Victims of Jeffrey Epstein are suing the US Virgin Islands for enabling his sex trafficking, weeks after the territory reached a $75 million settlement to resolve similar claims it made against JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Epstein got special treatment and privileges that ensured his sex crimes flourished for years at his mansion on one of the islands, including allowing him to fly girls in from the US on his private jet without proper visas, according to the complaint filed Wednesday in New York federal court.
The disgraced financier “victimized hundreds of young women and girls with the assistance of a wide network of co-conspirators, including the USVI and its many government officials and staff,” the proposed class-action complaint states.
The lawsuit is the latest court fight tied to Epstein since his suicide in jail four years ago. His former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted of trafficking and sexual abuse in 2021, and several victims have sued his estate, some of his famous friends and two of his banks, JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank AG.
The USVI filed its own lawsuit against JPMorgan late last year and is now facing litigation for details unearthed during that high-profile case.
Read more: Deutsche Bank to Pay $75 Million to Settle Epstein Suit
A host of former USVI officials, including former Governor John de Jongh, former first lady Cecile de Jongh, Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett, former Governor Kenneth Mapp and former attorney general Vincent Frazer, are named as defendants in the new suit.
Former state senators Celestino White and Carlton Dowe are also named in the suit. The victims are seeking unspecified monetary damages for violations of federal sex trafficking laws.
A spokesperson for the USVI government, Dowe and a lawyer for Cecile de Jongh didn’t immediately respond outside regular business hours to emailed requests for comment. Mapp and Frazer could not be reached for comment.
Jordan Merson, an attorney for the victims identified only as Jane Doe, said the lawsuit was aimed at holding those accountable for the sexual abuse the women endured.
“Information recently revealed establishes the strong merits of this lawsuit,” he said in a statement.
The lawsuit comes almost two months after the USVI settled its own litigation against JPMorgan for knowingly benefitting from Epstein’s sex trafficking. The late financier was a client of the bank from the late 1990s to 2013 and kept tens of millions of dollars in his many accounts.
While the case led to embarrassing revelations for the largest US bank — including Epstein’s friendship with former top banker Jes Staley – it was also a public relations headache for the territory.
Emails lodged as evidence in that suit detailed Epstein’s influence in the USVI, where he owned a private island, Little St. James, and trafficked young women. Epstein donated heavily to political campaigns, lobbied to change sex-offender laws for his personal benefit and employed the former first lady, Cecile de Jongh, as his office manager. She also acted as his political emissary, emails filed in the JPMorgan case showed.
The USVI Economic Development Commission granted Epstein about $300 million in tax breaks over the years.
Wednesday’s complaint appears to build on the evidence presented in the JPMorgan litigation but also includes new allegations — including that Epstein leaned on government officials to get two of the plaintiffs, Jane Doe 2 and 3, into the territory even though their visas had expired.
In 2003 or 2004, the suit alleges, Jane Doe 4 was sexually assaulted in Epstein’s office in the marina area known as Red Hook on St. Thomas while Mrs. de Jongh was within earshot.
The lawsuit claims the victims couldn’t escape Epstein’s sex trafficking because he used USVI laws and agencies, such as border officials at the airport, to keep victims in the territory.
“Without the USVI government, Epstein’s sex trafficking scheme could not have existed and flourished, undisturbed in the USVI,” according to the complaint.
Another class-action suit filed by a Jane Doe victim of Epstein settled with JPMorgan in June for $290 million.
The case is Jane Doe v. US Virgin Islands, 23-cv-10301, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
Author: Ava Benny-Morrison
