Over 100 accusers seek restitution

The fund set up to compensate victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual exploitation has already received more than 100 claims and paid out tens of millions of dollars.

The number of claims has already surpassed expectations even though the fund will accept requests until the end of March, said Jordana Feldman, its administrator and a lawyer who worked on the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund for many years.

Feldman would not say how many claims have been paid. But so far, the fund has paid more than $30 million to accusers, according to a person familiar with the fund, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The fund is poised to reach additional settlements in the coming weeks.

The fund began taking claims in July, a little less than a year after Epstein, a financier, died in a Manhattan jail cell following his arrest on federal sex-trafficking charges. Because he had put his roughly $600 million fortune into a trust, there were concerns that it could take years for his victims to get any money back from his estate.

But the estate’s executors agreed to establish the fund, allowing accusers — including those who had reached settlements with Epstein after his 2008 conviction on soliciting prostitution from an underage girl — to seek compensation. The terms of individual settlements are confidential.

Each claim takes about 60 days to review, with the victim interviewed over video because of the coronavirus pandemic, Feldman said.

“It gives the victims an opportunity to tell their story, and it gives me an opportunity to get to know them in a way that can’t be fully captured in a paper file,” she said. “I do see some of the rawness of the emotions. There is very deep, long-lasting impact that the abuse has had on their lives.”

One accuser who has received a settlement, according to court documents, was identified in the July 2019 federal sex-trafficking indictment against Epstein as “Minor Victim-1.” She had accused him of sexually abusing her beginning when she was 14.

Another unidentified woman, who said in a lawsuit that Epstein had sexually abused her after promising to help her get a modeling job with Victoria’s Secret, has also received compensation from the fund, according to court records. Epstein, for many years, had been the principal money manager to Leslie Wexner, the retail magnate who until this year was chief executive of the parent company of Victoria’s Secret.

In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to a charge of soliciting prostitution from a minor.