It has a history of attracting U.S. clients who proved to be troublesome. Florida’s Scott Rothstein used TD Bank to launder the proceeds of a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme that collapsed a decade ago. And convicted Texas financier R. Allen Stanford, who bilked investors in a $7 billion fraud, used Toronto-Dominion to maintain accounts and accept deposits tied to his Antigua-based bank as part of a Ponzi scheme that also collapsed in 2009.
Questions still swirl around Epstein’s fortune, which is held in numerous shell companies, many based in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He wrote a will just two days before his suicide, placing $578 million of assets in a trust, another move which could complicate efforts to collect damages by women who say he sexually abused them.
“The financial investigators have their work cut out for them here,” said Duncan Levin, a former federal prosecutor and managing partner at Tucker Levin in New York. “In cases involving sophisticated defendants like this, assets are usually hidden behind many layers of LLCs and trusts and off-shore holdings. Their work is a lot like peeling back the layers of an onion.”
--With assistance from Doug Alexander and Michelle F. Davis.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.