← The Epstein Chronicles
The Epstein Chronicles
Mega Edition: Jeffrey Epstein And The Multiple Front Operations Used To Launder Money (6/26/26)
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Jeffrey Epstein understood that respectability could be manufactured, and he invested heavily in creating that appearance through charitable organizations, philanthropic donations, and nonprofit entities. By attaching his name to scientific research,...
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So let's jump into this article from the New York Times today. And it's a bit of a lengthy article, so kick back, get yourself a nice cold beverage, whatever it may be. Headline, jeffrey Epstein's mystery bank came alive after his death. Southern Country International received millions of dollars from Mr. Epstein's estate in December. And when you click on the link for the New York Times article, and I don't know if it's behind a paywall right now, I don't pay for the New York Times, so I'm able to view this article right now. I don't know if it's, you know, you get a certain amount of freebies a month or whatever that may be. But anyway, right now it's not behind the paywall. So you can click on the link and you can check it out, and there's a certificate. Virgin Islands Banking Board Certificate of Licensure. That's the first thing you'll see. And it's about Jeffrey Epstein's bank. So let's hop into the article and see what they have to say about it. This article was written by Matthew Goldstein and Steve Eater. February 4, 2020. In the years after Jeffrey Epstein registered as a sex offender, he closed his money. He closed his money management firm and started a business to develop algorithms and mine DNA and financial databases. Then he set up a bank. In a banking license application reviewed by the New York Times, Mr. Epstein described himself as one of the investing world's pioneers and said he wanted to pursue the dynamic discipline of international banking. Really? Come on. What do you. I. You know what he really means by that? Okay, translation. I want to be involved in banking even more so I can siphon off more money, launder more money, and commit even more evil deeds. That's basically what he's saying. Officials in the Virgin Islands, the United states territory where Mr. Epstein set up most of his businesses, approved a license for him in 2014 to run one of the territory's first implementations. International Banking Entities, a specialized bank that can do business only with offshore clients. The approval was unusual, given Mr. Epstein's status as a convicted sex offender. See, isn't that nice? Remember what I was telling you guys about the Virgin Islands for the last, I don't know, two weeks now, about how they're trying to get it on both ends of the deal, right? They wet their beak in the original Jeffrey Epstein, you know, reign of terror when they were looking the other way, and now they want to flip it, and they want a little piece on the back end as well. So Again, let's not. Let's not make pretend that the Virgin Islands or Denise George or any of these people that are involved in this, in this skullduggery down there really care about the survivors, folks, because they do not. Okay? If they did. If they did, what they would do is just make sure that these people weren't spending any more money on any sort of stupid upkeep or anything and make sure all of that money gets frozen and at the. At the proper time, it gets distributed to those who. Who. Those who are deemed to be deserving of it. So that would be every single one of these girls that has come forward, in my opinion. Okay? The bank, Southern Country International, renewed its license for each of the next five years, but it's unclear whether it conducted any business or had any customers. Mr. Epstein, who died while in federal custody last summer following his arrest on sex trafficking charges, does not appear to have done any marketing for the bank or. Or hired much staff. Of course he didn't. Okay? It was a front. This was a front company. No different than, say, a mafia don has a pizza shop. It's the same thing. Another way to clean his money, launder his money. Now what's next, a car wash? Like. Like Eisenberg? I mean, come on. It's so transparent what he was doing and what all of his friends do all the time. The bank was created under a territorial law that lacked many of the oversight requirements banks are usually subject, and its regular regulatory file is largely empty. A lawyer for Mr. Epstein told officials in the Virgin Islands in 2018 that southern country had not commenced operations, and regulators in the territory said they did not exercise oversight of the bank because it did not appear to be doing any business. I find that hard to believe. I. Not that they weren't doing any business, but that the officials weren't exercising oversight because it wasn't doing any business. More like they got paid off, folks. Do I have any evidence of that? Of course I do not. But we all know that grifting like that is the oldest game in the book for these people since even before Tammany hall, that's been going on here in America. So if you don't think it's happening down in the Virgin Islands, think again. And yet, after Mr. Epstein's death, his estate transferred more than $12 million to Southern country, according to court documents. On Tuesday, at a court hearing in the Virgin Islands on motions involving Mr. Epstein's estate, a magistrate, Judge Carolyn Herman Purcell, questioned the estate's lawyers about the transfers to Southern Country. Saying the disclosure was not satisfactory. The judge said she did not. She did not know why Southern country would be receiving checks from the estate. There's no explanation for it, she said. Yeah, there's an explanation for it, but they're laundering money. They're putting the money there so they can hide it so that they don't have to give it to the, the people who deserve it. Okay? And that's what it's all about. That's what these people do all the time. That's their shtick, folks. They're going to make sure that they don't have to pay out anything if they can help it, all right? That's. They don't want to pay out anything. A lawyer for the estate responded that some of the payment had been made an error. But the judge was not satisfied with his. With his response and asked him to follow up with a fuller accounting. The checks listed in the estate's transactions for routine. Routine payments such as cable TV bills and phone service for Mr. Epstein's many properties stand out. The list of payments were filed with Judge Herman Purcell, who is overseeing his 635 million dollar estate, including the possible establishment of compensation fund for his victims. Again, folks, why are. Why, why do his properties still need cable? Why do they need tv, cable bill and phone service? There. There should be nobody in those properties. They should be seized, they should be closed and they should be taped up. Okay? Nobody should be in those properties. And these properties that are sitting there should not be sip money from the grand total of his estate. That money should be going to the survivors. What in the hell is going on? That Mr. Epstein was able to get a banking license in the first place is unusual. No, it's not. No, it's not. Okay? He paid people off in the Virgin Islands. They all knew what he was doing. And now this whole entire fiasco is coming back on them. So Denise George is trying to save face by saying she's going to go after Epstein's estate as well. That's my opinion of the whole situation. But there is no way anybody can tell me that these people, these officials in the Virgin Islands, weren't getting their palms greased. Sorry, that's a bunch of bs. We've seen. We've seen the evidence of Jeffrey Epstein spreading the wealth around. We've seen it. His 2008 conviction in Florida on a charge of soliciting prostitution from an underage girl required him to register as a sex offender. I don't even. Again, I hate when they write that soliciting Prostitution from an underage girl. If you're an underage girl, you cannot be a prostitute. What a ridiculous law that was on Florida's books. Really glad they got rid of that one. Most bank operators doing business in the United States are required to undergo rigorous background checks. And most banking institutions are subject to oversight by the arm of the treasury that investigates suspicious financial Trident transactions. Neither was required by the Virgin Islands when Mr. Epstein submitted the application in 2013. Again, why do you think that is, folks? Do you think it's just because the Virgin Islands decided, ah, you know what, we're going to let Epstein pass. He's a nice guy. We like his shoes. Or was it that Epstein had been greasing palms, making everybody eat, giving everybody that bag, and they decided, well, look, we're going to keep this gravy train rolling. It's not our kids. What do we care? And that's, you know what, that's the harsh reality of a. Folks, I don't mean to be so abrasive with it, but that's the harsh reality that these people look at it and they say, well, it's not our kids. What the hell do we care? When in reality any right thinking human being looks at a situation like this and says to themselves, how could you ever enable somebody like Jeffrey Epstein? But we all know in politics and in this part, in this kind of, this kind of walk of life, money talks, folks, money talks. And it's, it's the be all, end all to these evil people. The territory had passed its international banking entity law a year earlier in hopes of enticing investment from overseas. It modeled its law on that of Puerto Rico, where international banking entities have existed for three decades. Such organizations are attractive to offshore investors because the banks are able to offer more favorable tax treatment than the investors owned countries can. In return, the territories expect residents to manage the banks even though they cannot use the bank's services. Crazy. So all of these loopholes are crazy. Like I was saying earlier about the Virgin Islands. Look, I'm obviously not an expert on law and certainly no expert on law in the Virgin Islands, but if you don't think the politicians are corrupt as hell down there, and if you don't think they're grifting like an mf, you have another thing coming, okay? They create all these loopholes. And when, when was anybody going to look at the Virgin Islands besides as a vacation spot until this Jeffrey Epstein stuff popped up? These, these guys were escaping all sorts of scrutiny because of Jeffrey Epstein. I mean, because they were off the radar then. Now, Epstein. Well, they're smack dab in the middle of everybody's radar at this point now, right? These specialized banks have drawn scrutiny because of their potential for abuse, including money laundering. Again, folks, that's very important. Let's remember that. Money laundering. Okay, so now we have. We know that he laundered money. We know that he transported girls and children across state lines for trafficking. We know that. We know that he threatened people. We know that he was involved in an ongoing criminal conspiracy. And we know that because we have the evidence of all of this. And that's just four quick things right off the top of my head that he was definitely involved in. All right? And all four of those things can get you slapped with rico. How is this man, how wasn't this man, and how aren't his associates slapped with rico? I just don't understand it. I just, I. It's, it's just, it's beyond me. It is absolutely beyond me, folks. The Federal Reserve bank of New York describes international bank entities as the. In the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico as high risk institutions. Last year, it temporarily suspended applications for them to obtain financial services from the Fed until it can issue stricter rules for them. Look, I'm not even going to begin to act like I understand the nuances of these financial institutions and these high risk financial institutions, because I do not. So I'm not going to run my fat yap too much about those. But it strikes me as odd that the Federal Reserve would, even even though they slap them with a high risk institution, they let them go into business. Why would you even let a place like this go into business? Meanwhile, you're, you're sending, you know, Wesley Snipes to jail for tax evasion. It's such a joke. The two tier, the two tier justice system in this country is such a joke, folks. Mr. Epstein was carefully evasive in answering a question on the application that was meant to reveal information about his. About an applicant's criminal record. His response mentioned his guilty plea to state charges in Florida, but it played down the other elements of the case for a relatively brief period in what was otherwise been a productive and accomplished life. The application said Mr. Epstein did face some legal difficulties relating to matters alleged to have taken place seven years ago. The application noted that a federal investigation had been discontinued. Oh, yeah, obviously it was discontinued, huh? You thought it was discontinued, but guess what? This was not going to go away. This was not going to be swept under the carpet this time. But that answer was misleading, said Richard Scott Carnell, a former Assistant Secretary for financial institutions at the Treasury Department. The application did not reflect that Mr. Epstein's plea deal included an agreement with federal prosecutors who promised not to bring their own charges. The agreement acknowledged that federal authorities had compiled a long list of other possible underage victims. I don't even understand, like any Joe Schmo with computer access can Google Jeffrey Epstein and seen what he was guilty of for them to be like, well, he didn't, he didn't declare that in, in his application. And nobody's checking these people. So anybody can just go get a, some high risk bank in the Virgin Islands. Anybody at all. How about, you know, some, some Al Qaeda member or some cartel member. I don't even understand what any of this means. Right, well how's that even possible? Why is, why is the, the, the, the Federal Reserve even granting these, these sort of institutions the ability to operate? Crazy bank regulators expect applicants to be candid, said Mr. Carnal, now an associate professor at Fordham Law School. You'd never suspect that there was a non prosecution agreement. As a bank regulator, I'd be outraged to learn that an applicant had misled me in that way. Here's an idea, and I know that this is going to be a novel idea, alright? How about if you're working with people that have this, that kind of money and you're getting into business with them, it might be a good idea to do a basic Google search on them. Or a duck, duck. Go search on them. Probably not the worst idea in the world. Okay. For all of these people to use that as an excuse. Oh, I had no idea who this man was. Or we had no idea who he was when we gave him this banking license. What do you. That's B.S. of course you knew who he was. Would you live under a rock? In his application, Mr. Epstein listed as references James E. Staley, the chief Executive bar of Barclays, who had cultivated a relationship with Mr. Epstein while at JP Morgan Chase. Another reference was Andrew Farkas, a New York real estate tycoon and co owner of a marina and office complex on St Thomas with Mr. Epstein. Spokesman for both men said they had been unaware they were listed as references along with JP Morgan and First Bank, a Puerto Rico based lender with branches in the Virgin Islands that long held some of Mr. Epstein's accounts. Of course they didn't know. Nobody ever knows anything when it has to do with Jeffrey Epstein, do they? Folks see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. That's what they all look like, those monkeys. I Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. And that is all of these people. The application was submitted by Erica A. Kellerhals, a longtime tax lawyer for Mr. Epstein and the Virgin Islands. She did not return requests for comment. Of course not. She's going to the mattresses too, right? She's hiding out. She's definitely bunkering in. She doesn't want to answer any questions about this. But guess what? Questions are coming your way. Southern country had not commenced doing business as of April 2018, according to correspondence between Mrs. Keller Halls and the Territory Banking Department. Regulators said the bank was a self reporting company and did not require additional regulatory oversight if it was not operational. Well, maybe you guys should change that in the future, huh? Well, I mean, you know, what are you. Just leave them to their own devices, no oversights needed, Let them launder money, let them do whatever they want, because guess what? It doesn't matter, Right? It doesn't matter. It's a free for all. If you have this kind of money, you can steal, you can grift, you can lie, you can cheat, you can start endless wars. And obviously, you can have trafficking operations under everybody's nose. And that's okay. No big deal. But court documents show Southern country was active for some of last year. Records filed by the estate on Friday indicate that Southern country had $693,157 in assets when Mr. Epstein died on Aug. 10. Then in mid December, the estate transferred $15.5 million to Southern Country. In two checks, Southern country sent back 2.6 million, leaving the total it received at $12.9 million. The documents filed by the estate do not give a reason for the transfers. Chances are they were laundering money. That's my guess. Okay, what I mean, again, look, I have no evidence to prove that. But at this point, do you trust anything that has to do with Jeffrey Epstein, his finances, his executors, or anything around around this whole entire sorted ordeal in the Virgin Islands? I certainly do not. It's also not clear what Southern country did with that money. Two weeks later, the year end value of Southern country's assets was $499,759, according to the estate's filings. The estate has told officials in the Virgin Islands that it does not intend to renew the bank's license again. Oh, that's nice of them. You know, we're not going to renew it again. We've already, you know, stole as much as we possibly could and we've already washed a ton of money here, so. No big deal. We don't need that license. Go ahead, you can take it. Around the time the territory granted Mr. Epstein his banking license, it also gave a lucrative tax break to Southern Trust, a company Mr. Epstein said was developing sophisticated algorithms to mine DNA and financial databases. The tax breaks. The tax break came from the territory's Economic Development Authority, which was approved by the Territory's former governor, John Dejon Jr. While his wife, Cecile worked for Mr. Epstein. Isn't that nice? Folks, you see what I mean here? Do you understand now what I'm talking about? How the Virgin Islands is trying to get paid on this, on both ends of the deal? All right? You had John De Jong, who was the governor, and his wife Cecile, who had worked for Mr. Epstein. And he's the one who approved all of this nonsense, okay? So come on. For Denise George to be going after the estate here. Why don't you go after the Governor and all the other politicians that look the other way or accepted money from Jeffrey Epstein? When is it going to be their time to stand, to face justice? Never. Right? It's never their time. It's always just the scapegoats. It's always just the low hanging fruit. The tax break granted in 2013 was a boon for Mr. Epstein. Southern Trust generated about 300 million in profit in six years. And he paid an effective tax rate of about 3.9%. If that doesn't make you sick folks, I don't know what will. Add that on to all the other nonsense that this guy was involved in. And he was grifting all of this money by hardly paying any taxes. And the people, I mean the government officials of the Virgin island have the audacity to try and go after his estate now, when they were cutting him this sweetheart of a deal, why didn't you tax the shit out of him then? If he was such a bad guy and you all knew what he was, why didn't you tax the shit out of him then? Of course you didn't tax him then, because you personally were being enriched by it. The source of Southern Trust revenue is not clear. The bare bones corporate filings made by the company in the Virgin Islands do not list any clients. Again, another theme of Jeffrey Epstein. One client, hardly any clients. And just another way for him to pack away the Fazuls, launder that money, and commit all sorts of crimes that should be slapped with Rico. Although the Virgin Islands was long a place where Mr. Epstein got his way, it has lately cast itself as one of his victims in a lawsuit Last month, the Attorney General of the Virgin Islands, Denise m. George, said Mr. Epstein had sullied the territory's reputation with his conduct. She sued Mr. Epstein's estate, seeking to seize his private islands and dissolve what she said were shell companies acting as fronts for his sex trafficking enterprise. The suit seeks to intervene in the administration of Mr. Epstein's will to safeguard assets from for dozens of his victims, claiming the co executors may have a conflict of interest because they were officers in many of Mr. Epstein's companies, including Southern country and Southern Trust. The co executors, Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn, did not request, did not answer quests for requests for comment. Judge Herman Purcell, the magistrate judge overseeing the administration of Mr. Epstein's will in the Virgin Islands, heard arguments on the Attorney General's request. At the hearing on Tuesday, the judge said she would issue a ruling at a later date. All right, folks, well, this goes into what we talked about last night, how the estate was worth more than we knew, how he made the estate had made $80 million in his death. And I told you that there was a hearing today. So I thought it would be good to jump in and we'll got to have a full accounting of what went on. And now we know that the judge will be rendering rendering the decision later on in the future. But you understand now, I'm sure you guys all understand, right? The Virgin Islands is as acting like a victim here when in reality the Virgin Islands was an enabler. Okay, The Virgin Islands as a territory enabled Jeffrey Epstein's behavior. They accepted gifts from him, they accepted money from him, and they knew exactly what he was. So forgive me if I don't cry any crocodile tears for the Virgin Islands. All right, folks, if you'd like to contact me, you can do that@bobby capuchirotonmail.com that's B O B B Y C A P U C c I@protonmail.com also.
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What's up, everyone? And welcome back to the Epstein Chronicles. We've been talking about the financial portion of the Jeffrey Epstein criminal enterprise for quite some time here on the podcast. And I think it's one of the most underreported and least talked about portions of this case, which is very odd to me considering we all know that it's the financial ties that bind. We all know that if you follow the money, eventually you're going to find a criminal. But the government, even after Jeffrey Epstein's death and arrest, they didn't seem to have any desire to follow the money. They didn't seem to have any desire to bring in the proper people to go through this stuff forensically and figure out what the hell went on here. Because Jeffrey Epstein was manipulating the system at every turn. Whether it be with his offshore money spots, whether it be with business deals or fake charities, even like we're going to talk about today, you name it, Jeffrey Epstein was involved in it. When it comes to financial ill gotten gains and financial misdeeds, Jeffrey Epstein was involved in all of it. And it's something that doesn't get enough talk. Because I'll tell you what, if these investigators were really serious about all of this and they were really serious about bringing the remnants of Jeffrey Epstein's criminal enterprise under heel, they'd slap a RICO charge on all of these people. And then they dive into their financials with a fine tooth comb. And until we see that happening, then I have to say we're never getting the full look at what went on here. We're only getting little pieces, right?
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A little.
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A little look in the room, maybe. Whereas we all know Ghislaine Maxwell is a disgusting excuse for a human being. She's not the only one involved here. She was the underboss, right? The Epstein's right hand woman. But she wasn't the only one involved. She certainly wasn't involved in the financial angle like Indyke or Khan or some of these other people. So what I would like to see. Probably never going to see it, but what I would like to see is a nice fat RICO case. All of these people caught up. Anybody who ever had money transferred to them by Jeffrey Epstein has to have a look. Because we know that all of his money originated from a dark place, right? Ill gotten gains. So if you're receiving Ill gotten gains from somebody who is caught up in a RICO case, well now you are a target in that RICO case as well. And that's how RICO works. And that's why everybody's so terrified of it. I've seen it firsthand. I've seen RICO applied to people I care about firsthand and seen how it ruined them over illegal sports gambling, by the way. Meanwhile, you have Jeffrey Epstein and his friends opening up banks, all kinds of crazy shit and no penalties. Nobody's going to jail. His banker doesn't go to jail. His lawyer doesn't go to jail. His accountant doesn't go to jail. And you wonder why people have no faith in the system or in these institutions. All right, today our article is from the New York Times. And the headline of this article is Jeffrey Epstein's charity, An Image boost built on deception. This article was authored by Steve Etter and Matthew Goldstein. Now we reached back into the vault for this one, folks. This is an article from November 26th of 2019. And considering there's a bit of a lull today as far as new news, I thought we'd slide this one in and keep things rolling on the financial track. Jeffrey Epstein's foundation looked for all the world like a charitable powerhouse. On its websites and in its press releases, the foundation was described as a patron of hospitals and universities and film festivals run by a global philanthropist. And this is what's so galling, right? Everybody knew what this guy was up to. All of the scumbags in his atmosphere knew. What do you think? They sat around and his hubris didn't have him acting in a brazen manner telling these people what he was about. Maybe not directly, but hinting at it. And then if you're one of these people hanging out with them all the time, you mean to tell me you never had any questions why he's there without any, I mean, with these young girls, where are their parents? He's not, that's not his niece or his nephew or anything like that. He just happens to have all of these young girls around and nobody has any questions for him. The organization, known by various names, but usually called the J. Epstein Virgin Islands foundation, wasn't officially a charity for much of its existence, having lost its tax exempt status in 2008. But it worked to his advantage, helping improve the reputation of Mr. Epstein, a convicted sex offender. And remember, that's what it was all about. After his arrest, Epstein went on the full court press trying to refurbish his reputation. He wanted to come back into civil society. He wanted to make his comeback. And he was convinced that it was going to be able to happen if these sort of people would help him refurbish his disgusting and beat up reputation. And the sad part is, folks, a lot of these so called elites, a lot of these scumbags that are out there crowing about this or that, they let him do it. There's no investigations, no IRS agents dispatched to go and talk to him, just left up to his own devices, to the perils of everybody else. A review of tax documents, government records, and information provided by federal officials shows that the foundation lost its tax exempt status for an unknown reason. In the same year, Mr. Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor. An unknown reason, huh? Oh, I'm sure it had everything to do with him not being involved with abusing kids.
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Right.
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It's absurd. We all know what the reason is. But the crazy part is all of these people knew behind the scenes what was going on, and nobody acted. None of these law enforcement officials, none of these officials down in the Virgin Islands who knew what was going on? Nobody. All because they were too busy stuffing their pockets full of Jeffrey Epstein's disgusting ass. Gross. Ill gotten money. In the years between that case and his suicide in August, as he faced federal sex trafficking charges, Mr. Epstein was unshackled from the rigorous financial disclosures that charities are supposed to file every year, with the government allowing him to exaggerate his philanthropy. As he sought to rebuild his reputation. The foundation's portrayals of its giving ranged from simple embellishment to. To staggering overstatement. That means lying. Okay, let's just be very real with what it means. Epstein and his team, they were forging everything they were. If they were anything besides sick, disgusting, twisted, wannabe human beings, they were all liars as well. They sure had a huge idea about who they were, and it certainly didn't match up with reality. One of Mr. Epstein's websites said the foundation had helped to underwrite the Tribeca Film Festival, when, in fact, it had donated $28,000 to a related organization that offers grants to filmmakers and educational programming to students in New York City. So that's definitely always been a trademark of Epstein. He's always been one of those guys who likes to exaggerate about things. That's why you always have to take what he says with a grain of salt. Right. When you hear quotes from Epstein, you know, it's very difficult to take him at face value. The foundation sent out news releases touting donations to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to restore Mark Rothko murals and teach coding to five year olds. Claims that officials at the school later called inaccurate. Oh, I'm sure they were inaccurate again. Look, I don't trust MIT either. Considering their relationship with Epstein and the way they're trying to foster their image now and fix their image after it was revealed how deep their ties were with Epstein. Of course they're going to be in cover your ass mode as well. Oh, well, we had no idea what was going on here. That's inaccurate. That never happened. It also issued a statement in 2013 saying researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital had made a major advance in breast cancer research with the backing of Mr. Epstein, although the health system's own release makes no mention of him. I mean, stolen valor, wearing the Navy seal. Shit. Acting like, he's, you know, a big wig here. Helping out people with breast cancer, which I take umbrage with, considering the love of my life battled through stage 2B breast cancer A few years ago, and it was one of the most grueling, rigorous the 18 months of my. I can't even. Can't even explain how rigorous the 18 months was. It was very, very difficult watching somebody I care about and love more than the world suffer like that and not be able to do anything but provide emotional and mental support, wake up every day, take her to the doctor, chemotherapy, then onto radiation, then after that, still back and forth to the doctors for a while. It is all bad, and I don't wish that on nobody. And anybody acting like they're involved in that and helping people who are going through that, and they're really not. Well, they certainly make my list of top scumbags, folks, because that is not something to joke around with. It's not something to make pretend you're helping out with if you're not, because it's serious business. People's lives are shattered when they're sitting in that hospital room and they get that diagnosis. I'm sorry to tell you, you have cancer. Let me tell you what, everything changes that day, folks. Every single thing changes. And it certainly was the case for me. So when I see people out here acting like, you know, they're helping people with cancer and then pulling a pump fake and shit, it really, really bothers me. But the most glaring exaggeration appeared on Wikipedia. A username apparently connected to Mr. Epstein edited the page for the foundation and put its annual outlay at $200 million a year, just under the amount the Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, contributed to charity in 2018. Now, we know Epstein wasn't dumping that kind of dough into any kind of charity. Zero chance that money was more better used for his, you know, criminal enterprise. In reality, the foundation was worth a small fraction of that amount. According to documents obtained by the New York Times through a public records lawsuit in the Virgin Islands, 18 years of financial statements show that just under $20 million flowed into the foundation since it was founded in 2000. A lot less than the 200 million, huh? Again, you see what I'm talking about with these scumbags? They'll even use this, their charity. They'll wrap themselves in this charity stuff and use it as a shield, as armor. And I really, really detest it. It's really gross.
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It's.
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There's not enough words to really explain the grossness of it, 6 million was spent on donations and grants. Most of the rest paid unspecified general and administrative expenses, and one and a half million dollars in interest for what appears to be an undisclosed debt. Oh, an undisclosed debt, huh? I wonder which scumbag was getting that chunk of change. Which scumbag had their hands in that piece? The documents which were filed with the Virgin Islands Division of Corporations and Trademarks do not offer details about where the money came from or ended up. That information would be contained in the public document Form 990 that charities are required to file each year with the Internal Revenue Service. But there is just one publicly available Form 990 from the foundation, a single page filing in 2002, and it does not include any information on grants or donations. So you see, here's my big problem, all right? You have all of these government officials and all of these people who are now talking about how these financial crimes occurred and how the system was manipulated. Meanwhile, this guy wasn't even filing the right paperwork, wasn't following any of the FinCEN regulations, and nothing happened to him. There was never an investigation, there was never a raid. Nobody was arrested. In fact, he was hooked up in the Virgin Islands. And this is why I say the Virgin Islands should not see one single dollar. They're the ones who let all of this happen down there, all right? So they shouldn't just be let off the hook, the officials down there. Nobody's going to get arrested. None of that. Until that happens, I don't want to hear about the Virgin Islands thinks they should have some of this money because all of this shit happened on all of their watch and nobody wanted to do anything about it until the wall started to fall down. Mr. Epstein's website portrayed the foundation as an organization with high standards and high aspirations for changing the world. I mean, yeah, you know, definitely what it was, definitely an organization with high standards, if high standards to you mean no standards whatsoever. A page from one site described a multi stage grant process that asked applicants to describe how their project was innovative, the pressing need it would address, and an explanation of how they would evaluate their results. The page from 2010 also said it was vital to understand that the foundation and another run by Mr. Epstein were not piggy banks. No, they were a way for Epstein to get his claws into some of these scientists or some of these projects, and then that way he can do what he wished with the information, sell it onto his handler or whatever it is. That was the whole goal for Epstein. But that was the term that Martin Scheele A retired Supervisory Special Agent with the Criminal Investigations Division of the IRS used to describe the foundation. Its lack of disclosures, he said could be an overt act of concealment. Oh, it could be, huh. So where is the irs? Kicking in the doors. Where's the IRS sending in all of the agents? Oh, they only do that if it's you. Guess what? Tax day is coming, folks. You better make sure yours are filed. It's not clear if such misrepresentations amounted to a crime. False statements meant to fraudulently solicit donations are illegal and generally prosecuted by state attorneys general. Yeah, when they're not in the pocket of the accused. When they're not, you know, dipping their. Their hands into the trough.
- [37:45]
A
Yeah. Then.
- [37:45]
B
Then you might have some indictments. But Jeffrey Epstein, no way. The dude was protected, obviously, wherever he went and was able to initiate these sorts of schemes, scams, and plots, and nobody wanted to do anything about it. The New York State Attorney General's office began inquiring in 2015 whether the foundation, which said on one of its sites that it had offices in Manhattan and the Virgin Islands, needed to register as a charity in New York. Mr. Epstein's longtime lawyer, Darren Indyke, replied that the site was inaccurate and that the foundation was operated out of an office in St. Thomas. So they can't even get their act together as far as where businesses being conducted in this company.
- [38:29]
A
Right.
- [38:30]
B
Oh, the Virgin Islands. Oh, it's a New York. And then the regulators are just like, oh, okay, whatever you say, Mr. Epstein. Instead of really digging in like they usually do, we'll move on to an easier target. Lower hanging fruit, if you will. Mr. Endyke, who is one of two executors of Mr. Epstein's estate, did not respond to messages seeking comment. Before regulators closed their inquiry, Mr. Indyke provided them with a copy of a letter the foundation received from the IRS in 2000 verifying its status as a charitable tax exempt organization. Oh, I'm sure Jeffrey Epstein's getting passports from Saudi Arabia and, you know, other countries. Really think he's going to have a problem pulling some levers here to get tax exempt status? But he never disclosed that the agency had dropped the foundation from its official role of tax exempt organizations. The foundation was set up as part of Mr. Epstein's participation in a lucrative program in the Virgin Islands that offered big tax breaks to his businesses, Financial Trust and Southern Trust, in return for philanthropic commitment to charities in the territory. And you see where the whole ask for the money comes in. Now, down in the Virgin Islands. But again, these officials are the ones that, that put Jeffrey Epstein into business, right? They let him set up shop down there. They're the ones that should have been regulating this, going over it with a fine tooth comb, but instead they set it all up, then they turn around and then they want to play the fool and act like they had no idea. Sorry, that doesn't work. One of Mr. Epstein's sales pitch to his wealthy, wealthy clients was offering tax advantage strategies that sometimes included charitable giving. Reports from the agency that approved the tax incentives show the foundation made more than $1.8 million in donations to charities, educational scholarships and symposiums there. In an emailed statement, the Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority said the foundation was established primarily for the purpose of making charitable contributions to the Virgin islands community. Well, $1.8 million in donations, alright, but public records show it also carried out some unusual transactions. Of course it did. He wasn't being regulated or monitored. He throws $1.8 million towards the Virgin Island Economic Development Authority, they look the other way. You guys all know how this game is played. I don't need to explain this to you. You've all been seeing this for how many years now? In 2017, the foundation, also known as Enhanced Education, cut a check for $160,000 to pay fines Mr. Epstein incurred for permanent violations on his private islands. Its funds also back the causes of political officials in the Virgin Islands, including up to $30,000 to support a computer giveaway by an elected official. The foundation has also contributed tens of thousands of dollars to other groups, including the territory's Chamber of Commerce. So you see, they've already gotten their cut, the Virgin Islands. And this is why I'm so adamant about them not getting any more of this money. Especially considering we see how a lot of these survivors got lowballed. 125 million, 135 million going out to the survivors. A mere one sixth of Jeffrey Epstein's fortune. And the Virgin Islands, with all of this in mind, still thinks they're entitled to a little peace. Federal investigators have taken an interest in the foundation. In August, the FBI contacted the Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources about the payment. To resolve the permit violations. Agents asked whether the department had a policy prohibiting a charitable foundation from paying the penalty, said Jamal Nielsen, a spokesman for the department. He said the contribution did not violate any department rules. Oh, of course it didn't. You know, it never violates any rules when they're the ones benefiting from it, does it? The FBI in New York declined to comment, citing an ongoing investigation. It's not clear how the foundation lost its tax exempt status. It could have given it up, or it may have been taken away after an IRS investigation. Eric L. Smith, a spokesman for the irs, said the agency could not comment, citing federal privacy laws. That's another thing the government likes to do right up there's an investigation right now. We can't give you any information. The IRS can also revoke tax exempt status if a foundation fails to file a Form 990 for three consecutive years, although that rule took effect in 2010. Stephen T. Miller, a former acting IRS commissioner and now the national director of tax at alliant group, said Form 990s are vital both for regulators and the general public to understand the finances of a given entity. 0 chance we were ever going to get a look behind the curtain at Jeffrey Epstein's finances. This guy was not a genius like everybody says, but the dude certainly was good at hiding money and manipulating the financial sector, especially considering all of the people he had dispersed throughout it to help him out. The scant filings by Mr. Epstein's foundation, he said, showed a lack of transparency. And over the years, Mr. Epstein operated at least three other charities, including one based in the Virgin Islands. Mr. Indyke, his lawyer, long served as an officer for Mr. Epstein's charities and other businesses. Again, Darren Indike's name all over the place. No indictment, no deposition, no self responsibility. Two of Mr. Epstein's foundations relied on on wealthy business titans to provide millions in seed capital. His Couq foundation received about 21 million in stock and cash from charities of Leslie H. Wexner, the billionaire retail magnate whose company owns Victoria's Secret. Mr. Epstein's Gratitude America foundation received $10 million in donations in 2015 from a company tied to the private equity billionaire Leon D. Black. And you see what I mean by folks and why I call this such a sham. All of these guys are donating to these sham ass foundations and this turns into ill gotten gains. And this is a RICO case right here, right here in front of us. And believe me, I'm certainly no FBI agent or IRS agent or Treasury Department official, but come on, if you're going to slap people with RICO over illegal gambling or wire fraud, you mean to tell me this doesn't deserve at least a full on investigation? A full on? Look, Mr. Epstein's other foundations complied with federal disclosure rules, making his namesake foundation the outlier. It doesn't pass the smell test, said Mr. Schiel, the retired IRS special agent after his 2008 conviction. Mr. Epstein took great pains to burnish his reputation and the foundation played a key role and so did all of those enablers that were around them that we talk about all the time. In 2013, a Wikipedia user named Turville made a number of changes to the page for the Foundation. The changes including saying the foundation had given more than $200 million to a long list of notable scientists since its inception, then raised its claim further by describing that sum and as its approximate annual outlay. So basically just lying about things. This person went on Wikipedia and just started changing the Wikipedia page to all sorts of fanciful wismical BS. The user's name connection to Mr. Epstein is evident from information he disclosed in New Mexico as a result of his 2008 conviction. He provided a list of online usernames, including those used by third party reputation management services he hired. On that list was a Wikipedia handle, Turville, that does not appear anywhere on the website, but the similar name Turville does. And that user had a particular focus on editing articles about Mr. Epstein.
- [46:53]
A
So you see how this works, right?
- [46:54]
B
Epstein out there trying to foster his image, then hits the Internet to do a quick sweep to make sure everything lines up. Meanwhile, the irs, the government, nobody's the wiser, huh? Nobody has any idea what's going on. As we continue to dive deeper into this disgusting rabbit hole, it becomes very apparent that all of these people had at least a clue what was going on. And frankly, they didn't care. Alright folks, that's gonna do it for this morning's update. As usual on the way, some context episodes. Then I will be back later on tonight. If you'd like to contact me, you can do that@bobby capuchirotonmail.com that's B O B B Y C A P U c c I@protonmail.com the the article that we discussed can be found in the description box. All right everybody.