The web of shell companies Jeffrey Epstein employed to enshroud his fortune played another, sinister role for the financier, forming the hidden foundation of a “brazen and powerful organization” he used to molest and exploit girls and young women, according to three new civil lawsuits.
The claims against his $578 million estate, its executors and the companies themselves -- made one day after Epstein’s will became public -- add new allegations to those he faced when he committed suicide in jail on Aug. 10. They seek unspecified damages for medical and psychological expenses, humiliation, trauma and other injuries suffered as recently as 2017, far beyond the time period laid out in the criminal case.
Epstein, 66, died two days after writing his will. According to the suits, two of the plaintiffs were 17 at the time the alleged assaults began and one was 20. His death is no impediment to their pursuit of civil claims.
“They’re still in a good position,” said Susan Gary, a law professor at the University of Oregon. The challenge “is proving as required by law that he injured them and they should get benefits for their injury.”
The defendants include the executors, Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn, lawyers who were directors for a nonprofit Epstein had in the U.S. Virgin Islands called Gratitude America. Efforts to reach Indyke and Kahn were unsuccessful.
Among the companies named in all three suits are one that owned Epstein’s Manhattan mansion until 2011; his money-management firm, Financial Trust Co.; and HBRK Associates Inc., which allegedly helped arrange travel for Epstein’s accusers between New York and Florida. A Richard Kahn was listed as the registered agent for HBRK in New York state corporate filings in 2008.
Two of the complaints name as a defendant the company that once owned Little St. James, the smaller of Epstein’s private islands in the Caribbean. Little St. James was one of the locations from which Epstein ran a “complex commercial sex trafficking and abuse ring,” according to the lawsuits.
While Epstein’s accusers will never be able to confront him in court, they’ll have a chance to speak out as early as next week. A federal judge has scheduled a hearing on Tuesday over the U.S. attorney’s proposal to drop the criminal case against Epstein himself -- the standard step when a defendant dies during a prosecution. The judge said the public “may still have an informational interest” in that process and invited accusers and their lawyers to participate. Prosecutors have said they will pursue any conspirators of Epstein.
The civil suits say Epstein relied on associates and employees to orchestrate illicit encounters with girls and young women, directing “a complex system of individuals” that worked “in concert and at his direction, for the purpose of harming teenage girls through sexual exploitation, abuse and trafficking.”
This team included “chefs, butlers, receptionists, schedulers, secretaries, flight attendants, pilots, housekeepers, maids, sex recruiters, drivers and other staff members,” according to the suits.