The property of Jeffrey Epstein has agreed to pay the U.S. Virgin Islands greater than $105 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that he used the territory as the bottom of an intensive intercourse trafficking operation.
The go well with is being settled almost three years after Denise N. George, the lawyer common of the U.S. territory, sued Epstein, a New York financier who died by suicide in 2019 as he was awaiting trial on intercourse trafficking fees.
“This settlement restores the religion of the individuals of the Virgin Islands that its legal guidelines might be enforced, with out concern or favor, in opposition to those that break them,” George stated in a press release Wednesday. “We’re sending a transparent message that the Virgin Islands is not going to function a haven for human trafficking.”
Daniel Weiner, a lawyer for the property, stated that the settlement doesn’t embrace any admission of legal responsibility or fault and that the co-executors deny any allegations of wrongdoing.
“The co-executors finally concluded that the settlement is in the very best pursuits of the property, together with its collectors and claimants, to keep away from the time, expense and inherent uncertainties of protracted litigation,” Weiner stated. “The settlement is according to the co-executors’ acknowledged intent and apply 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.”
Beneath the phrases of the settlement, Epstein’s property pays the Virgin Islands $105 million in money, in addition to half of the proceeds from the sale of Little Saint James, one in every of two personal islands Epstein owned, George’s workplace stated in a press release. The property additionally agreed to pay $450,000 to restore environmental harm round Nice Saint James, the opposite Epstein-owned island.
The lawsuit, filed in January 2020, alleged that Epstein created a community of firms and conspired with others to assist him perform and conceal the alleged intercourse trafficking scheme. The so-called Epstein Enterprise transported dozens of ladies and women as younger as 12 to his property on Little Saint James, the place they have been pressured to interact in sexual acts, the go well with stated.
“Epstein engaged in a sample and apply of trafficking and abusing younger ladies and feminine youngsters on this personal, secluded island of Little St. James the place Epstein and his associates may keep away from detection of their criminality from Virgin Islands and federal regulation enforcement and forestall these younger ladies and underage women from leaving freely and escaping the abuse,” the go well with stated.
Epstein, who was discovered hanged within the Metropolitan Correctional Heart in Manhattan in August 2019, was beforehand charged by New York prosecutors on intercourse trafficking and conspiracy fees. He was going through as much as 45 years in jail if he have been convicted.
The prosecutors in that case stated Epstein, who was 66 on the time of his loss of life, sexually abused dozens of underage women at his properties in New York and Florida within the early 2000s. He was additionally accused of paying a lot of his victims to recruit others, permitting him to construct an enormous community of ladies to use.
Epstein purchased Little Saint James, off St. Thomas, for $7.95 million in 1998, NBC Information reported. He went on to construct an enormous property that includes a 24,000-square-foot personal residence, two swimming pools, a spa and a blue-striped construction that drew intense scrutiny on-line.
