Snow-white beaches lined with palm trees on an azure blue sea. A tax regime that is even milder than the tropical climate. And all that just a two-hour flight from Miami. Little St. James and Great St. James offer all the benefits American super-rich typically look for when purchasing their own Caribbean island. And now they are for sale for a target price of 125 million dollars (114 million euros).
The question is whether they will actually deliver that amount. The island paradises have one ill-concealed flaw: the previous owner was convicted pedosexual Jeffrey Epstein. The multimillionaire, who died in 2019, is said to have brought girls as young as 11 or 12 years old by yacht or private jet to abuse them in total seclusion. In addition, he may have also received guests from the higher political and business circles in which the financier had been for decades.
For example, Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre has stated that she was abused on Little St. James by the British Prince Andrew, when she was still a minor. This year, Giuffre reached a financial settlement with the Windsor scion, who denies the allegations.
And the U.S. Virgin Islands, the archipelago to which the islets belong, posthumously charged Epstein in early 2020 with “trafficking, raping, sexually assaulting and detaining” dozens of underage girls and young women between 2001 and 2018. According to the indictment, a girl tried of 15 even managed to swim off the island, but was intercepted and her passport was taken away.
Exclusive real estate auctioned
Epstein was found dead in his New York cell in the summer of 2019, authorities say he committed suicide. He had been arrested a month earlier on suspicion of years of abuse of young girls from vulnerable families – a crime for which he had already been convicted in Florida, but managed to rustle a remarkably lenient sentence in the courts.
Since Epstein’s death, his worldwide real estate portfolio has been put on the market, partly to pay compensation to his victims. These are properties in very exclusive locations. His famous townhouse on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York brought in $51 million. His Palm Beach, Florida home was bought for $18.5 million by a property developer, who demolished it to build new premises on the lot. Other real estate, such as a ranch in New Mexico and an apartment in Paris, are still waiting for new buyers, business newspaper reports The Wall Street Journal†
Also read: Epstein wanted to use New Mexico estate as ‘baby ranch’
It is now the turn of the two islands. Epstein bought Little St. James — the smallest and most developed island at 36 acres — in 1998 for nearly $8 million. Its features include a helipad, private dock, gas station, two swimming pools, a main building, four guest villas, three private beaches, a gym and a tiki hut, according to the brochure. That The Journal saw†
The 65-acre Greater St. James, which Epstein acquired for 22.5 million in 2016, is less developed, but does have its own marine reserve. According to the indictment of the Justice in the Virgin Islands, he bought this second island through a front man to protect himself from possible snoopers.
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