(Fortune) - Deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s private Caribbean islands are up for sale for $125 million.
Lawyers for Epstein’s estate confirmed to the BBC that the two islands—Little St. James and Great St. James—have been listed, and that money from the sale would go toward resolving some of the disgraced financier's legal cases.
The proceeds "will be used by the estate for the resolution of outstanding lawsuits and the regular costs of the estate's operations,” Daniel Weiner, a partner at New York law firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed and executor of the island properties, told the BBC.
Epstein bought the 90-acre Little St. James Island 25 years ago for around $8 million, and then acquired the 161-acre Great St. James 20 years later for $22.5 million. Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 in what was ruled a suicide, was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Prior to his conviction, Epstein had drawn up plans to develop Great St. James with homes, an amphitheater, a pool, and an underwater office, according to the Virgin Islands Daily News. He lived on Little St. James.
The islands are located in the U.S. Virgin Islands and were a key part of Epstein’s substantial international property portfolio, which included a seven-story townhouse in New York on East 71st Street, between Fifth and Madison Avenues, an 800-square-meter apartment in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, a Palm Beach mansion, and a New Mexico ranch.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the two islands could sell for as much as $125 million, although other estimates place the value of the islands closer to $86 million.
Bad memories
Epstein was accused by U.S. Virgin Island attorney general Denise George of sexually abusing girls as young as 12 on Little St. James. The lawsuit, filed two years ago, also claimed that a 15-year-old girl tried to escape from the island by swimming away before being captured and brought back.
Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein's alleged victims, claimed in a civil suit that Prince Andrew had sexually abused her on the island. Prince Andrew has denied the claims and has since paid Giuffre a settlement—which included a “substantial donation” to Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights, and a pledge from Prince Andrew to “demonstrate his regret for his association” with Epstein. It included no admission of guilt.
Other visitors to Little St James included Jes Staley, the former CEO of Barclays, who resigned from his position at the U.K. bank last year amid a regulatory probe into whether he mischaracterized his relationship with Epstein. Staley sailed his luxury yacht to the deceased financier and sex offender's island in 2015, a few months before he took on the chief executive role at Barclays.
The portfolio
The islands are dotted with buildings the rich and powerful would use on their visits.
Sheets now cover the furniture across the island.
Epstein's seven-story townhouse on Manhattan's Upper East Side was sold in 2021 for $51 million to former Goldman Sachs executive Michael Daffey.
The Palm Beach mansion was also sold in 2021, for $18.5 million, and is being razed and replaced, the Palm Beach Daily News reported.
Epstein's Paris apartment is still on the balance sheet and has been listed for $14 million, according to the Telegraph.
BY Sophie Mellor
