FEBRUARY 2022 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 11
IN THE NEWS
EPSTEIN CASE
ALLEGED TRAFFICKER’S LI FLIGHTS DETAILED
BY TIMOTHY BOLGER
One of the pilots who flew late convicted
pedophile financier Jeffrey
Epstein’s private jets to
and from Long Island airports
50 times over a twodecade
span witnessed sex
trafficking victims aboard
unspecified flights, records
show.
Details of the multimillionaire
alleged sex trafficker’s local
stops emerged from flight records
reviewed by the Press and the
recent Manhattan federal court trial
of Ghislaine Maxwell, Expstein’s
ex-girlfriend. The British socialite is
appealing her Dec. 29 conviction on
five counts of sex trafficking and other
charges related to recruiting and
grooming teenage girls for Epstein to
abuse between 1994 and 2004. Among
those listed in manifests for Epstein’s
aircraft — including the infamous jet
dubbed the “Lolita Express,” a Boeing
727-31 reportedly decked out in
red velvet reclining seats and beds on
which Epstein’s victims have alleged
he abused them mid-flight — were pilot
Lawrence Visoski, the prosecution’s
first witness at Maxwell’s trial.
Visoski told jurors that he recalled the
“piercing powder blue eyes” of a victim
— one of four who took the stand
— dubbed Jane who later testified that
she had sexual contact with Epstein
multiple times when she was 14 years
old, sometimes with Maxwell in the
room.
Epstein, a 66-year-old registered sex
offender who pleaded guilty in Florida
to soliciting prostitution from minor
girls, died by suicide in a Manhattan
jail cell in 2019, authorities said, while
awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking
charges for allegedly abusing dozens
of girls over the years. Epstein’s
many high-powered friends over the
years have included former Presidents
Donald Trump and Bill Clinton as well
as Prince Andrew, who was recently
stripped of his military title amid
pending lawsuits from Epstein’s alleged
victims.
Details of Epstein’s trips to LI were
scarce, but the records show the region
was among his many stops on his
international travels as he flew with
companions between New York, Florida
and overseas, as he had homes in
Manhattan, Palm Beach and in the
U.S. Virgin Islands. Six of the 50 flights
were to or from the Virgin Islands,
where Epstein’s so-called “Pedophile
Island” is located. None of those who
traveled with Epstein to LI have been
accused of crimes.
Flight logs show passengers on Epstein’s
flights to and from LI included
Gerald Lefcourt, a lawyer who negotiated
Epstein’s 2008 agreement with
prosecutors that hid from Epstein’s
victims a non-prosecution agreement.
After Epstein was rearrested, Lefcourt
told the Associated Press that he
“would never have signed the agreement
or recommended it unless we
believed that it resolved what it said:
all federal and state criminal liability.”
Lefcourt could not be reached for
comment.
Also listed in Epstein’s flight manifests
was Celina Midelfart, a Norwegian
cosmetics heiress whose attorney issued
a statement that denied Midelfart
was Epstein’s ex-girlfriend after Maxwell’s
former executive assistant testified
that she believed the pedophile
dated the heiress behind the socialite’s
back. A representative for Midelfart,
who has not been accused of involvement
in Epstein’s alleged scheme, did
not respond to a request for comment.
The flight documents additionally
showed a passenger of Epstein’s on
a trip to LI was his science advisor,
neurosurgeon Melanie Walker, who
reportedly helped introduce Epstein
to Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the
world’s fifth-richest man. Dr. Walker
is married to a former Microsoft executive
and is reported to have helped introduce
Epstein to Gates in 2011. Walker
and another person close to Gates
“at times functioned as intermediaries
between the two men,” The New York
Times reported. The Daily Beast cited
an anonymous source as saying that
“she did not attend nor help set up any
meetings between Gates and Epstein.”
Walker, who has not been accused of
involvement in Epstein’s alleged trafficking,
could not be reached for comment.
Gates told Anderson Cooper last
summer that his meetings with Epstein
were a “mistake.” Gates’ wife Melinda,
who ended their 27-year marriage last
year, was widely quoted as saying she
was concerned about her ex-husband’s
relationship with Epstein.
Records of the trips were found in a
Business Insider database containing
thousands of Epstein’s flight logs. In
November, the Federal Aviation Administration
accidentally sent another
2,000 flight logs to the publication in
response to a Freedom of Information
Act request that the FAA had previously
denied. It is unclear if the LI flights
were among the new or previously disclosed
logs.
The flights are not Epstein’s only local
ties. As the Press has reported, Richard
Kahn, an accountant with a home
in Water Mill who is an executor of Epstein’s
$634 million estate, has been
accused of helping Epstein run the alleged
international sex trafficking ring.
The attorney general for the U.S. Virgin
Islands filed papers last year in the
Superior Court of the Virgin Islands
naming K ahn and Epstein estate coexecutor
Darren Indyke, an attorney
and Glen Cove native, with being “indispensable
captains” in the scheme.
The duo have denied the accusations.
Lawyers for Maxwell, who argued she
is being scapegoated for crimes Epstein
committed, requested a new trial after
a juror in the case told reporters that
he shared his experience of being sexually
abused as a child during deliberations,
and that his account helped sway
jurors who were skeptical of Maxwell’s
accusers. Maxwell faces up to 65 years
in prison when she is sentenced by U.S.
District Judge Alison Nathan.
~With Reuters
/LONGISLANDPRESS.COM
