Jeffrey Epstein had been on the sex offender registry since a conviction in 2008. That would not have prevented him from continuing his sexual exploitation of dozens - and potentially hundreds - of minors, until 2019, accuses the Virgin Islands prosecutor . Denise George seized the American justice, Wednesday, to request the seizure of the goods of the financier who committed suicide in his cell last summer.
In 49 pages, the prosecutor describes sex trafficking on a much larger scale than what had been revealed so far. Denise George said the financier had organized a "vast network of human trafficking and sexual abuse of young women here in the Virgin Islands". To hide its activities, Epstein allegedly used a complex arrangement involving a series of front companies and foundations, in particular to transport young girls by helicopter or boat without arousing suspicion from the main airport of the Virgin Islands, located in St. Thomas.
Accomplices accused of participating in the abuse
Between 2001 and 2019, Jeffrey Epstein would have transported young girls to his private island of Little St James "several dozen times". The youngest would be 12 years old, said the prosecutor. According to her, Epstein and several accomplices, whose identity has not been specified, "trafficked, raped, sexually assaulted and held minors on his island. Some accomplices are accused of having participated in the abuses.
This association of criminals, whom the prosecutor calls the "Epstein Enterprise", is said to have dangled the alleged victims, mainly aged between 12 and 17, from career opportunities, notably in modeling, without the slightest foundation. According to the New York Times , there could be a total of hundreds of potential victims, including from South America. Some young women are said to have traveled on fraudulent visas to cross borders.
Teenage girl tried to run away
A 15-year-old girl reportedly tried to escape by swimming. Several victims are said to have tried in one way or another to flee before being kidnapped and kidnapped by Jeffrey Epstein's team, notably through confiscated passports and threats of violence.
Denise George said she ordered an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein shortly after he took office in May 2019. The prosecutor requests the seizure of all the property that could have been used, in his "criminal enterprise", for this man whose personal fortune, with mysterious origins, would reach more than 500 million dollars.
At the same time, several investigations are underway to try to establish possible complicity. American justice is particularly interested in the former companion of Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, accused by several alleged victims of having played a decisive role in the organization of the presumed network of exploitation of minors. Several victims also accused the French agent Jean-Luc Brunel of recruiting young girls through his modeling agency MC2. Also targeted by accusations in France, the latter, by the voice of his lawyer, denied as a whole.
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