MARCH 2021 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 7
IN THE NEWS
EPSTEIN’S ACCUSED OF COMPLICITY LI ACCOMPLICES
BY TIMOTHY BOLGER
Two Long Islanders who are
the executors of convicted
pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s
$634 million estate used a
New York-based immigration
attorney while forcing
marriages on some of the
late financier’s alleged international
sex trafficking ring
victims, federal authorities say.
Denise George, the U.S. Attorney for
the Virgin Islands — where Epstein’s
secluded so-called Pedophile Island
is located — filed papers Feb. 10 in the
Superior Court of the Virgin Islands
naming Richard Kahn, an accountant
from Water Mill, and Darren Indyke,
an attorney from Glen Cove, with being
“indispensable captains” in the
criminal enterprise.
“Indyke and Kahn participated with
Epstein in coercing his sex trafficking
victims, in at least three cases, to
enter into arranged and forced marriages
in order to obtain immigration
status for the foreign women so that
they could continue to be available to
Epstein for his abuse — a doubly deep
assault on their will and dignity,”
George, whose office first sued the
estate last year, alleged in court documents.
“The victims ... understood
that there would be consequences,
including serious reputational and
bodily harm, if they refused to enter
a marriage or attempted to end it.
In each instance, Indyke and Kahn
knowingly facilitated the fraudulent
and coerced marriages, performing
and securing the legal and accounting
work involved.”
Epstein, a 66-year-old registered sex
offender who pleaded guilty in Florida
to soliciting prostitution from
minor girls, killed himself in a Manhattan
jail cell in 2019 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.
Kahn’s ties to Epstein’s organizations
date back years, nonprofit records
show. The accountant was listed as
treasurer of The COUQ Foundation
dating back to 2009 and as president
of Gratitude America Ltd. since 2015,
L: Jeffrey Epstein appears in a photo taken for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services' sex offender
registry March 28, 2017. (New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services/Handout via REUTERS). R: Little St. James Island,
one of the properties of Jeffrey Epstein, is seen in an aerial view near Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin
Islands July 21, 2019. (REUTERS/Marco Bello)
tax records show. Khan and his wife,
Lisa, who also own an apartment on
Manhattan’s Upper East Side, purchased
their Water Mill home for
$1.5 million in 2016, property records
show.
Indyke, who reportedly worked for
Epstein for more than 20 years before
being tasked with handling the estate,
graduated from Glen Cove High
School in 1982, the Press has reported.
The pair’s involvement in the Epstein
scheme grew with time.
“Kahn and Indyke organized, controlled,
and directed almost every
aspect of the Epstein Enterprise,”
authorities alleged. “They were officers
in virtually every corporate
entity that Epstein created to fund
and conceal his activities.”
Also among George’s new claims
in her amended lawsuit against the
estate, the 76-page complaint alleged
Kahn and Indyke “directed, approved,
enabled, and justified millions of
dollars in payments that fueled the
Epstein Enterprise’s sex trafficking,
including payments to women who
were forced to have sex with Epstein
and/or recruited others to be victimized.”
Authorities likened it to a sex
trafficking pyramid scheme.
Cash was central to the operation.
“Indyke and Kahn obtained large and
frequent stocks of cash for Epstein
which, based on public knowledge,
would have funded Epstein’s cash
payments for ‘massages’ — code for
forced sex,” authorities alleged.
For instance, about $12,000 per month
for eight months was withdrawn
in 97 $1,000 increments from an
Epstein account at an ATM that is a
short walk from Indyke’s law office
from June 2018 to February 2019, the
suit alleged. “Euros for safe” was the
notation in some of 11 checks totaling
$126,000 that Indyke wrote from the
same account and in some cases, he
made large cash withdrawals, such as
cashing a check for $100,000 in 2018,
according to investigators.
“Payments from this account, for
which Indyke had signatory authority,
totaling over $2,500,000 were
made to dozens of women with Eastern
European surnames, purportedly
for hotel expenses, tuition, and rent,
and to, again, the immigration lawyer
in New York who was involved in one
or more forced marriages arranged
among Epstein’s victims to secure victims’
immigration status,” authorities
added.
The claims are likely to further slow
disbursement of funds to Epstein’s
victims.
“Neither Mr. Indyke nor Mr. Kahn had
any involvement in any misconduct
by Mr. Epstein of any kind, at any
time,” the executors’ lawyers said in a
statement. “It is enormously regrettable
that the Attorney General chose to
level false allegations and to unfairly
malign the co-executors’ reputation
without any proof or factual basis.”
“Kahn and Indyke organized, controlled, and
directed almost every aspect of the Epstein
Enterprise,” authorities alleged.
/LONGISLANDPRESS.COM
