Jeffrey Epstein owned two private islands in the US Virgin Islands.
Rick Friedman Photography via Getty; Marco Bello/Reuters
- Two private islands owned by the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are being listed for $125 million, The Wall Street Journal reports.
- The FBI raided one of the islands in August 2019, two days after Epstein died of an apparent suicide in a Manhattan jail cell.
- Epstein’s real-estate portfolio played a major role in the sexual-abuse allegations against him.
Two private islands in the US Virgin Islands that belonged to the late, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein are going to hit the market for $125 million, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing the islands’ listing agents.
Epstein in 2004.
Rick Friedman/Rick Friedman Photography/Corbis via Getty
In August 2019, Epstein died of an apparent suicide in a Manhattan jail cell, where he was being held on charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.
The two Virgin Islands properties, Little St. James and Great St. James, were at the center of Epstein’s sexual abuse lawsuit: Days after Epstein’s death, the FBI raided Little St. James to search for evidence pertaining to the case against him.
Modlin Group, Bespoke Real Estate, and Christie’s International Real Estate The Saints are collectively marketing the islands, per The Journal.
Modlin Group declined Insider’s request for comment. Bespoke Real Estate and Christie’s International Real Estate The Saints did not immediately reply to Insider’s requests for comment.
Proceeds from the sale of the properties will be used in part to pay for the Epstein estate’s outstanding lawsuits, Daniel Weiner, an attorney for the Epstein estate, told The Wall Street Journal.
Weiner did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
The islands sit next to each other off the coast of St. Thomas.
A Google Maps image of the two islands.
Google Maps
Source: Google Maps
The first of Epstein’s US Virgin Island purchases was Little St. James.
An aerial view of Little St. James.
Epstein bought the 72-acre Little St. James for $7.95 million in 1998. The island was later dubbed “Pedophile Island” and “Orgy Island” by locals, per the Los Angeles Times.
It’s believed to have been Epstein’s primary residence.
He flew underage girls to the island on his private jet as recently as 2018, Vanity Fair reported in 2019, citing locals.
Little St. James Island.
REUTERS/Marco Bello
Source: Business Insider, Vanity Fair
The island includes five buildings: a villa-style compound, a library, a cinema, a detached bathhouse, and cabanas.
Little St. James.
REUTERS/Marco Bello
There’s also a “flamingo-stocked lagoon” on the island, New York Magazine reported in 2019.
The main residence and compound sit on the northeast point of the island, and a pair of guest houses sit on the northwest and southeast points of the island.
Little St. James.
REUTERS/Marco Bello
The mansion has a distinctive turquoise roof.
Source: Business Insider, AP
The island is home to a temple-like structure that has striking blue and white stripes on the exterior and a variety of strange features.
A blue and white building on the island that resembles a temple.
REUTERS/Marco Bello
One of those features is a door that appears to be designed to keep people inside.
In 2000, Epstein started the Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation on Little St. James.
Little St. James.
REUTERS/Marco Bello
On its website, the foundation says it was established to “support cutting edge science and science education around the world.” The site further says the foundation gave $35 million to Harvard, kick-starting the university’s Program for Evolutionary Dynamics.
But Vox reported in 2020 that a source close to the contribution said the donation sum was actually much smaller — $6.5 million.
The bigger of Epstein’s two islands is called Great St. James. It spans 165 acres.
Reuters
Source: New York Magazine
Epstein bought Great St. James in 2016 for nearly $20 million, per The Wall Street Journal.
Great St. James.
REUTERS/Marco Bello
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Epstein had planned on building a compound on the island but was issued a stop-work order in December 2018 for not obeying environmental regulations.
Great St. James.
REUTERS/Marco Bello
According to the New York Post, the stop-work order was ignored, and construction on the island continued.
The compound was supposed to include an amphitheater and an underwater office and pool, the Virgin Islands Daily News reported in 2019.
Source: New York Magazine
Epstein owned at least four other luxury residential properties: a mansion in Manhattan; an estate in Palm Beach, Florida; a ranch in New Mexico; and an apartment in Paris.
The Manhattan residence that was once owned by Epstein.
Screenshot via Google Maps
Epstein’s seven-story mansion on East 71st Street was valued at $77 million in a 2019 court document. However, the New York City Department of Finance valued the home closer to $56 million earlier at another point that year.
In March 2021, the Manhattan townhouse sold for $51 million, far below its listing price of $88 million, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Epstein’s Palm Beach estate, which he purchased in 1990, was estimated to be worth over $12 million in 2019. In December 2021, a venture capitalist bought the vacant lot for $25.845 million, a source close to the deal told The Wall Street Journal. It had previously been sold to a developer who had chose to demolish the existing house.
In New Mexico, Epstein owned a 7,500-acre ranch that was appraised at over $18 million in 2013.
He also owned an apartment in Paris on the famous Avenue Foch.
His real-estate portfolio played a major role in the sexual-abuse allegations against him.
Little St. James.
REUTERS/Marco Bello
On January 15, 2020, Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George filed a lawsuit alleging that, as recently as 2018, Epstein and his associates took girls and young women to Little St. James and forced them into sexual servitude and forced labor.
On March 19, 2020, Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, sued his estate. She filed the lawsuit with the superior court in the US Virgin Islands.
Maxwell was seeking to get funds from the estate for the legal fees she racked up while defending herself against claims that she helped recruit girls and young women to be forced into sexual servitude on Epstein’s islands. After a trial that began on November 29, Maxwell was found guilty of five charges, including sex trafficking of a minor.
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