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
|
|
@ -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).
|
||||
Loading…
Add table
Add a link
Reference in a new issue