.
The man who had pleaded guilty in 2008 in Florida to soliciting prostitution from a teenage girl died of an apparent suicide in the summer of 2019.
Ghislaine Maxwell, one of Mr. Epstein's long-time associates and a former girlfriend, was found guilty of helping him sexually traffic and abuse young women and teenage girls. The woman was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
According to court papers and lawsuits, no one else has been charged in connection with the activities that took place in the Virgin Islands, Manhattan, New Mexico and Palm Beach, Fla.
Ms. George will get documents to help with her investigations. Some of the wealthy men who did business with Mr. Epstein, including the Wall Street billionaire Leon Black, have been subpoenaed by Ms. George.
Mr. Black, a co- founder of Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm, and a friend of Mr. Mr. Black was responsible for 80% of the revenue taken in by Southern Trust.
Mr. Black was sued by a woman who claimed that he raped her while she received a massage. Her lawsuit stated that Mr. Black had helped arrange the meeting.
According to the lawsuit, Mr. Epstein told Ms. Pierson that he was going to introduce her to a very powerful and wealthy man.
According to Susan Estrich, the claim was part of a scheme to extort money from Mr. Black.
The aim of Ms. George's litigation was to make sure that the victims were paid what they deserved. More than 125 people have been paid $129 million by a fund established by the estate. About $30 million was paid out by the estate to other people.
Little Saint James and Great Saint James were put up for sale. The price for each island is not known.
Half of the proceeds from the sale of Little Saint James will go into a government-administered trust for victims of sexual abuse in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
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