Little Saint James, U.S. Virgin Islands

Little Saint James is a small private island in the United States Virgin Islands, southeast of Saint Thomas. It was owned by American financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein from 1998 until his death in 2019. During Epstein's ownership, the island acquired the nickname Epstein Island.

Geography

Little Saint James is a small island (or islet) with an area of . It is in the United States Virgin Islands, located southeast of neighboring Great Saint James, both off the southern coast of the larger St. Thomas island and belonging to the subdistrict East End, St. Thomas.

The Virgin Islands are mountain peaks rising from the Caribbean ocean floor. The trade winds (prevailing east-to-west winds near Earth's equator) dominate its climate and local weather, with stronger winds and less rain during winter.

Ownership

Little Saint James is a private island. In 1997, Little St. James was owned by venture capitalist Arch Cummin and was for sale for $10.5 million. In April 1998, a company called L.S.J. LLC purchased the island for $7.95 million, and documents showed that Jeffrey Epstein was the sole member of L.S.J. In 2019, the island was valued at $63,874,223. The island was Epstein's primary residence, and he called the island "Little St. Jeff". The main house on the island was renovated by Edward Tuttle, a designer of the Aman Resorts. In 2008, Epstein's estate on Little Saint James had 70 staff. According to a former staffer, Epstein insisted on discretion and confidentiality from his employees.

In March 2022, Little Saint James and the neighboring Great Saint James were listed at $125 million. A lawyer for Epstein's estate stated that the money obtained from the sale would be used to settle a number of lawsuits. Bespoke Real Estate, the agency jointly overseeing the sale, stated that further information on the listing was only available to prospective buyers.

In May 2023, billionaire Stephen Deckoff, under his firm SD Investments, announced the acquisition of the Great St. James and Little St. James islands for $60 million.

Buildings

In 1997, the island had a main house, three guest cottages, a caretaker's cottage, a private desalination system, a helipad, and a dock. In addition, there is a blue-striped, boxlike building that initially was topped by a golden dome. The purpose of this construction is unclear, as it deviates in substantial ways from the plans for the music pavilion that had been submitted for approval in 2010 by Epstein's architects. The original building in the plans was of an octagonal footprint, rectangular in cross-section, and had two side rooms extending from the outside walls. It was also much lower in perspective, and the dome extended from the octagon over onto the roofs of the side buildings. The building that was eventually constructed was much taller, in the shape of a cube, and without any side rooms. The dome was also well within the footprint of the cube, and the building did not have any of the proposed finishes applied to the walls, nor was it constructed out of materials in those plans—namely, stone.

Visitors

David Copperfield proposed to Claudia Schiffer on Little St. James, three months after meeting her in 1993.

Victoria's Secret models were among the guests a former Epstein employee saw there, and billionaire Les Wexner visited the island at least once. Prince Andrew, Duke of York paid at least one visit aboard Epstein's private jet to the island, although former staff said he visited Little St. James several times.

Virginia Roberts, later known as Virginia Giuffre, states in a lawsuit that while working at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort she was lured into a sex-trafficking ring run by Epstein and while traveling with Epstein she saw Bill Clinton on the island. A Freedom of Information Act request for United States Secret Service records of visits Bill Clinton may have made to Little St. James produced no such evidence. According to Epstein's flight logs, Clinton never flew near the U.S. Virgin Islands. In July 2019, a Clinton spokesperson issued a statement saying Clinton never visited the island.

Jes Staley, the former head of Barclays, visited the island in 2015.

Reputation under Epstein's ownership

The island acquired nicknames such as "Island of Sin", "Pedophile Island", "Orgy Island", and "Epstein Island".

According to attorneys for Epstein's alleged victims, Little St. James is where many of the crimes against minors were committed by Epstein and friends who traveled there with him. Court documents allege that then-17-year-old Virginia Roberts was forced by Epstein to have sex with Prince Andrew on several occasions, including as part of an orgy on Little St. James. Buckingham Palace has denied this allegation. A lawyer for Epstein has described the allegations of orgies by Roberts as "old and discredited".

According to locals, Epstein continued to bring underage girls to the island in 2019, after he was registered as a sex offender. In August 2019, following Epstein's death, FBI agents searched his residence on Little St. James.

See also

* Great Saint James, U.S. Virgin Islands
* Age of consent in the U.S. Virgin Islands

References

{{Jeffrey Epstein Sex Trafficking Scandal

East End, Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
Islands of the United States Virgin Islands
Private islands of the United States Virgin Islands
Jeffrey Epstein