New Delhi: The Caribbean island owned by the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, where he allegedly hosted sex parties with underage girls, has come under the spotlight after thousands of pages of documents were unsealed in a defamation case involving his ex-girlfriend and associate Ghislaine Maxwell. The documents reveal the names of people who were connected to Epstein or Maxwell in some way, and some of the horrific acts that took place on the island.


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The island, known as Little St. James, is part of the US Virgin Islands and was bought by Epstein in 1998 for $8 million. He also owned another island nearby, called Great St. James.


Epstein Brought Girls To His Island


According to a lawsuit filed by the Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George, Epstein trafficked girls between the ages of 12 and 17 to his 577-million-dollar estate on the island by boat, helicopter and plane between 2001 and 2019. The lawsuit claims that the air traffic controllers in the Virgin Islands saw Epstein leaving his private plane with girls who looked 11 years old in 2018.


Epstein, who was a registered sex offender, also refused to let investigators enter his island and met them at his office instead. The lawsuit alleges that a 15-year-old girl, who was raped and forced to perform sex acts on others by Epstein, tried to escape from the island but was caught and imprisoned.


Epstein Invited Hawking To His Island For A Science Trip


One of the documents unsealed in the defamation case is an email that Epstein sent to Maxwell, claiming that the late scientist Stephen Hawking had participated in an “underage orgy” at the island. People magazine reported that Hawking visited Epstein’s private island as part of a science trip in 2006, months before Epstein was first charged with sexual offences. Hawking, who died in 2018, was one of the world’s most renowned physicists and cosmologists.


Epstein’s Islands To Be Turned Into A Resort


The New York Post reported that the controversial islands are set to be transformed into a resort soon, after they were bought by billionaire Stephen Deckoff, the founder of private equity firm Black Diamond Capital Management, for $60 million in May 2023. The islands, which have been on sale for over a year, are expected to open as a resort in 2025.


The islands were listed to be sold for $125 million in 2021, and most of the money will go to the compensation fund for Epstein’s victims. Epstein, who was accused of running a sex trafficking ring involving minors, died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial. Maxwell, who was his former girlfriend and alleged accomplice, is currently in custody and faces multiple charges of sex trafficking and perjury.