In July 2019, on the day Jeffrey Epstein was arrested for child sex trafficking, FBI agents raided his New York mansion and forced open a large safe, finding diamonds, bundles of cash, passports, binders of CDs, and hard drives. However, an issue with the warrant meant they could not take 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 pedophile financier's criminal probe.
Kahn and Epstein's long-serving lawyer Darren Indyke are the sole executors of Epstein's estate, controlling all his wealth and possessions. The duo holds control over 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 March 11, while Indyke is due on 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 paid to survivors and included conditions preventing survivors who accepted funds from taking further legal action against them personally. Other claims are still outstanding.
The value of Epstein's estate remains unclear, but it was estimated at roughly $635 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." 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.
They also helped run multiple Epstein corporations, some of which, it is alleged in court filings, existed solely for the purpose of his sex-trafficking operation. 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 U.S., according to documents filed in court. One lawsuit alleges no one except Ghislaine Maxwell was "as essential and central to Epstein's operation" as Indyke and Kahn.
Indyke and Kahn have denied any wrongdoing in their interactions with Epstein and are not facing any criminal charges. They have provided the House Oversight Committee with "thousands of pages of documents, photographs, and other materials" in response to subpoenas, but some items, such as Epstein's book of birthday messages, came with the co-executors' own redactions beforehand, which their legal team says were made to protect victims' identities.
Kahn was not just Epstein's accountant; according to court documents, he had a surprising sideline as the manager of a New York-based design company during the 2010s. However, papers filed in court allege the 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 case brought by the U.S. Virgin Islands against Epstein's estate and the executors on grounds of "human trafficking and financial fraud."
Court documents claim Indyke and Kahn also used another Epstein company registered in the U.S. Virgin Islands to write checks worth $300,000 made out to young women or to an immigration lawyer involved in helping trafficked women stay in the U.S. Indyke, the U.S. Virgin Islands court documents claim, made cash withdrawals that appeared designed to provide the convicted sex criminal with funds without triggering the bank's reporting requirements. Women sexually exploited by Epstein say he used cash to pay them and the people who recruited new victims.
Court filings 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 were "further evidence of the illicit nature of the work they performed," the documents claim. Indyke's lawyer denies these contentions.
A document in the Epstein files that appears to be the pedophile's will states Indyke and Kahn are also entitled to "annual compensation" of $250,000 a year for their roles as executors, and their legal fees are covered by the estate. Kahn's lawyer said the will provides for a one-time payment of $250,000 each for administering the estate.
Epstein encouraged some of the women he trafficked from overseas to find a U.S. citizen to marry, 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 U.S. Virgin Islands case alleges.
The U.S. Virgin Islands case, settled between the parties, alleged Indyke and Kahn "knowingly facilitated" at least three marriages between U.S. 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 papers claim. Indyke and Kahn deny the allegations.
One U.S. woman repeatedly abused by Epstein and pressured to have sex with his business associates over more than a decade was forced into a marriage facilitated by Indyke, court documents say. The aim was to prevent another Epstein victim from being deported from the U.S., according to the papers; the U.S. Virgin Islands' attorney general alleged Indyke and a New York immigration lawyer immediately began helping prepare the victim for her interview with U.S. immigration officials.
Kahn provided a letter of reference for the immigration proceedings, court papers say. When the woman asked about ending the marriage and leaving, the filings claim Indyke repeatedly tried to talk her out of divorce and "threatened that she would lose Epstein's and his associates' protection." Kahn's lawyer said his client thought he was doing her a favor, not participating in a sham, and the woman and her partner thanked him for the letter; Indyke's lawyer did not comment specifically on the marriage accusations.
Despite Epstein being global headline news for over a decade for his criminal activities, Indyke and Kahn's lawyers 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, which regulates payments to survivors.
Source: www.bbc.com