The wealthy bankers, political leaders and prominent academics who visited Jeffrey Epstein’s Caribbean island traveled by private jet and spent afternoons scuba diving or riding jet skis.
The girls and young women that Epstein shuttled to the island had a drastically different experience: confiscated passports, extensive sexual abuse and conditions so dire that at least one said she tried to escape by swimming away.
For nearly two decades, Little St. James, Epstein’s roughly 70-acre island, was the perfect tool for him to both cultivate powerful friends and abuse young women and girls. It offered Epstein both a glamorous setting to attract famous figures and the seclusion he needed to prey on his victims.
Now, a trove of millions of pages of documents released by the Department of Justice creates the clearest picture yet of Epstein’s tropical crime scene, a mysterious locale that’s at the center of a sex trafficking scandal still roiling global politics today.
A CNN review of thousands of emails, photos, videos and documents from the DOJ files adds critical new details to how Epstein transformed the island into his personal fiefdom – and highlights warning signs of the terrible abuse perpetrated there that some staffers and victims say was happening in plain sight.
The testimony outlined in the DOJ documents calls into question claims by some influential visitors to Epstein’s island who have denied knowing about the financier’s sex trafficking – and shows several of those guests boasting of sexual exploits or engaging in crude conversations with the convicted sex offender.
“The activities were so obvious and bold that anyone spending any significant time at one of Epstein’s residences would have clearly been aware of what was going on,” one victim stated in a court document.
Those warning signs include photographs of naked young girls on his walls, airport workers who reported Epstein had traveled with girls who appeared underage, and an interior decorator who said he’d been asked to design one of the island’s bedrooms with pink furnishings and bunk beds.
Some staffers and victims have also called out specific Epstein guests, the documents show, such as Google co-founder Sergey Brin and 23andMe co-founder Anne Wojcicki, who both spent a day on the island in 2007, according to a victim’s statement. “They observed that we did not speak and that we remained mute,” the victim, whose name is not included in the public document, wrote in the statement. “They witnessed the trauma on our faces and in our eyes. Sergey and Anne witnessed our souls and bodies riddled with fear. They said nothing. They did nothing.”
Brin and Wojcicki did not respond to requests for comment.
In the wake of Epstein’s death in a federal jail cell in 2019, his estate sold Little St. James and the neighboring island of Great St. James, which Epstein also owned, for about $60 million, at least some of which has gone to paying settlement costs related to his abuse.
But questions about the island and its place in Epstein’s sprawling financial empire have only grown in the years since his death.
Little St. James became “the hub” of Epstein’s sex trafficking because it was the ideal place to “isolate his victims,” said Thomas Volscho, a City University of New York professor who has studied Epstein’s crimes.
“You’re in paradise,” he said, “but you’re in hell at the same time.”
From tropical paradise to human trafficking hub
When Epstein bought his island for about $8 million in 1998, he was a financier with a spotless criminal record, a growing network of prominent friends and a home base in one of Manhattan’s largest private residences. In a Wall Street Journal real estate listing at the time, the island’s previous owner, venture capitalist Arch Cummin, described life on Little St. James: “You can hop off a plane and never see anybody again.”
The windswept island is more than a mile away from St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, and only accessible by helicopter or boat. Over the course of 20 years, maps and documents illustrate how Epstein transformed the somewhat desolate Little St. James into what appeared on the surface to be a luxurious vacation destination complete with a theater, library, stand-alone gym, tiki hut and staff residences.
Satellite images from 2002 show just a handful of buildings, with the main house and a few cabanas and outlying structures on the island’s northern tip. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, Epstein significantly expanded the living spaces, adding a larger pool, new cabanas, a massive sundial and a bizarre temple-like structure overlooking the island’s southwest coast.
The DOJ files describe how Epstein poured his money into details that could impress visitors. He spent nearly $300,000 on a desk “from the princely house of Lichtenstein” and almost $100,000 on two “mythological terracotta figures” that had once adorned the Vienna stock exchange building. In one email exchange, an Epstein staffer explored how to fulfill their boss’s desire “to have a laser beam going out from the bow across the sky” from a sculpture of an archer on the property.
For Epstein, who officially listed Little St. James as his primary residence, relocating some of his business to the US territory meant a tax break. But owning his own island also represented Epstein’s entrée into a new tier of elite wealth – a powerful symbol for the former schoolteacher who grew up in a working-class Brooklyn family. He sometimes referred to the island as “Little St. Jeff’s,” and described it in one deposition as “my favorite place to be.”
As Epstein’s staff, renovators and decorators worked around the clock to maintain and transform Little St. James to his whims, some noticed odd behavior from their boss.
One former chef later told federal investigators how Epstein would take a girl to his master bedroom every hour, and after his massage, the maids would go make the bed and clean up. Designer Robert Couturier said in a 2010 FBI interview that Epstein asked him to decorate a bedroom on his island with “a very colorful palette for his girls.”
Couturier told CNN that when he visited the island and saw bunkbeds, he asked Epstein if he had grandchildren. “He said, ‘No, this is for the girls,’ and I immediately understood,” Couturier remembered. He backed out of the project.
Epstein “wasn’t hiding anything,” Couturier said, adding that he also saw concerning photos of girls inside the property. “I think some people chose not to see it.”
Steve Scully, who handled IT for the island in the early 2000’s, told the FBI that Epstein had photographs of topless teenage girls in his home and recalled seeing naked underage girls on the island. Even local airport workers noticed Epstein exiting his jet with underage girls and then flying them by helicopter to his island.
Epstein went to great lengths to ensure Little St. James was pristine. A property manual from the DOJ files outlined cleaning schedules and employee rules. Staff were instructed to wear formal attire while serving Epstein and his guests and only address them as “sir” or “ma’am.” When Epstein arrived at the island, he was to be presented with a coconut drink at the freshly vacuumed helipad, and an ATV was to be positioned for his exit.
The guide also underscored Epstein’s insistence on privacy: “Unless requested, he does not desire to have staff in his presence,” the manual stated. “When the Principal enters a room in which staff is also in, staff is to allow him his privacy. When serving the Principal, staff is to be quiet, prompt, courteous, and exit as soon as possible.”
In 2016, Epstein sought to expand his empire, purchasing the neighboring island of Great St. James for more than $20 million, according to court records – creating a buffer zone of sorts that ensured an even broader circle of privacy.
By 2018, Epstein was embarking on a new redevelopment of both islands – with plans that hinted at one of his true purposes for the private land.
Plans and “moodboard” renderings included in the documents show a “ladies’ residence” and “ladies’ private room,” complete with an infinity pool, hammocks and sweeping ocean views.
Epstein was focused on the minutiae of the design: “ladies kitchn more complete. they will use it often,” he wrote to his architect in a typo-filled April 2018 email, also criticizing the “location of girls” in the plans.
The victims
As Epstein built his tropical getaway, a steady stream of young women and girls were brought to the island.
One recalled that she first visited Little St. James in 2006 on what she thought would be a “girl’s trip,” according to a document released in January. But when she arrived, she was told she couldn’t leave, and her passport was taken from her, she said.
Then, Epstein repeatedly raped her.
It was a pattern that played out for years on the island, both before and after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to procuring a minor for prostitution – a conviction that led to just 13 months jail time under a lenient deal.
A lawsuit from government attorneys in the Virgin Islands alleged Epstein began coercing underage girls and young women into sexual activity on the island as early as 2001 and continued until 2019, the year he was charged with federal sex trafficking crimes and then died in jail. Victims were described as being as young as 12 years old.
The suit – which settled in 2022, with Epstein’s estate and other defendants agreeing to pay the Virgin Islands government more than $100 million – stated that a 15-year-old who was forced into sexual acts with Epstein and others attempted to escape the island by swimming.
A victim statement contained within the DOJ files describes a similar effort to escape. “One day I was in severe distress and afraid,” the record states. “I tried to escape Epstein and the others by trying to swim off St Little James. Epstein and Maxwell, after spending the day being raped, bullied, and belittled, brought me back as if nothing happened.” It’s unclear if that statement represents the same incident described in the lawsuit.
Some of Epstein’s associates appeared to joke about the prospect of his victims swimming away. In one 2013 email, someone whose name was redacted in the documents suggested to Epstein that a woman or girl could “start her ‘training’” on the island. “It would be better to speak to her there (because she wont have a choice only if she jumps to the water and swim away, lol),” the sender wrote, adding a smiley face to the message.
Victims in FBI interviews described how Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend who has been convicted of child sex trafficking, instructed the girls and young women on how to please Epstein while on the island.
“Maxwell knew Epstein needed sex a lot. Maxwell would portray that ‘he is a sexual being’ and that ‘if you aren’t taking care of his needs while on the island then there is no place for you here,’” one victim said.
Another victim recalled Maxwell instructing her and three other girls on the island to “get naked and wrap themselves in saran wrap” as a birthday present for Epstein.
One victim told the FBI that Epstein wanted to build a “Harem” on the island in which he could house multiple girls. “He wanted it to be a castle like structure, resembling the Alhambra in Spain,” an FBI report states.
Victims also alleged that some Epstein staffers turned a blind eye to his crimes.
“They were always in and out of bungalows, shepherding us around and serving us. Making sure everything ran smoothly,” one victim wrote in her statement included in the DOJ files. “Their smiles were white and bright. They used the same friendly, warm smiles to comfort me after Epstein raped me, and I fled, bleeding and crying.”
The documents also provide a window into how Epstein lured his victims to the island. In one 2017 exchange, Epstein asked someone whose name was redacted to connect him with a friend he “might find amusing” and could join him on his travels. He continued: “you must have one really very pretty friend that you don t really like anymore :)”
Another victim who met Epstein when she was 17 told the FBI the flight to the island was her first time on a plane in more than a decade. When Epstein invited her, she thought the trip “would just be a vacation.” Then, once she was there, Epstein took her to a bedroom and raped her. After she returned home, he sent her a box of chocolates.
Other emails show how Epstein interacted with women after they left Little St. James. When one person, whose name is redacted, wrote in 2013 to thank him for a trip to the island, he responded with a blunt command: “Send me a sexy photo taken in the mirror.”
Epstein’s powerful guests
For years, Epstein frequently sent his well-connected friends messages asking them to visit Little St. James. The welcoming and even sometimes pleading notes fit his pattern of meticulously building a network of power that helped him as he faced scrutiny over his crimes.
In emails to prominent figures year after year, Epstein invited recipients to “come visit me on my island.” Records show he hosted conferences for academics, offered posh vacations to civil servants and sought to entice power players to drop by his Caribbean property during their travels.
He often offered perks. “I am happy to pay for the private flight,” he wrote in 2014 to Joi Ito, the then-director of the Media Lab at MIT, on an email chain that included Reid Hoffman, a co-founder of LinkedIn. “You can use my island with or without me anytime you like,” he wrote the same year to renowned physicist Lawrence Krauss.
Records indicate all three of the men accepted invitations from Epstein. Hoffman later expressed regret for interacting with Epstein, saying on a podcast that his trip to Little St. James was “the first time I’ve gone to an island” and adding, “note to self, Google before going.” Ito said, “Had I known what has since emerged, I would without question have severed all ties.” Krauss has said his interactions with Epstein usually involved scientific meetings or salons with interesting speakers.
Other bold-face names have also disclosed visiting the island. Some came before Epstein’s first conviction in 2008, including Larry Summers, the former Treasury secretary and Harvard president, whose spokesperson said he spent “less than a day” on the island while on his honeymoon in 2005. Jes Staley, the former Barclays CEO, stayed on the island in 2009 while the financier was serving prison time, according to court records.
Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group, toured the island for ninety minutes in 2013 after Epstein mentioned he might want to sell it, his spokesperson told CNN. Leon Black, a Wall Street tycoon, said in a letter reviewed by CNN that he visited for a “picnic lunch” with his family. Peter Mandelson, a UK lawmaker who was fired last year as US ambassador over his ties to Epstein, told the BBC he spent one or two nights on the island. And a spokesperson for former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak said he visited the island for a “few hours in daytime,” accompanied by his wife and security detail.
All have denied any wrongdoing or seeing anything untoward on their visits, and many have expressed regret at associating with Epstein.
Some of Epstein’s wealthy guests were more impressed by his island than others. Les Wexner, the billionaire whose fortune Epstein previously managed, said in a congressional deposition last month that he had visited once for about an hour with his wife and children, and described it as “a pretty crummy island.”
Many of those who accepted Epstein’s island overtures have insisted they hardly knew him.
“I did have lunch with him, as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said of his 2012 visit to the island during a Senate hearing last month. “I did not have any relationship with him. I barely had anything to do with that person.”
After his testimony, another photo emerged in the DOJ files that appears to show Lutnick on the island, and he agreed to testify before the House Oversight Committee about Epstein.
‘Please send me few pics of your island’
A central ongoing question of the Epstein investigations in Congress is whether and how extensively Epstein’s two worlds – his powerful friends and his network of abused girls and women – overlapped during his life.
It’s a question that is especially pointed on Little St. James, where his guests were sometimes in close proximity to his victims – and, according to testimony in the documents, may have overlooked glaring warning signs.
Several victims recounted seeing prominent people during trips to the island, including the victim who said in a statement that she met Brin and Wojcicki and another who, in an interview with the FBI, mentioned seeing supermodel Naomi Campbell on the island. An attorney for Campbell said she briefly stopped on the island for a few hours when she was with a group of people traveling to an F1 race and did not see anyone engaging in inappropriate conduct or anyone whom she believed was victimized by Epstein.
One prominent Epstein victim has gone further and alleged that she was abused by a powerful guest on his island.
Virginia Giuffre said in a sworn declaration and in her posthumously published book that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former British prince, and Epstein had an orgy with her and “approximately eight other young girls” during a trip to the island when she was “around 18” years old.
The other girls “all appeared to be under the age of 18 and didn’t really speak English,” she wrote. That was one of three instances when she was abused by Andrew, and one of many times Epstein abused her, Giuffre, who died of suicide last year, said. Andrew has denied all of Giuffre’s allegations and insisted he never witnessed Epstein’s abuse. UK authorities arrested Andrew last month on suspicion of misconduct in public office and said they were reviewing claims he shared sensitive information with Epstein.
One Epstein victim told the FBI that Epstein had flown her to his island and instructed her to “entertain” one of his clients, who she described as an academic, “as if she was the man’s girlfriend.” She reported spending two days with the unnamed client, who she said “wanted to ride jet skis and participate in other island activities besides the sexual activity that was expected.” The victim’s name is redacted in the FBI report, but biographical details she described in the interview match Giuffre’s public claims.
Another victim recounted in her own FBI interview that during a trip to Epstein’s island, Epstein flew her to another island and introduced her to an unnamed billionaire. “They had lunch and nothing seemed weird,” the woman recounted.
Some staff say they also saw Epstein’s guests in concerning situations with women and girls on the island.
Scully, the technician who worked on the island between 1999 and the mid-2000s, told the FBI he observed an unnamed man on the island accompanied by girls who “did not look 18 and they were all naked.” He also told investigators he saw then-Prince Andrew on the island and “recalled him grinding against some young girl in the pool,” according to an FBI report.
Other emails in the DOJ documents show some individuals who Epstein invited to his island traded lewd and suggestive emails with the infamous sex offender.
A sultan from the United Arab Emirates, Ahmed bin Sulayem, wrote to Epstein in 2013 that he was going to “sample a fresh 100% female Russian at my yacht” and sent him links to pornography websites in another message. Photos from the DOJ documents show Sulayem with Epstein on Little St. James.
“Please send me few pics of your island… Include also a picture (or) two of hot girls (preferably nude or semi nude),” businessman Boris Nikolic wrote to Epstein in 2013. In a text message to CNN, Nikolic called the exchange a “distasteful and out-of-context joke,” saying he never witnessed any illegal behavior from Epstein and “I deeply regret associating with him.”
Other Epstein correspondents say they’re embarrassed by their emails with him. Olivier Colom, a former adviser to a French president who traded dozens of messages with Epstein over the years, told CNN that “I deeply and bitterly regret to have ever exchanged at all with this criminal,” adding that he never visited the island.
In one 2013 message, Colom asked Epstein where he was. “On my island in the caribean, with an aquarium full of girls,” Epstein wrote. “Sure I would enjoy the view,” Colom told him.
Epstein responded with a remark that seemed to sum up his treatment of the girls he had brought to his slice of paradise.
“Some are like shrimp,” he wrote: “you throw away the head and keep the body.”
