Caribbean Matters: Jeffrey Epstein and his impact on the US Virgin Islands

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The ghost of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and what information will be gleaned from ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell has dominated much of the media these days, including debates about “the list” of who did or didn’t visit and participate in various illegal deeds when on Epstein’s island. I had to remind myself that the isle in question is in the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

My coverage of the USVI here in the past has mostly been either historical, hurricane related, or cultural. I really hadn’t thought about what this Epstein story has meant in island politics.  

Epstein owned not only the island of Little St. James, but also Great St. James, according to News Nation:

Epstein initially purchased Little St. James, which is more than 70 acres, for $8 million in 1998, building several structures on the property, according to Forbes. Great St. James, around 165 acres, was then bought by Epstein in 2016 for $22.5 million.

A view of Jeffrey Epstein’s stone mansion on Little St. James Island. Federal authorities consider Little St. James Island to have been Epstein’s primary residence in the United States.

I have to admit I was surprised that I found almost no interviews with any Black Virgin Islanders who worked on that island—the maids, cooks, cleaners, and other “invisible workers” who keep the estates of the wealthy running. I could find no data on the race of the island’s employees.

There were few tales from the boat crews who ferried guests back and forth. During the days in the past when I stayed in St. Thomas I hung out with guys who owned or crewed some of those kinds of ships. They knew all the island gossip and helped create some of it, given that they were retired gunrunners and retirees from other not-legal or quasi-legal endeavors. I also knew some of the mostly Black female staff who worked for mostly white elites, and they were full of funny stories. 

But there are a few mentions, like the fact that locals referred to Epstein’s property as “Pedophile Island:”

The 66-year-old financier bought Little St. James Island off this US Caribbean territory more than two decades ago and began to transform it — clearing the native vegetation, ringing the property with towering palm trees and planting two massive US flags on either end. When guides took scuba divers to spots near the island, security guards would walk to the water’s edge.

It was off-putting to residents of St. Thomas — a lush tropical island east of Puerto Rico with winding roads through mountains dotted with dainty Danish colonial-era homes. Then, when Epstein pleaded guilty in a 2008 to soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution, his need for privacy began to appear more sinister.

“Everybody called it ‘Pedophile Island,’” said Kevin Goodrich, who is from St. Thomas and operates boat charters. “It’s our dark corner.”

Many people who worked for Epstein told The Associated Press this week that they had signed long non-disclosure agreements, and refused to talk. One former employee who declined to be identified said Epstein once had five boats, including a large ferry in which he transported up to 200 workers from St. Thomas to his island every day for construction work.

This Associated Press story in 2022 detailed the secrecy of the island:

Several individuals from St. Thomas who worked on Jeffrey Epstein’s private island, Little Saint James, have shared details of their experiences, painting a picture of an unusual and secretive environment. 
One former worker described a strict “keep to yourself and do your thing” atmosphere when Epstein was present, implying workers were discouraged from observing his activities closely. This individual also recounted seeing young women on the property and believed them to be over 18, though they acknowledged some uncertainty. 
Another worker noted the secrecy surrounding a particular steel safe in Epstein’s office, suggesting it contained sensitive materials beyond just money. This worker also revealed that employees were not permitted to enter certain rooms, including the offices, without authorization, according to the Los Angeles Times. […]
Beyond these individual accounts, some St. Thomas residents who didn’t work directly on the island have also shared their observations about Epstein and his activities, with some locals even referring to Little Saint James as “Pedophile Island”. Two employees at the local airstrip told Vanity Fair that they witnessed Epstein boarding his private plane with girls who appeared to be underage, according to Vanity Fair. 

My curiosity was piqued by a July 24, 2024 letter to the editor in The Virgin Islands Daily News, titled “Where’s the Epstein money?” signed by David Silverman, St. John:

Dear Editor,

How quickly we all seem to forget. It was less than one year ago when [USVI] Governor [Albert] Bryan announced that the Virgin Islands had reached a $75 million dollar settlement with JP Morgan Chase Bank stemming from the bank’s alleged involvement with Jeffrey Epstein in the Virgin Islands. Of that $75 million dollars, $20 million was to go to outside counsel for legal fees and the remainder was to go to the USVI.

And it was in January 2021 when [Epstein’s financier] Leon Black agreed to pay $62.5 million to the USVI to settle any potential claims involving his relationship with Epstein. We learned about that settlement in January 2023, two years after the fact. […]

And perhaps most importantly, and most contentiously, how about appointment of an independent special prosecutor to determine whether any current or past government employees were complicit in the sex trafficking activities of Jeffrey Epstein in the Virgin Islands? We cannot “put this episode behind us” as some in government desperately want to do, until all individuals involved are held accountable. Depending on lawsuits from “Jane Doe” victims to uncover the truth about the USVI is decidedly not the same as our own independent investigation.

Where has the money gone? Did it ever really exist? Inquiring minds want to know, but oddly there do not seem to be enough inquiring minds in the 35th Legislature or on Government Hill.

Good question, and the answers, such as they are, meant taking a dive into USVI’s politics.

Julie K. Brown, investigative reporter for The Miami Herald, wrote in September 2023 on his cozied-up relationships with those in power:

For two decades, the U.S. Virgin Islands’ most prominent government and elected officials — as well as their pet charities, educational institutions and causes — were paid millions of dollars by Jeffrey Epstein in the form of salaries, campaign contributions and consultant fees. His most trusted employee was the U.S. territory’s first lady. At the same time, USVI authorities paid little mind to the young women and girls he shuttled through the St. Thomas airport following his 2008 Palm Beach conviction for soliciting a minor for sex. […]

In recent months, discovery from the federal civil lawsuit provides the strongest evidence to date of Epstein’s influence in the USVI and his cozy relationships with three of the territory’s governors, its former first lady, attorney generals, senators, leaders of its Economic Development Commission, the Virgin Islands police, federal marshals, the Port Authority and the territory’s representative to Congress. Epstein even gave free turkeys to 78 federal Customs agents at the St. Thomas airport for Thanksgiving.

Also at the beginning of 2023, there was a curve ball thrown into the works. USVI Gov. Bryan fired the USVI prosecutor of the case and attorney general, Denise George.

The New York Times reported more on the termination of George:

The former attorney general for the Virgin Islands, who recently secured a $105 million settlement from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein, was recently fired following months of friction between her and the U.S. territory’s governor over the handling of the investigation into the disgraced financier, according to people briefed on the matter.

Denise N. George, the former official, was dismissed by Albert Bryan Jr., the governor of the Virgin Islands, on New Year’s Eve, four days after her office sued JPMorgan Chase in federal court in Manhattan for its dealings with Mr. Epstein, who died of an apparent suicide in 2019 while in federal custody.

The timing of Ms. George’s firing fueled media speculation in the Virgin Islands and beyond that the suit against JPMorgan was the immediate cause. […]

Ms. George did not address the speculation, but defended her decision to sue the bank and the work her office had done to make sure the dozens of women who were victims of Mr. Epstein’s sexual abuse as teenagers or young adults were appropriately compensated.

“I stand firm in my belief that the lawsuit I filed against JPMorgan Chase in our pursuit of justice must continue,” Ms. George said in a statement to The New York Times. “No institution, organization or person should be off-limits, no matter how wealthy or powerful.”

In 2023, George spoke out, The St. Thomas Source reported:

George, who was widely lauded when she won a $105 million lawsuit against the Epstein estate in November — believed to be the largest monetary settlement in the history of the territory — subsequently filed suit for $190 million against his onetime bank, JPMorgan Chase, on Dec. 27 in Manhattan federal court, alleging violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.

Bryan fired George four days later, on New Year’s Eve, saying nothing at first but later admitting that he was “blindsided” by the lawsuit that has opened V.I. officials to scrutiny for their dealings with Epstein. That includes Bryan himself, who approved Epstein’s lucrative Economic Development Authority benefits when he was head of the EDA board and has been deposed by JPMorgan’s attorneys, along with a host of other territory officials. […]

“The announcement was met with outrage on the islands, in the local press and abroad,” the Sunday Times said. […]

George was new to the job, having been nominated by Bryan just months earlier in March 2019, and was compelled to pursue the suit against Epstein’s estate after conducting heart-wrenching interviews with three of his victims that convinced her that crimes had indeed been committed in the USVI, she told the Sunday Times. […]

“Some people thought it was too big,” George said. “It’s not like anyone came to my face and said it, but I heard it on the streets. We had dozens of victims. Turning a blind eye was not an option. If I had done that, what would that have made me?”

So, about that question in the letter to the editor about the money. NBC News reported:

The estate of Jeffrey Epstein has agreed to pay the U.S. Virgin Islands more than $105 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that he used the territory as the base of an extensive sex trafficking operation.

The suit is being settled nearly three years after Denise N. George, the attorney general of the U.S. territory, sued Epstein, a New York financier who died by suicide in 2019 as he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

“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 Wednesday. “We are sending a clear message that the Virgin Islands will not serve as a haven for human trafficking.”

The Virgin Islands Consortium newspaper announced the settlement in September 2024:

The allocations will be spent on “various projects and initiatives to enhance community services, mental health resources, [and] infrastructure and economic development in the Virgin Islands,” according to Senator Donna Frett-Gregory. Some of the initiatives that will be funded from this money include the establishment of the Southern Trust Company Settlement Fund, and the Survivors and Mental Health Healing Trust Fund, under Bill 35-0380.‌

The measure also appropriates $21.5 million to the Department of Public Works for the completion of the Estate Nazareth Sports Complex, just over $2 million for school maintenance, $10 million to the Virgin Islands Port Authority to build the St. John Cultural Center, $4.2 million to Sea View Nursing Home, and $1.8 million to the Department of Property and Procurement for a long-term lease with the Nana Baby Children’s home on St. Thomas. The facility will also receive $200,000 to outfit the home.

‌The Department of Health will receive an $18 million appropriation from the Survivors and Mental Health Healing trust fund to complete a behavioral health facility on St. Croix, while $3.5 million will go toward finishing renovations on the east wing of the Eldra Schulterbrandt Mental Health Facility. The St. Thomas East End Medical Center receives $1 million, with the same sum also going to the Frederiksted Health Center.‌

The Department of Justice will receive $25 million to construct their St. Croix offices and $5 million for crime prevention and prosecution, while $125,000 will go towards police training.‌

Meanwhile, the V.I. Housing Authority will receive $3.5 million to renovate, rehabilitate, and construct recreational facilities in public housing communities on St. Thomas and St. Croix. The Agro Food and Innovation Center on St. Croix will receive $400,000, while the Agro Food Technology Center, housed in the Marcelli Institute on St. Thomas, will receive $675,000, Senator Frett-Gregory indicated.‌

In December 2024, The St. Thomas Source reported the funds would also be used to build nursing homes on the island:

Lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee unanimously approved a $20 million appropriation on Friday from funds received through a settlement agreement with the estate of Jeffrey Epstein for the design and construction of nursing homes on St. Croix and St. Thomas.

Sen. Dwayne DeGraff, who sponsored the measure … called the U.S. Virgin Islands’ prior relationship with Epstein a “dark cloud” hanging over the territory. The territory received a combined total of $137.5 million from settlement agreements with Epstein’s estate and financier Leon Black, respectively. DeGraff said the legislation was an effort to use some of the settlement money to directly benefit the territory’s seniors.

The latest wrinkle in the case that’s being reported involves the island’s non-voting representative to the U.S. Congress, Democrat Stacey Plaskett:

V.I. Delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett has filed notice that she will seek sanctions against the attorney representing six victims of Jeffrey Epstein in a lawsuit naming her, the V.I. government and other territory officials, saying the claims against her amount to “outright untruth, fiction, and misrepresentation.”

Plaskett said attorney Jordan K. Merson of Merson Law persisted in the “frivolous legal claims” even after her counsel contacted him in March, after the first amended complaint was filed, to warn that should he continue to press the complaint, the congresswoman would proceed to serve and then file a Rule 11 motion, which is used to address abusive or unfounded court filings. […]

“In this case, however, Mr. Merson and his colleagues disregarded their obligations as officers of the court. Perhaps they believed including the Congresswoman in their complaint would garner publicity, or that some defendants would put pressure on other defendants to settle quickly,” the notice states. “Perhaps they just wish to wound for some unknown insidious purpose. Certainly, the fact that they are using their clients as a conduit in that effort is reprehensible” and warrants “substantial sanctions,” it says, while stressing Plaskett’s support for victims of human trafficking.

Among the allegations against Plaskett in the second amended complaint are that she took “regular and routine payments” from Epstein, “disguised as campaign contributions”; that he held a fundraiser for her; that she recommended tax incentives for him when she was counsel for the V.I. Economic Development Authority; and that she “entered into agreement [sic] with Epstein … to facilitate the sex trafficking venture … to ensure Epstein’s clients co-conspirators, and co-defendants … had access to victims and Plaintiffs,” all of which is false, the notice states.

Please join me in the comments section below to discuss, and for the weekly Caribbean news roundup.  

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