The victims’ compensation fund for young girls abused by deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein has paid out its last award, the fund administrator announced in a statement on Monday, signaling a near-end to the main Epstein saga.
Some 225 women came forward to make claims against the disgraced financier – more than double the number the fund’s administrators had expected, and they rejected 75 of those claims. Those not compensated via the victims’ fund still have the option of filing claims against Epstein’s estate, though 92% of “eligible claimants” reportedly took the fund’s payouts and forfeited their chance to pursue further legal action.
The total amount of money awarded by the fund approached $125 million, administrator Jordana Feldman announced the day before the second anniversary of Epstein’s mysterious August 10 apparent suicide in his supposedly closely watched jail cell. Feldman has some history calculating massive settlements associated with a major crime – she “helped lead the compensation fund for victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks,” according to Reuters.
That $125 million by no means represented the entirety of the deceased convict’s assets, which amounted to as much as $634 million, and included two islands, as well as an expansive US real estate portfolio. When US Attorney General for the Virgin Islands Denise George attempted to lay claim to those two islands, the executors of Epstein’s estate warned her that placing liens on those properties might harm the estate’s ability to sell off the rest of his assets, thus interfering with the payments being received by his victims in a timely fashion. The value of the billionaire sex fiend’s remaining assets, from the islands themselves to his collection of aircraft, could “plummet,” the executors warned, if anyone attempted to interfere in their sale.
George has declared the will’s executors, Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn, to be the “indispensable captains” of Epstein’s sex trafficking ring. She accused them of too quickly liquidating Epstein’s properties after they filed in an effort to block her repossession of his remaining assets, and also of facilitating sham “marriages” to help Epstein hold onto his favorite girls who lacked any legal route to stay in the States. They have denied all wrongdoing.
The convicted sex predator died just two days after he had drawn up and signed a will, apparently hanging himself in his prison cell at a time of night when the guards responsible for checking in on him just happened to be ignoring their duties. With Epstein not talking, it’s left to his alleged madam, Ghislaine Maxwell, to tell the story. Thus far, she has gone to great lengths to avoid naming names, even securing some redactions in testimony from past cases entered into evidence due to the offending content’s “sensational and impure nature.”
However, Maxwell’s pleas to be released on bail have been denied, and her trial on charges of perjury and trafficking minors for the purposes of sex is set to begin in November. If convicted, she could face up to 80 years in prison, though she has insisted on her innocence.
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