the epstein case

What We Know About Jeffrey Epstein'due south 'Pedophile Island'

Little St. James Island, which is owned by billionaire and accused sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Petty St. James Isle. Photo: Gianfranco Gaglione/AP/Shutterstock

More than 2 decades ago, Fiddling St. James Isle, a small office of the U.Due south. Virgin Islands, began to change in ways that the locals on neighboring islands regarded with suspicion. Plants were cleared. Poles begetting American flags went upwards. Security guards lined the beaches.

These transformations, according to the Associated Press, happened when the isle was bought by accused child-sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, who was plant expressionless by apparent suicide in his prison cell on August 10. The isle has, over the years, gained a handful of sinister nicknames: "Orgy Isle," "Pedophile Island," and "Island of Sin." (Epstein, Bloomberg reports, preferred the nickname "Little St. Jeff's.")

Though much of what transpired on the island has remained the field of study of rumor, it's likely that more concrete details will before long emerge: On Monday, at least a dozen FBI agents raided Epstein'southward Picayune St. James residence, a bureau spokesman told NBC News.

Below, everything to know virtually Epstein's ties to the island.

In 1998, for $7.95 million, Epstein purchased Fiddling St. James Island, which is situated between the larger St. Thomas and St. John islands. After ownership the 72-acre body of land, Epstein outfitted the isle with towering palm trees, multiple buildings, and a helicopter pad, Bloomberg reports.

Though not many details accept been reported about the interior of the main residence, a former employee said that Epstein had two offices, which no one but the maid was allowed to enter, where he kept security boxes. A erstwhile It contractor who worked for Epstein from 1999 through 2005 besides shed light on what was to be plant inside Epstein's residence: countless photos of nude women.

"There were photos of topless women everywhere," contractor Steve Scully told ABC News. "On his desk, in his office, in his chamber."

At that place's as well what appears to be a mysterious blue-striped temple. According to Insider, which investigated the construction, it previously featured a gilded dome that flew off in 2017 when the hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated the region. While the purpose of the temple is unknown, one possibility is that information technology had served as a place for the classically trained Epstein to practice piano — workers described information technology as a music room with audio-visual walls and a grand pianoforte inside, as the AP reports.

Conspiracy theorists have suggested that the temple was either a secluded setting for Epstein'due south corruption or that it concealed a hidden clandestine location for the same purpose. James Both, a contractor whom Insider consulted with for the story, noted that while it was possible to install an underground infinite or lift, the construction would have most likely been documented by a vendor to ensure regular inspections.

Both also pointed out the temple'southward questionable wooden door, which features a reinforcing lock bar. "What makes it peculiar is that if you wanted to go on people out, the bar would be placed inside the building, [just the] locking bar appears to be placed on the outside … every bit if it were intended to lock people in," he said. According to Scully, though, the building is simply a gym. (He claims, however, that the gym allegedly features an especially large framed photo of a topless woman.)

Epstein also had an interest in "pirate treasure," one of his onetime employees told Bloomberg. Reportedly, Epstein would pay staffers anywhere between $100 and $1,000 if they discovered and gave to him former rum bottles, plates, and other dishware.

According to Fox News, Epstein had a dedicated team of workers on the island who trafficked girls as young as 12 to his clients. To become in that location, Epstein would fly the underage girls into St. Thomas, and and so he would ferry them over to his private island via a boat named Lady Ghislaine, one former employee told Bloomberg.

Once on the island, the underage girls and women say they were coerced into sexual encounters and, in some cases, fifty-fifty held hostage. Sarah Ransome, who claims Epstein instructed her to have sex with lawyer Alan Dershowitz when she was in her 20, said she tried to swim off the isle, simply to exist found past a search party that included Epstein and his alleged madame Ghislaine Maxwell. (Dershowitz claims that he has never met Ransome). She also said that they kept her passport so she couldn't leave — a ruthless tactic they allegedly used in an effort to agree more than one victim against their volition. In a 2015 defamation lawsuit filed against Maxwell, the house manager for one of Maxwell's close friends testified that a "distraught" xv-year-old Swedish girl told him that Maxwell had taken away her passport and tried to force her to have sexual practice with Epstein while she was on the isle. (In a statement, a spokesperson for his former employer called this claim "demonstrably false and defamatory.")

Furthermore, in his interview with ABC News, Scully said that he often saw groups of girls who "couldn't have been more fifteen or sixteen years old" riding ATVs and bathing topless.

Co-ordinate to let records obtained by NBC News, while Epstein'south legal team was busy negotiating a notoriously lenient plea deal for their client in the fall of 2007, Epstein was preoccupied with orchestrating major renovations on the isle. (He would eventually plead guilty to two counts of soliciting prostitution from a minor, thus dodging federal sexual activity-trafficking charges, and serve just 13 months in jail.) During this fourth dimension, Epstein reportedly ordered the construction of a spa, a living room that would connect to a ground theater, a new kitchen, and ii new guest rooms. Altogether, he sought to expand his residence past nearly 20,000 square feet — a transformation that turned his main house into a mansion.

Virginia Roberts, who claims to have been trafficked by Epstein, told her lawyers in 2011 interview that she saw Clinton with "two young girls" on the island. "I remember asking Jeffrey, 'What's Bill Clinton doing hither?,' [that] kind of thing, and he laughed it off and said, 'Well, he owes me a favor,'" Roberts told her lawyers.

Clinton, even so, has repeatedly denied this allegation through his spokesperson.

"President Clinton knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago, or those with which he has been recently charged in New York," Angel Urena said in a argument. "He's not spoken to Epstein in well over a decade, and has never been to Niggling St. James Island, Epstein's ranch in New Mexico, or his residence in Florida."

Per Bloomberg, Les Wexner, chairman and CEO of the Fifty Brands corporation (the parent company of Victoria's Secret), also spent time on the island on at least occasion, an employee told the outlet. (Victoria's Secret models allegedly visited, as well). Additionally, the onetime prime minister of Israel Ehud Barak told the Daily Beast that he had visited the island, though he explicitly said that he did non meet Epstein "in the company of women or young girls."

In 2016, Epstein purchased the nearby Great St. James Island, which is approximately 165 acres, for $18 million. This year, he had begun construction on a compound at that place despite a stop-work gild that had been in place since December. The chemical compound was to feature an amphitheater, an underwater office, and puddle, according to the Virgin Islands Daily News.

On July 9, U.S. Virgin Islands Delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett said she would be matching the donations she had received from Epstein over the years to give to organizations in her district that focus on women and children. "I am uncomfortable having received money from someone who has been defendant of these egregious actions multiple times," Plaskett said.

This post has been updated.

What Nosotros Know Nigh Jeffrey Epstein'south 'Pedophile' Island