Jeffrey Epstein’s associates ‘still protecting him’

Jeffery Epstein used two private islands to engage in a two-decade conspiracy to traffic and abuse girls.

Jeffery Epstein's estate on Little Saint James Island. Picture: AP

A lawsuit filed by prosecutors in the Virgin Islands says billionaire sex offender Jeffery Epstein used two private islands in the US territ­ory to engage in a nearly two-decade conspiracy to traffic and abuse girls.

At one point, the suit filed on Thursday AEDT alleges, Epstein and associates organised a search party to catch a 15-year-old victim trying to swim away, and held her passport to keep her captive.

The lawsuit seeks to confiscate hundreds of millions of dollars from Epstein’s estate in the Virgin Islands, including private islands Little St James and Great St James, which the suit values at $US86m ($124.5m). “The complaint speaks for itself and lays out allegations of a pattern and practice of human trafficking, sexual abuse and forced labour of young women and female children as young as 13 years old,” Virgin ­Islands Attorney-General Denise George said outside court.

The lawsuit alleges that even after Epstein’s August suicide in federal detention in New York, his associates “continued to conspire­ to prevent detection of the Epstein enterprise’s criminal wrongdoing and to prevent accountab­ility”.

“These conspiratorial acts are ongoing,” it says.

Jeffrey Epstein on the New York State Sex Offender Register. Picture: AP

The trust controlling Epstein’s $US577m estate is based in the Virgin Islands.

The co-executors of Epstein’s estate said the estate “is being administere­d in accordance with the laws of the US Virgin Islands”.

They released a statement challenging the lawsuit’s claim that Epstein’s victims must keep their claims confidential in order to participate in a voluntary compensa­tion fund.

“The suggestion that the program was intended to conceal any information or to shield anyone from liability or accountability is unfounded, directly contrary to the details of the proposed program­ and false.”

From 2001 to 2018, Epstein and associates flew girls from other countries to the Virgin Island­s, then moved them by boat and helicopter to Epstein’s property on Little St James. Epstein bought the neighbouring island to protect his illegal activity from being seen, the lawsuit claims.

The lawsuit says the girls were between 12 and 17, although Ms George said the youngest were 13. Many were lured with the promise of modelling opportunities, the lawsuit says. Epstein and his associates kept a computerised list of underage girls in or close to the Virgin Islands, the suit says.

Although he was required to register as a sex offender in the Virgin Islands after pleading guilty in a Florida case, Epstein successfully turned away Virgin Islands officials and US Marshals from Little St James, saying its dock was his front door. He arranged to meet the law-enforcement offic­ials at his office on the island of St Thomas, the lawsuit says.

Along with the 15-year-old girl who tried to swim away, the lawsuit­ describes a victim who was hired to provide massages, then forced to perform sex acts on Little St James. She attempted to escape but was caught by a search party and threatened with physical restraint and other harm if she didn’t co-operate.

“The conduct of Jeffrey Epstei­n and his associates shocks the conscience and betrays the deepest principles and laws of the US Virgin Islands,” Ms George said. “The Virgin Islands is not, and will not be, a safe haven for human trafficking or sexual exploitat­ion.”

AP