Epstein’s Private Islands, Little St. James, Called “Pedophile Island” By Locals

Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire who was recently arrested on charges of child sex trafficking, owns two islands in the U.S. Virgin Islands chain, with shocking nicknames such as “pedophile island,” “Orgy Island,” and “Island of Sin.”

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Epstein bought his first island, Little St. James, in 1998 for $7.5 million. The 75-acre landmass lies about a mile southeast of St. Thomas. Its partner, Great St. James Island, was purchased by Epstein in 2016 for the reported price of $18 million.

“Everybody called it ‘Pedophile Island,'” St. Thomas boat operator Kevin Goodrich told reporters. “It’s our dark corner.”

According to Virginia Giuffre, a girl who accused Epstein of raping her when she was 15 in a 2015 lawsuit, stated that the billionaire had used her as a “sex slave” and that she had been taken to his private islands and abused. Giuffre asserted that she had been forced into “an orgy with numerous other under-aged girls” on the islands and that she “was forced to have sexual relations with [Prince Andrew] when she was a minor” at the estate on Little St. James.

The islands would also have been the site of any financial crimes committed by Epstein, which are currently being investigated by the Southern District of New York’s Public Corruption Unit, as the billionaire ran his Financial Trust Company from there.

Little St. James boasts a complex of five buildings manned by a 70-person staff, as well as a “flamingo-stocked lagoon.” Over the course of his ownership of the island, Epstein stripped much of the natural vegetation and replaced it with palm trees and other frivolities, such as two massive flags on each side of the island. Little St. James is also home to a temple-esque structure painted with blue and white stripes that may have been used as a soundproof musical studio. The inclusion of a bar locking residents inside the building hints at the possibility of a more sinister usage.

Article by Daniel Knopf