US Treasury gets biggest cut of Jeffrey Epstein’s fortune

Jeffrey Epstein

Credit: New York State Sex Offender Registry

The US taxman has been the biggest beneficiary of the disgraced billionaire, Jeffrey Epstein.

An analysis of his estate’s financial returns by the McClatchy news service and the Miami Herald revealed that it made two separate payments of $95 million (£70 million) last year.

Representatives of Epstein’s estate confirmed that the payments were to settle tax demands on his fortune.

Epstein, 66, who was awaiting trial on charges of child sex trafficking, was found dead in his prison cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in Manhattan in August 2019.

According to the US Department of Justice, Epstein’s death was “an apparent suicide.”

The documents also reveal that Epstein’s 2008 Gulfstream G550 jet was sold last year for $10.6 million, considerably less than the original $17 million asking price.

This was the aircraft which was dubbed the “Lolita Express”, having allegedly been used to ferry Epstein’s victims to “Little St Jeff’s”, the Caribbean island he bought in 1998 for $7.95 million.

Lawyer Darren Indyke and accountant Richard Kahn, Epstein’s executors, originally valued the estate at $577 million.

Subsequent estimates increased the estate’s worth to more than $636 million, when the sale of assets and an increase in the value of its investments.

The government’s take would have been higher, but for changes introduced by the Trump administration, which raised the tax threshold on accumulated wealth to $11.2 million.

Epstein is understood to have also benefited from tax breaks implemented by the US Virgin Islands.

They included allowing him to create a tax-free holding company for his jet.

Jeffrey Epstein: The tangled web left behind

More than 100 victims are seeking compensation from the Epstein estate.

A fund was established in consultation with his lawyers and the attorney general of the US Virgin Islands.

The purpose of the fund was to avoid prolonged and costly litigation.

It is understood that the fund, which was established last July has already paid out $30 million to victims.

Because of the coronavirus, victims are being interviewed via video and it is estimated that it takes around 60 days to review a claim.

“It gives the victims an opportunity to tell their story, and it gives me an opportunity to get to know them in a way that can’t be fully captured in a paper file,” said Jordana Feldman, the fund’s administrator.