Jeffrey Epstein estate barely able to pay bills amid accusation of misused funds
Estate lawyers argue that the dead pedophile’s liquidity dipped as low as $240,000 last month because of liens that the AG placed on the estate assets — worth $634 million — when she brought her case.
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Lawyers for Jeffrey Epstein’s estate claim they are having trouble meeting their monthly costs as Virgin Islands authorities accuse the estate of misusing funds, according to reports.
The US Virgin Islands attorney general is “crippling the administration,” the estate lawyers claimed as they sought the release of funds frozen by the AG when she sued the estate in January, claiming Epstein ran a decades-long sex-trafficking scheme from his private Caribbean island, ABC reported.
JEFFREY, EPSTEIN PROBE REMAINS ACTIVE, PROSECUTORS SEEK TO KEEP GHISLAINE MAXWELL EVIDENCE A SECRET
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Estate lawyers argue that the dead pedophile’s liquidity dipped as low as $240,000 last month because of liens that the AG placed on the estate assets — worth $634 million — when she brought her case.
Meanwhile, the estate’s monthly costs to pay staff, property expenses and aircraft parking and maintenance are over $260,000, the outlet reported.
“In the event that the Attorney General’s intransigence continues, the Estate’s Co-Executors will no longer be able to continue to administer the Estate,” estate lawyer Christopher Kroblin wrote in court papers last month, according to the report.
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“The residential properties will quickly deteriorate, the aircraft and other assets will fall into disrepair, its assets will remain unsold and legal proceedings will be defaulted.”
But AG Denise George’s office claims the estate hasn’t been transparent about its spending and the AG’s office discovered that the estate is even paying for an immigration lawyer who the AG believes is helping Epstein victims gain immigration status, the news site reported.
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A villa stands on Little St. James Island, owned by fund manager Jefferey Epstein, in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, on Wednesday, July 10, 2019. Photographer: Marco Bello/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“Payments to defend this lawyer are not appropriate expenditures of Estate funds, and these payments suggest that Estate funds are being used even now to conceal and protect participants in Epstein’s criminal enterprise,” the AG’s office said in court papers, according to the outlet.
Kroblin claimed in response that some of the victims who have been called to testify in the Virgin Islands can’t afford their own lawyers and have asked the estate to help, ABC reported.
“It is deeply troubling that a government law enforcement agency contends that affording individuals the opportunity for legal representation in the face of a scope-less law enforcement investigation constitutes an act of concealment,” Kroblin said in court papers.
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The estate also owes over $4 million in legal bills for the cost of defending a slew of civil complaints brought by Epstein’s victims.
Neither a lawyer for the estate nor George’s office immediately returned requests for comment.