Inside The Selloff Of Jeffrey Epstein’s Tainted Homes And Where The Money Went

Forbes

Before his second arrest and death in 2019, the convicted sex offender owned a property empire stretching from Paris to New Mexico. All of it has since been sold.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2025/07/22/epsteins-properties-were-allegedly-the-sites-of-sexual-exploitation-now-theyve-all-been-sold/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  0:00 - Introduction: Inside Jeffrey Epstein's Fortune 0:48 - How Much Was Jeffrey Epstein Worth? 1:21 - A Tour of Epstein's Properties (NYC, Paris, Private Islands) 3:19 - The Billionaire Connection: Les Wexner & Leon Black 6:01 - Did Victims Get the Money from Property Sales? 8:30 - Selling Tainted Real Estate: The 'Epstein Discount' 10:43 - What's Left of the Epstein Estate in 2025? 13:20 - Where is the Rest of the Money Going?  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis, a breaking news reporter here at Forbes. Joining me now

00:07is my Forbes colleague, staff writer Giacomo Tonini. Giacomo, thanks so much for joining

00:12me. Great to be here. Thank you. Jeffrey Epstein is once again dominating the headlines. His

00:17relationship with President Trump is now under renewed scrutiny, and the DOJ has been criticized

00:22over a memo they released in early July saying that there was no client list regarding the case

00:28and that no documents regarding the case are going to be released. And as we remember, back in 2019,

00:34before Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his jail cell, he was charged with sex trafficking minors.

00:39And many of these alleged crimes took place in his properties all around the globe. And you've done

00:44a lot of reporting on these properties. So to start off the conversation, how much was Epstein worth and

00:49how much of his fortune was tied up in his real estate properties? So we know from a report that

00:55his estate put out after he died in 2019, that after his death, he was worth around $578 million.

01:03And of that, you know, based on the valuations that the executors of the estate put together at the

01:07time, the real estate was around $117 million of that number. And so where were these homes located?

01:14Because you're reporting he had everything from Paris to properties in New York, everywhere in between

01:21in the Caribbean. So where were they located? And how did he come into possession of them?

01:25Was it through business partnerships? Was he buying them himself? What did that look like?

01:29Right. So I guess we can go through them sort of one by one. One of the most sort of prominent ones

01:35was a seven story townhouse on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. Then he also had the two islands that

01:44are, you know, that are, you know, well known as well. Great St. James and Little St. James Island

01:49in the U.S. Virgin Islands, you know, where he flew to frequently, as we know from the, you know,

01:54the cases that were made against him. Then there was also a 10,000 acre ranch in New Mexico near Santa Fe.

02:05And then he also had an apartment in central Paris, you know, just near the Arc de Triomphe that was

02:10around 7,000, more than 7,000 square feet. And then he also had a house in Palm Beach in Florida.

02:18So in terms of how he, you know, came into possession of these, most of them he purchased over the years,

02:25you know, between the 90s and the, you know, 2000s, early 2010s. I think the last purchase was the second

02:31island in the U.S. Virgin Islands. And one property, the other one in New York, he didn't actually purchase.

02:39What happened was Les Wexner, who was, you know, one of Epstein's most prominent clients,

02:45had purchased it in the 1990s. We sort of know from reporting that Epstein used the home for many

02:54years, but it wasn't until 2011 that the house was actually formally transferred to him,

02:59to a company that he owned from Wexner. We, you know, there's no actual recorded price

03:05in the deeds. You know, other reporting has stated that he paid $20 million for it,

03:12but, you know, sort of on paper, it was transferred to him. So that's sort of how he

03:15came into possession of all these various homes.

03:18Something that we know, based on years of reporting surrounding Jeffrey Epstein,

03:22is that he was connected to the world's most powerful and the wealthiest. And someone you

03:26mentioned is billionaire Les Wexner. And he was connected to several of Epstein's properties,

03:31particularly the Manhattan mansion, according to your reporting. So talk to us a little bit

03:36about that longstanding business relationship and what that and the property transfers really

03:40suggests about the level of scrutiny Epstein operated under.

03:44So what we know about their relationship is that I believe that they first met in the late 80s. And,

03:51you know, for at least more than a decade, Wexner was one of Epstein's most prominent clients. We don't

03:59know in sort of in total how much Epstein received from that, you know, business relationship.

04:06Wexner has said that he cut ties with Epstein in 2007, so a year before Epstein was convicted in Florida.

04:13In terms of the sort of the connections of the properties, you know, I mentioned the one in Manhattan.

04:17Epstein also for a time owned two properties in New Albany, Ohio, which is where Wexner still lives

04:26and where he's sort of, you know, been really involved in developing and expanding that town and

04:31the developments there. In terms of sort of other clients, you know, the only other sort of well-known

04:37client that we know for sure is Leon Black, who was the, you know, former CEO of private equity giant

04:45and Apollo. And we know from a report that Apollo put out that at least until 2017, 2012 to 2017,

04:53I think was the timeframe, Black was one of Epstein's clients. This is all just to say that,

04:58you know, even after that conviction in 2008, it's clear that Epstein still did have clients. You know,

05:05his account of JP Morgan wasn't closed until 2013, for example, you know, from court records. So

05:12obviously, this is a question that so many people have, right? How was he able to maintain certain

05:16relationships after? We don't know the extent of them. But we do know that, you know, even after

05:21that conviction, he was still able to, you know, to make money and have clients. And obviously, we know,

05:26you know, considering he was worth almost 580 million when he died, that he was still able to

05:30generate income from from these relationships.

05:32And I think really, some of the most haunting aspects of your reporting is that in all of the

05:39properties in this real estate portfolio, so many of these alleged crimes happened there. And there

05:44are dozens and dozens of victims. So when these properties were sold off, did those funds impact

05:51the victims at all? What did that really look like? So it's, it's difficult to sort of really break it

05:56down completely, you know, based on sort of the statements that the state's lawyers have made,

06:03and that the victim's compensation fund has made. We know, so we know in total, the home sold for

06:08about 160 million. There's one, the ranch in Santa Fe, we don't know the exact sale price, but

06:13call it 160 million that all of them sold for since his death. It seems that about, you know, 50 million of

06:21that stayed with the estate, you know, partly to pay other creditors or to pay sort of, you know,

06:26administrative fees. Of that other 110, we know 30 million, which is half of the sale price of the

06:33islands, went to the U.S. Virgin Islands government. That was part of the settlement that the estate

06:38did with the government there. And that 30 million went to a trust that was set up to provide, you know,

06:44support and services for victims of sexual abuse in the islands. And, you know, sort of the, the

06:51remainder of that. So, you know, 50, 80, so around 80 million, we believe did go to them,

06:57you know, victims compensation fund. We know that since his death, that the estate has paid out more

07:02than 160 million dollars to victims. They also, you know, repaid a 30 million dollar loan. But, you know,

07:09the state still has significant assets to this day. And, you know, we don't know how much more will be paid

07:15to victims. But if you're looking at sort of the sale of the properties, we know that, you know,

07:20if you're including the trust and the compensation fund, you know, more than half of it has gone to

07:25victims in some way or form.

07:26And the Jeffrey Epstein story is really, it's an international story. So many people know it. And

07:33so many people are just disgusted by the, these heinous crime, alleged crimes. And so many of them,

07:39as you and I have been saying, happened inside of his properties, at his properties. I mean,

07:44even one of the islands in the Caribbean is known as a pedophile island. So I'm imagining that the

07:49executors of his estate had a tough time selling these. What did that really look like? What were some

07:54of those challenges? I mean, the clearest one is that they had to sort of lower their asking prices

07:59on, I think, nearly all of these properties. On, you know, on the islands, for example,

08:02they were first asking for 125 million for both islands combined. They ended up selling for 60

08:07million to a private equity billionaire who's, you know, since said he's going to develop a luxury

08:14resort there. And even on the other homes, you know, we know the, for example, the Palm Beach household

08:21for 4 million less than what they asked for the home in New York, you know, they were asking 88

08:28million. They sold it for 51 million. The apartment in Paris and the ranch in New Mexico also sold for

08:34less than what they initially asked for, or at least in the New Mexico ranch, they, they lowered the

08:38asking price. We don't know the total sale price, but, you know, clearly that association had an impact

08:44on, you know, if these were just properties you were selling and they weren't, you know,

08:48previously owned by Epstein and, you know, like associated with these crimes and the site of

08:53these alleged crimes, then, you know, maybe they could have gotten more for them. And if we're

08:58looking at sort of the impact, you know, at least, you know, one case in Palm Beach,

09:01the developer who purchased the home, you know, tore it down, raised it and even changed the address so

09:06that, you know, they could remove any sort of physical association with, with Epstein and what

09:11happened there. And even at the time of his death, as you said earlier in this conversation,

09:16Epstein was an ultra wealthy man. His executors valued his estate to be worth $578 million. I mean,

09:23that's just a huge number. As we sit here now in 2025, what is that estate worth and where is that

09:29money going? Right. So the, the latest report we have is from the end of March. And at that point,

09:35the estate held $131 million. It had been whittled down quite a lot, but then last fall,

09:42the estate got a hundred and I believe $112 million tax refund from the IRS. And if we're

09:48looking at sort of what still is there now, it's not as detailed as that first report from after he

09:54died. But we, you know, we know, for example, that he has, the estate has about $49 million in cash,

10:014,000 in jewelry and watches, about $3 million in loans receivable. And then the last bucket,

10:06which is the largest one is $79 million in just as entities. So we know all the real estate has

10:13been sold off, right? So all the homes have been sold that, you know, entities could be sort of

10:20anything. We know when he died, he had quite a lot of money in, you know, in cash, obviously, which,

10:28which we, that we do know, but the other stuff he had was outside of the homes was, you know,

10:32private equity and hedge fund investments, fixed income investments, you know, equity stocks. So

10:38that remaining, you know, $79 million in these other entities could be any of those other investments

10:44they still have. It could be other investments the estate has made since then that we don't know

10:48about. When he died, he also had, you know, a line item in the estate for aviation assets. So,

10:55you know, planes, um, there's also boats in that, in that item. So we, we're not quite sure sort of

11:02what's in there. It's not been made public, but, uh, you know, clearly also thanks to that, you know,

11:07tax refund, it's still a sizable, um, sum that's still in that estate.

11:12Yeah. Still millions upon millions in that estate. What's happening to that money? Where does it go?

11:17So again, the, the, the quarterly reports that they file aren't super detailed, but they do say,

11:23you know, for example, when money has been paid out for, you know, if it's like property payments,

11:28right, when they sold homes or, or payouts to, um, you know, victims compensation funds

11:33or sort of other, you know, ins and outs, they repaid a $30 million loan a while back. So we,

11:40we really don't know exactly, but, you know, we get the snippet, you know, every quarter on what's

11:45going on there. Um, presumably there could be other, you know, lawsuits filed for compensation,

11:51you know, there's been various settlements over the years. So we just, we just don't know sort

11:55of the full details of that. Takama, I always appreciate your reporting and I appreciate

11:59these conversations. Thanks so much for coming on in. Thanks for having me.

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