(NEW YORK) — The executors of the estate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have listed for sale the two private Caribbean islands the late financier owned off the east coast of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, an attorney for the estate told ABC News on Wednesday.
The asking price: $125 million, according to two sources.
Epstein purchased the private island, Little St. James, in 1998 for about $8 million and established his permanent residence there in 2010, around the time he was released from his first jail sentence in Palm Beach, Florida. He liked to refer to his estate there as “Little St. Jeff’s,” according to testimony that emerged last year during the criminal trial of his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Epstein later acquired ownership of a larger, neighboring island, Great St. James, and he was in the process of building a new estate there at the time of his arrest in 2019, according to court and property records in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The Wall St. Journal first reported news of the listing.
The islands are currently encumbered by “criminal activity” liens placed by Denise George, the U.S. Virgin Islands’ attorney general, who in early 2020 filed a civil racketeering lawsuit against the estate. The suit alleges that Epstein created a network of shell companies, charitable organizations and individuals that participated in and conspired with him in a decadeslong pattern of criminal activity tied to alleged sex trafficking of minor girls and young women.
“Epstein, through and in association with defendants, trafficked, raped, sexually assaulted and held captive underage girls and young women at his properties in the Virgin Islands,” the complaint said.
ABC News reported earlier this month that lawyers for the Epstein estate are in settlement talks with the U.S. Virgin Island government. One estate attorney described the two sides as being “extraordinarily close” to reaching a negotiated resolution.
A lawyer for the estate, Daniel Weiner, confirmed to ABC News Wednesday that the properties have been listed for sale. The proceeds of any sale, Weiner said, would be used by the estate “for the resolution of outstanding lawsuits and the regular costs of the Estate’s operations, and will be subject to potential claims by tax authorities, creditors, and other parties.”
The proceeds will be held in liened accounts, Weiner said, pending the resolution of the government’s lawsuit
The estate has previously unloaded two of Epstein’s other properties, his Palm Beach Island seaside home and his Upper East Side Manhattan townhouse. Two other properties, Zorro Ranch in New Mexico and an Avenue Foch apartment in Paris, are also for sale.
The marketing of the islands is being handled by New York firms The Modlin Group and Bespoke Real Estate in partnership with U.S. Virgin Islands-based Christie’s International Real Estate The Saints, Weiner said.
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