vault backup: 2026-09-25 22:09:08
This commit is contained in:
parent
b208eb6051
commit
f3aadfd333
104 changed files with 3959 additions and 180 deletions
|
|
@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ It was the Cole prosecution that, through motion-to-suppress filings, revealed S
|
|||
|
||||
### The Melzer Plot
|
||||
|
||||
[[Ethan Phelan Melzer]], a Private in the U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade based in Vicenza, Italy, was arrested in May 2020 after he transmitted classified intelligence about his unit's planned deployment to Turkey to O9A members on [[Telegram]], operating under the alias "Etil Reggad." The classified material included base locations, personnel numbers, defensive capabilities, and satellite imagery, with the stated intention of enabling a mass-casualty attack on American soldiers by a combination of Al-Qaeda-affiliated forces and O9A members. Melzer was convicted in the Southern District of New York, where he described himself as "a traitor against the United States whose conduct was tantamount to treason," and was sentenced in March 2023 to 45 years in prison.[^9]
|
||||
[[Ethan Phelan Melzer]], a Private in the U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade based in Vicenza, Italy, was arrested in May 2020 after he transmitted classified intelligence about his unit's planned deployment to Turkey to O9A members on [[Telegram]], operating under the alias "Etil Reggad." The classified material included base locations, personnel numbers, defensive capabilities, and satellite imagery, with the stated intention of enabling a mass-casualty attack on American soldiers by a combination of Al-Qaeda-affiliated forces and O9A members. Melzer was convicted in the [[U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York|Southern District of New York]], where he described himself as "a traitor against the United States whose conduct was tantamount to treason," and was sentenced in March 2023 to 45 years in prison.[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
The Melzer case demonstrated that AWD/O9A influence had penetrated the U.S. military, consistent with earlier reports about [[Jarrett William Smith]], an Army specialist at Fort Riley, Kansas, arrested in 2019 for distributing explosives manuals and discussing attacks on anti-fascist groups and media organizations.
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ The Economic Development Commission is the board of the [[Virgin Islands Economi
|
|||
|
||||
The commission is a subsidiary of the Economic Development Authority, a semi-autonomous territorial instrumentality created and governed under Title 29, section 1101 of the Virgin Islands Code. Beneficiaries apply, present their business at a public hearing, and receive a certificate setting the term, the percentage exemptions, and the employment, residency, and charitable-giving conditions they must meet. The authority's compliance staff then review annual reports submitted by the certificate holders.[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
||||
Its general counsel from 2007 to 2014 was Stacey Plaskett, who had worked for the St. Thomas attorney [[Erika Kellerhals]] before her election as the territory's delegate to the [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. House of Representatives]]. Kellerhals represented Epstein before the commission. The attorney [[Henry Smock]], who assisted Epstein in the 1998 purchase of [[Little St. James]], served for years as counsel to the authority's board. Plaskett, like the other officials named in the [[Epstein Files|Epstein files]], has denied wrongdoing.[^3]
|
||||
Its general counsel from 2007 to 2014 was Stacey Plaskett, who had worked for the [[St. Thomas]] attorney [[Erika Kellerhals]] before her election as the territory's delegate to the [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. House of Representatives]]. Kellerhals represented Epstein before the commission. The attorney [[Henry Smock]], who assisted Epstein in the 1998 purchase of [[Little St. James]], served for years as counsel to the authority's board. Plaskett, like the other officials named in the [[Epstein Files|Epstein files]], has denied wrongdoing.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Financial Trust Company, 1999 to 2012
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "U.S. Government"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
- LawEnforcement
|
||||
- Florida
|
||||
- JeffreyEpstein
|
||||
- WorkRelease
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- Florida Department of Law Enforcement
|
||||
- FDLE
|
||||
- Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement
|
||||
summary: "Florida's statewide law enforcement agency, which Governor Ron DeSantis directed in 2019 to investigate the state's handling of Jeffrey Epstein, and which reported in 2021 differential treatment but no crimes."
|
||||
location: "Tallahassee, Florida"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Epstein non-prosecution agreement]]"
|
||||
role: "state plea agreement and Palm Beach County work release"
|
||||
start: 2019-08
|
||||
end: 2021-05
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
created: 2026-09-25
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-25
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is the statewide law enforcement agency of [[Florida]], whose duties and procedures are set by Chapter 943 of the Florida Statutes. In August 2019, after [[Jeffrey Epstein]]'s arrest in New York and a letter from Palm Beach County Sheriff [[Ric Bradshaw]], Governor [[Ron DeSantis]] directed the department to take over the criminal investigation of state officials' handling of Epstein's 2005 to 2009 case, including his state plea under the [[Epstein non-prosecution agreement]] and his work release from the custody of the [[Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office]]. Its investigative summaries, released in May 2021, found that Epstein "received differential treatment" in the sheriff's custody but that no evidence showed any crime, bribe or impropriety by the sheriff's office, former State Attorney [[Barry Krischer]] or Assistant State Attorney [[Lanna Belohlavek]].[^1][^2][^3][^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Organization
|
||||
|
||||
The department is composed of five areas: Executive Direction and Business Support, Criminal Investigations and Forensic Science, Criminal Justice Information, Criminal Justice Professionalism, and the Florida Capitol Police.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Epstein Investigation
|
||||
|
||||
Bradshaw asked the governor to assign the department to the matter in 2019, after his own office opened an internal affairs review of the deputies who had guarded Epstein during work release. DeSantis said: "Floridians expect and deserve a full and fair investigation." The [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]'s [[Office of Professional Responsibility]], which had no jurisdiction over state officials, recorded that the state inquiry "focuses on Epstein's state plea agreement and the Palm Beach County work release program." Because it was pending when OPR interviewed him, Krischer declined to explain his office's prosecutive decisions to the federal investigators.[^2][^3][^5]
|
||||
|
||||
The department's Office of Executive Investigations released a series of summaries of its preliminary inquiries on May 10, 2021, finding no evidence of criminal activity in the investigation, prosecution or punishment of Epstein. On the prosecutors, it found no evidence that Krischer or Belohlavek "committed any crimes, accepted any bribes or gifts, or did anything improper in their handling of the case." On the sheriff's office, it reported that "Epstein was provided differential treatment," but that the actions "were explained by PBSO and . . . were determined not to be a criminal matter." Work release had allowed Epstein out "for up to twelve hours a day, six days a week."[^3][^4][^6]
|
||||
|
||||
The sheriff's office stated that the department had determined "there was NO inappropriate or criminal activity on the part of any PBSO member with respect to their participation in Epstein's work release or the permit detail," and that an internal affairs investigation into possible administrative violations was continuing. The attorney [[Stuart Kaplan]] criticized the inquiry for its "lack of search warrants, subpoenas or a grand jury."[^3][^6]
|
||||
|
||||
In June 2026, after Epstein's former assistant [[Sarah Kellen]] told congressional investigators that Epstein had arranged for cash and Disneyland tickets to be taken to a deputy at the jail, the sheriff's office cited the department's 2021 finding and said, "The investigation is complete."[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Florida Department of Law Enforcement, official website, agency priorities and organization. https://www.fdle.state.fl.us/
|
||||
[^2]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284, Prior DOJ Disclosures, report, Office of Professional Responsibility, "Investigation into the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida's Resolution of Its 2006-2008 Federal Criminal Investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and Its Interactions with Victims during the Investigation," November 2020, Executive Summary p. vii n. 7, and p. 15 n. 11 (EFTA02847292, EFTA02847324). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/Prior%20DOJ%20Disclosures/Memos.%20&%20Correspondence/EFTA02847284.pdf
|
||||
[^3]: Sabrina Lolo, "FDLE clears PBSO, prosecutors in connection to Epstein's work release privileges," *CBS12,* May 10, 2021. https://cbs12.com/news/local/fdle-clears-pbso-prosecutors-in-connection-to-epsteins-work-release-privileges
|
||||
[^4]: "Florida authorities find no evidence of criminal activity in state's handling of Jeffrey Epstein case," *NBC News,* May 2021. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/florida-authorities-no-evidence-criminal-activity-state-s-handling-jeffrey-n1266888
|
||||
[^5]: Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, "Sheriff Ric Bradshaw," official biography. https://www.pbso.org/sheriff-ric-bradshaw ; Curt Anderson, "Florida sheriff investigates Epstein's time spent outside of jail," *Associated Press* via *PBS NewsHour,* July 19, 2019. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/florida-sheriff-investigates-epsteins-time-spent-outside-of-jail
|
||||
[^6]: Erik Altmann and Todd Wilson, "FDLE investigation finds no wrongdoing by PBSO, State Attorney's Office in Jeffrey Epstein plea deal," *WPTV,* May 2021. https://www.wptv.com/news/epstein/fdle-investigation-finds-no-wrongdoing-by-pbso-state-attorneys-office-in-jeffrey-epstein-plea-deal
|
||||
[^7]: Julie K. Brown, "Ex-aide says Epstein paid Palm Beach deputy to get special treatment in jail," *Miami Herald* via *Jefferson City News-Tribune,* June 16, 2026. https://www.newstribune.com/news/2026/jun/16/ex-aide-says-epstein-paid-palm-beach-deputy-to/
|
||||
|
|
@ -48,13 +48,13 @@ The Attorney General heads the [[Virgin Islands Department of Justice]], which k
|
|||
|
||||
### Registration and Monitoring
|
||||
|
||||
Epstein registered as a sex offender in the territory in 2010 as a Tier 1 offender on the strength of his 2008 [[Florida]] conviction for procuring a minor for prostitution, which required annual registration, advance notice of travel, and random address checks. Most of his territorial companies were created in 2011 and 2012, soon after he registered. At his last verification, in July 2018, he refused to let Department of Justice investigators, assisted by [[United States Marshals Service|U.S. Marshals]], go beyond the dock of Little St. James, calling the dock his "front door," and arranged to meet them at his office on St. Thomas. His March 19, 2019 notice of a ten-day trip to France omitted travel to [[Vienna]] and [[Monaco]]. The [[Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources|Department of Planning and Natural Resources]] found his inspections of unpermitted construction on [[Great St. James]] objected to as "invasions" of his constitutional right to privacy in a home he defined as the entire island.[^2]
|
||||
Epstein registered as a sex offender in the territory in 2010 as a Tier 1 offender on the strength of his 2008 [[Florida]] conviction for procuring a minor for prostitution, which required annual registration, advance notice of travel, and random address checks. Most of his territorial companies were created in 2011 and 2012, soon after he registered. At his last verification, in July 2018, he refused to let Department of Justice investigators, assisted by [[United States Marshals Service|U.S. Marshals]], go beyond the dock of Little St. James, calling the dock his "front door," and arranged to meet them at his office on [[St. Thomas]]. His March 19, 2019 notice of a ten-day trip to France omitted travel to [[Vienna]] and [[Monaco]]. The [[Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources|Department of Planning and Natural Resources]] found his inspections of unpermitted construction on [[Great St. James]] objected to as "invasions" of his constitutional right to privacy in a home he defined as the entire island.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
In May 2019 Bryan's nominee for planning commissioner, [[Jean-Pierre Oriol]], said publicly that Epstein was continuing construction on Great St. James despite a stop-work order; Epstein complained to Bryan, who replied "We got u." Following Epstein's July 2019 arrest, George said a civil claim filed in New York was insufficient to open a territorial investigation without a local complaint. Asked in March 2026 about territorial oversight of Epstein, Bryan said, "Are there any victims in the Virgin Islands saying they were abused?"[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Money and Access
|
||||
|
||||
The Economic Development Commission granted Epstein's [[Financial Trust Company]] benefits from 1999 and his [[Southern Trust Company]] a ten-year package from February 1, 2013, certified on January 24, 2014 over Bryan's signature as chairman. The territory later estimated that the Southern Trust certificate allowed Epstein to avoid 80,576,236 dollars in taxes; Economic Development Authority records put his incentives from 2013 to 2019 at 144.9 million dollars. The commission's general counsel from 2007 to 2014 was [[Stacey Plaskett]], who later became the territory's delegate to Congress and acknowledged receiving about 30,000 dollars in campaign contributions from Epstein and his employees.[^2][^3][^8][^9]
|
||||
The Economic Development Commission granted Epstein's [[Financial Trust Company]] benefits from 1999 and his [[Southern Trust Company]] a ten-year package from February 1, 2013, certified on January 24, 2014 over Bryan's signature as chairman. The territory later estimated that the Southern Trust certificate allowed Epstein to avoid 80,576,236 dollars in taxes; [[Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority|Economic Development Authority]] records put his incentives from 2013 to 2019 at 144.9 million dollars. The commission's general counsel from 2007 to 2014 was [[Stacey Plaskett]], who later became the territory's delegate to Congress and acknowledged receiving about 30,000 dollars in campaign contributions from Epstein and his employees.[^2][^3][^8][^9]
|
||||
|
||||
The JPMorgan exhibits record Epstein's office handling requests from the governors' political committees. In December 2014 Cecile de Jongh asked him to confirm a 10,000 dollar donation from Southern Trust to the Mapp-Potter inaugural committee; on September 1, 2016 Epstein told her to "prepare a check for mapps super pac. For 75k"; and on December 20, 2018 she relayed a request from the Bryan/Roach inaugural committee for 25,000 dollars. The JPMorgan exhibits do not show whether the Bryan committee was paid. The former senator [[Celestino White]], whom Bryan renominated to the [[Virgin Islands Port Authority]] board, had offered to work on Epstein's behalf, including on the purchase of the government-owned Dog Island.[^5][^9]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "U.S. Government"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
- DepartmentOfJustice
|
||||
- Watergate
|
||||
- JeffreyEpstein
|
||||
- NonProsecutionAgreement
|
||||
- ProsecutorialMisconduct
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- Office of Professional Responsibility
|
||||
- DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility
|
||||
- Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility
|
||||
- DOJ OPR
|
||||
- OPR
|
||||
summary: "Justice Department office created in 1975 after Watergate to investigate misconduct by department lawyers, whose 2020 Epstein report found no misconduct by five Florida prosecutors but faulted Alexander Acosta's judgment."
|
||||
start: 1975
|
||||
location: "Washington, D.C."
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: member_of
|
||||
with: "[[Department of Justice]]"
|
||||
role: "component office"
|
||||
start: 1975
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
created: 2026-09-25
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-25
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Office of Professional Responsibility is the component of the [[Department of Justice]] that investigates allegations of professional misconduct by the department's lawyers in their exercise of authority to investigate, litigate or give legal advice, and by its law enforcement agents where the allegations relate to a lawyer's misconduct. It was established in 1975 "in response to professional misconduct associated with the [[Watergate]] scandal." From February 2019 to November 2020 it investigated the [[U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida]]'s resolution of the federal case against [[Jeffrey Epstein]] through the 2007 [[Epstein non-prosecution agreement]], examining former U.S. Attorney [[Alexander Acosta]] and four subordinates. Its November 2020 report found that none had committed professional misconduct, concluded that Acosta's decision to use the agreement "constitutes poor judgment," and found no evidence that Epstein was a cooperating witness or "intelligence asset." The report is a public record of the [[Epstein Files|Epstein Library]] as EFTA02847284 and was refiled as an exhibit in later Epstein litigation.[^1][^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Mandate and Standard
|
||||
|
||||
The office's stated mission is "to ensure that Department attorneys perform their duties in accordance with the high professional standards expected of the nation's principal law enforcement agency." Its authority rests on 28 C.F.R. 0.39a and extends to former department lawyers; the department cannot discipline a former lawyer, but a finding that one violated state professional conduct rules can be referred to a state bar. The office finds misconduct only when it concludes, by a preponderance of the evidence, that a lawyer intentionally or recklessly violated "a clear and unambiguous standard" governing the conduct at issue. Where no such standard exists, or the violation was neither intentional nor reckless, it may instead find that the lawyer "exercised poor judgment, made a mistake, or otherwise acted inappropriately under the circumstances." It declines some complaints without investigation: in December 2010 a lawyer for Epstein's victims alleged that Epstein may have exerted improper influence over the federal investigation and that the Florida office had deceived victims about the agreement, and the office declined to open an inquiry in deference to the pending victims' litigation.[^1][^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Epstein Investigation
|
||||
|
||||
After the [[Miami Herald]] published [[Julie K. Brown]]'s series on November 28, 2018, Senator [[Ben Sasse]], chairman of a Senate Judiciary oversight subcommittee, wrote to the office on December 3, 2018 asking it to "open an investigation into the instances identified in this reporting of possible misconduct by Department of Justice attorneys." On February 6, 2019 the department's Office of Legislative Affairs told Sasse that the office had opened an investigation. After Judge [[Kenneth Marra]] ruled on February 21, 2019 in [[Doe v. United States]] that the government had violated the [[Crime Victims' Rights Act]], the office added the government's treatment of victims to its review.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
The five subjects were Acosta, [[Jeffrey Sloman]], [[Matthew Menchel]], [[Andrew Lourie]] and [[Ann Marie Villafana|A. Marie Villafaña]]. Each submitted a written response and was interviewed under oath before a court reporter with counsel present, and each reviewed the draft report. The office reviewed hundreds of thousands of pages from the Florida office, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]], the Criminal Division, the Office of the Deputy Attorney General and the [[Executive Office for United States Attorneys]], including more than 850,000 Outlook records of the subjects and six other witnesses, and conducted more than 60 interviews, among them former Deputy Attorney General [[Mark Filip]], former State Attorney [[Barry Krischer]] and former Assistant State Attorney [[Lanna Belohlavek]]. It received information from or about 13 victims. It stated that it had no jurisdiction over state officials and reached no conclusions about their conduct.[^2][^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Acosta's Missing Email
|
||||
|
||||
Reviewing the email, the office found that Acosta's inbox held no messages from May 26, 2007 to November 2, 2008, a period covering the negotiation, signing and implementation of the agreement, while his sent mail showed no such gap. The Executive Office for [[United States]] Attorneys found "a data association error that incorrectly associated Acosta's data with an unrelated employee who had a similar name," and recovered 11,248 emails from April 3, 2008 onward. The earlier messages had not been transferred when the Florida office's data was migrated to a centralized system between March and June 2008, and could not be found. Acosta and staff denied knowledge of any deletion; an analysis of four other U.S. Attorney's offices found similar gaps in their U.S. Attorneys' email; and the office concluded that the gap "was most likely the result of a technological error."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Findings
|
||||
|
||||
The office concluded that none of the five subjects committed professional misconduct in developing, negotiating or approving the agreement, because "no clear and unambiguous standard" required Acosta to indict or barred deferring to the state. It found that the agreement "was a flawed mechanism for satisfying the federal interest," that "Acosta's application of federalism principles was too expansive, his view of the federal interest in prosecuting Epstein was too narrow, and his understanding of the state system was too imperfect," and that the three supervisory subjects other than Acosta "left the USAO, were transitioning to other jobs, or were absent at critical junctures." It found that Acosta "exercised poor judgment" in failing to ensure that victims were told of Epstein's state plea hearing, and that the government's "lack of transparency and its inconsistent messages" gave victims and the public "the misimpression that the government had colluded with Epstein's counsel to keep the NPA secret from the victims." It found no evidence that the decision was "based on corruption or other impermissible considerations, such as Epstein's wealth, status, or associations."[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
On Epstein's choice of lawyers, the office wrote that "a reasonable inference can be drawn that Epstein believed that hiring attorneys with relationships to the prosecutors would be beneficial to him," identifying a former U.S. Attorney for the district, a former deputy of Menchel's with whom Menchel had socialized, and [[Kenneth Starr]] and [[Jay Lefkowitz]] of [[Kirkland & Ellis]], Acosta's former firm. It found that Menchel had not told his supervisors that he had briefly dated that former deputy in 2003, and assessed that it "would have been prudent" for him to do so. It found no evidence supporting a 2018 claim that the two-year plea offer was a favor to defense counsel.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
On the question raised in the press whether Epstein had been an intelligence asset, the office stated that it "found no evidence suggesting that Epstein was such a cooperating witness or 'intelligence asset,' or that anyone, including any of the subjects of OPR's investigation, believed that to be the case, or that Epstein was afforded any benefit on such a basis." When the office asked Acosta about his "apparent equivocation" on the question at a 2019 press conference, he answered "the answer is no"; the report notes that "Acosta was made aware that OPR could use a classified setting to discuss intelligence information." Villafaña had written in 2011 that a rumor of Epstein's cooperation in a [[Bear Stearns]] case was "urban myth."[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### Review of the Draft by New York Prosecutors
|
||||
|
||||
Before the report was final, the chief of the Public Corruption Unit of the [[U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York]], whose office had indicted Epstein in 2019 and was then prosecuting [[Ghislaine Maxwell]], reviewed the draft and on August 21, 2020 asked for two changes, which the office accepted: "at least one victim known to be a minor" became "at least one victim believed to be a minor," to "more accurately reflect[] our position in the bail arguments regarding Epstein," and a statement that investigators "were aware" that Epstein used hidden cameras in his New York house became that they "had learned" it. The report records that the subjects and others commented on the draft and that the office "did not, however, alter its findings and conclusions."[^2][^8]
|
||||
|
||||
### Later Use of the Report
|
||||
|
||||
The full report was refiled as a court exhibit in later cases, including Maxwell's appeal in the [[Second Circuit]], No. 22-1426 (EFTA02844213); [[Government of the United States Virgin Islands v. JPMorgan Chase Bank]], No. 22-cv-10904 (EFTA02809635); *[[United States v. Maxwell]]*, No. 20-cr-330 (EFTA02830776); and the [[Palm Beach Post]]'s public records suit against State Attorney [[Dave Aronberg]], *CA Florida Holdings, LLC v. Aronberg*, No. 50-2019-CA-014681 (EFTA02733081). Each copy reproduces the subjects' sworn statements and the contemporaneous emails, among them one in which Acosta wrote to Sloman and Lourie about meeting Epstein's lawyers, "This will end up [in the Department] anyhow, if we don't meet with them."[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Professional Responsibility, "Welcome to OPR," official website. https://www.justice.gov/opr
|
||||
[^2]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284, Prior DOJ Disclosures, report, Office of Professional Responsibility, "Investigation into the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida's Resolution of Its 2006-2008 Federal Criminal Investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and Its Interactions with Victims during the Investigation," November 2020, Executive Summary pp. v to vii and n. 6 (EFTA02847290 to EFTA02847292). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/Prior%20DOJ%20Disclosures/Memos.%20&%20Correspondence/EFTA02847284.pdf
|
||||
[^3]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284 (see note 2), Executive Summary pp. viii to xi (EFTA02847293 to EFTA02847296).
|
||||
[^4]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284 (see note 2), Executive Summary pp. vii to viii and nn. 9 to 10 (EFTA02847292 to EFTA02847293).
|
||||
[^5]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284 (see note 2), Methodology, pp. 287 to 290 (EFTA02847596 to EFTA02847599).
|
||||
[^6]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284 (see note 2), pp. 150 to 155 (EFTA02847459 to EFTA02847464).
|
||||
[^7]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284 (see note 2), p. 169 and n. 244 (EFTA02847478).
|
||||
[^8]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00077309, DataSet 9, email, Chief, Public Corruption Unit, U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, and the Office of Professional Responsibility, "RE: Draft OPR Report," August 21, 2020. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00077309.pdf
|
||||
[^9]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02844213, Court Records, *United States v. Maxwell*, No. 22-1426 (2d Cir. 2022), Document 1-1, OPR report filed as exhibit, 1,523 pages. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/Court%20Records/United%20States%20v.%20Maxwell%2C%20No.%2022-1426%20(2d%20Cir.%202022)/EFTA02844213.pdf ; U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02809635, Court Records, *Government of the United States Virgin Islands v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.*, No. 22-cv-10904 (S.D.N.Y.), exhibit; EFTA02830776, Court Records, *United States v. Maxwell*, No. 20-cr-00330 (S.D.N.Y. 2020), exhibit; EFTA02733081, Court Records, *CA Florida Holdings, LLC, Publisher of the Palm Beach Post v. Aronberg*, No. 50-2019-CA-014681-XXXX-MB (Fla. 15th Cir. Ct. 2019), Exhibit 3 to plaintiff's 2021 summary judgment appendix.
|
||||
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "U.S. Government"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
- LawEnforcement
|
||||
- PalmBeach
|
||||
- JeffreyEpstein
|
||||
- WorkRelease
|
||||
- FloridaScienceFoundation
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office
|
||||
- Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office (PBSO)
|
||||
- Palm Beach Sheriff's Office
|
||||
- Palm Beach County Sheriff
|
||||
- PBSO
|
||||
summary: "Largest law enforcement agency in Palm Beach County, whose jail placed Jeffrey Epstein on work release in 2008 and whose off-duty deputies were paid through his Florida Science Foundation to guard him."
|
||||
location: "West Palm Beach, Florida"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: contractor_to
|
||||
with: "[[Florida Science Foundation]]"
|
||||
role: "off-duty deputy details under Extra Duty Permit No. 7804"
|
||||
start: 2008-10
|
||||
end: 2009-07
|
||||
fn: 8
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Florida Department of Law Enforcement]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2019-08
|
||||
end: 2021-05
|
||||
fn: 10
|
||||
created: 2026-09-25
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-25
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office is the county sheriff's department of [[Palm Beach County]], [[Florida]], based in [[West Palm Beach, Florida|West Palm Beach]] and the largest law enforcement agency in the county. Through its Department of Corrections it runs the county's Main Detention Center and, in 2008 and 2009, housed minimum-security inmates, including those on work release, at its Stockade facility. [[Ric Bradshaw]] has been sheriff since January 2005. [[Jeffrey Epstein]] served his 2008 to 2009 state sentence under the [[Epstein non-prosecution agreement]] in the office's custody; it placed him on work release less than three and a half months into his term, allowing him to leave the Stockade for up to 12 hours a day, six days a week, for the [[Florida Science Foundation]], which paid the office 128,136 dollars for off-duty deputies assigned to him. The [[Florida Department of Law Enforcement]] found in 2021 that Epstein had "received differential treatment" but that no member of the office had committed a crime.[^1][^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Assurances on Work Release, 2007 to 2008
|
||||
|
||||
Federal prosecutors raised work release before Epstein pleaded. In November 2007 [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agents were told by a "jail supervisor" that although Epstein, as a sex offender, would not qualify for work release, a judge could order it if he was sentenced to a year or less. The day after Epstein's June 30, 2008 plea, Assistant U.S. Attorney [[Ann Marie Villafana|A. Marie Villafaña]] and her supervisor met a sheriff's office official, who told them that "Epstein would be eligible for work release and will be placed on work release," contradicting the jail supervisor and the defense lawyer [[Jack Goldberger]], who days earlier had "specifically told [Villafaña] that [Epstein] would not get work release." She told the official that the Florida Science Foundation did not exist until November 2007 and that its address was Goldberger's office, and asked that the office notify the [[U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida]] if Epstein applied. The federal office's investigation log records a July 2008 email between Villafaña and "Col. M. Gauger" of the sheriff's office "re Epstein work release with attachment." State Attorney [[Barry Krischer]] later told the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]'s [[Office of Professional Responsibility]] that work release was "within the control of the Sheriff's Office, not my office."[^2][^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Placement and Protest
|
||||
|
||||
The federal office "never received notice of Epstein's work release application." On October 10, 2008 the sheriff's office placed him in the program. According to Villafaña, the FBI case agent reported that the Stockade's work release coordinator told her he had been led to believe the government knew of Epstein's application and that he had been threatened with legal action if he did not allow Epstein to participate. The [[Palm Beach Daily News]] reported in December 2008 that Epstein was being "treated differently."[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
On December 3, 2008 Villafaña wrote to her supervisors that Epstein "has hired off-duty Sheriff's deputies to provide him with 'protection.' It appears that he is paying between $3000 and $4100 per week for this service, despite the work release rules barring anyone from the Sheriff's Office (and the Sheriff's Office itself) from having 'any business transactions with inmates . . . while they are in the custody or supervision of the Sheriff. . . .'" She also wrote that Goldberger and Krischer had told federal prosecutors Epstein would be housed at the county jail, not the Stockade, although "he would not have been eligible for work release if at the jail." On December 11 she wrote to the office's Corrections Division that Epstein was ineligible and that his application was inaccurate: the Florida Science Foundation's listed telephone number belonged to Goldberger's law firm, and the foundation vice president named as his "supervisor," who lived and worked in the New York area, had told the [[Internal Revenue Service]] that Epstein worked one hour a week for no pay while telling the sheriff's office that he worked six 12-hour days a week. "The Sheriff's Office neither acknowledged nor responded to Villafaña's letter." In March 2009 First Assistant U.S. Attorney [[Jeffrey Sloman]] wrote to [[Alan Dershowitz]] that his office "will not interfere with how the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office administers the sentence imposed by the Court," while stating it would object to alternative custody or home detention if asked.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Permit No. 7804
|
||||
|
||||
The office's Extra Duty Permits System carried the detail as Permit No. 7804, "Florida Science Foundation," with posts titled "FL Science Foundation - Plain Clothed Position." Deputies' overtime reports for July 1 to 14, 2009 describe the work as "Provide security for Jeffrey Epstein," including keeping a log of visitors and escorting him at midday from the office to his house at [[358 El Brillo Way]] and back. The office's media relations unit faxed the reports on July 21, 2009, and the pages were later produced to federal prosecutors in New York. Records obtained by the West Palm Beach station WPTV show that the foundation paid the sheriff's office 128,136 dollars during Epstein's incarceration. Epstein received gain time and was released to home confinement on July 22, 2009, having served less than 13 months of an 18-month term.[^5][^6][^7][^8]
|
||||
|
||||
### The 2019 to 2021 Reviews
|
||||
|
||||
In August 2019, after a letter from Bradshaw, Governor [[Ron DeSantis]] directed the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to take over the criminal investigation of the matter: "Floridians expect and deserve a full and fair investigation." The department released a series of investigative summaries on May 10, 2021. It found that it "appears that Epstein received differential treatment" in the office's custody, and that no evidence showed criminal activity by any identified member of the office. The sheriff's office stated that the department had determined "there was NO inappropriate or criminal activity on the part of any PBSO member with respect to their participation in Epstein's work release or the permit detail," adding that the victims' own attorney had stated "there is 'NO alleged wrongdoing by the Deputies.'"[^9][^10]
|
||||
|
||||
### The 2026 Allegation
|
||||
|
||||
In June 2026 the [[Miami Herald]] reported that Epstein's former assistant [[Sarah Kellen]] had told congressional investigators, "I know that he arranged to have cash and, like, Disneyland tickets, taken to one of the officers," naming a sheriff's deputy. A spokeswoman for the sheriff's office responded that "[t]he Epstein investigation did not reveal these allegations, and they were never investigated," cited the 2021 finding, and said, "The investigation is complete."[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284, Prior DOJ Disclosures, report, Office of Professional Responsibility, "Investigation into the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida's Resolution of Its 2006-2008 Federal Criminal Investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and Its Interactions with Victims during the Investigation," November 2020, p. 4 and Executive Summary p. iii (EFTA02847313, EFTA02847288). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/Prior%20DOJ%20Disclosures/Memos.%20&%20Correspondence/EFTA02847284.pdf
|
||||
[^2]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284 (see note 1), pp. 114 to 117 and nn. 180 to 182 (EFTA02847423 to EFTA02847426).
|
||||
[^3]: "Jeffrey Epstein paid Palm Beach Sheriff's Office $128,000 during incarceration for prostitution charges," *WPTV,* 2019. https://www.wptv.com/news/region-c-palm-beach-county/new-jeffrey-epstein-paid-palm-beach-sheriffs-office-128-000-during-incarceration-for-prostitution
|
||||
[^4]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00224943, DataSet 9, "Epstein Investigation Timeline," Exhibit A-1, privileged chronology of the federal investigation, May 2006 to August 2011, pp. 37 to 39. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00224943.pdf
|
||||
[^5]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01308629, DataSet 10, Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office Extra Duty Permits System overtime report forms, Permit No. 7804, "Florida Science Foundation," July 1 to 14, 2009, faxed July 21, 2009. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01308629.pdf
|
||||
[^6]: "Jeffrey Epstein paid Palm Beach Sheriff's Office $128,000" (see note 3).
|
||||
[^7]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284 (see note 1), p. 117 (EFTA02847426).
|
||||
[^8]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01308629 (see note 5); "Jeffrey Epstein paid Palm Beach Sheriff's Office $128,000" (see note 3).
|
||||
[^9]: Sabrina Lolo, "FDLE clears PBSO, prosecutors in connection to Epstein's work release privileges," *CBS12,* May 10, 2021. https://cbs12.com/news/local/fdle-clears-pbso-prosecutors-in-connection-to-epsteins-work-release-privileges
|
||||
[^10]: "Florida authorities find no evidence of criminal activity in state's handling of Jeffrey Epstein case," *NBC News,* May 2021. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/florida-authorities-no-evidence-criminal-activity-state-s-handling-jeffrey-n1266888 ; Sabrina Lolo (see note 9).
|
||||
[^11]: Julie K. Brown, "Ex-aide says Epstein paid Palm Beach deputy to get special treatment in jail," *Miami Herald* via *Jefferson City News-Tribune,* June 16, 2026. https://www.newstribune.com/news/2026/jun/16/ex-aide-says-epstein-paid-palm-beach-deputy-to/
|
||||
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "U.S. Government"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
- LawEnforcement
|
||||
- PalmBeach
|
||||
- JeffreyEpstein
|
||||
- Police
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- Palm Beach Police Department
|
||||
- Palm Beach Police
|
||||
- PBPD
|
||||
- Town of Palm Beach Police Department
|
||||
summary: "Police force of the Town of Palm Beach, formed in 1922, whose 2005 to 2006 investigation of Jeffrey Epstein was referred to the FBI after the State Attorney declined its recommended felony charges."
|
||||
start: 1922-10-17
|
||||
location: "Palm Beach, Florida"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Joseph Borman]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "town marshal, then first police chief"
|
||||
start: 1911
|
||||
end: 1946
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Kirk Blouin]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "Director of Public Safety"
|
||||
start: 2009
|
||||
end: 2018
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Nicholas Caristo]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "chief"
|
||||
start: 2019
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
created: 2026-09-25
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-25
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Palm Beach Police Department is the law enforcement agency of the Town of [[Palm Beach, Florida|Palm Beach]], the incorporated town occupying the coastal barrier island off the city of [[West Palm Beach, Florida|West Palm Beach]]. Formed on October 17, 1922 out of the office of town marshal created in 1911, it opened the first criminal investigation of [[Jeffrey Epstein]] in March 2005. Under Chief [[Michael Reiter]], its detectives recommended felony charges for sexual activity with minors in May 2006; after the [[Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office]] under [[Barry Krischer]] instead obtained a single solicitation count from a grand jury, the department took the case to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]], the origin of the federal investigation that ended in the [[Epstein non-prosecution agreement]].[^1][^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### History
|
||||
|
||||
The town's first charter of 1911 created the office of town marshal, to which Joseph Borman was elected; Borman, "known as 'Mr. Palm Beach,'" patrolled from Singer Island to the Lantana Inlet on his own bicycle and became the first police chief when the department was formed in 1922, serving until 1946. The department moved into a station and jail at the site of the present Town Hall. After the 1928 hurricane martial law was declared and 171 members of the [[Florida National Guard|National Guard]] patrolled Palm Beach, and during the [[World War II|Second World War]] military police patrolled the town with its officers, "as the town was a major rest and relaxation point for servicemen." Its chiefs have included Joseph L. Terlizzese (1978 to 1998), Frank A. Croft (1998 to 2001) and Michael S. Reiter (2001 to 2009); Kirk W. Blouin led the town's police as Director of Public Safety from 2009 to 2018, and Nicholas P. Caristo became chief in 2019.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Earlier Reports About Epstein
|
||||
|
||||
The department had received information about Epstein before 2005. In March 2004 an officer documented a telephone complaint that a 17-year-old girl had been giving Epstein topless massages at his residence for several months for 200 dollars each, and that there were nude photographs of other girls throughout the house; the caller offered to cooperate. The report described the information as "unverified," and it was not pursued. On November 28, 2004 the police recorded information that young women had been seen coming and going from Epstein's house at [[358 El Brillo Way]]; they suspected he was procuring prostitutes but opened no investigation because they had no evidence the women were minors and "typically did not investigate prostitution occurring in private residences."[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### The 2005 to 2006 Investigation
|
||||
|
||||
In March 2005 the parents of a 14-year-old girl reported that a man had paid their daughter 300 dollars to give him a massage in his Palm Beach home. The department began investigating Epstein and two of his personal assistants, and the inquiry expanded to allegations that during 2004 and 2005 Epstein, through his assistants and some of the victims, regularly recruited local high-school-age girls to give him massages that led to sexual activity. According to the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]'s [[Office of Professional Responsibility]], "Epstein was aware of the PBPD investigation almost from the beginning" and retained criminal defense counsel, who hired private investigators. When officers executed a search warrant at the house on October 20, 2005, they found computer monitors and keyboards and disconnected surveillance cameras, but the computers and storage media were gone. They recovered message pads recording calls from girls over two years, photographs of naked young females of indeterminate age, massage tables and one victim's high school transcript. The lead detective, [[Joseph Recarey]], later told federal prosecutors he believed Epstein "may have been 'tipped off'" before the search.[^3][^4]
|
||||
|
||||
The police brought the case to the State Attorney's Office without making an arrest. Recarey swore a probable cause affidavit on May 1, 2006 recommending four counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor and one count of lewd and lascivious molestation. The same day Reiter sent Krischer probable cause affidavits and a case filing package on Epstein, one of his assistants and a young woman whom Epstein had first victimized and then used to recruit other girls, with a letter calling the office's "treatment of these cases [to be] highly unusual," urging Krischer "to examine the unusual course that your office's handling of this matter has taken," and asking him to consider disqualifying himself. Assistant State Attorney [[Lanna Belohlavek]] told OPR that her office and the police "were at a disagreement" over "what the state . . . could ethically charge," and that "the police were not happy with that." In a 2009 deposition Reiter testified: "I knew that it didn't really matter what the facts were in this case, it was pretty clear to me that Mr. Krischer did not want to prosecute this case." On July 19, 2006 the grand jury returned one count of felony solicitation of prostitution.[^3][^5][^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Referral to the FBI
|
||||
|
||||
Before formally presenting the case, the department told an FBI agent in West Palm Beach that the State Attorney's Office was considering not charging Epstein or allowing a misdemeanor plea. In May 2006 the lead detective met the Assistant U.S. Attorney [[Ann Marie Villafana|A. Marie Villafaña]] and the FBI case agent. According to Villafaña, he said that "pressure had been brought to bear on . . . Krischer by Epstein's attorneys," that the defense had hired private investigators to trail him and Reiter and had raised claims of police improprieties, and that the defense had "orchestrated the removal" of the first Assistant State Attorney on the case, "who was viewed as an aggressive prosecutor," by hiring a lawyer whose relationship with her created a conflict. He told them that flight logs of Epstein's airplane sometimes listed passengers only as "female," which he suspected might refer to underage girls, but that he could not confirm it. Reiter testified in 2009 that after the referral a Town of Palm Beach official criticized him, telling him the victims were not believable and that "Palm Beach solves its own problems." In August 2006 Villafaña told her supervisors she would meet Reiter "to convince him to relinquish the evidence to the FBI."[^4][^7]
|
||||
|
||||
After the non-prosecution agreement was signed in September 2007, Villafaña reported that a federal prosecutor calling Reiter "knows not to tell Chief Reiter about the money issue, just about what crimes Mr. Epstein is pleading guilty to and the amount of time that has been agreed to," and was "telling Chief Reiter not to disclose the outcome to anyone." Reiter later testified that "the Epstein case was an instance of a many million dollars defense and what it can accomplish." Recarey died in May 2018.[^4][^8][^9]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Town of Palm Beach, "History of the Police Department." https://www.townofpalmbeach.com/299/Historyof-thePolice-Department
|
||||
[^2]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284, Prior DOJ Disclosures, report, Office of Professional Responsibility, "Investigation into the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida's Resolution of Its 2006-2008 Federal Criminal Investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and Its Interactions with Victims during the Investigation," November 2020, pp. 4, 11 and n. 6 (EFTA02847313, EFTA02847320). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/Prior%20DOJ%20Disclosures/Memos.%20&%20Correspondence/EFTA02847284.pdf
|
||||
[^3]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284 (see note 2), pp. 11 to 16 (EFTA02847320 to EFTA02847325).
|
||||
[^4]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284 (see note 2), pp. 16 to 17 and nn. 18 to 19 (EFTA02847325 to EFTA02847326).
|
||||
[^5]: Palm Beach Police Department, probable cause affidavit of Detective Joseph Recarey regarding Jeffrey Epstein, sworn May 1, 2006 (redacted). https://archive.org/stream/JeffreyEpstein/Jeffrey%20Epstein%20Redacted%20Probable%20Cause%20Affadavit_djvu.txt
|
||||
[^6]: "Judge releases Jeffrey Epstein grand jury investigation transcripts," *WUSF / Associated Press,* July 1, 2024. https://www.wusf.org/courts-law/2024-07-01/florida-judge-releases-transcripts-2006-grand-jury-investigation-jeffrey-epstein-sex-trafficking
|
||||
[^7]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284 (see note 2), p. 21 (EFTA02847330).
|
||||
[^8]: Opinion and Order, *Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2 v. United States*, No. 9:08-cv-80736-KAM (S.D. Fla. Feb. 21, 2019), ECF No. 435 (Marra, J.), reported at 359 F. Supp. 3d 1201, quoting ECF No. 407. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.317867/gov.uscourts.flsd.317867.435.0.pdf
|
||||
[^9]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284 (see note 2), p. 151 n. 223 (EFTA02847460).
|
||||
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "U.S. Government"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
- DepartmentOfJustice
|
||||
- Prosecutor
|
||||
- JeffreyEpstein
|
||||
- NonProsecutionAgreement
|
||||
- Miami
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida
|
||||
- United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida
|
||||
- U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida
|
||||
- Southern District of Florida
|
||||
- SDFL
|
||||
- USAO-SDFL
|
||||
- Miami U.S. Attorney's Office
|
||||
summary: "Federal prosecutor's office for South Florida, headquartered in Miami, which investigated Jeffrey Epstein from 2006 and resolved the case in 2007 through a non-prosecution agreement immunizing his co-conspirators."
|
||||
start: 1929
|
||||
location: "Miami, Florida"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Office of Professional Responsibility]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2019-02-06
|
||||
end: 2020-11
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
created: 2026-09-25
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-25
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida is the [[Department of Justice]] office that prosecutes federal crimes and conducts federal civil litigation in the nine southernmost counties of [[Florida]], from [[Key West, Florida|Key West]] to Vero Beach. Headquartered in [[Miami]] with staffed branches in [[Fort Lauderdale]], [[West Palm Beach, Florida|West Palm Beach]] and Fort Pierce, it opened a federal investigation of [[Jeffrey Epstein]] in May 2006, drafted a 60-count indictment, and under U.S. Attorney [[Alexander Acosta]] resolved the case on September 24, 2007 with the [[Epstein non-prosecution agreement]], which required a state guilty plea and bound the [[United States]] not to charge "any potential co-conspirators of Epstein." A federal judge found in 2019 that the office had violated the [[Crime Victims' Rights Act]] by concealing the agreement from victims, and the Justice Department's [[Office of Professional Responsibility]] found in 2020 that Acosta's use of it "constitutes poor judgment."[^1][^2][^3][^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Office
|
||||
|
||||
The first U.S. Attorney's office in Miami opened in 1929 at 100 N.E. 1st Avenue and moved in 1932 into the federal courthouse, where the sole federal judge, John W. Holland, was a former U.S. Attorney. In 1952 the office had two part-time Assistant U.S. Attorneys and three support staff. The Fort Lauderdale office opened in 1975, West Palm Beach in 1978 and Fort Pierce in 1990, and since 1993 the headquarters has been at 99 N.E. 4th Street in Miami. The number of prosecutors grew from nine in 1965 to approximately 223 Assistant U.S. Attorneys and 41 Special Assistants. The district covers 15,197 square miles and more than 7 million residents in Monroe, Miami-Dade, [[Broward County, Florida|Broward]], [[Palm Beach County|Palm Beach]], Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River, Okeechobee and Highlands counties; the office describes the district as having "ties to [[Latin America]], the Bahamas, and other Caribbean nations" and as home to federal enclaves including the [[United States Southern Command|U.S. Southern Command]] and [[Homestead Air Reserve Base]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
During the Epstein investigation the office had about 200 prosecutors and 200 support staff. The First Assistant U.S. Attorney was second in command, supervising the Criminal, Civil and Appellate Divisions, and the West Palm Beach branch, about 70 miles from Miami and covering Palm Beach County, had two criminal sections under a managing Assistant U.S. Attorney. The Justice Department's report describes one of Epstein's Miami lawyers, identified by the first name Guy, as a former career prosecutor in the office who was U.S. Attorney from 2000 to 2002 and then for two years Director of the [[Executive Office for United States Attorneys]]. A December 2018 account of Epstein's early defense team listed "former U.S. Attorney [[Guy Lewis]]" among its members.[^2][^5][^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Leadership During the Epstein Case
|
||||
|
||||
Acosta was appointed interim U.S. Attorney in June 2005, at 36, after serving as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights; he was confirmed on August 3, 2006 and sworn in that October. In September 2006 he named [[Jeffrey Sloman]] First Assistant and [[Matthew Menchel]] chief of the Criminal Division. [[Andrew Lourie]], a deputy chief of the Criminal Division, managed the West Palm Beach branch, and [[Ann Marie Villafana|A. Marie Villafaña]] was the line prosecutor. Menchel left in August 2007 and Lourie moved to a Criminal Division post in Washington in September 2007, while the agreement was being negotiated. On December 8, 2008 the Justice Department approved Acosta's recusal from matters involving [[Kirkland & Ellis]], Epstein's law firm, because he had begun discussing employment with it, and Sloman became the senior official on the case. Acosta left in June 2009 to become dean of the law school at [[Florida International University]]; Sloman served as Acting and then Interim U.S. Attorney until June 2010.[^2][^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### Operation Leap Year
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Palm Beach Police Department]] referred the Epstein case to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] in West Palm Beach after the [[Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office]] obtained a single state solicitation count. Villafaña opened an office file on May 23, 2006, naming the investigation "Operation Leap Year." On July 24, 2006 Sloman described it to Lourie as "a highly sensitive case involving some [[Palm Beach, Florida|Palm Beach]] rich guy," and when Acosta asked whether to give State Attorney [[Barry Krischer]] "a heads up," Sloman answered, "No for fear that it will be leaked straight to Epstein." Villafaña's immediate supervisor told the Office of Professional Responsibility that "Miami" had "purposefully assumed all the 'authority' for the case," which the supervisor regarded as "highly unusual."[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
The Justice Department's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section reviewed Villafaña's May 2007 prosecution memorandum favorably, but the office's managers did not approve an indictment. Epstein's defense, which grew to include [[Alan Dershowitz]], [[Kenneth Starr]], [[Jay Lefkowitz]], [[Gerald Lefcourt]], [[Roy Black]], [[Lilly Ann Sanchez]] and [[Jack Goldberger]], pressed for meetings with Acosta. On July 31, 2007 the office offered to end its investigation if Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges, served two years, registered as a sex offender and agreed to a damages mechanism for victims. The final terms, including the co-conspirator clause and a provision that the agreement "will not be made part of any public record," were negotiated by email in September 2007. The office did not tell victims of the agreement before or after it was signed and, in the court's later finding, led them to believe that federal charges remained possible.[^3][^8]
|
||||
|
||||
After Epstein's June 30, 2008 state plea, the office objected to his placement on work release by the [[Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office]] in October 2008, and on June 9, 2009 Villafaña sought approval to notify Epstein of a breach; no indictment was returned. The office told Epstein's lawyers in September 2009 that it would treat a transfer of his supervision to the [[U.S. Virgin Islands]] as a violation. In August 2011 the Justice Department recused the office from "all matters, to include the investigation and potential prosecution, relating to Jeffrey Epstein's alleged sexual activities with minor females," and assigned them to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the [[Middle District of Florida]], whose records include "a declination of the matter due to the NPA."[^8][^9][^10]
|
||||
|
||||
### Litigation and Review
|
||||
|
||||
In [[Doe v. United States]], a suit filed by two victims on July 7, 2008, Judge [[Kenneth Marra]] ruled on February 21, 2019 that "[p]articularly problematic was the Government's decision to conceal the existence of the NPA and mislead the victims to believe that federal prosecution was still a possibility." The Justice Department then recused the office from the litigation and reassigned it to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the [[Northern District of Georgia]]. The Office of Professional Responsibility opened its review of the office's handling of the case on February 6, 2019, and in November 2020 found no professional misconduct by Acosta, Sloman, Menchel, Lourie or Villafaña, while concluding that Acosta's decision "constitutes poor judgment" and that the government's "lack of transparency and its inconsistent messages" gave the public "the misimpression that the government had colluded with Epstein's counsel to keep the NPA secret from the victims."[^3][^4]
|
||||
|
||||
In [[Ghislaine Maxwell]]'s prosecution in New York, the [[Second Circuit]] held in 2024 that the co-conspirator clause bound only the Southern District of Florida, and the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] declined her petition in October 2025.[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida, "About" and "About the District." https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdfl/about
|
||||
[^2]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284, Prior DOJ Disclosures, report, Office of Professional Responsibility, "Investigation into the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida's Resolution of Its 2006-2008 Federal Criminal Investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and Its Interactions with Victims during the Investigation," November 2020, pp. 2, 4 to 7, 22 and n. 34 (EFTA02847311, EFTA02847313 to EFTA02847316, EFTA02847331). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/Prior%20DOJ%20Disclosures/Memos.%20&%20Correspondence/EFTA02847284.pdf
|
||||
[^3]: Opinion and Order, *Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2 v. United States*, No. 9:08-cv-80736-KAM (S.D. Fla. Feb. 21, 2019), ECF No. 435 (Marra, J.), reported at 359 F. Supp. 3d 1201, quoting ECF No. 407 and the agreement (ECF No. 361-62). https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.317867/gov.uscourts.flsd.317867.435.0.pdf
|
||||
[^4]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284 (see note 2), Executive Summary pp. v to xi and p. 6 n. 3 (EFTA02847290 to EFTA02847296, EFTA02847315).
|
||||
[^5]: "Daily Dicta: Why Jeffrey Epstein's All-Star Defense Team May Be the Victim of Its Own Success," *ALM Media* via *Yahoo Finance,* December 5, 2018. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/daily-dicta-why-jeffrey-epstein-062720798.html
|
||||
[^6]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284 (see note 2), pp. 150 to 152 (EFTA02847459 to EFTA02847461).
|
||||
[^7]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284 (see note 2), pp. 18, 21 and nn. 21, 28 to 31 (EFTA02847327, EFTA02847330).
|
||||
[^8]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284 (see note 2), pp. 28 to 30, 114 to 118 (EFTA02847337 to EFTA02847339, EFTA02847423 to EFTA02847427).
|
||||
[^9]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00224943, DataSet 9, "Epstein Investigation Timeline," Exhibit A-1, privileged chronology of the federal investigation, May 2006 to August 2011, pp. 45 to 51. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00224943.pdf
|
||||
[^10]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284 (see note 2), Methodology, p. 289 (EFTA02847598).
|
||||
[^11]: *United States v. Maxwell*, No. 22-1426 (2d Cir. Sept. 17, 2024); "Ghislaine Maxwell loses sex trafficking appeal," *BBC,* September 2024. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy0glxd0gxko ; "Supreme Court declines to hear Ghislaine Maxwell's appeal," *SCOTUSblog,* October 2025. https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/10/supreme-court-declines-to-hear-ghislaine-maxwells-appeal/
|
||||
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,90 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "U.S. Government"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
- DepartmentOfJustice
|
||||
- Prosecutor
|
||||
- JeffreyEpstein
|
||||
- GhislaineMaxwell
|
||||
- SDNY
|
||||
- Manhattan
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York
|
||||
- United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York
|
||||
- U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York
|
||||
- Southern District of New York
|
||||
- SDNY
|
||||
- USAO-SDNY
|
||||
- Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office
|
||||
summary: "Federal prosecutor's office for Manhattan, the Bronx and six northern counties, which indicted Jeffrey Epstein in 2019 through its Public Corruption Unit, convicted Ghislaine Maxwell, and charged his jail guards."
|
||||
location: "New York, New York"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Audrey Strauss]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "acting U.S. Attorney"
|
||||
start: 2020-06-20
|
||||
fn: 10
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Jay Clayton]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "interim, then acting U.S. Attorney"
|
||||
start: 2025
|
||||
fn: 17
|
||||
created: 2026-09-25
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-25
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York is the [[Department of Justice]] office that represents the [[United States]] in criminal and civil cases before the [[U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York]], the district's bankruptcy court and the [[Second Circuit|U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit]]. Its district covers [[Manhattan]] and [[the Bronx]] and Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan and [[Westchester County, New York|Westchester]] counties. In July 2019 the office indicted [[Jeffrey Epstein]] on sex trafficking charges in a case assigned to its Public Corruption Unit, eleven years after the [[U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida]] had resolved his federal case with the [[Epstein non-prosecution agreement]]. After Epstein died at the [[Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York]] in August 2019, the office charged the two guards on duty, prosecuted and convicted [[Ghislaine Maxwell]], and in 2025 and 2026 figured in the government's handling of the [[Epstein Files|Epstein files]] under U.S. Attorney [[Jay Clayton]].[^1][^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Office
|
||||
|
||||
The office is led by the U.S. Attorney and has a Criminal Division, a Civil Division and a White Plains Division within the Criminal Division, with more than 220 Assistant U.S. Attorneys. Its criminal division sits at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, its civil division at 86 Chambers Street, and its White Plains office at 50 Main Street.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Epstein Prosecution
|
||||
|
||||
According to an [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] case history written in 2025, the FBI New York Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force opened its Epstein case on December 6, 2018 at the office's request, eight days after the [[Miami Herald]] published [[Julie K. Brown]]'s series on the Florida agreement. A grand jury returned an indictment on July 2, 2019 charging sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy based on conduct in Manhattan and [[Palm Beach, Florida|Palm Beach]] from 2002 to 2005, and Epstein was arrested at [[Teterboro Airport]] on July 6. U.S. Attorney [[Geoffrey Berman]] said on July 8 that "we were assisted by some excellent investigative journalism." The case was assigned to the Public Corruption Unit, which typically handles cases involving public officials or funds, and Berman declined to explain why. The prosecutors were [[Alex Rossmiller]], [[Alison Moe]] and [[Maurene Comey]]. The office argued that the Florida agreement "didn't purport to bind any other office or district."[^2][^3][^4][^5]
|
||||
|
||||
A search of Epstein's Manhattan house found a safe holding more than 70,000 dollars in cash, 48 loose diamonds and an Austrian passport from the 1980s bearing his photograph under another name and a [[Saudi Arabia|Saudi]] address; the office told the court that it carried stamps showing use "to enter France, Spain, the [[United Kingdom]], and Saudi Arabia in the 1980s." Judge [[Richard M. Berman]] denied bail on July 18, 2019. Epstein was found hanging in his cell on August 10, 2019. The office filed a nolle prosequi; at an August 27 hearing more than a dozen of Epstein's victims, including victims of the conduct resolved in Florida, spoke, and the indictment was dismissed on August 29.[^6][^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Guards
|
||||
|
||||
On November 19, 2019 the office charged [[Tova Noel]] and [[Michael Thomas]], the officers on duty in Epstein's unit, with conspiracy and falsifying records of the counts and rounds they had not performed the night he died. Both entered deferred prosecution agreements on May 25, 2021 and the charges were dismissed after they complied. According to the Justice Department's inspector general, the office declined to prosecute other staff of the jail who had created false documentation.[^8][^9]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Removal of Berman
|
||||
|
||||
On the night of June 19, 2020 Attorney General [[William Barr]] announced that Berman was "stepping down" and that President [[Donald Trump]] would nominate Clayton, then chairman of the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]], in his place, while the office was investigating Trump's lawyer Giuliani. Berman said he had not resigned. Barr wrote to him the next day that he had "asked the President to remove you as of today, and he has done so," and Berman left after Barr agreed that his deputy, [[Audrey Strauss]], would lead the office as acting U.S. Attorney. On July 2, 2020 the office under Strauss announced Maxwell's arrest.[^10][^11]
|
||||
|
||||
### Maxwell
|
||||
|
||||
A sealed indictment of Maxwell was returned on June 29, 2020 and unsealed on her arrest on July 2. The 2025 FBI case history records that "SDNY proffered Maxwell with her Defense counsel prior to indictment." The office defeated her motion to dismiss on the ground that she was a beneficiary of the Florida agreement's co-conspirator clause. A jury convicted her on December 29, 2021 on five of six counts, and she was sentenced on June 28, 2022 to 20 years. The two perjury counts arising from her 2016 deposition in [[Giuffre v. Maxwell]] were never tried; the same FBI history gives the reason as "the perjury charges were dropped to prevent the victims from testifying in another trial." The Second Circuit affirmed in 2024, holding that the Florida agreement bound only the Southern District of Florida.[^5][^12][^13][^14]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Florida Report
|
||||
|
||||
In August 2020 the chief of the office's Public Corruption Unit reviewed a draft of the report of the Justice Department's [[Office of Professional Responsibility]] on the Florida office's handling of Epstein and asked for two wording changes, both accepted: "at least one victim known to be a minor" became "at least one victim believed to be a minor," to "more accurately reflect[] our position in the bail arguments regarding Epstein," and investigators "were aware" that Epstein used hidden cameras in his New York house became investigators "had learned" it. On February 5, 2020 an unsolicited message titled "Khashoggi connects to Epstein" reached the office and was forwarded internally with the note "I am passing this on."[^15][^16]
|
||||
|
||||
### 2025 and 2026
|
||||
|
||||
On July 7, 2025 the Justice Department and FBI stated that their review of Epstein holdings "revealed no incriminating 'client list'" and that "no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted." On July 16 the office dismissed Comey, the lead prosecutor on the Maxwell case, by email "[p]ursuant to Article II of the United States Constitution." According to her lawsuit, Clayton, then interim U.S. Attorney, told her: "All I can say is it came from Washington. I can't tell you anything else." On November 14, 2025, at Trump's request, Attorney General [[Pam Bondi]] assigned Clayton to investigate Epstein's dealings with [[Bill Clinton]], [[Larry Summers]], [[Reid Hoffman]] and [[JPMorgan Chase]]. In September 2026 federal prosecutors in Manhattan were reported to be investigating Epstein's estate executors, [[Darren Indyke]] and [[Richard Kahn]]; a Justice Department spokesman said, "We don't comment on the existence, or lack thereof, of investigations."[^17][^18][^19]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York, "About" and "About the District." https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/about
|
||||
[^2]: United States v. Epstein, No. 1:19-cr-00490-RMB (S.D.N.Y.), docket. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/15887848/united-states-v-epstein/ ; "Jeffrey Epstein Charged In Manhattan Federal Court With Sex Trafficking Of Minors," *U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York,* July 8, 2019. https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/jeffrey-epstein-charged-manhattan-federal-court-sex-trafficking-minors
|
||||
[^3]: "Jeffrey Epstein operated a vast sex-trafficking network of underage girls who recruited other victims, prosecutors say," *CNN,* July 8, 2019. https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/08/us/jeffrey-epstein-monday-court-appearance
|
||||
[^4]: "What we know about the agreement at the heart of Jeffrey Epstein's defense," *CNN,* July 9, 2019. https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/09/us/jeffrey-epstein-nonprosecution-agreement
|
||||
[^5]: "NY Prosecutors Charge Jeffrey Epstein With Sex Trafficking," *Courthouse News Service,* July 8, 2019. https://www.courthousenews.com/ny-prosecutors-charge-jeffrey-epstein-with-sex-trafficking/ ; Opinion and Order, *United States v. Maxwell*, No. 1:20-cr-00330-AJN (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 16, 2021), ECF No. 207.
|
||||
[^6]: "Jeffrey Epstein used foreign passport with fake name to enter Saudi Arabia: prosecutors," *NBC News,* July 17, 2019. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/jeffrey-epstein-used-foreign-passport-fake-name-enter-saudi-arabia-n1031046
|
||||
[^7]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284, Prior DOJ Disclosures, report, Office of Professional Responsibility, "Investigation into the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida's Resolution of Its 2006-2008 Federal Criminal Investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and Its Interactions with Victims during the Investigation," November 2020, Executive Summary p. v (EFTA02847290). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/Prior%20DOJ%20Disclosures/Memos.%20&%20Correspondence/EFTA02847284.pdf
|
||||
[^8]: "Correctional Officers Charged With Falsifying Records On August 9th And 10th At The Metropolitan Correctional Center," *U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York,* November 19, 2019. https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/correctional-officers-charged-falsifying-records-august-9th-and-10th-metropolitan
|
||||
[^9]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, *Investigation and Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons' Custody, Care, and Supervision of Jeffrey Epstein at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, New York,* Report 23-085, June 2023, pp. 5 to 6. https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/reports/23-085.pdf
|
||||
[^10]: Spencer Kimball, "Attorney General Barr tells top Manhattan prosecutor Berman he is fired amid power struggle," *CNBC,* June 20, 2020. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/20/attorney-general-barr-tells-manhattan-us-attorney-berman-he-is-fired-amid-power-struggle.html
|
||||
[^11]: "Geoffrey Berman, U.S. Attorney Who Prosecuted Trump Allies, Says He Won't Quit," *NPR,* June 20, 2020. https://www.npr.org/2020/06/20/881148365/geoffrey-berman-u-s-attorney-who-prosecuted-trump-allies-says-he-wont-quit ; "Ghislaine Maxwell Charged In Manhattan Federal Court For Conspiring With Jeffrey Epstein To Sexually Abuse Minor Girls," *U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York,* July 2, 2020. https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/ghislaine-maxwell-charged-manhattan-federal-court-conspiring-jeffrey-epstein-sexually-abuse
|
||||
[^12]: "Ghislaine Maxwell Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison," *U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York,* June 28, 2022. https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/ghislaine-maxwell-sentenced-20-years-prison-conspiring-jeffrey-epstein-sexually-abuse
|
||||
[^13]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00161422, DataSet 9, internal email chain, "Re: Ghislaine Maxwell," July 22, 2025, EFTA00161422 to EFTA00161424. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00161422.pdf
|
||||
[^14]: *United States v. Maxwell*, No. 22-1426 (2d Cir. Sept. 17, 2024); "Ghislaine Maxwell loses sex trafficking appeal," *BBC,* September 2024. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy0glxd0gxko
|
||||
[^15]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00077309, DataSet 9, email, Chief, Public Corruption Unit, U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, and the Office of Professional Responsibility, "RE: Draft OPR Report," August 21, 2020. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00077309.pdf
|
||||
[^16]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00104025, DataSet 9, internal U.S. Attorney's Office (SDNY) forwarding chain, "Khashoggi connects to Epstein," February 5-6, 2020. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00104025.pdf
|
||||
[^17]: "Maurene Comey, prosecutor in Epstein and Combs cases and daughter of former FBI director, sues after being fired," *CNN,* September 15, 2025. https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/15/politics/maurene-comey-justice-department-lawsuit ; U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation, memorandum on review of investigative holdings relating to Jeffrey Epstein, July 7, 2025. https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1407001/dl?inline=
|
||||
[^18]: "Bondi taps acting U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to probe Democrats' ties to Epstein," *The Washington Times,* November 14, 2025. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/nov/14/bondi-taps-acting-us-attorney-jay-clayton-probe-democrats-ties/
|
||||
[^19]: Kaelan Deese, "Two Jeffrey Epstein associates under investigation by New York federal prosecutors," *Washington Examiner,* September 23, 2026. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/4739210/jeffrey-epstein-associates-under-investigation-new-york-federal-prosecutors/
|
||||
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "U.S. Government"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
- VirginIslands
|
||||
- JeffreyEpstein
|
||||
- TaxIncentives
|
||||
- SouthernTrust
|
||||
- FinancialTrustCompany
|
||||
- GovernmentCapture
|
||||
- RegulatoryFailure
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- Economic Development Authority
|
||||
- V.I. Economic Development Authority
|
||||
- USVI Economic Development Authority
|
||||
- United States Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority
|
||||
- USVIEDA
|
||||
- VIEDA
|
||||
summary: "Semi-autonomous U.S. Virgin Islands public corporation whose Economic Development Commission gave Jeffrey Epstein's companies tax benefits from 1999 to 2019 that a JPMorgan consultant valued at 300 million dollars."
|
||||
location: "St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Albert Bryan]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2013
|
||||
role: "chairman, while Commissioner of Labor"
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Henry Smock]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "counsel to the board"
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Stacey Plaskett]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2007
|
||||
end: 2014
|
||||
role: "general counsel"
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Yolanda Bryan]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 2019
|
||||
role: "Business Ambassador"
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Wayne Biggs Jr.]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "assistant chief executive"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
created: 2026-09-25
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-25
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority is a semi-autonomous public corporation of the [[U.S. Virgin Islands]], created under Title 29, section 1101 of the Virgin Islands Code, whose board, the [[Economic Development Commission]], grants tax-incentive certificates to companies that locate in the territory. Through the commission and its predecessor, the [[Industrial Development Commission]], it certified [[Jeffrey Epstein|Jeffrey Epstein's]] [[Financial Trust Company]] from 1999 and his [[Southern Trust Company]] from 2013, and continued the benefits after his 2008 conviction and his 2010 registration as a sex offender in the territory. The future governor [[Albert Bryan]] chaired the authority while serving as Commissioner of Labor, the future congressional delegate [[Stacey Plaskett]] was its general counsel, and the attorney who helped Epstein buy [[Little St. James]], [[Henry Smock]], was long counsel to its board. A consultant retained by [[JPMorgan Chase]] put Epstein's total benefits at about 300 million dollars.[^1][^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Structure and Legal Basis
|
||||
|
||||
The authority is a semi-autonomous territorial instrumentality, with the Economic Development Commission as its subsidiary tax-benefit board. Section 934 of the [[Internal Revenue Code]] provides that income tax owed to the Virgin Islands may not be reduced "by any law enacted in the Virgin Islands" except as to "income derived from sources within the Virgin Islands or income effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business within the Virgin Islands." Beneficiaries apply, present their business at a public hearing, and receive a certificate setting the term, the exemptions and the employment, residency and charitable conditions they must meet; the authority's compliance staff then review annual reports.[^1][^4][^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Epstein Certificates
|
||||
|
||||
Documents the authority released in February 2020 show that the Industrial Development Commission, the authority's predecessor, first granted tax benefits to Financial Trust Co., Inc. in 1999, in a certificate signed by its director, [[Frandelle Gerard]], with a 90 percent exemption from income tax and 100 percent exemptions from gross-receipts and excise taxes. [[Kenneth Mapp]], governor from 2015 to 2019, had earlier been an assistant director of the Industrial Development Commission. The certificate was amended in 2012 over the signature of Bryan as commission chairman. In January 2020 the authority's assistant chief executive, [[Wayne Biggs Jr.]], told the Virgin Islands Daily News that Epstein "was in the program before he was convicted of any sex crimes under Financial Trust. And he changed from Financial Trust to Southern Trust"; authority officials declined to disclose how much any of the commission's 72 beneficiary companies received each year.[^2][^6]
|
||||
|
||||
On September 21, 2012 Epstein's accountant [[Harry Beller]] wired Southern Trust's 5,000 dollar application fee to the firm of the [[St. Thomas]] lawyer [[Erika Kellerhals]], whose practice advised clients "on obtaining economic development incentives from the U.S. Virgin Islands Economic Development Commission." At the public hearing on November 15, 2012 Epstein and Kellerhals described Southern Trust as providing "cutting edge consulting services" in "biomedical and financial informatics," and no one asked about his conviction. The certificate, running from February 1, 2013 to January 31, 2023, was dated January 24, 2014 and signed by Bryan, then both chairman and Commissioner of Labor under Governor [[John de Jongh]], whose wife, [[Cecile de Jongh]], was office manager of Epstein's companies. Bryan and de Jongh both signed off on an extension of Southern Trust's benefits. Plaskett, the commission's general counsel from 2007 to 2014, had worked for Kellerhals. The territory later estimated that the Southern Trust certificate let Epstein avoid 80,576,236 dollars in taxes, and the authority's records put the incentives received by his companies between 2013 and 2019 at 144.9 million dollars.[^1][^3][^5][^7][^8]
|
||||
|
||||
In July 2016 Governor Mapp asked Epstein whether he would lend the territorial government 275 million dollars, and in the ensuing exchange wrote: "Coffee, maybe subject to your EDC certificate. If we did a pvt placement bond, a greater portion would be triple tax exempt."[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
### Compliance
|
||||
|
||||
The authority did not audit Financial Trust until 2008, nearly ten years after the original grant. The compliance officer [[Sandra Bess]] testified in May 2023 that her review consisted of checking that the summary figures in a beneficiary's annual report matched its supporting pages, and that no part of her job involved "reviewing the character of the people who are the owners of the companies receiving tax benefits." In January 2015 the authority's director of compliance requested an assessment of Southern Trust's business "in light of current media discussions surrounding a principal of Southern Trust Company"; the company kept its benefits.[^1][^5]
|
||||
|
||||
On July 10, 2019, four days after Epstein's arrest, the authority's spokeswoman [[Shanell Petersen]] advised its "Business Ambassador," Bryan's wife [[Yolanda Bryan]], about two press inquiries concerning "Jeffrey Epstein being an active EDC Beneficiary," and a notation recommended "contacting Southern Trust and IYG (companies which he has ownership interest) to update them that we have provided public information based on the Sunshine Act," adding that "Informing them will allow them to prepare their PR team." The Business Ambassador post was created after Bryan took office in 2019. Smock took part in the authority's nine-step protocol for press inquiries after the arrest. In October 2019 the managing director, [[Margarita Benjamin]], forwarded a [[The New York Times|New York Times]] reporter's questions to colleagues with the comment, "I personally think the questions are opening us up to public scrutiny."[^3][^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Henry Smock
|
||||
|
||||
Smock, who assisted Epstein in the 1998 purchase of Little St. James, served for years as counsel to the authority's board and to the board of the [[University of the Virgin Islands]]. In an October 19, 2011 email to Epstein headed "UVI Park Directors," Cecile de Jongh profiled board candidates for the university's research and technology park, one of the incentive programs on which Kellerhals advised clients, noting of the university's president, "DO NOT KNOW HIM THAT WELL AND HE IS NEW TO THE VI," and of Smock, a former judge of the Territorial Court from 1987 to 1993, former chairman of the Law Revision Commission and former president of the Virgin Islands Bar Association: "FRIEND." According to [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] notes of a 2023 interview with the former Attorney General [[Denise George]], Bryan told her to settle the territory's case against the Epstein estate for 80 million dollars and to "select Henry Smock" as mediator; Smock later represented Bryan in his 2023 divorce, the records of which were sealed at his request.[^3][^10]
|
||||
|
||||
### Aftermath
|
||||
|
||||
The estate settled the territory's case in November 2022 for more than 105 million dollars, returning "more than $80 million in economic development tax benefits that Epstein and his co-defendants fraudulently obtained." In the territory's suit against JPMorgan, the bank's consultant [[Carlyn Irwin]] reported that "the EDC did not investigate or question" Epstein's business claims and that "giving Mr. Epstein $300 million in benefits made no economic sense." As of June 2023 the territory had not amended its law to bar registered sex offenders from receiving certificates. Companies affiliated with [[Stephen Deckoff]], who bought Little St. James and [[Great St. James]] from the estate in 2023, have held commission benefits since 2012.[^3][^5][^11][^12]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Government of the United States Virgin Islands v. Estate of Jeffrey E. Epstein, No. ST-20-CV-14 (V.I. Super. Ct.), Second Amended Complaint, paragraphs 37, 137 to 140, and 157 to 176, filed as Exhibit 1 to Government of the United States Virgin Islands v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., No. 1:22-cv-10904-JSR (S.D.N.Y.), ECF No. 1-1 (December 27, 2022), ECF pp. 29 to 37. https://web.archive.org/web/20260117011558/https://www.justice.gov/multimedia/Court%20Records/Government%20of%20the%20United%20States%20Virgin%20Islands%20v.%20JPMorgan%20Chase%20Bank,%20N.A.,%20No.%20122-cv-10904%20(S.D.N.Y.%202022)/001-01.pdf (EDC as EDA subsidiary under 29 V.I.C. section 1101).
|
||||
[^2]: Carlson, Suzanne. "Epstein estate could be ordered to repay more than $144 million in tax breaks." *Virgin Islands Daily News,* February 13, 2020, reproduced as Exhibit 36, ECF No. 158-36 (filed May 23, 2023), in No. 1:22-cv-10904-JSR (S.D.N.Y.). http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/epstein-estate-could-be-ordered-to-repay-more-than-144-million-in-tax-breaks/article_b84d9710-14af-5e69-a890-bcf8265cf8f9.html
|
||||
[^3]: Carlson, Suzanne. "Docs confirm Bryan pressed for special treatment of sex offender." *Virgin Islands Daily News,* February 2, 2026. https://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/docs-confirm-bryan-pressed-for-special-treatment-of-sex-offender/article_5e9483c9-38d2-406c-8bb0-e5757ce287f2.html (300 million dollars in benefits; Bryan as EDA chairman and Labor Commissioner; Plaskett; Smock; Petersen report and Yolanda Bryan notation; extension signed off by Bryan and de Jongh; Irwin report).
|
||||
[^4]: 26 U.S.C. section 934, "Limitation on reduction in income tax liability incurred to the Virgin Islands," United States Code, 2023 edition. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2023-title26/html/USCODE-2023-title26-subtitleA-chap1-subchapN-partIII-subpartD-sec934.htm
|
||||
[^5]: "V.I. Officials Enabled Epstein to Act With Impunity, JPMorgan Alleges in Latest Salvo." *St. Thomas Source,* June 16, 2023 (benefits from 1999; Bess deposition; 2008 first audit; January 2015 compliance letter; October 2019 Benjamin email; January 24, 2014 certificate). https://web.archive.org/web/20240721172424/https://stthomassource.com/content/2023/06/16/v-i-officials-enabled-epstein-to-act-with-impunity-jpmorgan-alleges-in-latest-salvo/
|
||||
[^6]: National Governors Association, "Gov. Kenneth Mapp," former Virgin Islands governors. https://www.nga.org/governor/kenneth-mapp/
|
||||
[^7]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01580553, DataSet 10, memorandum from Harry Beller to JPMorgan wire desk, September 21, 2012 (JPM-SDNY-00059908). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01580553.pdf ; Kellerhals Ferguson Kroblin PLLC, "Erika Kellerhals," attorney biography, captured August 10, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190810121434/https://www.kellfer.com/attorneys/erika-kellerhals/
|
||||
[^8]: Carlson, Suzanne. "Court filings show V.I. First Lady's loyalty to Epstein." *Virgin Islands Daily News,* June 21, 2023. https://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/court-filings-show-v-i-first-ladys-loyalty-to-epstein/article_c2dca0a7-a243-5365-88c0-389c576ad022.html (144.9 million dollars in incentives, 2013 to 2019; no amendment of the law).
|
||||
[^9]: Carlson, Suzanne. "Files reveal Epstein's efforts to influence V.I. officials; emails with Mapp." *Virgin Islands Daily News,* February 2, 2026. https://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/files-reveal-epstein-s-efforts-to-influence-v-i-officials-emails-with-mapp/article_2dd4fe69-4daf-4dc2-b3b8-37a929002bb6.html
|
||||
[^10]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00720076, DataSet 9, email, Cecile de Jongh to Jeffrey Epstein, cc Jeanne Brennan, "UVI Park Directors," October 19, 2011 (duplicate EFTA02035483, DataSet 10). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00720076.pdf
|
||||
[^11]: "U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Settles Sex Trafficking Case Against Estate Of Jeffrey Epstein And Co-Defendants For Over $105 Million." *U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Justice,* December 1, 2022. https://usvidoj.com/u-s-virgin-islands-attorney-general-settles-sex-trafficking-case-against-estate-of-jeffrey-epstein-and-co-defendants-for-over-105-million/
|
||||
[^12]: Carlson, Suzanne. "Still no resort plans for Epstein's islands purchased by Deckoff." *Virgin Islands Daily News,* February 6, 2026. https://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/still-no-resort-plans-for-epsteins-islands-purchased-by-deckoff/article_84d776de-8427-4080-a1b5-6cf81418e23d.html (Black Diamond Advisors and Black Diamond Holdings receiving EDC benefits since 2012).
|
||||
|
|
@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ The cases of the unnamed Cornish teenager ([[Feuerkrieg Division]] UK leader, se
|
|||
|
||||
Documented individuals who committed or planned violence while affiliated with or influenced by O9A include:
|
||||
|
||||
[[Ethan Phelan Melzer]], a U.S. Army Private in the 173rd Airborne Brigade who, under the alias "Etil Reggad," transmitted classified information about his unit's planned deployment to Turkey to O9A members on [[Telegram]], conspiring to facilitate a mass-casualty attack on his own soldiers. Arrested May 2020 in Vicenza, Italy; convicted in the Southern District of New York; sentenced March 2023 to 45 years in prison.[^20]
|
||||
[[Ethan Phelan Melzer]], a U.S. Army Private in the 173rd Airborne Brigade who, under the alias "Etil Reggad," transmitted classified information about his unit's planned deployment to Turkey to O9A members on [[Telegram]], conspiring to facilitate a mass-casualty attack on his own soldiers. Arrested May 2020 in Vicenza, Italy; convicted in the [[U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York|Southern District of New York]]; sentenced March 2023 to 45 years in prison.[^20]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Guilherme Von Neutegem]], a Canadian O9A adherent charged with murder for killing a victim outside a mosque in Toronto in 2020.
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ tags:
|
|||
- 1980s
|
||||
- 1990s
|
||||
- 2000s
|
||||
summary: "The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla organization founded in 1964 that financed operations through cocaine taxation and drug trafficking, fielding approximately 20,000 fighters at its peak before a 2016 peace agreement produced a formal dissolution."
|
||||
summary: "The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla organization founded in 1964 that financed itself through cocaine taxation and trafficking and formally dissolved after a 2016 peace agreement."
|
||||
start: 1964-05-27
|
||||
location: "Colombia"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
|
@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ The FARC's transformation into a major armed organization was financed substanti
|
|||
|
||||
### DEA Operations
|
||||
|
||||
The [[DEA|Drug Enforcement Administration]] designated the FARC as a major drug trafficking organization and conducted multiple operations targeting its financial and logistical networks. In 2007-2008, the DEA conducted a sting operation in which undercover agents posing as FARC representatives contacted arms dealer [[Monzer Al-Kassar]], seeking weapons including anti-aircraft missiles. Al-Kassar agreed to supply weapons to what he believed was the FARC for operations against Americans in Colombia. His arrest and extradition to the United States resulted in a 2008 conviction in the Southern District of New York, with the FARC weapons solicitation forming the core of the charges.[^1]
|
||||
The [[DEA|Drug Enforcement Administration]] designated the FARC as a major drug trafficking organization and conducted multiple operations targeting its financial and logistical networks. In 2007-2008, the DEA conducted a sting operation in which undercover agents posing as FARC representatives contacted arms dealer [[Monzer Al-Kassar]], seeking weapons including anti-aircraft missiles. Al-Kassar agreed to supply weapons to what he believed was the FARC for operations against Americans in Colombia. His arrest and extradition to the United States resulted in a 2008 conviction in the [[U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York|Southern District of New York]], with the FARC weapons solicitation forming the core of the charges.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Peace Agreement and Aftermath
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
74
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bard College.md
Normal file
74
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bard College.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "Private Organization"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
- BardCollege
|
||||
- HigherEducation
|
||||
- LeonBotstein
|
||||
- JeffreyEpstein
|
||||
- GratitudeAmerica
|
||||
- SmolnyCollege
|
||||
- WilmerHale
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- Bard
|
||||
- St. Stephen's College
|
||||
summary: "Liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, founded in 1860, whose president Leon Botstein cultivated Jeffrey Epstein as a donor after his conviction and retired in 2026 after a WilmerHale review."
|
||||
start: 1860
|
||||
location: "Annandale-on-Hudson, New York"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[WilmerHale]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "review of President Botstein's relationship with Epstein, retained by the board of trustees"
|
||||
start: 2026-02
|
||||
end: 2026-04-30
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[John Bard]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "co-founder of St. Stephen's College, with Margaret Johnston Bard"
|
||||
start: 1860
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
created: 2026-09-25
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-25
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Bard College is a private liberal arts college in [[Annandale-on-Hudson, New York|Annandale-on-Hudson]], [[New York]], founded in 1860 as St. Stephen's College. [[Leon Botstein]], its president from 1975 until June 30, 2026, built it into a network of affiliated institutes, early colleges and programs. From 2011, three years after [[Jeffrey Epstein]]'s Florida guilty plea, Botstein pursued Epstein as a donor; Epstein gave the college money and laptops, visited the campus by helicopter, and in 2016 his charity [[Gratitude America]] paid Botstein 150,000 dollars. A review by [[WilmerHale]] for the trustees found in April 2026 that Botstein had "minimized and was not fully accurate in describing his relationship with Epstein," and his retirement was announced the next day.[^1][^2][^3][^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### History
|
||||
|
||||
St. Stephen's College was established by John Bard and Margaret Johnston Bard "in association with leaders of the Episcopal Church in [[New York City]]," on part of their riverside estate, Annandale, and for its first sixty years prepared young men for the seminary. The college states that both founders' inherited wealth was "implicated in slavery": John Bard's grandfather Samuel Bard owned slaves, his father William Bard was the first president of the [[New York Life Insurance Company]], "which insured enslaved people as property," and Margaret Bard's fortune derived from her father's firm Boorman and Johnston, which traded in goods "produced by enslaved labor." In 1928 St. Stephen's became an undergraduate school of [[Columbia University]]; it took the name Bard in 1934 and ended the Columbia association when it admitted women in 1944. From the mid-1930s the college served as a refuge for émigré scholars and artists, among them [[Hannah Arendt]] and her husband [[Heinrich Blücher]], and in 1956 it took in 325 Hungarian student refugees.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Botstein became Bard's fourteenth president in 1975. The Bard Center, established in 1978, runs a Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series and the Bard Music Festival, which began in 1990. Bard acquired Simon's Rock, an early college in [[Massachusetts]], in 1979, and opened the first Bard High School Early College in [[Manhattan]] in 2001, followed by campuses in Queens, Newark, [[New Orleans]], Cleveland, Baltimore, Washington and elsewhere. The Bard Prison Initiative brings degree programs into New York State prisons.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Epstein as Donor
|
||||
|
||||
According to reporting cited by Representative [[Jamie Raskin]] in 2026, Epstein gave Bard 125,000 dollars in several donations in 2011 and 2012 and dozens of laptops for its high school program in 2015, and his foundation's website listed Bard High School Early College among its grant recipients; Botstein had said Epstein's only gifts were a 75,000 dollar gift and 66 laptops. Raskin also wrote that Botstein "apparently knew that a 2014 donation to the college by apparent co-conspirator [[Leon Black]] was made at Mr. Epstein's behest"; Black has denied wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
On December 18, 2012 the president's office arranged Botstein's trip to "Jeffrey's island" in the [[U.S. Virgin Islands]] by boat, and was told that his passport copy had been forwarded to "Leon Black's office."[^5] On December 15, 2014 a correspondent sent Epstein's accountant [[Richard Kahn]] a contact card, "President Leon Botstein.vcf," under the subject "Leon Botstein/Bard."[^6] On July 25, 2016 the president's executive assistant arranged an Epstein visit to the campus on July 27 for a matinee opera and an early dinner; Bard's head of security wrote, "We are excited and honored to welcome back Mr. Epstein," and said the helicopter landing would be coordinated with Epstein's pilot, [[Larry Visoski]], and the local fire company. Botstein replied "Excellent."[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
In 2016 Gratitude America, Ltd., whose operating account was at [[Deutsche Bank]] Trust Company Americas, paid Botstein personally in quarterly checks of 37,500 dollars; one dated August 1, 2016 bore the memo "Leon Botstein, Bard College, 30 Campus Road, Annandale-On-Hudson, NY 12504 - 3rd Quarterly Payment of 4." Deutsche Bank later produced the check images to federal prosecutors in New York. Bard said in May 2023 that the 150,000 dollars was compensation for a one-year term on the foundation's advisory board "as an expert in music" and that Botstein gave it all to the college that year as part of a one million dollar gift.[^8][^9]
|
||||
|
||||
In January 2017 the daughter of [[Woody Allen]] and [[Soon-Yi Previn]] wrote to Botstein that Bard was her first choice; he replied that he would pass her sentiments "on to the admissions committee," and Previn forwarded the exchange to Epstein. Allen's household then wrote to Epstein: "I can't thank you enough for getting [her] into Bard ... Thank you for coming through for us." Bard denied that Epstein had any role in the admission.[^4][^10] On March 26, 2018 Epstein wrote to the president's address asking that a Russian woman be put in touch with an adviser about Smolny, and forwarded the reply with the note "he is the president of smolny."[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
### The WilmerHale Review
|
||||
|
||||
After the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]'s releases under the [[Epstein Files Transparency Act]], the trustees retained WilmerHale in February 2026 to review Botstein's communications and financial dealings with Epstein. The summary delivered to the trustees on April 30, 2026 recorded 25 visits by Botstein to Epstein's Manhattan townhouse between 2012 and 2019 and a two-day visit to the island, and reported that Epstein twice visited Bard and attended recitals and concerts "accompanied by multiple women who have since been identified as victims of Epstein."[^4] It found that Botstein had disagreed with a senior faculty member who objected to the relationship, having "relied on his view that a person convicted of crimes involving sex with a minor, 'an ordinary sex offender', in his words, could be presumed to be rehabilitated," and quoted him: "I would take money from Satan if it permitted me to do God's work." It concluded that he "did not do anything illegal" but "made decisions in the course of that relationship that reflect on his leadership of Bard."[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
On May 1, 2026 the executive committee of the board thanked Botstein "for his five decades of service," said that "concerns raised in recent months have been serious and deeply felt," announced that "Funds associated with Jeffrey Epstein will be directed to organizations that support survivors of sexual harm," and committed the college to "strengthening its policies on donor vetting, fundraising, and conflicts of interest." Bard's media relations office separately called Botstein "a transformative leader with the vision and unwavering commitment that has shaped Bard into the world-class educational institution it is today." He remained on the faculty.[^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
On June 17, 2026 Raskin, ranking Democrat on the [[House Judiciary Committee]], wrote to the board's chair, [[James Cox Chambers]], that the review was "too narrowly tailored" and that its summary did not mention Smolny, and asked Bard to make Botstein available for a transcribed interview and to produce records on Epstein, Kahn, [[Darren Indyke]], Black, [[Ghislaine Maxwell]] and Gratitude America.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Bard College, "History." https://www.bard.edu/about/history/
|
||||
[^2]: Executive Committee, Bard College Board of Trustees, "Message from the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees," May 1, 2026. https://www.bard.edu/news/message-from-the-executive-committee-of-the-board-of-trustees-2026-05-01
|
||||
[^3]: "Bard College's president to retire after scrutiny of relationship with Jeffrey Epstein." *Associated Press,* via *NPR,* May 2, 2026. https://www.npr.org/2026/05/02/nx-s1-5808942/bard-college-president-leon-botstein-retire-jeffrey-epstein
|
||||
[^4]: Letter from Representative Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member, House Committee on the Judiciary, to James Cox Chambers, Chair, Board of Trustees, Bard College, June 17, 2026, quoting the WilmerHale memorandum to the Bard trustees of April 30, 2026. https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2026-06-17-raskin-to-chambers-bard-re-epstein.pdf
|
||||
[^5]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00399132, DataSet 9, email chain between the office of Leon Botstein and Jeffrey Epstein's office, "Jeffrey Epstein," December 18, 2012. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00399132.pdf
|
||||
[^6]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02087019, DataSet 10, email to Richard Kahn, "Re: Leon Botstein/Bard," December 15, 2014. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA02087019.pdf
|
||||
[^7]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02047292, DataSet 10, email chain "Re: Jeffrey Epstein visit to Bard," July 25, 2016. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA02047292.pdf
|
||||
[^8]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01348714, DataSet 10, check of Gratitude America, Ltd drawn on Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas to Leon Botstein, August 1, 2016. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01348714.pdf
|
||||
[^9]: Scott Jaschik, "Leon Botstein received $150,000 from Jeffrey Epstein," *Inside Higher Ed,* May 18, 2023. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2023/05/18/leon-botstein-received-150000-jeffrey-epstein
|
||||
[^10]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00710494, DataSet 9, email from Soon-Yi Previn to Jeffrey Epstein forwarding a reply from Leon Botstein, January 10, 2017; EFTA01208496, DataSet 9, extracted iMessage log, January 12, 2017. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00710494.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01208496.pdf
|
||||
[^11]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02491562, DataSet 11, email from Jeffrey Epstein forwarding a March 26, 2018 exchange with the Bard president's office, 2018. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02491562.pdf
|
||||
83
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/DP World.md
Normal file
83
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/DP World.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "Private Organization"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
- DPWorld
|
||||
- Dubai
|
||||
- UnitedArabEmirates
|
||||
- Ports
|
||||
- CFIUS
|
||||
- SultanAhmedBinSulayem
|
||||
- JeffreyEpstein
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- Dubai Ports World
|
||||
- DP World Limited
|
||||
- Dubai Ports
|
||||
summary: "Dubai government-owned ports operator formed in 2005, whose 2006 bid for six U.S. port operations provoked a CFIUS fight and whose chairman was replaced in 2026 over Epstein correspondence."
|
||||
start: 2005-11
|
||||
location: "Dubai, United Arab Emirates"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: owned
|
||||
with: "[[Dubai World]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "parent through Port and Free Zone World; full ownership after 2020 delisting"
|
||||
start: 2020
|
||||
fn: 5
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Essa Kazim]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "chairman"
|
||||
start: 2026-02-13
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Yuvraj Narayan]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "group chief executive"
|
||||
start: 2026-02-13
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[British International Investment]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "co-investor with La Caisse in Jebel Ali Port, Jebel Ali Free Zone and National Industries Park, 2.5 billion dollars"
|
||||
start: 2022
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
created: 2026-09-25
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-25
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
DP World is a ports and logistics company controlled by the government of [[Dubai]] in the [[United Arab Emirates]]. It was created in November 2005 by integrating the Dubai Ports Authority and Dubai Ports International and operates the [[Jebel Ali]] port and terminals on several continents. Its 2006 purchase of the British operator P&O, which would have given it terminal operations in six major U.S. ports, was approved by the [[Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States]] and then met sustained congressional opposition that led to a rewriting of the foreign-investment review law. Until February 13, 2026 its chairman and chief executive was [[Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem]], whose correspondence with [[Jeffrey Epstein]] was released by the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] in 2026; he was replaced three days after his name was read on the floor of the [[United States House of Representatives|House]].[^1][^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### The 2006 Ports Controversy
|
||||
|
||||
DP World's bid for the London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) was announced in November 2005, and the formal CFIUS review began in December. The [[George W. Bush]] [[White House]] stated in a fact sheet of February 22, 2006 that "Twelve Federal agencies and the government's counterterrorism experts closely and carefully reviewed the transaction," that the [[Department of Homeland Security]] had "reached an agreement with DP World to mitigate security concerns," and that DP World had "signed a letter of assurances making commitments to meet and maintain security standards for the port terminals that they will own and operate in the [[United States]]." It described the UAE as "a solid partner in the War on Terror" that had "worked with us to stop terrorist financing and money laundering," noted that Dubai was "the first Middle Eastern entity" to join the [[Container Security Initiative]] and the [[Department of Energy]]'s Megaports Initiative, and said that "The United States government has a strong working relationship with DP World." President Bush said on February 21: "If there was any chance that this transaction would jeopardize the security of the United States, it would not go forward."[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
The proposed acquisition of "major operations in six major U.S. ports" came under "intense scrutiny" in Congress. Members of Congress argued that the 1992 Byrd amendment required a full 45-day investigation of any acquirer "controlled by or acting on behalf of a foreign government"; CFIUS representatives told the [[Senate Armed Services Committee]] on February 23, 2006 that they had conceded DP World was government-controlled but had concluded during the 30-day review that the transaction "could not affect the national security." The reaction led the administration to change its review practice in late 2006 and Congress to pass the [[Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Ownership and the 2020 Delisting
|
||||
|
||||
A minority of DP World's shares traded on the Nasdaq Dubai exchange until 2020. On February 17, 2020 the company announced that it would delist and return to full state ownership. Port and Free Zone World, a wholly owned subsidiary of the government investment company [[Dubai World]], already owned 80.45 percent and agreed to buy the remaining 19.55 percent for about 2.7 billion dollars, or 16.75 dollars a share. As part of the transaction DP World's parent was to pay Dubai World 5.15 billion dollars "to assist it in repaying its outstanding obligations to banks," so that DP World could operate "without any restrictions from Dubai World's creditors," and DP World was to borrow a further 8.1 billion dollars. Bin Sulayem said that "returning to private ownership will free DP World from the demands of the public market for short term returns." DP World had by then expanded into [[East Africa]], where the Emirati government had begun building military bases.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Epstein
|
||||
|
||||
A DP World email chain of January 25 and 26, 2012, in which the company's chief operating officer, [[Anil Wats]], asked bin Sulayem which guests he wished to invite to his induction into the International Maritime Hall of Fame of the Maritime Association of the Port of New York and [[New Jersey]] at the [[Grand Hyatt New York]] on May 9, 2012, reached Epstein under a note reading: "Dear Jeffrey Will you be able to attend and can you suggest me names of others I can invite to sit at my table."[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
On November 29, 2016 Epstein's assistant [[Lesley Groff]], the office of [[Joi Ito]] at the [[MIT Media Lab]] and two employees of DP World "with the Chairman's office" arranged a visit by bin Sulayem, set up by Epstein, to the Media Lab and then to [[Martin Nowak]]'s [[Program for Evolutionary Dynamics]] at [[Harvard University]]. Ito wrote that he was "locking in a bunch of meetings for Sultan at the Media Lab from 9:30AM-11AM."[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
After Epstein's July 2019 arrest, [[JPMorgan Chase]]'s internal review known as Project Jeep reported that Epstein "appears to have a close relationship with Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem who is a senior UAE official involved in ownership of the Dubai Ports."[^8] Epstein arranged for bin Sulayem's name to appear as ultimate beneficial owner on contractual paperwork for the purchase of [[Great St. James]] through Great St. Jim LLC; reporting indicated that bin Sulayem had declined the request and that no signature of his appeared on the documents.[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
### The 2026 Removal
|
||||
|
||||
On February 10, 2026 Representative [[Ro Khanna]] read bin Sulayem's name on the House floor among six men he said the department had redacted "for no apparent reason." A department spokesperson said bin Sulayem appeared more than 4,700 times in the files.[^10] The released correspondence included an exchange in which Epstein wrote to bin Sulayem's email address, "I loved the torture video."[^2] In the same week [[British International Investment]], the British government's development investor, and the Canadian pension fund [[La Caisse]], which had invested 2.5 billion dollars in 2022 in Jebel Ali Port, the Jebel Ali Free Zone and the National Industries Park, paused new investment with DP World. On February 13, 2026 the Dubai Media Office announced, without naming bin Sulayem, that [[Essa Kazim]], governor of the [[Dubai International Financial Centre]], had been appointed chairman and [[Yuvraj Narayan]], the former chief financial officer, group chief executive; British International Investment said the same day that it would resume investing. DP World did not respond to the Associated Press's requests for comment. Bin Sulayem has not been accused of a crime.[^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Jackson, James K. *The Exon-Florio National Security Test for Foreign Investment.* Congressional Research Service, RL33312, March 29, 2013, pp. 1, 7-9, 11-12 and n. 24. https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL33312.html
|
||||
[^2]: "Dubai-based DP World replaces chief named in Epstein files." *Al Jazeera,* February 13, 2026. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/13/logistics-giant-dp-world-replaces-chief-named-in-epstein-files
|
||||
[^3]: "Businessman named in Jeffrey Epstein files replaced as chairman of major logistics company." *Associated Press,* via *NBC News,* February 13, 2026. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/sultan-ahmed-bin-sulayem-jeffrey-epstein-rcna258902
|
||||
[^4]: The White House, Office of the Press Secretary. "Fact Sheet: The CFIUS Process And The DP World Transaction." February 22, 2006. https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/02/20060222-11.html
|
||||
[^5]: "Port operator DP World to delist from Dubai stock exchange." *Associated Press,* via *The Seattle Times,* February 17, 2020. https://www.seattletimes.com/business/port-operator-dp-world-to-delist-from-dubai-stock-exchange/
|
||||
[^6]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02033989, DataSet 10, forwarded DP World email chain, "Confirmation of Sultan Ahmed Sulayem for Hall of Fame, May 9," January 25-26, 2012. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA02033989.pdf
|
||||
[^7]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00439714, DataSet 9, email chain, "Re: Jeffrey Epstein," among Lesley Groff, Joichi Ito, Yuko Barnaby, and DP World staff, November 29, 2016. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00439714.pdf
|
||||
[^8]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02808715, Court Records, Government of the United States Virgin Islands v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., No. 1:22-cv-10904 (S.D.N.Y.), letter motion of Motley Rice to Judge Jed S. Rakoff seeking leave to reopen depositions, June 7, 2023, p. 3. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/Court%20Records/Government%20of%20the%20United%20States%20Virgin%20Islands%20v.%20JPMorgan%20Chase%20Bank%2C%20N.A.%2C%20No.%20122-cv-10904%20(S.D.N.Y.%202022)/EFTA02808715.pdf
|
||||
[^9]: "Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem: Powerful Dubai tycoon replaced after DOJ reveals sexually explicit emails with Epstein." *CNN Business,* February 13, 2026. https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/13/business/epstein-files-bin-sulayem-friendship-intl ; "Jeffrey Epstein used name of wealthy Dubai businessman to acquire second island in Caribbean, report finds." *Fox News,* 2026. https://www.foxnews.com/us/jeffrey-epstein-used-name-of-wealthy-dubai-businessman-to-acquire-second-island-in-caribbean-report-finds
|
||||
[^10]: "Rep. Khanna names 6 men he says were redacted from Epstein files for 'no apparent reason'; DOJ says some had no Epstein ties," *CBS News,* February 10, 2026. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/massie-khanna-epstein-files-6-men/
|
||||
50
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Florida Science Foundation.md
Normal file
50
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Florida Science Foundation.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "Private Organization"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
- JeffreyEpstein
|
||||
- FloridaScienceFoundation
|
||||
- WorkRelease
|
||||
- PalmBeach
|
||||
- Foundation
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- Florida Science Foundation
|
||||
- FL Science Foundation
|
||||
- The Florida Science Foundation
|
||||
summary: "Entity created by Jeffrey Epstein in late 2007 and housed at his lawyer's West Palm Beach office, where he spent his 2008 to 2009 work release under paid sheriff's deputies."
|
||||
start: 2007-11
|
||||
location: "West Palm Beach, Florida"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Jeffrey Epstein]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "president"
|
||||
start: 2007-11
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
created: 2026-09-25
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-25
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Florida Science Foundation was an entity headed by [[Jeffrey Epstein]] and located at the [[West Palm Beach, Florida|West Palm Beach]] office of his defense lawyer [[Jack Goldberger]], which served as Epstein's place of employment under the work release program of the [[Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office]] during his 2008 to 2009 state sentence. From October 2008 Epstein left the county Stockade for up to 12 hours a day, six days a week, "purportedly working at the 'Florida Science Foundation,' an entity Epstein had recently incorporated," in the words of the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]'s [[Office of Professional Responsibility]]. The foundation paid the sheriff's office 128,136 dollars for off-duty deputies whose assignment, in their own overtime reports, was to "Provide security for Jeffrey Epstein."[^1][^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Origins and Epstein's Account
|
||||
|
||||
At his state plea hearing on June 30, 2008, under the [[Epstein non-prosecution agreement]], Epstein told the court that he was "President" of the Florida Science Foundation, that it had been in existence for 15 years, and that he worked there "every day." The next day Assistant U.S. Attorney [[Ann Marie Villafana|A. Marie Villafaña]] told a sheriff's office official that Epstein had told the court he had worked "every day" for a "couple of years" at the foundation, but that the entity "did not even exist until November 2007," and that the address Epstein gave the court for it was the office of Goldberger.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Work Release
|
||||
|
||||
The sheriff's office placed Epstein in its work release program on October 10, 2008, without notice to the [[U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida]], which had asked to be told of any application. On December 11, 2008 Villafaña wrote to the office's Corrections Division that the telephone number listed for the foundation on Epstein's application was the number of Goldberger's law firm. She wrote that the person named in the work release file as Epstein's "supervisor" at the foundation, its vice president and so subordinate to Epstein as its president, had submitted sworn filings to the [[Internal Revenue Service]] stating that Epstein worked one hour a week for no compensation, while telling the sheriff's office that his duties required him to work 12 hours a day, six days a week; the same supervisor had promised to report any breach of the work schedule but lived and worked in the New York area. The sheriff's office did not answer her letter. On December 3 she had written to her supervisors that since the start of the case Goldberger and State Attorney [[Barry Krischer]] "have been scheming to get Epstein out on work release."[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Deputies
|
||||
|
||||
The sheriff's Extra Duty Permits System carried the foundation's detail as Permit No. 7804, "Florida Science Foundation," with posts titled "FL Science Foundation - Plain Clothed Position." Overtime reports for July 1 to 14, 2009 describe the deputies' work as "Provide security for Jeffrey Epstein," including logging visitors and escorting him from the office to his house at [[358 El Brillo Way]] at midday and back. Villafaña had written in December 2008 that Epstein was paying "between $3000 and $4100 per week" for the deputies' "protection," despite work release rules barring the sheriff's office and its members from "any business transactions with inmates." Records obtained by the West Palm Beach station WPTV show that the foundation paid the sheriff's office 128,136 dollars during Epstein's incarceration. He was released to home confinement on July 22, 2009.[^2][^3][^4]
|
||||
|
||||
In May 2021 the [[Florida Department of Law Enforcement]] reported that it "appears that Epstein received differential treatment" in the sheriff's custody, but found no criminal conduct by the office's members with respect to "Epstein's work release or the permit detail," according to the sheriff's office's account of the findings.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284, Prior DOJ Disclosures, report, Office of Professional Responsibility, "Investigation into the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida's Resolution of Its 2006-2008 Federal Criminal Investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and Its Interactions with Victims during the Investigation," November 2020, Executive Summary p. iii, and p. 114 and n. 181 (EFTA02847288, EFTA02847423). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/Prior%20DOJ%20Disclosures/Memos.%20&%20Correspondence/EFTA02847284.pdf
|
||||
[^2]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01308629, DataSet 10, Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office Extra Duty Permits System overtime report forms, Permit No. 7804, "Florida Science Foundation," July 1 to 14, 2009, faxed July 21, 2009. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01308629.pdf
|
||||
[^3]: "Jeffrey Epstein paid Palm Beach Sheriff's Office $128,000 during incarceration for prostitution charges," *WPTV,* 2019. https://www.wptv.com/news/region-c-palm-beach-county/new-jeffrey-epstein-paid-palm-beach-sheriffs-office-128-000-during-incarceration-for-prostitution
|
||||
[^4]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284 (see note 1), pp. 114 to 117 (EFTA02847423 to EFTA02847426).
|
||||
[^5]: Sabrina Lolo, "FDLE clears PBSO, prosecutors in connection to Epstein's work release privileges," *CBS12,* May 10, 2021. https://cbs12.com/news/local/fdle-clears-pbso-prosecutors-in-connection-to-epsteins-work-release-privileges
|
||||
|
|
@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ Epstein met Steven Hoffenberg in London in the 1980s. Hoffenberg said the two we
|
|||
|
||||
A Towers press release on the proposed 1987 Pan Am acquisition stated: "Jeffrey Epstein, chairman of the board of directors of Intercontinental Asset Group, is a financial advisor who has been familiar with Pan Am for approximately six years. Epstein serves as an advisor to Towers/United's management with respect to the proposed transaction." Towers attempted to use 3 million dollars from its insurance holding company, [[United Diversified Corporation]], to finance the bid. A 1991 suit by the [[Illinois Department of Insurance]] listed "a series of checks payable to Jeff Epstein or Jeff Epstein & Co. totaling $215,000" among improper disbursements from the United Fire and United Diversified accounts; Epstein was not a defendant.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
Hoffenberg later swore that Epstein used money taken in the Towers scheme "as start-up capital for his corporations, including [[Financial Trust Company|The Financial Trust Company]]," the St. Thomas company Epstein incorporated in 1998. Epstein denied any dealings with the Towers insurers and was never charged; Vanity Fair noted that much of Hoffenberg's testimony in his criminal case "has proven to be false."[^1][^2]
|
||||
Hoffenberg later swore that Epstein used money taken in the Towers scheme "as start-up capital for his corporations, including [[Financial Trust Company|The Financial Trust Company]]," the [[St. Thomas]] company Epstein incorporated in 1998. Epstein denied any dealings with the Towers insurers and was never charged; Vanity Fair noted that much of Hoffenberg's testimony in his criminal case "has proven to be false."[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ A May 2003 due-diligence report stated that "Jeffrey Epstein, through the tradin
|
|||
|
||||
After the 2006 arrest the bank's Rapid Response Team met on October 17, 2006 and, "after internal discussion with Jes Staley, Mary Erdoes, Catherine Keating, John Duffy and Mary Casey," decided to "keep Mr. Epstein solely as a banking client and on a 'reactive', client service basis," not proactively soliciting new investment business from him. His balances rose from about 32 million dollars in October 2006 to about 121.5 million dollars by July 2008 and 156 million dollars in September 2008. An August 28, 2008 email from Casey counted his assets as a probable outflow "as I can't imagine it will stay (pending Dimon review)." A 2009 due-diligence report recorded that after his conviction "Jes Staley conferred with Stephen Cutler and the decision was made to keep Mr. Epstein as a PB client," for "banking and custody only," with brokerage execution withdrawn.[^4][^7] In 2005 the bank had approved a one million dollar standby letter of credit in Epstein's name backing a [[Mellon United National Bank]] loan to [[MC2 Model Management]], the agency of [[Jean-Luc Brunel]], and renewed it on annual review; a 2011 report by the bank's Global Corporate Security division said it was "unknown if the money was given as a secret investment or payment for services as a procurer."[^4][^7]
|
||||
|
||||
The chronological log of the [[Operation Leap Year]] investigation kept by the [[U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida]] records a grand jury subpoena to Chase returnable August 18, 2006, issued alongside subpoenas to [[Colonial Bank]], [[Washington Mutual]] and [[Capital One]] and to Epstein's aviation companies Hyperion Air, Inc. and JEGE, Inc.; a subpoena to "JP Morgan Chase" returnable March 6, 2007; and a subpoena to Chase Bank USA, N.A. returnable April 24, 2007. The same log lists subpoenas to [[Financial Trust Company]], Inc., returnable June 12, 2007, and to [[Bear Stearns]], returnable September 4, 2007, and an April 2007 email between Assistant U.S. Attorney [[Ann Marie Villafana]] and the Justice Department's money-laundering specialist [[Stefan Cassella]] "re money laundering question."[^9] On September 21, 2012 Epstein's bookkeeper Harry Beller faxed JPMorgan a memorandum directing it to wire 5,000 dollars from Epstein's account, for further credit to the St. Thomas law firm Kellerhals Ferguson LLP, referenced to the Southern Trust Company application fee; Epstein's September 2012 JPMorgan statement records the debit as "Southern Trust Company Application Fee." [[Southern Trust Company]] applied for its Virgin Islands tax benefits the following month.[^10]
|
||||
The chronological log of the [[Operation Leap Year]] investigation kept by the [[U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida]] records a grand jury subpoena to Chase returnable August 18, 2006, issued alongside subpoenas to [[Colonial Bank]], [[Washington Mutual]] and [[Capital One]] and to Epstein's aviation companies Hyperion Air, Inc. and JEGE, Inc.; a subpoena to "JP Morgan Chase" returnable March 6, 2007; and a subpoena to Chase Bank USA, N.A. returnable April 24, 2007. The same log lists subpoenas to [[Financial Trust Company]], Inc., returnable June 12, 2007, and to [[Bear Stearns]], returnable September 4, 2007, and an April 2007 email between Assistant U.S. Attorney [[Ann Marie Villafana]] and the Justice Department's money-laundering specialist [[Stefan Cassella]] "re money laundering question."[^9] On September 21, 2012 Epstein's bookkeeper Harry Beller faxed JPMorgan a memorandum directing it to wire 5,000 dollars from Epstein's account, for further credit to the [[St. Thomas]] law firm Kellerhals Ferguson LLP, referenced to the Southern Trust Company application fee; Epstein's September 2012 JPMorgan statement records the debit as "Southern Trust Company Application Fee." [[Southern Trust Company]] applied for its Virgin Islands tax benefits the following month.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
In December 2010 anti-money-laundering official [[Philip DeLuca]] wrote to the bank's AML director [[William Langford]] about "that scum Epstein," and Langford replied, "Let me know if McCleerey waffles on Epstein. No patience for this." In January 2011 Langford asked the private bank to re-evaluate its sponsorship of Epstein and "request re-approval from Steve Cutler if we wanted to retain"; the banker [[Paul Morris]] answered, "I thought we decided this was not necessary." A 2011 email recorded that AML operations had asked at a private-bank risk meeting "that we exit this relationship," that no one on a later call favored keeping him, "Seems it is all due to Jes's personal relationship," and that he had "about 212 mil in the bank." In August 2010 [[Alan Greenberg|Alan "Ace" Greenberg]], the former Bear Stearns chairman who had mentored Epstein there, asked Cutler for an exception to the bank's felon policy to keep doing business with him.[^4][^7]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ The Virgin Islands' forensic accountant found that Epstein withdrew more than 7
|
|||
|
||||
### The 2023 Litigation Before Judge Rakoff
|
||||
|
||||
Two suits proceeded against JPMorgan in the Southern District of New York before Judge Rakoff. One was brought by a survivor identified as Jane Doe 1 on behalf of a class of women abused by Epstein, alleging the bank knowingly benefited from and facilitated his sex trafficking.[^2] The other was brought by the Government of the United States Virgin Islands, where Epstein owned [[Little Saint James]], alleging the bank ignored red flags about his conduct on the island.[^3] Both suits asserted that JPMorgan kept Epstein despite documented internal concern and processed transactions that supported the abuse.[^2][^3]
|
||||
Two suits proceeded against JPMorgan in the [[U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York|Southern District of New York]] before Judge Rakoff. One was brought by a survivor identified as Jane Doe 1 on behalf of a class of women abused by Epstein, alleging the bank knowingly benefited from and facilitated his sex trafficking.[^2] The other was brought by the Government of the [[U.S. Virgin Islands|United States Virgin Islands]], where Epstein owned [[Little Saint James]], alleging the bank ignored red flags about his conduct on the island.[^3] Both suits asserted that JPMorgan kept Epstein despite documented internal concern and processed transactions that supported the abuse.[^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
On March 9, 2023 JPMorgan filed a third-party complaint against Staley within the Virgin Islands action, asserting indemnification, contribution, breach of fiduciary duty, and "faithless servant" claims and seeking to recover compensation paid to him from at least 2006 through 2013.[^18] The complaint alleged Staley had concealed his personal activities with Epstein and misrepresented Epstein's character to the bank.[^18] Staley moved to dismiss, contending the bank was using him as a "shield" for its own failures.[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ Dimon was deposed on May 26, 2023 at the bank's Madison Avenue offices. He testi
|
|||
|
||||
On July 22, 2019, the day *[[The New York Times]]* published "Jeffrey Epstein's Deep Ties to Top Wall Street Figures," Peter Neilson, the bank's Global Head of Financial Crimes Compliance, wrote to two chief compliance officers: "Have been working on this (Epstein et al) today. Top of house requested that we expand our analysis to related parties and put together slides. Should have in a few days. We are treating it as a project at this point. There is a highbridge angle and one dating back to Bear." The project was named Project Jeep. On October 27, 2019 a compliance officer circulated a 22-page "summary of the e-comms review that Trade Surveillance conducted regarding Epstein and Staley," with a note that a colleague had built "a timeline combining the e-comms with the relevant transactional activity"; compliance manager Howard Maleton forwarded it the next day under the subject "Project Jeep Current Review."[^22][^23]
|
||||
|
||||
The summary grouped the emails by topic. Its headings stated that "Jes Staley appears to have a close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, regularly communicating with him and seeking advice from him including while Epstein is incarcerated"; that Epstein "appears to maintain relationships with a number of senior business executives and senior government officials globally"; that he "appears to maintain a particularly close relationship with [[Prince Andrew]] ... and Lord Peter Mandelson, a senior member of the British Government. He also appears to have a close relationship with [[Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem|Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem]] who is a senior [[United Arab Emirates|UAE]] official involved in ownership of the Dubai Ports"; that "Beginning in 2011 Jes Staley and Mary Erdoes have regular communication with Jeffrey Epstein relating to certain strategic initiatives and business proposals"; and that certain messages concerned "lawsuits and litigation involving Epstein, JPMC, Bear Stearns, Highbridge, Zwirn etc." Under the heading on "inappropriate behavior with one reference between Epstein and Staley to a modeling agency," the reviewers paired an August 27 to 29, 2009 exchange, in which Staley wrote that he would be "In London with Jamie, mid week," Epstein asked "Do you need anything there?" and Staley replied "Yep," with a 3,000 dollar wire sent from Epstein's JPMorgan account on August 29, 2009 to a woman in [[Lithuania]] associated with a ballet company there, who had received 2,000 dollars from Epstein on January 8, 2009.[^22][^23] The Government of the United States Virgin Islands told the court that the summary set out "more than four pages of Epstein referrals to JPMorgan," including [[Andrew Farkas]], Nikolic, Gates and Mandelson, and that Dimon had testified, "We did not need introductions to anybody."[^22]
|
||||
The summary grouped the emails by topic. Its headings stated that "Jes Staley appears to have a close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, regularly communicating with him and seeking advice from him including while Epstein is incarcerated"; that Epstein "appears to maintain relationships with a number of senior business executives and senior government officials globally"; that he "appears to maintain a particularly close relationship with [[Prince Andrew]] ... and Lord Peter Mandelson, a senior member of the British Government. He also appears to have a close relationship with [[Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem|Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem]] who is a senior [[United Arab Emirates|UAE]] official involved in ownership of the [[DP World|Dubai Ports]]"; that "Beginning in 2011 Jes Staley and Mary Erdoes have regular communication with Jeffrey Epstein relating to certain strategic initiatives and business proposals"; and that certain messages concerned "lawsuits and litigation involving Epstein, JPMC, Bear Stearns, Highbridge, Zwirn etc." Under the heading on "inappropriate behavior with one reference between Epstein and Staley to a modeling agency," the reviewers paired an August 27 to 29, 2009 exchange, in which Staley wrote that he would be "In London with Jamie, mid week," Epstein asked "Do you need anything there?" and Staley replied "Yep," with a 3,000 dollar wire sent from Epstein's JPMorgan account on August 29, 2009 to a woman in [[Lithuania]] associated with a ballet company there, who had received 2,000 dollars from Epstein on January 8, 2009.[^22][^23] The Government of the United States Virgin Islands told the court that the summary set out "more than four pages of Epstein referrals to JPMorgan," including [[Andrew Farkas]], Nikolic, Gates and Mandelson, and that Dimon had testified, "We did not need introductions to anybody."[^22]
|
||||
|
||||
JPMorgan produced the summary on May 28, 2023, near the close of discovery. The Virgin Islands' counsel, [[Motley Rice]], moved on June 7, 2023 to recall Dimon, depose Maleton and compel production of Bear Stearns records, citing late-produced emails showing that Alan "Ace" Greenberg had gone to general counsel Stephen Cutler "for an exception to the felony policy" for Epstein, a January 19, 2011 message from a JPMorgan Securities employee to Epstein ("Ace would love to speak to Jeffrey") that the bank had not produced as outside the "negotiated scope of search," and a 2008 email stating that "JPM requires top of the house ok for clients who are convicted felons. (ie PCS Legal to Asset Mgt Legal to Cutler to Jaime Daimnon [sic])."[^22] The bank's counsel, [[WilmerHale]], answered on June 9, 2023 that the summary was compiled after Epstein's death by employees with "no contemporaneous knowledge" of the relationship, that 216 of its 222 underlying emails had been produced months earlier, that Dimon had testified he did not recognize the name "Project Jeep" and had instructed the general counsel to "do everything" to establish the facts, that the author of the 2019 email had confirmed "top of house" meant then general counsel [[Stacey Friedman]], and that a follow-up sent eight minutes after the 2008 email showed "top of the house" there referred to Cutler. It confirmed that after Epstein's 2008 plea "people from legacy Bear Stearns, including Mr. Greenberg," may have approached Cutler about the policy requiring general counsel approval to keep a brokerage account for a felon, a decision "made by Mr. Cutler," and said there was "no evidence that Mr. Greenberg had anything to do with Epstein's accounts at the Private Bank."[^24] In August 2023, on a separate motion filed July 18, 2023, Judge Rakoff ordered the bank to produce financial records for newly identified women Epstein had paid, and denied the request "to compel production of all documents and information concerning 'Project Jeep' or other investigations by JPMorgan that occurred after Epstein's 2019 arrest."[^25]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ Southern Trust Company was a [[U.S. Virgin Islands]] corporation controlled by [
|
|||
|
||||
### Formation and the Economic Development Commission Benefits
|
||||
|
||||
Epstein's territorial operation began with Financial Trust Company, incorporated in St. Thomas on November 6, 1998 (a 2018 investor complaint gave the year as 1996), which received territorial tax exemptions from 1999 and was the principal company managing his wealth and client investments. Southern Trust Company, incorporated in November 2011, followed after Epstein registered as a sex offender in the Virgin Islands; the territory alleged that most of his Virgin Islands companies were created in 2011 and 2012.[^1][^4] The company applied to the Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority in October 2012 and received a package running from February 1, 2013 through January 31, 2023 that included a 90 percent exemption from income taxes and 100 percent exemptions from gross-receipts, excise, and withholding taxes.[^2][^5] At a public hearing of the Economic Development Commission on November 15, 2012, Epstein and his lawyer [[Erika Kellerhals]] testified under oath that the company would provide "cutting edge consulting services" in "biomedical and financial informatics."[^1] The certificate itself is dated January 24, 2014 and signed by the commission's chairman, [[Albert Bryan]], then also Governor [[John de Jongh]]'s Commissioner of Labor, and by Epstein as president. That day [[Cecile de Jongh]] asked Epstein to match 15,000 dollars she had raised for the governor's State of the Territory reception, and an hour later emailed Epstein's accountant [[Richard Kahn]]: "Hi Rich, Can you please prepare a check for $15,000 made payable to Governor's Special Events Fund." Bryan had also signed the 2012 amendment to Financial Trust Company's certificate, and was elected governor in 2018.[^4][^6]
|
||||
Epstein's territorial operation began with Financial Trust Company, incorporated in [[St. Thomas]] on November 6, 1998 (a 2018 investor complaint gave the year as 1996), which received territorial tax exemptions from 1999 and was the principal company managing his wealth and client investments. Southern Trust Company, incorporated in November 2011, followed after Epstein registered as a sex offender in the Virgin Islands; the territory alleged that most of his Virgin Islands companies were created in 2011 and 2012.[^1][^4] The company applied to the Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority in October 2012 and received a package running from February 1, 2013 through January 31, 2023 that included a 90 percent exemption from income taxes and 100 percent exemptions from gross-receipts, excise, and withholding taxes.[^2][^5] At a public hearing of the Economic Development Commission on November 15, 2012, Epstein and his lawyer [[Erika Kellerhals]] testified under oath that the company would provide "cutting edge consulting services" in "biomedical and financial informatics."[^1] The certificate itself is dated January 24, 2014 and signed by the commission's chairman, [[Albert Bryan]], then also Governor [[John de Jongh]]'s Commissioner of Labor, and by Epstein as president. That day [[Cecile de Jongh]] asked Epstein to match 15,000 dollars she had raised for the governor's State of the Territory reception, and an hour later emailed Epstein's accountant [[Richard Kahn]]: "Hi Rich, Can you please prepare a check for $15,000 made payable to Governor's Special Events Fund." Bryan had also signed the 2012 amendment to Financial Trust Company's certificate, and was elected governor in 2018.[^4][^6]
|
||||
|
||||
To qualify, Southern Trust represented that it would operate a consulting service mining DNA and financial data for a global clientele, a database that, according to the application, would let pharmaceutical companies and physicians use Epstein's mathematical models to test drug protocols. The Economic Development Commission program conditions large tax reductions on a beneficiary maintaining a qualifying business and meeting employment and investment requirements in the territory. The Virgin Islands later alleged that the company never built or operated the represented informatics business.[^2][^5]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ Money raised from new investors was used to pay returns and redemptions to earli
|
|||
|
||||
The Securities and Exchange Commission sued Towers, Hoffenberg, the chief operating officer [[Mitchell Brater]] and [[Arthur J. Ferro]] in February 1993 (SEC v. Towers Financial Corporation, 93 Civ. 0744 (WK), S.D.N.Y., before Judge [[Whitman Knapp]]), and in March 1993 the company filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code (In re Towers Financial Corporation, No. 93-B41558). The Commission later sued Marvin E. Basson and Charles H. Chugerman in 1994, obtained a consent judgment against Hoffenberg, and in September 1996 charged [[Michael Rosoff]], Towers's chief legal officer since 1980, with participating in the fraudulent note sales. The SEC regional director whose office brought the charges, Richard Walker, declined to discuss the case in 2019.[^1][^2][^5][^6] Corrigan turned his committee's investigation over to the SEC, whose charges did not involve Epstein.[^6] The matter became one of the largest financial frauds in the [[United States]] before that of [[Bernard Madoff]].[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
Hoffenberg was indicted in the Northern District of Illinois on April 19, 1994 and in the Southern District of New York on April 20, 1994; the Illinois case was transferred to New York in April 1995. He pleaded guilty on April 20, 1995 to conspiracy to commit securities fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy to obstruct justice and tax evasion (United States v. Hoffenberg, 94 Cr. 213 (RWS) and 95 Cr. 321 (RWS)). Judge [[Robert W. Sweet]] issued his sentencing opinion on March 4, 1997 and entered judgment on March 7, 1997: 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, a one million dollar fine and restitution of 475,157,340 dollars, the figure the Bankruptcy Court had fixed in April 1996 as the valid claims of the noteholders and bondholders, which with interest the investors put at about one billion dollars by 2018. Brater and Rosoff received prison sentences of seven to nine years. Hoffenberg was released from federal custody on October 11, 2013.[^1][^5][^6][^8] The 1993 prosecution was led by Daniel Nardello, who went into private practice soon afterward.[^6]
|
||||
Hoffenberg was indicted in the Northern District of Illinois on April 19, 1994 and in the [[U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York|Southern District of New York]] on April 20, 1994; the Illinois case was transferred to New York in April 1995. He pleaded guilty on April 20, 1995 to conspiracy to commit securities fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy to obstruct justice and tax evasion (United States v. Hoffenberg, 94 Cr. 213 (RWS) and 95 Cr. 321 (RWS)). Judge [[Robert W. Sweet]] issued his sentencing opinion on March 4, 1997 and entered judgment on March 7, 1997: 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, a one million dollar fine and restitution of 475,157,340 dollars, the figure the Bankruptcy Court had fixed in April 1996 as the valid claims of the noteholders and bondholders, which with interest the investors put at about one billion dollars by 2018. Brater and Rosoff received prison sentences of seven to nine years. Hoffenberg was released from federal custody on October 11, 2013.[^1][^5][^6][^8] The 1993 prosecution was led by Daniel Nardello, who went into private practice soon afterward.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
The attempted corporate takeovers drove much of the cash drain. Beginning in November 1987 Hoffenberg used Towers and the captive Illinois insurers to mount unsuccessful bids for [[Pan American World Airways|Pan Am]] and, in 1988, [[Emery Air Freight]], deploying Jeffrey Epstein as a financial adviser on the financing; a 1987 Towers press release said Towers would use 3 million dollars from United Diversified toward the Pan Am bid.[^4][^6] The Pan Am effort collapsed amid the airline's broader decline following the December 1988 bombing of [[Pan Am Flight 103]] over Lockerbie, and the failed raids left the insurers depleted and accelerated regulatory scrutiny of Towers.[^6] The Illinois Department of Insurance liquidated the insurers and sued Hoffenberg in 1991; he settled. The regulators' lawyer, Barry Gross, said of Epstein: "He was very elusive... It was hard to really track him down. There were a substantial number of checks for significant dollars that were paid to him, I remember... we presumed that he was involved with the Pan Am and Emery run that Hoffenberg made, but we never got a chance to depose him."[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
91
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Wexner Foundation.md
Normal file
91
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Wexner Foundation.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,91 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "Private Organization"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
- WexnerFoundation
|
||||
- LeslieWexner
|
||||
- JeffreyEpstein
|
||||
- EhudBarak
|
||||
- Philanthropy
|
||||
- JewishLeadership
|
||||
- Israel
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- The Wexner Foundation
|
||||
- Wexner Heritage Foundation
|
||||
- Leslie H. Wexner Foundation
|
||||
summary: "Ohio private foundation of the Wexner family, formed in 1973, on whose board Jeffrey Epstein sat from 1992 to 2007 and which paid Ehud Barak 2.3 million dollars between 2004 and 2006."
|
||||
start: 1973
|
||||
location: "New Albany, Ohio"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Leslie Wexner]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "founder, trustee since 1973, president 1973 to 1985"
|
||||
start: 1973
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Larry Moses]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "president"
|
||||
start: 1998
|
||||
end: 2011
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Elka Abrahamson]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "president"
|
||||
start: 2011
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Interlochen Center for the Arts]]"
|
||||
role: "185,000 dollar organization gift recorded to the fund 'Epstein Lodge'"
|
||||
start: 1994-07-25
|
||||
fn: 10
|
||||
created: 2026-09-25
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-25
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Wexner Foundation is an [[Ohio]] private charitable foundation formed in 1973 by the family of the retailer [[Leslie Wexner]] to develop Jewish communal leadership in [[North America]] and public-sector leadership in [[Israel]]. [[Jeffrey Epstein]], Wexner's money manager, was a trustee from December 15, 1992 until September 4, 2007, and was president of the Wexner family office, N.A. Property, Inc., which kept the foundation's books. Between 2004 and 2006 the foundation paid the former Israeli prime minister [[Ehud Barak]] 2.3 million dollars for two commissioned studies, a contract that Epstein's lawyer [[Darren Indyke]] wrote in 2005 he had negotiated. A February 2020 review commissioned by the foundation found no evidence that Epstein used it to commit any crime; the review does not mention Barak.[^1][^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Formation and Programs
|
||||
|
||||
The foundation's own review dates its formation to 1973, with Leslie Wexner as president until 1985; its later public history gives 1984. Wexner formed a separate Leslie H. Wexner Foundation on July 16, 1985, which merged into the Wexner Foundation in 1993, and founded the Wexner Heritage Foundation in 1985 with Rabbi [[Herbert A. Friedman]]; the Heritage Foundation merged into the Wexner Foundation in 2005. Rabbi Maurice Corson was president from 1985 to 1998, [[Larry Moses]] from 1998 to 2011 and Rabbi [[Elka Abrahamson]] from 2011. The foundation's offices are at 8000 Walton Parkway, [[New Albany, Ohio|New Albany]], Ohio.[^1][^4]
|
||||
|
||||
Its programs include the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, active since 1988, and the Wexner-Israel Fellowship, established in 1989 "to enable up to ten outstanding Israeli government officials each year" to study for a master's degree at [[Harvard University]]'s [[Harvard Kennedy School|John F. Kennedy School of Government]], "to provide Israel's next generation of leaders with advanced public management training"; the Wexner Heritage Program for Jewish lay leaders; and, from 2014, Wexner Senior Leaders for senior officials in the Israeli public sector. According to its 990-PF filings the foundation spent more than 321 million dollars from 1991 to 2018, about 90 percent of its funding coming from the Wexner family.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Epstein as Trustee
|
||||
|
||||
*[[Vanity Fair]]* reported in 2003 that in 1992 Epstein persuaded Wexner to put him on the board in place of Wexner's ailing mother, [[Bella Wexner]], who recovered and demanded reinstatement; Epstein said the matter was settled by splitting the foundation in two. A source close to Wexner told the magazine that Wexner had given Epstein "the power of fiduciary over all of his private trusts and foundations."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
The foundation's corporate records show Epstein elected a trustee on December 15, 1992. He signed the annual grants from the foundation to the Wexner Heritage Foundation from 1993 to 2004, signed board actions appointing officers and trustees, and signed the joint action approving the 1993 merger of the Leslie H. Wexner Foundation into it. He was named on the foundation's 990-PF filings as the person in whose care its books were kept, as president of N.A. Property, the family office whose accounting department handled the foundation's payroll, ledger, banking and tax filings, and was a co-trustee of the foundation's retirement plan. The 2001 filing recorded a contribution of 9,588,560 dollars from "Arts Interests Trust c/o Jeffrey Epstein," a charitable remainder trust created by Wexner on July 30, 1991 with Epstein as trustee. Epstein resigned from the board, from N.A. Property and "from all Wexner-related roles" in September 2007.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Epstein's lawyer Darren Indyke was listed as secretary of the foundation in SEC filings from 1998 to 2001 and on its tax forms through 2006, according to *[[The Daily Beast]]*.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Barak Payments
|
||||
|
||||
The foundation paid Barak 2.3 million dollars between 2004 and 2006, when he held no public office, for two studies. He completed a 267-page study on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; for the second, on leadership, the foundation "received an abstract, but did not receive a full paper," and said in 2019 that its management at the time "decided that the work done and material received was enough to end the project and justify the payment."[^2][^7] After the 2019 Israeli election campaign raised the payments, Attorney General [[Avichai Mandelblit]] declined to investigate, and the [[Supreme Court of Israel|High Court of Justice]] rejected a [[Likud]] petition in 2020 after the foundation told the court that Epstein was not involved in the decision to make the payments.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
Among the documents released by the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] on January 30, 2026 was a December 2005 chain in which Barak's wife, [[Nili Priel]], asked Moses about a payment due "according to the contract." The family office's Peg Ugland asked Indyke, "Are you or Jeffrey handling the terms of the contract?" Indyke wrote to Epstein: "I was involved in the negotiation and execution of the document, but have not been involved in overseeing performance," and asked, "Please advise what you want Peg to tell Larry Moses." Epstein replied on December 8, 2005: "Get a copy of what he sent." In a 2026 statement the foundation said Barak was "paid in full over the years 2004-06" and that the payments "were properly reported in the foundation's 990s." On March 1, 2026 a Likud member of the [[Knesset]], Avihai Boaron, and the organization LAVI filed a criminal complaint asking the [[Israel Police]] to investigate Barak and the foundation, alleging that the emails "completely contradict the report that the Wexner Foundation submitted to the High Court."[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### The 2020 Review
|
||||
|
||||
The foundation commissioned Charles J. Kegler and Loriann E. Fuhrer of the Columbus law firm [[Kegler Brown Hill + Ritter]] to review Epstein's involvement. Their report, dated February 24, 2020, examined the foundation's records and 990-PF filings for 1991 to 2018, more than 3,600 pages of documents on related entities, and interviews with Leslie and [[Abigail Wexner]], all four presidents, trustees and the treasurer; the foundation's email archive did not reach back to Epstein's tenure. It found that Epstein "was absent from the organizational life" of the foundation, in Moses's words, "played no meaningful role in the Foundation's budget, finances or accounting," made no contribution to it, and had no contact with it after his resignation, and concluded: "we found no evidence that Epstein ever used his ties to the Foundation to commit any assault or sexual misconduct, or to otherwise perpetrate any crime." The report does not mention Barak, the 2004 to 2006 payments, or Indyke.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The review addressed the 46 million dollars that media reports had described as transferred by Epstein to "a foundation related to the Wexners." It stated that "Epstein did not transfer any assets to the Wexner Foundation." On January 1, 2008 Epstein's C.O.U.Q. Foundation transferred 12,377,844 dollars, and [[Financial Trust Company]] 201,939 shares of Apple stock worth 34,280,154 dollars, to the YLK Charitable Fund, formed by Abigail Wexner on December 20, 2007. The reviewers found that C.O.U.Q.'s endowment had been funded almost entirely by transfers of Wexner family money, more than 11 million dollars from the Wexner Children's Trust in 2001 and 10 million from the Leslie H. Wexner Charitable Fund in 2003, which the Wexners said they "never knew about or authorized." YLK dissolved on December 27, 2010 and passed about 35 million dollars to the Wexner Family Charitable Fund.[^1] Wexner wrote to the foundation's community in August 2019 that Epstein "had misappropriated vast sums of money" from his family and that the payments "represented a portion of the returned monies. All of that money, every dollar of it, was originally Wexner family money."[^8][^9]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Interlochen Gift
|
||||
|
||||
The review examined contributions to the foundation, not grants made by it. A donor record of the [[Interlochen Center for the Arts]] in [[Michigan]], printed on February 12, 2020 and found in the [[Epstein Files|Epstein files]], lists "Wexner Foundation $185000.00 Single Donation 07/25/1994," recorded as an organization gift with the Wexner Foundation as donor, credited to the fund "Epstein Lodge ($185.000.00)" and attached to the constituent record of "Mr. Jeffrey Epstein."[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Kegler, Charles J., and Loriann E. Fuhrer. *Independent Review of Jeffrey Epstein's Involvement and Interactions with The Wexner Foundation.* Kegler Brown Hill + Ritter Co., LPA, February 24, 2020, pp. 1-18. https://www.wexnerfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/Wexner-Foundation-Report-Following-Independent-Review4.pdf
|
||||
[^2]: *The Times of Israel,* on the Wexner Foundation's statement that its 2.3 million dollars to Barak paid for two reports, one unfinished. https://www.timesofisrael.com/wexner-foundation-2-3-million-to-barak-was-for-2-reports-1-wasnt-finished/
|
||||
[^3]: Lefkovits, Etgar. "Complaint seeks police probe into Ehud Barak and Wexner Foundation." *JNS,* March 17, 2026. https://www.jns.org/complaint-seeks-police-probe-into-barak-and-wexner-foundation/
|
||||
[^4]: "Our Story," *The Wexner Foundation.* https://www.wexnerfoundation.org/our-story/
|
||||
[^5]: Vicky Ward, "The Talented Mr. Epstein," *Vanity Fair,* March 2003, as republished by the author. https://vickyward.com/article/the-talented-mr-epstein/
|
||||
[^6]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00163119, DataSet 9, press printout: Kate Briquelet and William Bredderman, "Jeffrey Epstein's Right-Hand Mystery Men: The Lawyer and the Accountant," *The Daily Beast,* August 30, 2020. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00163119.pdf
|
||||
[^7]: "Ehud Barak Received $2.3 Million for Two Studies, One Was Not Completed, Wexner Foundation Says." *Haaretz,* 2019. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-ehud-barak-received-2-3-million-for-two-studies-one-was-not-completed-wexner-foun-1.8983735
|
||||
[^8]: Leslie Wexner, "Letter from Les," *The Wexner Foundation,* August 2019. https://www.wexnerfoundation.org/letter-from-les/
|
||||
[^9]: "Victoria's Secret owner says disgraced financier Epstein stole $46M from him," *CBC,* 2019. https://amp.cbc.ca/lite/story/1.5240145
|
||||
[^10]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01265496, DataSet 10, Interlochen Center for the Arts donor database printouts for constituent "Mr. Jeffrey Epstein," printed February 12, 2020, at EFTA01265692 (duplicate EFTA00102702, DataSet 9). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01265496.pdf
|
||||
Loading…
Add table
Add a link
Reference in a new issue