When the FBI raided Jeffrey Epstein's New York mansion in July 2019, on the day he was arrested for child sex trafficking, agents forced open a large safe to find diamonds, bundles of cash, passports, binders of CDs, and hard drives. However, an issue with the warrant meant they could not leave with the items. When they returned with a new warrant, the safe had been emptied while they were gone, according to FBI documents.
Richard Kahn, Epstein's accountant and bookkeeper since 2005, had told the mansion's staff to pack two suitcases with the contents of the safe and deliver them to his home, agents wrote. After the FBI spoke to Kahn's then-lawyer, Kahn agreed to hand over the suitcases untouched but did not want agents coming to his house and declined to say who had told him to remove the items. A source close to the investigation into Epstein said he was not aware of Kahn ever being interviewed or investigated in relation to the paedophile financier's criminal case.
Kahn and Epstein's long-serving lawyer Darren Indyke are the sole executors of Epstein's estate, controlling all his wealth and possessions. They oversee compensation owed to survivors and the secrets contained in documents still held by the Epstein estate, which have been released to the House Oversight Committee upon request. As part of its investigation into Epstein's network, the congressional committee has subpoenaed the pair to testify. Kahn is appearing on Wednesday, while Indyke is due to testify on Thursday, March 19.
Epstein appointed Indyke and Kahn as co-executors in August 2019, just two days before he died in jail awaiting trial for sex-trafficking minors. He revised his will to transfer all his wealth into a trust named after the year of his birth, which the lawyer and accountant would administer. In their role as executors, they have agreed compensation packages for survivors and included conditions preventing further legal action against them personally. The value of Epstein's estate remains unclear but was estimated at roughly $635 million (£475 million) at the time of his death.
One of the women abused by Epstein said Indyke and Kahn have questions to answer about what they knew of his "enterprise." "Jeffrey was just one human. There's no way that he would have been able to keep up with all this on his own," she said. "We always say, follow the money, right? If you follow the money, you can understand a lot about how this operation ran." Court filings claim that either Indyke or Kahn – but often both – "had signatory authority over virtually all of the accounts held by Epstein," meaning they were authorized to make transactions.
The documents also allege they helped run multiple Epstein corporations, some of which, it is claimed, existed solely for the purpose of his sex-trafficking operation. Kahn's lawyer said "there is no basis for such claims" and that Epstein's businesses didn't operate to shield his activities. However, court filings claim the pair allegedly received millions in fees and loans from Epstein, paid off survivors, and even facilitated coerced marriages for women trafficked from abroad to allow them to stay in the US.
US Congressman Suhas Subramanyam said they "may be two of the best people to talk to" for insight into how Epstein managed his affairs. Indyke and Kahn have denied any wrongdoing in their interactions with Epstein and are not facing any criminal charges. Daniel Weiner, Indyke's lawyer, said, "No judge in any court anywhere has ever found that Mr. Indyke or Mr. Kahn committed any wrongdoing of any kind."
As co-executors of Epstein's estate, Indyke and Kahn have provided the House Oversight Committee with "thousands of pages of documents, photographs, and other materials" in response to subpoenas. However, some items, such as Epstein's book of birthday messages, have been provided with the co-executors' own redactions made beforehand, which their legal team says were made to protect victims' identities. Kahn was not just Epstein's accountant. According to company paperwork, he also worked as the manager of a New York-based design company during the 2010s.
Court documents allege this company was part of a web of firms used by Epstein to funnel money to victims and people who recruited women for abuse. These details were uncovered in poorly redacted documents from a court case brought by the US Virgin Islands against Epstein's estate and the executors Indyke and Kahn on grounds of "human trafficking and financial fraud." The case was settled in 2022, with the estate agreeing to pay over $105 million (£78 million) in cash and half the proceeds from the sale of one of Epstein's private islands.
The court documents claim Indyke and Kahn "profited substantially from their relationship with Epstein." Between 2011 and 2019, Indyke was paid $16 million, and Kahn $10 million, by Epstein and his companies, including loans that Epstein's will said should be "forgiven." These sums are "further evidence of the illicit nature of the work they performed," the documents claim. Indyke's lawyer denied all allegations.
Epstein encouraged some of the women he trafficked from overseas to marry a US citizen, often another woman, to ensure they could remain in the country. After his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor in Florida, he focused on procuring and abusing women from Eastern Europe, who were "more isolated, dependent, and vulnerable," the US Virgin Islands case alleges.
The US Virgin Islands case, which was settled between the parties, alleged Indyke and Kahn "knowingly facilitated" at least three marriages between US victims and foreign victims, who were coerced by Epstein's trafficking operation with threats of "serious reputational and bodily harm" if they refused or tried to leave. They carried out legal and accounting work to enable "a fraud that would further bind Epstein's victims to him" and allow him to control and sexually abuse them, the court filings claim. Indyke and Kahn deny the allegations.
Lawyers for Indyke and Kahn claim their clients reject as categorically false any suggestion "they knowingly facilitated or assisted Mr. Epstein in his sexual abuse or trafficking of women, or that they were aware of Mr. Epstein's actions while they provided legal and accounting services respectively to Mr. Epstein." In 2020, Indyke and Kahn, as co-executors, agreed to the Jeffrey Epstein Victim Compensation Program, designed to expedite payments to survivors.
Source: www.bbc.com