The US Virgin Islands Attorney General has settled her sex-trafficking lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstein’s estate for $105 million – plus half of the sale price of his so-called “Pedophile Island,” officials announced Wednesday.
AG Denise George filed suit against the dead pedophile’s estate – and his companies – in 2020, claiming Epstein and others created a sprawling network that used properties and companies in the Virgin Islands to traffic dozens of women and girls to be raped, sexually assaulted and held captive on Epstein’s private island – Little St. James.
After nearly three years and a bitter legal battle, George and the estate has settled the case for the whopping sum — which doesn’t include half of the money from the $125 million March sale of Little St. James.
Money from the sale of Little St. James and Epstein’s other island, Great St. James, will fund the settlement. The estate will also wind down its businesses on in the Virgin Islands and keep cooperating with the government’s investigations, George said of the settlement’s terms.
The estate will also pay $450,000 for damage done on Epstein’s other island, Great St. James, where he allegedly tore down the ruins of centuries-old historical structures of enslaved workers, George said.
The settlement figure will be finalized within a year after the islands’ sale, George said.
The money from Little St. James will go into a fund to provide services for locals and victims of sexual abuse and sex trafficking. Some of the settlement money will go to the AG’s office to help continue its work, George said.
“This settlement restores the faith of the people of the Virgin Islands that its laws will be enforced, without fear or favor, against those who break them,” George said in a statement. “We are sending a clear message that the Virgin Islands will not serve as a haven for human trafficking.”
Estate lawyer Daniel Weiner said the estate, executors, and other defendants didn’t admit any wrongdoing in agreeing to the settlement, and that the agreement was in the best interest of the estate, victims and creditors “to avoid the time, expense and inherent uncertainties of protracted litigation.”
“The settlement is consistent with the co-executors’ stated intent and practice since their appointments to those roles — to resolve claims related to any misconduct by Jeffrey Epstein in a manner sensitive to those who suffered harm,” Weiner said.
The estate previously paid out $121 million to Epstein’s victims in April 2021 under the Victims’ Compensation Program.
“They did so with the development of and successful conclusion to the Epstein Victims Compensation Fund – through which the Estate paid over $121 million to 136 individuals — and continue to do so with their settlement of these claims,” Weiner stated.
Weiner said the estate, “intends to meet all of its obligations under the settlement.”
Epstein, 66, killed himself in prison in 2019 while awaiting criminal trial on sex-trafficking charges.
