Nickname: Epstein Island | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Geography | |
| Location | Caribbean Sea |
| Coordinates | 18°18′0″N64°49′31″W / 18.30000°N 64.82528°W |
| Type | Volcanic |
| Archipelago | Virgin Islands archipelago |
| Administration | |
United States | |
| Territory | United States Virgin Islands |
| Area covered | 0.28–0.32 km2 (0.11–0.12 sq mi) |
Little Saint James, also nicknamed as Epstein Island, is a small private island in the United States Virgin Islands, southeast of Saint Thomas. It was owned by American financier and convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein from 1998 until his death in 2019. It was allegedly used as a base of operations for underage sex crimes. [1] [2]
Little Saint James is a small island (or islet) [3] with an area of 70 to 78 acres (28 to 32 ha). It is part of the United States Virgin Islands, [1] located southeast of neighboring Great Saint James, both off the southern coast of the larger St. Thomas island, [4] [5] and belonging to the subdistrict East End, St. Thomas. The Virgin Islands are mountain peaks rising from the Caribbean ocean floor. [6] The trade winds (prevailing east-to-west winds near Earth's equator) dominate its climate and local weather, with stronger winds and less rain during winter. [7]
The island was originally part of the Danish West Indies. In 1917, the United States Virgin Islands were sold by Denmark to the United States. Little St James was included as one of the “adjacent islands” in the purchase deal. [8] [9]
Little St. James is a private island. In 1997, it was owned by venture capitalist Arch Cummin and was for sale for $10.5 million. [10] In April 1998, a company called L.S.J. LLC purchased the island for $7.95 million. Documents showed that Jeffrey Epstein was the sole member of L.S.J. [11] [12] [13] [14] In 2019, the island was valued at $63,874,223. [15] Little St. James was Epstein's primary residence, [4] [16] and he called the island "Little St. Jeff". [1] [2] The main house on the island was renovated by Edward Tuttle, a designer of the Aman Resorts. [1]
Before Epstein purchased the Island, several buildings were already present, including the main house, the guest house, oval-shaped pool and three cabanas. They were seen in the booklet promoting the island for sale and appeared in the Condé Nast March 1996 edition of House & Garden Magazine, and "The Villa Report". [17] In 2005, Epstein hired the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority to install a combination power and fiber optic cable between St. Thomas and Little St. James, providing the island dedicated data and electric connections, which eliminated the need for generators. [18] [19]
In 2008, Epstein's estate on Little Saint James had 70 staff. [12] [20] According to a former staffer, Epstein insisted on discretion and confidentiality from his employees. [14] In 2016, the Department of Planning and Natural Resources received complaints about Epstein, who had begun to clear land without a permit. [18] In his will and testament (a 21-page pour-over will), signed just two days before his death, [21] all of Epstein's holdings were transferred into the "1953 [the year of his birth] Trust". [22]
In March 2022, Little Saint James and the neighboring Great Saint James were listed at $125 million. A lawyer for Epstein's estate stated that the money obtained from the sale would be used to settle a number of lawsuits. Bespoke Real Estate, the agency jointly overseeing the sale, stated that further information on the listing was only available to prospective buyers. [23] [24]
In May 2023, billionaire Stephen Deckoff, under his firm SD Investments, announced the acquisition of the Great Saint James and Little Saint James islands for $60 million. [25] [26]
In 1997, the island had a main house, three guest cottages, a caretaker's cottage, a private desalination system, a helipad, and a dock. [10] By 2019, the island's infrastructure had expanded to include a sprawling complex of residential and maintenance buildings.
Edward Tuttle's architecture practice designed the renovation of the main house on the island, often described as a compound. [27] [28] The renovation concluded sometime after March 2003 [29] and the colonnaded villa-style house is where guests stayed while visiting the island. [30] Besides the main residence, there are 4 additional residences. [31]
Epstein's personal residence on the island was a stone-walled cabana with a turquoise ceiling, one of many cabanas on the island. [30]
Four smaller single-story buildings are located next to the Main Residence and a large pool. All four have blue roofs. [31]
The Recorder of Deeds had a lien for nearly $40,000 owed to Rex Wolterman for pool construction at the time of Epstein's death. [18]
On the west end of the island, there is a pool with a single story structure. [31]
There is a blue-striped, boxlike building at the southwest point of the island, surrounded by an expansive square pavilion with geometric patterns meant to look like mosaics painted in red on a white background. The structure was initially topped by a golden dome, which Google Earth satellite images suggest was added between July 2013 and March 2014. Aerial footage from March 2015 shows the dome and two large, golden, avian-like statues atop the building, along with two sculptures out front. [32] Locals say the dome was blown away during Hurricane Maria in 2017. [33]
The purpose of the actual construction is unclear and it deviates in substantial ways from the plans for the grand piano container that had been submitted for approval in 2010 by Epstein's architects. [33] The planned "Music Pavilion" building was of an octagonal footprint. The planned building with a substantial covered porch, also octagonal, was also much lower in perspective than the as-built. The building that was eventually constructed was much taller, in the shape of a cube. The dome was also well within the footprint of the cube, and the building did not have any of the proposed finishes applied to the walls, nor was it constructed out of materials in those plans – namely, stone. [33]
Patrick Baron, a piano tuner and technician who worked in the area at the time, visited the island twice in 2012 to tune a piano inside the building. Baron later described the structure as a relatively small building near the coast which was far away from the other buildings on the island. He said it was "dull pewter" in colour, featured statues that resembled gargoyles atop the roof, and a large glass door which faced south. [34]
Baron then confirmed the building against photographs provided by Trotter, despite it being blue and white in the images, based on its size, shape and location — indicating the distinctive stripes and false wooden door were painted after October 2012. [34] Footage captured by Tyler Oliveira, an American content creator who snuck onto the island in 2023 shows that the building and surrounding area had been painted white. [35]
Baron described the interior as having one large room with two levels. The ground floor was 4 to 6 ft (1.2 to 1.8 m) tall and another on a slightly raised platform, which was accessed by a single step. The flooring looked wooden and was covered with a large Oriental rug. He recalls a grey sofa to his right, against the eastern wall. [34]
Directly ahead of him was a dark wood desk of about 10 ft (3 m) long. Behind it were several columns of floor-to-ceiling bookcases. To his left, against the western wall, was a small black grand piano. Baron's notes describe the piano as having been manufactured by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company. Above the piano hung a portrait of Epstein and the Pope. Baron could not confirm which specific Pope it was. [34]
Victoria's Secret models were among the guests a former Epstein employee saw there, and billionaire Les Wexner visited the island at least once. [14] Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor paid at least one visit aboard Epstein's private jet to the island, although former staff said he visited Little St. James several times. [36] Peter Mandelson spent a week on the island in 2004. [37]
In 2015, Epstein emailed friends of his alleged victim Virginia Giuffre, asking them to disprove supposed allegations of Giuffre's that physicist Stephen Hawking participated in an "underage orgy" in the Virgin Islands. Epstein said he "can issue a reward” to them if they can "prove her allegations are false". The email implies it was written in response to a "new version" of the claim regarding Hawking. Neither Giuffre, who died in 2025, [38] nor anyone else has ever publicly accused Hawking of sexual misconduct. [39] [40] [41]
Sergey Brin and his then fiancée, Anne Wojcicki visited the island in 2007. [42] In December 2012, Howard Lutnick, his wife and their children visited the island where they had lunch with Epstein. [43] Reid Hoffman and Joi Ito visited the island in November 2014 according to Epstein's scheduling records. [44] Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak visited the island multiple times from 2014 to 2015. [45] Jes Staley, the former head of Barclays, visited the island in 2015. [46]
Giuffre stated in a lawsuit that while traveling with Epstein she saw Bill Clinton on the island. [47] A Freedom of Information Act request for United States Secret Service records of visits Bill Clinton may have made to Little St. James produced no such evidence. [47] According to Epstein's flight logs, Clinton never flew on one of Epstein's planes near the U.S. Virgin Islands. [48] In July 2019, a Clinton spokesperson issued a statement saying Clinton never visited the island. [11] [49]
Emails written by Epstein in 2011 and 2015 released in November 2025 revealed that Epstein had personally denied that Clinton ever visited the island. [50] [51] [52] In August 2025, the Department of Justice released a transcript of an interview between Maxwell and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. During the interview, Maxwell admitted that Naomi Campbell probably had visited Little Saint James at some point. [53]
During and after its ownership by financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, the island acquired nicknames such as "Isle of Babes", [54] "Island of Sin", [36] "Pedophile Island", [55] [12] "Orgy Island", [55] [12] or more simply, "Epstein Island". [56] According to attorneys for Epstein's alleged victims, Little St. James is where many of the crimes against minors were committed by Epstein and friends who traveled there with him. [57]
Court documents allege that then-17-year-old Virginia Roberts was forced by Epstein to have sex with the then Prince Andrew on several occasions, including as part of an orgy on Little St. James. [36] [58] Buckingham Palace has denied this allegation. [59] [60] A lawyer for Epstein has described the allegations of orgies by Roberts as "old and discredited". [36]
According to locals, Epstein continued to bring underage girls to the island in 2019 after he was registered as a sex offender. [61] In August 2019, following Epstein's death, FBI agents searched his residence on Little St. James. [62] [63]
Accusations of child sex abuse and trafficking took place at the Caribbean island and other locations. [64] Reports suggested that the island was designed to facilitate, conceal, and protect the illegal activities that occurred there. [65]
Reports detail visits from prominent figures like Prince Andrew, who was accused of involvement by victims, with allegations, including those by Virginia Giuffre, pointing to the island as a site for illicit activities. [66]
The location was frequently described in media as a private retreat for abuse, leading to ongoing investigations into the network facilitated by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. [67]
In early 2026, a Pokestop, a designated location used to obtain free items in Pokémon Go, was discovered near the Ancient Sun Clock on the island. [68] The discovery quickly spread across social media, causing a virtual influx to the island before Niantic deactivated the point of interest. [69]
The islands are the peaks of submerged mountains that rise from the ocean floor....The geography of the islands consists of seaside cliffs, mountains with lush forest, tiny streams, arid lands and beautiful white sand beaches.
The Tradewinds (the Easterlies) dominate the weather in the Virgin Islands, blowing east to west across the tropical Atlantic. The winter tends to bring stronger winds and less rain, and the summer tends to bring more rain and lighter winds.
Deckoff acquired the properties for less than half of their $125M initial asking price
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