The executors of Jeffrey Epstein's Virgin Islands estate forced 3 of his accusers to marry to keep them under his control, prosecutors say
- Prosecutors are accusing Jeffrey Epstein's estate executors' of facilitating his alleged sex-trafficking scheme.
- They say Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn forced three of Epstein's accusers to marry.
- Prosecutors say this kept victims from being deported so that they'd be under his control.
Prosecutors in the US Virgin Islands have accused Darren K. Indyke and Richard D. Kahn, the executors of Jeffrey Epstein's estate, of being "captains" of the dead millionaire sex offender's alleged criminal schemes.
The prosecutors said the two executors facilitated three sham marriages as part of a plot designed to keep Epstein's accusers from being deported - and keep them under his thumb.
Indyke and Kahn had "direct participation in virtually all of the business operations and financial activities" of what they describe as a sex-trafficking scheme run by the now-dead financier, prosecutors said in a new court filing.
"Indyke and Kahn were, in short, the indispensable captains of Epstein's criminal enterprise, roles for which they were richly rewarded," prosecutors wrote.
According to the filing, Indyke and Kahn helped lure young girls - some as young as 13 years old - into the sex trafficking scheme "with promises to help them and their families pay for school, health care, or other financial needs."
The Justice Department made the claims about Epstein's executors in an amended complaint filed against Epstein's estate in the US Virgin Islands, describing a sex trafficking operation that ran as late as 2017. The marriage scheme was first reported by Insider in 2019.
The initial Virgin Islands lawsuit, filed in January 2020, sought the dissolution of the estate, which includes two private islands (called Little Saint James, where Epstein's home was located, and Great Saint James) and what prosecutors described as a slew of shell companies used to disguise an international sex-trafficking operation.
"The Government continues to allege Epstein anchored a criminal [enterprise], through which numerous young women and female children were trafficked, raped, sexually assaulted and held captive in the Virgin Islands at Epstein's secluded private island, Little St. James," the Justice Department said in a press release.
Attorneys for Indyke and Kahn didn't immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.
Forced marriages and medical consent forms
Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in 2019. His longtime partner Ghislaine Maxwell is currently jailed on charges that she participated in the sex-trafficking operation, sexually abused young girls herself, and lied about her activity in a deposition. She has pleaded not guilty.
In the new filing against Indyke and Kahn, the prosecutors said the two forced three accusers into marriages that would secure their immigration status. That way, prosecutors alleged, the women would remain in the Virgin Islands under Epstein's watchful eye.
"The victims were coerced into to participating in these arranged marriages, and understood that there would be consequences, including serious reputational and bodily harm, if they refused to enter a marriage or attempted to end it," prosecutors wrote in the filing. "In each instance, Indyke and Kahn knowingly facilitated the fraudulent and coerced marriages, performing and securing the legal and accounting work involved and enabling a fraud that would further bind Epstein's victims to him and enable Epstein to continue to control and abuse these victims sexually."
The prosecutors wrote that Epstein controlled intimate aspects of the accusers' lives. He approved of the doctors they used, forced them to sign consent forms so that he could access their medical records, and required them to give him their email passwords, prosecutors said.
The new filing says Epstein paid his victims to go to nightclubs and on shopping trips to "recruit" other young girls into his sex-trafficking scheme. It also includes fresh details of sexual abuse.
"Another victim, who was brought to Little St. James more than 50 times during the years 2000 to 2002, when she was 17 to 19 years old, was required to have sexual relations with 'guests' of Epstein, and was subjected to sexual abuse virtually every day, and on some days, multiple times a day by Epstein or his guests," prosecutors wrote.
Epstein's estate is at the center of ongoing litigation
The judge overseeing the case must now decide whether to accept the amendments to the lawsuit. It was previously filed against Indyke and Kahn in their "capacity as executors" for Epstein's estate, but now includes them in their individual capacities, as well.
After Epstein's death, his estate became the focus of a thicket of legal machinations. It has paid out around $50 million to an unspecified number of victims so far, according to court filings reviewed by the Miami Herald, and $190 million in taxes.
The estate overall was valued at $240.8 million at the end of 2020. The filings also say the estate is paying millions of dollars to attorneys, according to the Herald.
Epstein's islands are now for sale, according to the Miami Herald, as the compensation fund for his victims was halted because of a lack of liquidity.
Maxwell's criminal case continues to move forward, and is scheduled for July 2021. Her attorneys recently asked the judge overseeing her case to throw it out, claiming she didn't know what "sexual activities" or "the 2000s" meant during a deposition, and that the pool for the grand jurors who indicted her didn't have enough Black and Hispanic people.