The New York townhouse alone is worth more than $100 million, according to Dolly Lenz, a luxury real estate agent who has viewed it. “Literally, only billionaires have these kind of assets,” she said.
Epstein didn’t spend much time on St. Thomas, according to locals, but his business is headquartered there in a commercial plaza that’s also home to a Sami’s Mini-Mart and the Happy Nails salon. There’s no map to guide a visitor to the office and no signs on any door, though at least five Epstein entities are or have been registered in a suite there, according to public records.
Among them are companies that hold his Gulfstream jets, Financial Trust Co. and Southern Trust Co., whose business is described as “DNA database and data mining” on a government website that lists Cecile deJongh as the office manager. DeJongh, the wife of a former governor of the territory, couldn’t be reached for comment.
Before he transferred his operations two decades ago to the U.S. Virgin Islands, Epstein was based in New York. Financial Trust was then called J. Epstein & Co., a money-management firm he famously touted as catering to billionaires only. The primary client, it appears, was Victoria’s Secret mogul Les Wexner.
Wexner visited Little St. Jeff’s at least once, the former Epstein employee said, and Victoria’s Secret models were among the guests he saw there.
The move to the U.S. territory could have been for privacy, or the juicy tax benefits. Qualifying companies are eligible for a 90% reduction in corporate income tax and personal income tax if they meet certain conditions, including employing at least 10 residents and investing $100,000 in local industries. Southern Trust is listed at the Economic Development Authority as one of the beneficiaries of local tax incentives.
Back in his heyday, before his 2008 guilty plea in Florida, Epstein would visit his piece of the Virgin Islands archipelago about two or three times a month for stays of three or four days, according to the former staffer, who asked not to be named because Epstein insisted on secrecy from his employees. He described it as a Zen-like retreat when Epstein was there, padding around shirtless in shorts and flip-flops, with meditative music piped into the area around the main house, the cabanas and the pool, where women would sometimes sunbathe topless or in the nude.
The crew of groundskeepers and other workers sported black or white polo shirts when the master was in residence -- and darted away when they spied him. The former employee said they had to obey one ironclad rule: Epstein could never catch sight of them.
Among the other oddities of being employed there, the former staffer said, was Epstein’s interest in “pirate treasure.” Not gold doubloons, but old rum bottles and crockery that workers would come across. If you found an old rum bottle, Epstein would pay $100 for it. An unbroken plate was worth $1,000. A broken plate, as long as it was more than half intact, would fetch $500.
The only unusual aspect of the main residence the former worker said he was aware of were the security boxes in two offices. The level of secrecy around a steel safe in Epstein’s office, in particular, suggested it contained much more than just money, he said. Outside of an occasional visit by a housekeeper, no one was allowed in those rooms.