Jeffrey Epstein’s Private Caribbean Islands Up for Grabs at $125 Million

Just when you really hoped we might never hear the name Jeffrey Epstein again, another one of the late convicted sex offender’s real estate holdings pops up for sale! Already on the market were his New York townhouse, followed by his Paris apartment, Palm Beach mansion and New Mexico ranch. This time, though, it’s perhaps his most notorious holdings — a duo of private islands in the Caribbean, respectively called Little St. James and Great St. James — that are going for a whopping $125 million, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Situated amid the bays between St. Thomas and St. John in the US Virgin Islands, which the disgraced financier once described as “my favorite place to be,” the islands were reportedly used as a personal and corporate hideaway. It’s there that Epstein would entertain famous friends and traffic underage girls for sex, according to The New York Times — all while “negotiating lucrative local tax breaks even as he faced federal investigations for sexual misconduct.”

Epstein purchased the smaller of the two isles, Little St. James, in 1998 for $7.95 million, and then picked up the larger Great St. James for $17.5 million. He spent many years developing the properties, up until his arrest in 2019. The islands include a villa with a library, Japanese bathhouse, movie theater and several other structures spread across a total of 230 acres.

Surrounded by palm-lined beaches and cliffs, Little Saint James offers 71.6 acres sporting a main residential compound and four guest villas resting amid a “comprehensive, discreetly located infrastructure support system.” There’s also a helipad, private dock, gas station, high-capacity water filtration, two pools, three private beaches, a gym, tiki hut, and additional maintenance and viewing structures.

Great St. James clocks in at the larger of the two islands, with 161.3 acres. Per the listing, it provides “significant subdivision possibilities just five minutes across the bay from St. Thomas.” There’s a small collection of structures and a marine preserve called Christmas Cove on the western coast, plus islets in all directions.

Back in 2019, Epstein was charged in a sex trafficking operation that lured scores of young girls to his numerous properties. In early 2020, Virgin Islands prosecutors alleged that Epstein had brought girls as young as 11 to Little and Great St. James islands by yacht and private helicopter, and that he and his associates had sexually assaulted the girls. Before he could go on trial, the billionaire apparently committed suicide by hanging himself in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2020.

Since then, his New York City townhouse went up for sale in July 2020 with an $88 million price tag, and was reduced to $65 million in January 2021 before selling to retired Goldman Sachs executive Michael D. Daffey and his wife Blake for $51 million in March 2021. His palatial waterfront compound in Palm Beach, Fla., was sold to a Florida developer for $18.5 million in March 2021 and has since been acquired by a venture capitalist.

Epstein’s real estate portfolio also included Zorro Ranch in New Mexico, which is up for sale at $27.5 million, along with a Paris apartment currently listed for $14 million.

According to the Journal, proceeds from the sale of the two islands are slated to go to the estate’s resolution of outstanding lawsuits and regular costs of operations, and will be subject to tax authorities, creditors and other claimants, including liens placed on the properties by U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George. Some $121 million of Epstein’s estate has already gone to a compensation fund for his victims that ceased operations in August 2021.

New York-based brokerages the Modlin Group and Bespoke Real Estate are marketing the islands in partnership with the Virgin Islands firm of Christie’s International Real Estate | the Saints.