Months before his July 2019 arrest, Jeffrey Epstein had an pressing downside he wished resolved. Officials in the US Virgin Islands investigating unauthorized development on his personal islands had issued a stop-work order and had been weighing potential fines.
As the dispute intensified — and press coverage grew — Epstein turned on to the territory’s prime elected official for help: Gov. Albert Bryan Jr.
Text messages from 2019 reviewed by NCS show Bryan, a Democrat, telling Epstein that he had spoken with the territory’s prime environmental official and requested him to pause enforcement till they may focus on the matter.
As Epstein complained about doable mounting fines and unfavourable press protection, Bryan later wrote that he had asked the commissioner overseeing the case to “recuse himself and concede on all previous permit requests.”
“We got u,” Bryan added in a later message.
Amid the millions of pages of documents launched in investigations and civil litigation tied to Epstein, his exchanges with Bryan supply a uncommon window into how the mysterious financier operated in the US Virgin Islands — leveraging his wealth, enterprise footprint and guarantees of funding as he sought to affect native officers overseeing issues that affected his pursuits.
While it’s unclear if any actions had been taken because of this, a NCS evaluation of dozens of textual content messages and emails exchanged over a several-month interval reveals Bryan expressing a willingness to interact with regulators on Epstein’s behalf and reassuring him that he was addressing the dispute.
In his communications with Bryan, Epstein at instances framed the dispute as an financial risk. In one message, he warned that enforcement actions would “kill all interest and send investors to puerto rico instead !!,” suggesting capital might circulation to competing jurisdictions if the Virgin Islands didn’t handle issues like his.
The exchanges additionally show that Bryan and Epstein deliberate to satisfy privately because the dispute unfolded.
“Can you spare 15 minutes?” Epstein wrote in April 2019.
“For u absolutely,” Bryan replied.
When the governor advised assembly on the workplace of Epstein’s Virgin Islands legal professional, Epstein responded: “You choose im there.”
Bryan is recognized solely as “Albert” in the textual content messages, however he’s addressed as governor, and the schedule of public occasions he referenced in the texts forward of the assembly — together with a luncheon with the League of Women Voters — aligns with publicly accessible information from that day.
Emails reviewed by NCS counsel the April 2019 assembly was not Epstein and Bryan’s first contact.
Correspondence from September 2018 shows Epstein’s personal assistant, employees at Epstein’s Southern Trust Company and his longtime Virgin Islands tax legal professional coordinating a gathering with Epstein, Bryan and his campaign manager John Engerman throughout Bryan’s marketing campaign for governor whereas Epstein was in the Virgin Islands.
Bryan, who’s now in the ultimate 12 months of his second time period as governor, was on the time difficult the sitting governor and campaigning on bringing new financial growth to the island.
“Confirmed. See you there,” Engerman wrote.
Southern Trust Company was one of Epstein’s fundamental monetary companies registered in the US Virgin Islands. The company maintained workplaces at American Yacht Harbor, a marina and business complicated in Red Hook on St. Thomas’s east finish that Epstein at one point owned half of.
Other emails counsel further conferences and a name as properly.
In January 2019, Epstein’s longtime private tax legal professional in the Virgin Islands, Erika Kellerhals, requested if Epstein might meet “Albert,” at her workplace. “yes,” Epstein replied.
Another email from Epstein on February 2, 2019, to Kellerhals additionally referenced a telephone name to “Albert,” complaining about native officers who stated there was unauthorized development on Great St. James, one in all his two neighboring personal islands.
Epstein had texted Bryan that very same day asking for a name.
“Gm gov Would like to talk opportunity zones. -Will see you face to face when I return but if you can spend 5 minutes today – lets speak,” Epstein wrote. “Ok,” Bryan replied.
In the identical e mail change, Epstein warned that enforcement actions would jeopardize funding tied to federal “opportunity zones” tax incentives if the territory turned considered as hostile to growth — which Epstein claimed may very well be price billions of {dollars} to the US Virgin Islands.
“I spoke to albert,” Epstein wrote. “no one will develo= things in the USVI if they have to worry about moving trees. instea= of bringing in revenue.”
Separate messages from February 2019 also show Epstein discussing Bryan with Virgin Islands Delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett. In one change, Epstein requested, “Have you talked to Albert face to face yet?” Plaskett replied, “Went well. We’ve ‘talked’ a few times. He talked generally I tried to ask for specifics.”
The textual content messages between Bryan and Epstein span January via May 2019, when Epstein — who pleaded responsible in 2008 to soliciting prostitution, together with from a minor — was going through renewed scrutiny following investigations by The Miami Herald into the plea settlement that had allowed him to keep away from extra severe federal expenses.
Even as scrutiny intensified, the texts and emails show Epstein, a decadeslong landowner in the territory and investor in main property with enterprise ties to the island, retaining direct entry to the territory’s highest elected official.
In 2023, Bryan was questioned under oath as a part of a civil lawsuit. During his deposition, Bryan testified that his understanding of Epstein’s 2008 Florida case was that he had “copped a plea to having sex with a hooker who was under age.” Asked about Epstein’s 2019 arrest, Bryan stated he “wasn’t really interested” in studying concerning the new expenses.
Bryan additionally was asked repeatedly whether or not he had offered Epstein with any particular therapy. “No,” Bryan answered every time.
Through a spokesman, Bryan later apologized for his wording, “I believe that we should honor and support all victims of human trafficking. That was a terrible use of language, and I should never had said that. It was disrespectful.”
Neither Bryan nor his spokespeople responded to a number of requests for remark from NCS.
Epstein had been a fixture in the US Virgin Islands because the late Nineties, when he bought Little St. James and commenced creating the island into a personal compound.
He later acquired Great St. James in 2016.
Although Epstein had owned property in the Virgin Islands for years, the emails and paperwork counsel the territory turned a extra central base for his operations after his 2008 Florida conviction.
At the time of the spring 2019 exchanges, the territory’s Department of Planning and Natural Resources had issued a stop-work order on construction at Little St. James and Great St. James, citing unauthorized growth.
Permit filings showed plans for in depth development, together with docks, residences and different infrastructure. A division spokesman told The New York Post in May 2019 that work had continued regardless of the order.
In April 2019, Epstein texted Bryan that the division’s commissioner, Jean-Pierre Oriol, was “going to issue fines against me,” referring to Oriol in texts as “JP.”
Bryan replied that the commissioner “is not aware of any fines” however had talked about a notification of violations. “I asked him to hold everything until he and the attorney spoke to me,” the governor wrote.
Epstein responded negatively to 2 articles in the New York Post and Virgin Islands Daily News in May 2019, which featured spokespeople for the Department of Planning and Natural Resources saying unauthorized work had continued on Great St. James.
“Jp going after me in the press!!” Epstein wrote.
“I asked him to recuse himself,” responded Bryan.
“New York Post , read by the largest op zone guys has jp , Dpnr, attacking me,” he added in one other message.
Later in the May 2019 change, Bryan advised Epstein he had met with Oriol and one other official and mentioned the dispute over alleged allowing violations.
“I met with JP and Vonetta. They claim that the road work and the roll on roll of ramp were never applied for,” Bryan wrote. “I asked him to recuse himself and concede on all previous permit requests.”
In civil lawsuit towards JPMorgan Chase, Oriol would testify that Epstein obtained no particular therapy from his division.
The messages finish in May 2019. Two months later, Epstein was arrested on federal intercourse trafficking expenses. He died in a Manhattan jail cell in August of that 12 months whereas awaiting trial.
The following 12 months, the federal government of the US Virgin Islands filed a sweeping civil lawsuit towards Epstein’s property, alleging that he had used the territory as the bottom of a long-running intercourse trafficking operation and citing a spread of violations tied to his actions on the islands, together with environmental and allowing points.
The property later agreed to a settlement with the territory that included the sale of the islands and tens of tens of millions of {dollars} in funds.
NCS’s Em Steck contributed to this report.