The executors of Jeffrey Epstein’s estate claim they will not be able to pay out money to the perv’s victims if the US Virgin Islands Attorney General is allowed to freeze his assets, new court papers show.
AG Denise George’s office last week asked a judge to freeze the dead pedophile’s estate assets following an announcement that the administrator of the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program would have to pause making claim offers since the estate couldn’t currently replenish the fund.
The estate — which is currently worth around $240 million, down from estimates that went as high as $634 million — has most of its assets tied up in properties, investments and aircraft, the executors said in papers filed Wednesday in Virgin Islands Superior Court.
This illiquidity is why the estate says it can’t currently replenish the victims’ fund.
But in the new filing, estate lawyer Daniel Weiner points out that, to date, the estate has provided the program with over $87 million.
For example, Epstein’s multimillion-dollar waterfront home in Palm Beach, Florida — “one of the estate’s most valuable real estate properties” — has been in contract for sale since October as the estate “attempts to clear recent fraudulent clouds of title,” the court filing says.
The sale of the $22 million Florida home could remain in limbo for months more as a court dispute with a Christian nonprofit that says it owns the property plays out, the Daily Mail reported Wednesday.
The 66-year-old financier’s Manhattan townhouse, meanwhile, “is progressing towards sale,” the court papers say.
The estate said that it was having trouble selling off assets partly because of the negative impact that the pandemic has caused the global economy.
And the estate also wants to sell off Epstein’s two Virgin Island properties but can’t because of liens that the AG’s office placed on them as part of her lawsuit against the estate.
“To properly serve the public interest, the Attorney General should immediately lift liens on the Virgin Islands properties held by the estate — the island of Great St. James and Little St. James,” the court documents say.
“The Attorney General is conspicuously silent regarding the extraordinary harm the estate will suffer” if her motion to freeze assets is granted, the court papers claim.
George last week accused the executors of mismanaging the estate and paying “for lawyers, landscaping, and helicopter fees, but not the brave women who have stepped forward to participate in the compensation fund.”
But the executors fired back in the court papers that if they don’t maintain the property and aircraft, their value will go down.
“The public interest would be ill-served by enjoining the co-executors from paying estate expenses or disposing of estate assets,” the court papers allege.
“To the contrary: if the co-executors are unable to maintain the estate’s physical assets, including its aircraft and residential properties, the value of those assets will plummet,” the court documents continued.
“The co-executors’ worst fears have now been realized: by demanding that the court permit the estate’s assets to go to waste and allow lawsuits against he estate to go undefended, the Attorney General would irrevocably harm the estate and the women she purports to champion,” the executors argued in the filing.
Jordan Merson, a lawyer who currently represents 17 Epstein victims, also filed a motion last week supporting the AG’s bid to freeze the estate assets.
“We support the AG’s emergency motion as the estate has somehow lost more than $200 million in three months with less than 25% going to victims,” Merson told The Post. “The court should intervene now before it’s too late.”
George’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
