Deal is reached in U.S. Virgin Islands to compensate Jeffrey Epstein’s victims

The estate of Jeffrey Epstein and the attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands announced Friday that they have reached a tentative agreement on a long-delayed compensation fund for sexual-abuse victims of the disgraced financier.

Executors of Epstein’s estate

— two of his longtime lawyers — had proposed last November the creation of a fund to pay victims who might want to remain unidentified. But Attorney General Denise George thwarted those plans, raising concerns that the estate might be closing off avenues of redress to Epstein’s victims. In January, she filed a civil-enforcement action, later labeling the estate a criminal enterprise, and slapped liens on the late Epstein’s properties, ratcheting up pressure by making it hard to pay employees and bills.

In recent months, the two sides battled it out via court filings to the probate court in the Virgin Islands, the location of Epstein’s main residence among his many properties in the United States and abroad. Each side asked a judge to intervene, claiming the other side was intransigent. Then Friday afternoon, the attorney general issued a news release saying the two sides had reached an agreement on the fund.

“The Attorney General’s Office, working closely with