Jeffrey Epstein/2011 police mug shot

A series of new lawsuits from Jeffrey Epstein’s accusers, filed overnight against the disgraced financier’s estate, laid out fresh allegations of abuse, and shed new light on how Epstein used his network of businesses to operate an alleged child-sex trafficking ring that landed him under federal indictment before his death earlier this month.

According to the filings, Epstein and those close to him used a network of eight companies to operate an “enterprise” that yielded vast power, wealth and resources to threaten and cajole the women and young girls he brought into his orbit.

The companies, which were registered in New York, Delaware and the U.S. Virgin Islands, for years enabled Epstein to procure commercial sex acts and expand the circle of young victims upon whom he allegedly preyed, according to the lawsuits.

One company acted as a front for further sexual abuse while Epstein participated in a work-release program after pleading guilty to two state prostitution charges in Palm Beach County, Florida, the lawsuits said.

Another, formed in New York following Epstein’s 2008 conviction in Florida, designated employees to recruit victims and keep them in line, the suits claimed.

“Epstein, his associates and related companies, including corporate defendants, through acts of fraud and coercion, caused plaintiff to engage in commercial sex acts for many years,” attorney J. Stanley Pottinger wrote on behalf of one of the plaintiffs, identified in the filing by the pseudonym Katlyn Doe.

The new details came in the three latest suits to target Epstein’s estate following his death Aug. 10 while awaiting trial on federal conspiracy and sex trafficking charges. Epstein’s death, which was ruled a suicide by hanging, ended the federal criminal case against him, but an investigation into his associates and other affairs remains ongoing.

A number of Epstein’s former employees have retained criminal defense attorneys.

Sources told the New York Law Journal last week that, before he died, Epstein had tried to set up a fund to help cover the legal costs of certain employees and other associates, who might be contacted by law enforcement in an ongoing criminal investigation into the alleged ring and Epstein’s affairs.

The suits claim that Epstein’s pattern of engaging women and girls for massages that turned sexual spanned “many years before” and “many years after” the 2002 to 2005 timeframe outlined in the government’s indictment. They allege that Epstein forcibly used a sex toy on one of the victims and confiscated the passport of another so that she could not leave his Caribbean island.

In the case of Katlyn Doe, one filing claimed Epstein had long promised to help treat the alleged victim’s eating disorder, and held out funding for surgeries as a way to allegedly manipulate the woman, who was 17 when she met Epstein.

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In addition to new allegations of sexual abuse, the lawsuits also detailed how Epstein used his shrouded network of businesses to find new victims and avoid detection by law enforcement.

According to the filings, Epstein continued to solicit sexual encounters while employed by the Florida Science Foundation Inc. during his participation in a work-release program in Florida. State records list the company’s headquarters in West Palm Beach, and Darren Indyke, Epstein’s longtime corporate attorney, as its director.

Indyke, who is also a joint representative of Epstein’s estate, has hired criminal defense counsel in New York, as a federal criminal investigation remains ongoing.

According to the lawsuit, Epstein engaged in paid sexual encounters while working out of his office at Florida Science, and leveraged his other businesses and associates to lure Katlyn Doe there in the hope of gaining legitimate employment with the company.

One of Epstein’s New York firms, HBRK Associates Inc., employed “numerous individuals whose primary, if not exclusive, objective” was to aid Epstein in his sex trafficking endeavor, the suits said.

According to the filings, employees of HBRK included recruiters and schedulers, who were responsible for maintaining appointments with young girls, some of whom were kept “on call.” Other employees, meanwhile, were allegedly responsible for providing gifts, money and services to alleged victims who met Epstein’s sexual demands.

The filings also alleged that NES, a limited-liability company, was tasked with maintaining Epstein’s daily massage schedule, while JEGE Inc., a Delaware corporation, owned at least one of Epstein’s planes, which was allegedly used to fly women and girls across state lines.

“Under Epstein’s control were numerous companies with many employees and obvious resources, each of whom worked for the Epstein enterprise,” Pottinger wrote. “While the individuals were employees of various Epstein-related companies, including defendant corporations, it was clear through explicit words and appearances that all such employees acted at Epstein’s direction and for his protection.”

The newest filings bring to at least five the number of lawsuit filed against Epstein’s estate following his death.

Geoffrey Berman, the Manhattan U.S. attorney, has said that Epstein’s death presented “yet another hurdle” to obtaining justice for the victims, but he confirmed that his office was continuing its probe of people linked to the financier.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr said last week that the criminal case would proceed against anyone who might have enabled Epstein’s behavior, and warned that any co-conspirators would be in the DOJ’s cross hairs.

“Let me assure you that this case will continue on against anyone who was complicit with Epstein,” he said in remarks last week. “Any co-conspirators should not rest easy. The victims deserve justice, and we will ensure they get it.”

 

Read more: Civil Litigation Is Complicated by Jeffrey Epstein’s Death, Mysterious Estate