← The Epstein Files
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- [00:05]
A
3 million pages of evidence. Thousands of unsealed flight logs. Millions of data points, names, themes and timelines connected. You are listening to the Epstein Files, the world's first AI native investigation into the case that traditional journalism simply could not handle.
- [00:31]
B
Welcome back to the Epstein Files. Last time, we followed Epstein's Paris operation at Avenue Foch and Brunel's modeling pipeline. Today, we're looking at how Epstein captured the political system of the US Virgin Islands, turning a small territory's government into a shield for his operation. As always, every document and source we reference is available at Epsteinfiles FM. So between 2008 and 2009, Epstein wrote checks totaling $70,066 to cover tuition at four universities. The children of sitting Governor John De Jong and his wife, Cecile was simultaneously managing Epstein's USVI companies at $200,000 a year. And JP Morgan filings later called her Epstein's primary conduit for spreading money and influence through the USVI government.
- [01:13]
C
And that opening statement you just read, That's. That's really the entire case in miniature. It's the roadmap for everything we're going to break down.
- [01:19]
B
It really is. And we have to be very, very precise about what we're auditing here. This isn't your standard story of political favors or, you know, a lobbying effort that went too far.
- [01:29]
C
No, not at all. We're not talking about campaign donations that buy you a photo op. This is a forensic case study. It's about something much deeper. It's called Governance capture.
- [01:39]
B
That distinction is critical. I think people hear corruption and they have a certain picture in mind.
- [01:44]
C
Right. Corruption is when a public official breaks the rules for personal gain. Governance capture is when the system itself, the rules, the regulations, the enforcement, it's all bent to serve the interests of an outside entity.
- [01:58]
B
The entity in this case being a criminal enterprise. Yeah, a sex trafficking operation.
- [02:04]
C
Exactly. The government stops being the referee and becomes a player on one team. So our mission today is very specific. We're going to answer the question, how did this happen?
- [02:13]
B
How specifically did a registered Tier 3 sex offender operate a complex international trafficking ring on US soil for two decades, surrounded by law enforcement, without any meaningful interference?
- [02:26]
C
And the answer, as you said, is in the ledger. It's in the bank statements, it's in the emails. This was a documented entanglement, not some shadowy conspiracy.
- [02:34]
B
We're talking about the direct financial subsidization of the governor's family, massive tax fraud sanctioned by the state, and the deliberate dismantling of the sex offender registry. It's all there in black and white.
- [02:45]
C
And we should be very clear about our sources for this. We are pulling directly from court exhibits, especially from the USVI versus JP Morgan lawsuit. We're using internal emails that were released during discovery. And a lot of this is cross referenced in the EP82 research brief.
- [03:00]
B
No speculation. We are simply reading the receipts. So let's start at the beginning. The foundation of this entire capture, the De Jong administration.
- [03:08]
C
John De jong, governor from 2007 to 2015.
- [03:12]
B
And that period is absolutely crucial because this isn't pre 2008 Epstein. This is post conviction. By the time these checks are being written, he is a known registered sex offender.
- [03:22]
C
That context is everything. He had pleaded guilty in Florida. The world knew or should have known exactly who he was. And yet the relationship didn't just continue, it deepened.
- [03:33]
B
Okay, so let's get into the specifics of those tuition payments. The EP82 brief has the records. Between 2008 and 2009, we're looking at a total of $70,066.
- [03:43]
C
70,000. And look where it's going. It's not a donation to a political party. The checks are made out to American University, Elon University, Skidmore College, and Wake.
- [03:55]
B
Forest University for the specific purpose of paying the tuition bills for the children of the sitting governor.
- [04:00]
C
Let's put that number in perspective. In 2008, the governor of the US Virgin Islands had a salary of what? Around $110,000, maybe $130,000 a year?
- [04:10]
B
Somewhere in that ballpark. So this isn't a small gift. This is a payment that represents more than half of the governor's gross annual income.
- [04:17]
C
It's a fundamental restructuring of his personal finances. Think about it. For most people in public service, or any service, what's the single biggest financial burden for a family with multiple kids in college?
- [04:28]
B
Tuition. It's always tuition. It's a massive post tax expense.
- [04:31]
C
And Epstein just erases it. He removes the single largest financial and psychological stressor from the life of the territory's chief executive. That's not a gift.
- [04:40]
B
No, that's leverage. It's a debt that can never truly be repaid, but it can be called in.
- [04:46]
C
It's more than leverage. It creates a state of permanent disqualifying conflict of interest. How can you as governor, possibly regularly investigate or even question the man who is single handedly funding your children's future?
- [04:59]
B
You can't. The line between your public duty and your private benefit has been completely dissolved.
- [05:04]
C
And the documentation on this gets even more specific. More damning really? There's a particular record from 2011. It's a $25,000 tuition bill from Skidmore College.
- [05:17]
B
Right. And it's the chain of custody on that invoice that tells the story. It wasn't sent from the governor's office through some formal channel?
- [05:23]
C
No. The email records show that Cecile De Jong, the First lady of the U.S. virgin Islands, personally forwarded the bill directly to Jeffrey Uckstein's office for payment.
- [05:32]
B
Here's the bill for our daughter's school. Please handle it.
- [05:35]
C
The casual nature of it implies a standing arrangement. It's routine. This is how their personal finances now operate. It is the single clearest piece of evidence of the entanglement. The first lady is, in effect, submitting personal expense reports to a convicted sex offender.
- [05:52]
B
And that brings us to Cecile De Jong herself. Because the tuition payments, as significant as they are, are just one piece of her role. Her employment contract is the real engine of this capture.
- [06:03]
C
This is something that JP Morgan's own internal compliance officers flagged over and over again. When you read their suspicious activity reports, which were unsealed in the lawsuit, they don't see her as just another employee on Epstein's payroll.
- [06:18]
B
They had a specific term for her.
- [06:19]
C
They called her the primary conduit.
- [06:21]
B
The primary conduit for spreading money and influence throughout the USVI government. That's the bank's own assessment.
- [06:27]
C
And she was on the payroll for the entire duration of her husband's time in office. From 2007 to 2015. She's listed as the manager of Epstein's.
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B
USVI based companies, specifically Southern Trust Company, which we are going to get to in a moment.
- [06:40]
C
Right. And her salary for this role was $200,000 a year.
- [06:45]
B
$200,000 for what was essentially an office manager position in a small territory.
- [06:50]
C
It's a wildly above market rate. It's not a salary for administrative work. It's a payment for access. It was a fee to fuse the governor's office directly to the Epstein operation.
- [07:00]
B
And the evidence shows she was not a passive figurehead in this role. She was an active participant in the logistics of the operation.
- [07:07]
C
Very active. The emails show her arranging meetings, specifically meetings with immigration lawyers.
- [07:14]
B
This is where the governance capture becomes a direct facilitator of the actual trafficking.
- [07:18]
C
Exactly. A key part of Epstein's operation was the constant flow of young women and girls, many from Eastern Europe, from South America. They needed a legal pretext to be in the United States.
- [07:28]
B
They needed visas. And student visas were often the COVID story.
- [07:32]
C
And here we have emails from the first lady of the territory, Cecile Dejamme, personally contacting the University of the Virgin Islands.
- [07:39]
B
What was she asking for?
- [07:40]
C
She was asking them to enroll three specific young women to secure student visas for them.
- [07:45]
B
So imagine you're an administrator at the university. You get a call. It's the governor's wife. She says she has three students who need to be enrolled and their visa paperwork needs to be expedited.
- [07:55]
C
Are you going to ask a lot of questions?
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B
No. You're going to stamp the forms. You're going to say, yes, ma'. Am. She was using the inherent authority and prestige of her husband's public office to grease the wheels for the human logistics logistics of the trafficking ring.
- [08:08]
C
She was also, and this is just as important, acting as Epstein's political fixer in the local legislature.
- [08:14]
B
The email about Senator Celestino White.
- [08:17]
C
Yes. Epstein was apparently running into what the emails call legislative obstacles.
- [08:22]
B
What kind of obstacles?
- [08:23]
C
Typically things related to land use permits on Little St. James, or sometimes discussions about tightening sex offender monitoring regulations. Anything that created friction for the operation.
- [08:35]
B
And Cecile de Jong sends an email to Epstein with advice on how to handle it.
- [08:40]
C
It's a strategy memo, she writes, and this is a direct quote. Consider putting Celestino on some sort of monthly retainer. That is what will get you his loyalty and access.
- [08:51]
B
The phrasing there is so revealing. Loyalty and access. She's not talking about influencing his vote on one issue.
- [08:59]
C
No. And look at the words she uses. Retainer. She isn't suggesting a one time public, legally capped campaign donation. A retainer is a salary. It's a private arrangement. She is explicitly recommending the outright purchase of a sitting US Legislator.
- [09:17]
B
And did it happen?
- [09:18]
C
The financial records show a payment of $10,000 to Senator Celestina White shortly after.
- [09:24]
B
And what was the official reason listed in the books for that payment?
- [09:27]
C
This is the part that's almost comical if it weren't so serious. The justification was consulting on changing the name of one of Epstein's islands.
- [09:34]
B
$10,000 to brainstorm a new name for a piece of land.
- [09:37]
C
It's a transparently absurd cover story for what was, for all intents and purposes, a bribe. It was the retainer that Cecile Di Jong had recommended. And according to the documents, after the payment was made, the legislative obstacles, they vanished.
- [09:51]
B
So this entire apparatus, paying the governor's tuition, the first lady's salary, the senator's retainer, it requires a massive, steady flow.
- [09:59]
C
Of capital, a huge amount of cash.
- [10:00]
B
And this is where the role of the USVI government shifts. It goes from being a paid protector to being an active financier of the entire operation.
- [10:08]
C
This brings US to Block 2, the Southern Trust Company and the $219 million tax fraud.
- [10:14]
B
Okay, so the US Virgin Islands has a program called the Economic Development Commission, or edc.
- [10:20]
C
Right. And the idea behind it is pretty standard for developing economies. You want to attract businesses, create jobs, so you offer incentives.
- [10:29]
B
If you open a legitimate business and hire local residents, the government gives you significant tax breaks.
- [10:34]
C
It's a tool that can be used for good. But in Epstein's hands, it was weaponized.
- [10:39]
B
He applied for these EDC benefits for his company, Southern Trust, the company Cecile Dejan was managing.
- [10:45]
C
And the benefit package he received is frankly staggering. It ran from February 2013 to January 2023. A 10 year deal.
- [10:54]
B
And the terms?
- [10:55]
C
A 90% exemption from corporate and personal income taxes.
- [10:59]
B
90%. Let's just pause on that. For an individual moving hundreds of millions of dollars, a 90% tax exemption is essentially a license to print money. It means almost every dollar of profit is kept.
- [11:10]
C
But that wasn't all. He also received a 100% exemption from gross receipts taxes, which is a big.
- [11:15]
B
Deal because that's a tax on revenue, not profit. It hits you right at the top line.
- [11:19]
C
And a 100% exemption from excise taxes and withholding taxes. It was a complete tax holiday.
- [11:24]
B
So do we have a total value for these benefits? How much money did this save him?
- [11:29]
C
The government's own filings, looking at the period from 1999 through 2012 for his various corporate entities put the number at approximately $219,835,233.
- [11:40]
B
219 million.
- [11:43]
C
Yes. Let's be very clear what that number means. That is $219 million of tax revenue that should have gone into the USVI public treasury.
- [11:52]
B
Money for schools, for roads, for hospitals, for the police department, all of it.
- [11:57]
C
Instead, it was diverted directly back into Jeffrey Epstein's pocket. It became the operating capital for his lifestyle and for his criminal enterprise.
- [12:04]
B
And the fraud is baked into the very justification for these tax breaks. To qualify for the EDC program, your company has to actually do something. It has to provide a service, create jobs.
- [12:15]
C
Correct. So Southern Trust filed an application claiming it was a high tech firm. Specifically, they claimed to be in the business of informatics and data mining.
- [12:25]
B
Informatics. It's a great word. It sounds sophisticated, complex. It creates a mental image of server farms, data analysts, a legitimate tech operation.
- [12:35]
C
A perfect veneer of legitimacy. The problem is, it was a Complete fiction.
- [12:39]
B
The subsequent audits and court filings found that Southern Trust performed no data mining, no informatics services whatsoever.
- [12:46]
C
There was no tech company. There were no analysts. It was a shell, a checkbook.
- [12:50]
B
The court filings are incredibly blunt on this point. They describe Southern Trust's actual function as being a conduit.
- [12:56]
C
A conduit for payments to foreign women, credit cards, airplanes, and other instrumentalities.
- [13:02]
B
That word, instrumentalities, that means the tools of the crime.
- [13:06]
C
It means the infrastructure of the trafficking operation. So what this means is that the government of the U.S. virgin Islands, through this fraudulent tax program, was directly subsidizing the cost of the jet fuel for his Gulf Stream.
- [13:20]
B
They were subsidizing the cash payments to victims. They were subsidizing the lawyers and the fixers.
- [13:26]
C
The taxpayers of the Virgin Islands were, without their knowledge, funding the operating costs of an international sex trafficking ring located right on their shores.
- [13:35]
B
And for this to happen, the oversight body, the Economic Development Authority, or eda, had to be either completely asleep at the wheel or complicit.
- [13:44]
C
The official findings describe their performance as granting these benefits with little to no diligence.
- [13:50]
B
They're required to perform audits to ensure the companies are meeting their obligations, hiring locals, performing the stated business.
- [13:56]
C
They did not audit Southern Trust for nearly a decade.
- [13:59]
B
How is that possible? How does a company get a $219 million tax break for being a tech company without anyone ever once stopping by to see if they own a single computer?
- [14:10]
C
I think we know the answer to that. It goes right Back to block one. Who was the registered manager of Southern Trust Company?
- [14:16]
B
The first lady, Cecile DeJean.
- [14:19]
C
You don't send the auditors to the company being run by the governor's wife. She was the human shield against any form of regulatory scrutiny. The EDA wasn't just negligent, it was an institutional failure born of the political capture we've been describing. They knew exactly who they were dealing with.
- [14:38]
B
After Epstein's death, the estate did eventually reach a settlement with the USVI and paid back over $80 million of these benefits.
- [14:45]
C
Right, but some estimates suggested they could have owed as much as $144 million more. It was a fraction of what was taken.
- [14:52]
B
So the financial capture is one pillar. It's fundamentally theft from the public. But the next pillar, the judicial capture, this is about enabling physical harm.
- [15:01]
C
This is where the protection racket becomes truly dangerous. This brings us to Attorney General Vincent Frazier.
- [15:07]
B
Block 3, the sex offender Registry waiver. This might be the single most critical document in this entire story.
- [15:13]
C
It is the Mechanism that allowed the trafficking to happen in plain sight. So Epstein was a Tier 3 sex offender. That is the highest, most severe classification.
- [15:22]
B
It designates someone as a high risk jury offend and it comes with very strict monitoring requirements.
- [15:28]
C
The law is unambiguous. If a Tier 3 offender intends to travel, especially internationally, they are required to provide law enforcement with advance notification. The standard requirement is 21 days, three weeks notice.
- [15:42]
B
And that window isn't arbitrary. It's designed to give police the time to do their jobs.
- [15:46]
C
Exactly. It lets them vet the travel plans. They can review the flight manifest, see who else is on the plane. They can coordinate with law enforcement at the destination. If they see the name of a 14 year old girl on the manifest for a flight to Paris with a known predator, that 21 day window gives them the time to intervene to stop it.
- [16:04]
B
Attorney General Vincent Fraser simply waived this requirement for Jeffrey Epstein.
- [16:09]
C
He took a pair of scissors and cut a hole right through the legal safety net designed to protect children.
- [16:14]
B
The documents show the process. First, the notice period was reduced from 21 days down to 72 hours.
- [16:20]
C
So from three weeks to three days already a massive reduction.
- [16:23]
B
And then it was cut again down to just 24 hours. Notice.
- [16:28]
C
24 hours is functionally useless. It's not a request for permission. It's a notification of something that's already happening. By the time the paperwork is filed, the jet is already fueled and on the Runway. It makes any meaningful vetting completely impossible.
- [16:41]
B
And the most astonishing part of this is noted in the EP82 research brief. The USVI's own sex offender registry coordinator stated on the record that in the entire history of the program, the no other offender had ever been granted such a waiver.
- [16:56]
C
This was a bespoke exemption, a set of laws written for an audience of one. It was a unique privilege carved out of the public safety code for one politically connected predator.
- [17:07]
B
And this waiver wasn't a short term favor. It remained in full effect until March of 2019.
- [17:12]
C
Let that date sink in. March 2019. This is years after the Miami Herald's reporting had brought his crimes back into the national spotlight. This is deep into the MeToo era. The whole world is re examining Epstein's sweetheart deal in Florida. And yet the government of the US Virgin Islands is still giving him a special pass to travel the globe without scrutiny.
- [17:35]
B
It effectively neutralized the entire purpose of the sex offender registry, at least for him.
- [17:39]
C
It did more than that. It blinded local and federal law enforcement. It explains how he was able to move victims in and out of the territory with such impunity as we'll see later. People saw things, but the official mechanism to flag and stop those movements had been deliberately switched off at the highest level of the Justice Department.
- [17:57]
B
Now you might think, okay, this was the De Jong administration. When he leaves office in 2015, surely this whole corrupt arrangement collapses.
- [18:04]
C
But it didn't. The capture had become systemic. It was embedded in the institutions of the government, and it easily survived the transition of power.
- [18:12]
B
Which brings us to block four. The successors Governor Kenneth Mapp and Governor Albert Bryan.
- [18:18]
C
Mapp takes over in 2015, and the relationship with Epstein continues without missing a beat.
- [18:24]
B
We have records of Governor Mapp visiting Little St. James. He had lunch with Epstein on the island.
- [18:29]
C
A sitting governor making a social call to the private island of a registered sex offender. Think about the message that sends to every police officer, every prosecutor, every regulator in the territory.
- [18:40]
B
The message is, he is one of us. He is protected. Do not touch him.
- [18:44]
C
And the financial entanglement continues as well. In late 2018, Mapp is fighting for his political life in a re election campaign against Albert Bryant. He's running out of money.
- [18:54]
B
So he reaches out to Epstein.
- [18:55]
C
It's a direct solicitation for funds. The documents show Mapp requested a $50,000 contribution to his political action committee. He described the money as being needed for, quote, one last push to stay ahead.
- [19:08]
B
And Epstein delivered. But he used the same method we've seen before, the community washing of the money.
- [19:14]
C
Right. Instead of a direct traceable PEC donation, the money flowed through a charitable channel. Governor Mapp is later quoted thanking Epscene for a donation of $140,500 to the Queen Louise Home for Children, plus an additional $20,000 to another cause.
- [19:33]
B
This gives the politician plausible deniability. He can say he was just securing funds for a local charity, but the.
- [19:39]
C
Timing and the context make the intent clear. It was political money laundered through philanthropy, solicited in the final days of a campaign.
- [19:47]
B
Mapp ended up losing that election to Albert Bryan, who is the current governor. But the pattern just repeated itself. With the new administration, the name on.
- [19:55]
C
The governor's door changed. The nature of the entanglement did not.
- [19:58]
B
As soon as Bryan is elected, the money starts flowing again. Court filings describe a $25,000 private gift from Epstein to Governor Bryan's inaugural committee.
- [20:07]
C
Inaugural committees are a well known gray area in campaign finance law. They often have looser rules and less transparency than official campaign accounts. It's an easy way to get cash into a new administration's ecosystem. Right at the start.
- [20:19]
B
And just like Cecile de Jong, Governor Bryan appears to have taken on an advisory role for Epstein's philanthropy.
- [20:25]
C
Yes. The documents show Brian recommending specific local schools for Epstein to support with a $50,000 donation. He also advised Epstein to make a $30,000 donation to the Virgin Islands Little League.
- [20:40]
B
It's the same strategy. Weave yourself into the fabric of the community by goodwill. If you're the guy paying for the new baseball uniforms, people are less inclined to question what's happening out on your private island.
- [20:51]
C
It buys silence through a performance of benevolence.
- [20:53]
B
And this web extends beyond the governor's mansion. It reaches to Washington, D.C. to the territory's congressional delegate, Stacy Plaskett.
- [21:01]
C
Right. We have documentation that Delegate Plaskett met with Epstein at his mansion in Manhattan in the fall of 2018.
- [21:08]
B
The townhouse on East 71st Street. The nerve center of the entire operation.
- [21:13]
C
At that meeting, they discussed a potential $30,000 donation from Epstein to the DCC, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
- [21:20]
B
That donation was ultimately rejected by the dccc. Their national level vetting was apparently more robust than the local government's.
- [21:26]
C
But the meeting, its. It shows the level of access Epstein still had, even in 2018. And there's a text message that's even more revealing.
- [21:35]
B
This is from February 27, 2019, just a few months before his final arrest. Epstein sends a text to Delegate Plaskett.
- [21:43]
C
It says, cohen brought up Rona, Keeper of the secrets.
- [21:46]
B
Rona is Rona Graff. She was Epstein's executive assistant and scheduler for decades. His absolute gatekeeper.
- [21:53]
C
And the nickname Keeper of the secrets. You don't use that kind of familiar insider language in a text to a member of Congress. Unless there's a pre existing relationship and a shared understanding.
- [22:04]
B
It implies that Plaskett would know exactly who Rona was and understand her role within the organization's inner circle. It's a signal of familiarity with the operational hierarchy.
- [22:13]
C
So we see this continuity across three successive administrations. De Jong, Map and Brian. The system of capture is durable. But then in 2020, someone in a position of power actually tried to break the cycle.
- [22:26]
B
And the system's reaction was immediate and brutal. Block 5. The firing of Attorney General Denise George.
- [22:34]
C
This is the moment the captured system is forced to show its hand and defend itself. Denise George was the Attorney general appointed.
- [22:41]
B
By Governor Albert Bryant in January of 2020. After Epstein's death, she did something bold. She filed a civil lawsuit against the Epstein estate under the CICO Act.
- [22:51]
C
That's the local equivalent of the federal RCO act criminally influenced in corrupt organizations. She was treating the Epstein operation as an organized crime syndicate.
- [23:01]
B
The suit alleged aggravated rape, human trafficking, forced labor. It was an incredibly aggressive legal move.
- [23:07]
C
But she didn't stop with the estate of the dead man. She followed the money. She understood that an operation on this scale couldn't function without a sophisticated financial partner.
- [23:16]
B
She focused on his primary banker for decades, JPMorgan Chase.
- [23:20]
C
On December 27, 2022, Attorney General George filed a lawsuit against JP Morgan in federal court. She was seeking $190 million in damages.
- [23:29]
B
And the allegation was that the bank had knowingly facilitated and profited from Epstein's sex trafficking ring for years.
- [23:36]
C
That lawsuit was an existential threat to the entire system of capture in the Virgin Islands because discovery in that case would unseal all of the bank's internal.
- [23:46]
B
Files, including the suspicious activity reports, the emails from compliance officers, the documents that specifically named Cecile de Jong as the primary conduit.
- [23:57]
C
It would have exposed the entire web of complicity. The financial plumbing of the capture would have been laid bare in a federal courtroom.
- [24:03]
B
So the reaction from her boss, Governor Bryan, was swift.
- [24:07]
C
She filed the JP Morgan lawsuit on December 27th. Four days later, on December 31st, New Year's Eve, Governor Bryan fired her.
- [24:15]
B
Four days. It's an unbelievably rapid and punitive response. She attacked the money pipeline that connected Epstein to the political elite, and she was immediately removed from her post.
- [24:25]
C
Governor Bryan's public statement at the time is perhaps the most telling quote of this entire affair. He said, if we never mention Jeffrey Epstein again, that would be good for me.
- [24:34]
B
That's not the statement of a governor committed to justice. That is the statement of a man desperate to bury a story.
- [24:39]
C
He wanted the issue to go away. Denise George was the one person in his government who was actively trying to uncover the full truth. She later said in an interview, my bar license, my integrity were more important to me. She was forced to choose between her job and her oath, the usb.
- [24:57]
B
I did eventually proceed with the lawsuit under her successor and settled with JP Morgan for $75 million. But the AG, who had the courage to file it, was fired for her trouble.
- [25:08]
C
The message sent to every prosecutor and public official in the territory was crystal clear. You can go after the dead man, but you will not touch the powerful institutions, the banks, the political dynasties that enabled him. Do not look under that rock.
- [25:21]
B
Which brings us to the final block. We've talked about the financial, the political, the legal capture. Let's talk about the physical reality on the ground block six, the physical impunity on the islands.
- [25:32]
C
This is about Great St. James, the second island Epstein purchased in 2016 for $22.5 million. It was his new project.
- [25:38]
B
And like any construction project, he had to get permits from the government's Department of planning and natural resources.
- [25:44]
C
And he did get permits for two things. To repair a cistern and to erect a flagpole.
- [25:50]
B
That's it. Basic maintenance.
- [25:52]
C
The reality of what he was doing on the island was something else entirely. He was conducting a massive, unpermitted industrial development project.
- [26:00]
B
The government's own investigators found he had illegally cut more than 21 new roads across the island.
- [26:06]
C
He cleared a massive area for a helipad. And most egregiously, he took a bulldozer and raised a set of colonial era ruins.
- [26:15]
B
These weren't just old buildings. They were protected historical sites built by enslaved Africans, part of the island's cultural heritage.
- [26:21]
C
And he just destroyed them to make way for a road or a building?
- [26:24]
B
Yeah.
- [26:24]
C
The DPNR did issue cease and desist orders in October of 2016, and his.
- [26:29]
B
Response was to simply ignore them. The illegal construction continued.
- [26:33]
C
The total fines levied for all of these violations amounted to $280,000.
- [26:37]
B
But he didn't even pay that. The government ultimately settled with him for.
- [26:41]
C
Just $70,000 for destroying a protected historical site and ignoring dozens of environmental laws. $70,000. That's not a punishment. That's a user fee. Yeah, it's the cost of doing business. When you know the regulators have no real power over you.
- [26:57]
B
It's the ultimate proof of the regulatory capture. The laws on the books simply did not apply to him.
- [27:02]
C
And all of this was happening in plain sight. People saw what was going on. Yeah, we have eyewitness testimony from people like Guy Dome, a local boat captain.
- [27:08]
B
He testified under oath that he personally transported Epstein on his boat, along with two teenage girls who appeared to be 13, 14, maybe 15 years old.
- [27:18]
C
And it wasn't just on the water. It was in the air. We have reports from local air traffic controllers.
- [27:23]
B
They reported seeing Epstein getting off his private helicopter and boarding his private jet, accompanied by female children who they estimated were between 11 and 18 years old. As recently as 2018, they saw this.
- [27:36]
C
With their own eyes. But what were they supposed to do? Who were they supposed to report it to? The system designed to handle that information had been deliberately dismantled by Attorney General Frazier's waiver. The system worked exactly as it had been paid to work, to protect them.
- [27:52]
B
So let's synthesize all of this. We've gone through the documents, the emails, the testimony. It paints a picture of a capture that was, as you said, three pronged.
- [28:01]
C
Financial, regulatory and judicial. The complete trifecta of governance capture.
- [28:05]
B
The financial prong, that's the direct payments. The $70,000 in tuition, the $200,000 salary for Cecile de Jong, the donations to.
- [28:14]
C
MAP and Brian, that bought him the executive branch. It ensured the governor's office was at best compromised and at worst an active partner.
- [28:22]
B
Then the regulatory prong, that's the Southern Trust tax fraud. The $219 million in benefits for a company that didn't exist, that turned the.
- [28:30]
C
Government from a regulator into a financier. They were literally subsidizing the criminal operation.
- [28:35]
B
And finally, the judicial and law enforcement prong. The sex offender travel waiver from AG Frazier and the firing of AG Denise George when she got too close to the truth.
- [28:46]
C
And that provided the shield of impunity. It neutralized the police and the prosecutors. It meant the laws did not apply to him or his operation.
- [28:55]
B
So the conclusion seems to be that the USVI government didn't just allow Epstein to operate.
- [29:00]
C
No, they were an active, paid service provider. They provided the logistical support, the financial subsidies and the legal protection required for his criminal enterprise to flourish for two decades.
- [29:11]
B
It's a complete systemic failure. But I want to close with one final thought. A provocative thought for the listener. It's about the staff on the island.
- [29:18]
C
The people who lived and worked there every day.
- [29:20]
B
Right in 2008, at the height of the operation, the Epstein Estate employed 70 full time staff members on Little St. James. Almost all of them were locals.
- [29:29]
C
70 people. Housekeepers, maintenance workers, boat captains, drivers, groundskeepers, a small army.
- [29:36]
B
All of them operating under ironclad non disclosure agreements. They sought everything. They were the silent witnesses to the daily reality of that island.
- [29:44]
C
And here's the final turn of the screw. Their paychecks, the money that fed their families came from the very companies like Southern Trust that were receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent tax breaks from their own government. The economic capture was so complete that the witnesses themselves were trapped in the machine. Paid with the profits of the crime that their own government was subsidizing.
- [30:06]
B
Next time, the Israel Connection. International intelligence ties.
- [30:14]
A
You have just heard an analys of the official record. Every claim, name and date mentioned in this episode is backed by primary source documents. You can view the original files for yourself at Epstein Files fm. If you value this data first approach to journalism, please leave a five star review wherever you're listening right now. It helps keep this investigation visible. We'll see you in the next file.