The claim is not this site's. It is JPMorgan Chase's, made in a federal court filing in 2023 while defending itself against the territory's own lawsuit:
"For two decades, Epstein maintained a quid pro quo relationship with USVI's highest ranking officials. He gave them money, advice, influence, and favors. In exchange, they shielded and even rewarded him."
The bank alleged the territory was "complicit" in the trafficking, and that the Virgin Islands "aided Epstein's criminal activity." The specific allegations of how were blacked out in the filing.
A footnote in that filing is the whole story in two sentences. The Virgin Islands had three governors over sixteen years — John de Jongh, Kenneth Mapp and Albert Bryan Jr. "As detailed herein, Epstein had close ties to each of them."
Read the source carefully, though. JPMorgan was a defendant making these claims to shift blame from itself. It later paid the territory $75 million to settle. That does not make the allegations false — many are documented in exhibits — but they were made by an interested party.
What is not contested is the structure: Epstein's only two revenue-generating companies were registered here. His largest corporate holding, Southern Trust, was here. His tax advantages were here. Little St. James was here. The DEA's alleged illicit wire transfers were here.
Every thread on this site runs through a territory of 87,000 people.
Everything documented across this site terminates in the same 133 square miles:
The money — Southern Trust and Financial Trust, his only revenue-generating entities, and up to $300M in tax exemptions.
The crime scene — Little St. James, where survivors testified they were held.
The DEA case — Operation Chain Reaction alleged illicit wires tied to drug and prostitution activity "occurring in the U.S. Virgin Islands and New York City."
The estate — probated here; $636.1M inventory filed in USVI Superior Court.
The one successful prosecution — the territory's own $105M+ settlement with the estate.
The Money Gap → · Chain Reaction →
Section 01
The Islands
Little St. James sits roughly a mile off the southeast coast of St. Thomas — close enough to see from shore, far enough to require a boat or helicopter to reach.
Little St. James. Roughly 70 acres, purchased in 1998. Survivors including Virginia Giuffre testified to being held and abused there. It is the location most associated with the case worldwide.
Great St. James. Roughly 165 acres, purchased in 2016 — eight years after his conviction — for about $18 million. The territory later sued over unpermitted construction there.
The 2020 evidence. USVI law enforcement photographed and filmed the property during their investigation. Those materials sat unpublished for five years.
December 3, 2025. House Oversight Democrats released 10 previously unseen photographs and 4 videos captured by USVI law enforcement in 2020 — the most detailed look yet inside the buildings and grounds.
The sale. Both islands were sold in May 2023 for $60 million to billionaire investor Stephen Deckoff, who announced plans for a luxury resort. Proceeds went toward the estate's obligations, including survivor compensation.
Little St. James is about a mile offshore. That distance does three things at once:
1. It puts arrivals and departures beyond ordinary observation — boat and helicopter only.
2. It creates a jurisdiction of one. Whoever is on the island is subject to whoever controls it.
3. It is close enough to a functioning capital that lawyers, accountants and officials could be there in twenty minutes — and far enough that nobody else could.
All properties →
Section 02
Cecile de Jongh
First Lady of the U.S. Virgin Islands from 2007 to 2015, and simultaneously an employee of Jeffrey Epstein.
JPMorgan's filing describes her as Epstein's "primary conduit for spreading money and influence throughout the USVI government."
The dual role, stated in the filing: "despite her public role and official duties, First Lady de Jongh managed Epstein's USVI-based companies… receiving from Epstein a salary, bonuses and other benefits."
The EDC Program's own compliance officer, Sandra Bess — the official responsible for ensuring Epstein's companies met the terms of their tax grants — identified de Jongh as the companies' "compliance person" and "office manager."
The person being regulated and the person managing the regulated entity were the same household as the governor.
The certification. This is the single most extraordinary document in the USVI record. De Jongh signed a certification to continue Epstein's tax benefits, attesting that he was a "bona fide resident" of the Virgin Islands on June 30, 2009.
On that date, Epstein was incarcerated in Florida for procuring a minor for prostitution.
What else the bank alleged she did. Helped him dodge sex offender monitoring requirements; coordinated visas, employment and travel for his victims; extensively lobbied government officials on his behalf, including the governor.
The conflict was noticed at the time. When a reporter contacted Governor de Jongh about the conflict of interest in his government granting millions in tax incentives to his wife's employer, the First Lady raised it with Epstein.
A convicted sex offender asked the sitting governor's wife what public assets the territory might pledge as collateral to him.
Her reply was that she would compile a list of government properties.
This is not influence over a government. It is a private individual exploring whether he could take a security interest in the territory itself.
Cecile de Jongh has not been charged with any offence. The allegations are contained in filings by JPMorgan Chase, a defendant in litigation brought by the territory.
Section 03
The Network
Nine figures documented in the USVI record. Tap any node for the full profile and current status.
No USVI official has been charged with any offence arising from the Epstein matter. Many of the allegations here originate in filings by JPMorgan Chase, a defendant in litigation brought by the territory, which the bank later settled for $75 million. All named individuals are entitled to the presumption of innocence.
Section 04
Three Governors, Sixteen Years
Epstein employed an architecture firm owned by the governor's uncle.
In February 2017 — after he left office — Epstein asked his wife whether "john" knew of any government asset he could take as collateral for $50 million.
When a reporter raised the conflict of interest, the matter was discussed with Epstein rather than disclosed.
The House Oversight Committee cited this correspondence in its November 2025 letter to the USVI Attorney General as evidence of "the interconnectedness between the USVI and Mr. Epstein."
Great St. James was purchased during his term.
In them, Bryan offered Epstein help in an island dispute.
Earlier, as EDA chairman under Governor de Jongh, Bryan had signed an EDC certificate for an Epstein entity.
He was deposed in the JPMorgan litigation in June 2023.
Three governors. Two parties plus an independent. Sixteen years. Two of them took office after Epstein's 2008 conviction was public.
A relationship that survives three changes of administration is not a personal friendship. It is an institutional arrangement.
The 2019 Bryan texts are the most striking: a sitting governor offering assistance to a registered sex offender in the same months the Herald investigation had made him internationally notorious.
None of the three governors has been charged. Governor Bryan's office has maintained that his contact was routine constituent and business correspondence.
The territory itself sued Epstein's estate and won $105 million, and sued JPMorgan and won $75 million — which is a genuinely aggressive record, and complicates any simple account of the government as merely captured.
Both things are in the record: officials who took his money and benefits, and a government that later recovered more from his estate than almost anyone.
Section 05
The Tax Machine
The Economic Development Commission programme offers dramatic reductions in income and gross receipts tax to businesses that qualify — an incentive designed to draw employers to a small island economy.
What Epstein got. Reuters, reporting JPMorgan's filings, put the figure at $300 million in tax breaks. A separate USVI filing identified $144 million in exemptions to Southern Trust alone, described at the time as potentially "the tip of the iceberg."
The territory's own allegation. In its case against the estate, the USVI alleged that Southern Trust made fraudulent misrepresentations to the Economic Development Authority regarding its qualifications, and fraudulently induced the EDC to provide the tax credits.
The rule that let it continue. In 2019 — after everything was public — then-EDA Executive Director Kamal Latham stated that Epstein's criminal convictions and sex offender status had no impact on his ability to collect the tax breaks.
He cited the V.I. Code: a beneficiary loses benefits only if convicted of "a felony connected with the operation of the beneficiary's business or industry," or for bribery pertaining to the programme itself.
Sex crimes against children were not connected to the business. So the benefits continued.
The question a senator finally asked. In April 2026, Senator Marise James put it to officials at a hearing of the Committee on Economic Development and Agriculture:
"If a resident of the Virgin Islands cannot get the benefit of public housing because they are on a sex offender list, why is an EDC beneficiary getting the benefits when they are also a sex offender?"
An ordinary Virgin Islander on the sex offender registry is excluded from public housing.
A registered sex offender running an EDC-beneficiary company kept nine figures in tax exemptions, because the statute only disqualified felonies connected to the business.
The same territory applied a strict rule to its poorest residents and a permissive one to its largest beneficiary.
That disparity — not the sum — is what Senator James put on the record in 2026.
December 2022 — the USVI Attorney General settled with the Epstein estate and co-defendants for over $105 million.
That settlement returned more than $80 million in EDC tax benefits the territory alleged had been fraudulently obtained.
September 2023 — JPMorgan settled the territory's suit for $75 million.
$180 million recovered — one of the largest financial recoveries anywhere in the Epstein case.
Section 06
Buying a Government
The alleged expenditures are notable less for their size than for their range — reaching the executive, the legislature, the police, the environment department, the universities and the customs hall.
Of everything on that list, the 78 Thanksgiving turkeys are the most revealing — because they are the cheapest.
The stated trigger was one "difficult" officer at the airport where his aircraft arrived and departed.
The response was not to complain, or to escalate, or to comply. It was to give a gift to every federal customs agent at the airport.
That is not corruption in the transactional sense. It is the routine, low-cost cultivation of an entire checkpoint — the exact function of an operation moving people through borders.
The trafficking pipeline →
Three of the most serious allegations concern the machinery of the state being turned toward the operation itself:
Visas — JPMorgan alleged de Jongh helped coordinate visas for Epstein's victims. Reporting has described this as including visas to bring young women to the island.
Sex offender monitoring — that she helped him dodge monitoring requirements applying to registered offenders.
Employment and travel — coordination of both for victims.
If established, these are not favours to a donor. They are the immigration and supervision functions of a US territory operating in service of a trafficking operation.
Section 07
Stacey Plaskett
The Virgin Islands' non-voting Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, and the territory's highest-profile national figure.
The contributions. She accepted campaign contributions linked to Epstein. She has said that when the details of his crimes were exposed in November 2018, she gave the money to women's organisations in the Virgin Islands.
February 27, 2019. During a House Oversight Committee hearing at which Michael Cohen — President Trump's former attorney — was testifying, Plaskett exchanged text messages with Epstein.
Per reporting in the Washington Post, Epstein suggested during the hearing that she ask Cohen about Trump's former executive assistant. She did.
Shortly after she finished questioning, Epstein texted her: "Good work."
The censure attempt. On November 18, 2025, Rep. Ralph Norman introduced a resolution to censure her and remove her from the House Intelligence Committee. It stated she "was actively coached by Epstein during the hearing, received instructions on specific lines of questioning, and was congratulated afterwards."
The House rejected it, 209–214, with three voting present. Three Republicans voted with all Democrats against censure.
Her response. "I see members coming and speaking against me who have never even had a conversation with me. You don't know me. You don't know the work that I've done."
She has not been charged with any offence and remains in office.
Every other USVI allegation concerns local government — tax benefits, permits, police, a governor's household.
This one concerns the United States Congress. A registered sex offender, four months before his arrest, was suggesting questions to a member of a House committee during a live hearing — and she asked them.
The date matters: February 2019 was three months after the Miami Herald's "Perversion of Justice" had made his plea deal an international scandal.
Section 08
The Reckoning
The Virgin Islands has the strangest record of any jurisdiction in this case — simultaneously the most compromised and among the most financially successful in recovery.
What the territory did. Its Attorney General sued the estate under the territory's criminal-enterprise statute and settled for over $105 million in December 2022, returning $80 million-plus in fraudulently obtained tax benefits. It then sued JPMorgan and settled for $75 million in 2023.
What it has not done. No local official has been charged. No territorial investigation into the government's own conduct has been opened.
The pressure is now external and internal at once.
Congress. On November 18, 2025, House Oversight Chairman James Comer wrote to USVI Attorney General Gordon Rhea, later escalating to a subpoena, seeking documents on Epstein, his estate and the USVI litigation — including "all documents and communications relating to any federal or local criminal investigation or potential criminal investigation of Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell."
The territory's own senate. In April 2026, Senator Marise James — who is not seeking re-election — publicly pressed officials on the policies that allowed the operation to run for two decades:
"I'm coming hard because I believe we need an investigation, and I think everybody in this room knows the type of investigation that I think that we need."
Note who is asking. A legislator on her way out of office, at a committee hearing, in a territory where the executive branch has not opened anything.
$105M+ — settlement with the Epstein estate and co-defendants, Dec 2022
$80M+ — of that, returned EDC tax benefits
$75M — JPMorgan Chase settlement, 2023
Roughly $180 million recovered by a territory of 87,000 people — a larger recovery than any US state or federal agency achieved.
0 — local officials charged
0 — territorial investigations into the government's own conduct
0 — public accounting of who received retainers, gifts or scholarships
0 — findings published on the visa and sex-offender-monitoring allegations
The territory successfully sued the people who paid Epstein's bank. It has not examined the people who took his money.
Section 09
Timeline
Section 10
Open Questions
Africa showed what Epstein sold to states. Europe showed what he bought inside them. The Virgin Islands shows what happens when one man's relationship with a government becomes structural — surviving three administrations, two parties, a criminal conviction, and international notoriety.
It is also the only place in this entire case where that happened on American soil, to American citizens, under American law.
Section 11
Sources
"U.S.V.I. Government Complicit in Trafficking"
The unredacted JPMorgan filing: the "bona fide resident" certification during incarceration, the $50M collateral exchange, the $25,000 DPNR check, and Sandra Bess's compliance testimony.
taxnotes.com →JPMorgan Blasts the USVI as "Complicit"
May 2023. The quid pro quo allegation, the de Jongh conduit finding, the redacted "aided Epstein's criminal activity" section, and the three-governors footnote.
cnbc.com →Ex-First Lady Aided Epstein, Bank Alleges
The sex offender monitoring, visa, employment and travel coordination allegations, and the "primary conduit" characterisation.
nbcnews.com →The $105 Million Settlement
Dec 2022. The territory's own announcement — the CICO enterprise claim, the fraudulent EDC inducement finding, and the $80M+ in returned tax benefits.
usvidoj.com →Sen. James Questions the Government's Handling
April 2026. "I'm coming hard because I believe we need an investigation," plus the public housing comparison and Kamal Latham's 2019 eligibility ruling.
virginislandsdailynews.com →Governor Bryan's 2019 Texts
Feb 2026. Messages spanning January to May 2019 in which the sitting governor offered Epstein help in an island dispute, months before the arrest.
cnn.com →Letter to USVI Attorney General Rhea
Nov 18, 2025. The document demand, the governors and Plaskett correspondence, and the "interconnectedness" finding.
oversight.house.gov ↗Epstein's Legacy Still Clouds the USVI
Lee Fang's reporting on the retainers to politicians, the 78 customs turkeys, the scholarships and computers, and the $300M in exemptions.
Real Clear Wire →The Plaskett Censure Vote
Nov 2025. The 209–214 rejection, the Cohen hearing texts, the "Good work" message, and her response.
via AOL →The Island Photographs
Dec 3, 2025. Ten photographs and four videos captured by USVI law enforcement in 2020, released after five years.
via AOL →The Money Gap
Southern Trust, the $636.1M estate inventory filed in USVI probate, and the tax structure in full.
Read the report →Operation Chain Reaction
The DEA case alleging illicit wire transfers tied to drug and prostitution activity in the USVI.
Read the report →