Epstein estate settles claims

The estate of Jeffrey Epstein has agreed to pay what could amount to more than $105 million to the U.S. Virgin Islands to settle claims that the disgraced financier used the territory for his decades-long sex trafficking operation under the guise of running a financial advisory firm.

The settlement, approved Wednesday, caps a nearly 3-year-old lawsuit brought by the office of Denise George, the attorney general for the U.S. Virgin Islands. After a year of negotiations, Epstein’s estate agreed to repay in cash more than $80 million in tax benefits that one of his companies had received from the Virgin Islands.

George’s office filed a civil racketeering lawsuit against the estate in 2020, arguing that the U.S. territory was deceived into granting lucrative tax benefits to Epstein’s Southern Trust Co.