What Happened to Epstein’s Island? What to Know

Newly released photos of one of Jeffrey Epstein‘s private islands, Little Saint James, are giving the public an inside look at the convicted sex offender’s world.

The disgraced financier was accused of sexual abuse by dozens of women before he died by suicide in August 2019 while he was awaiting trial on federal conspiracy and sex trafficking charges. After years of controversy surrounding the sealed documents related to his investigation, Congress passed a bill in November 2025 that demanded the release of the government files.

Epstein owned two properties in the U.S. Virgin Islands: Little Saint James, which he purchased in 1998, and Great Saint James, which he bought in 2016.

While many of Epstein’s crimes are believed to have taken place at Little Saint James, it wasn’t until Dec. 3 that the public got an inside look into the walls of the property, when Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released several never-before-seen images and videos. The images showed a room with what appears to be a dental chair with 10 yellow masks on the walls depicting men’s faces, along with a chalkboard containing words including “power and deception.”

“These new images are a disturbing look into the world of Jeffrey Epstein and his island,” Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said. “We are releasing these photos and videos to ensure public transparency in our investigation and to help piece together the full picture of Epstein’s horrific crimes. We won’t stop fighting until we deliver justice for the survivors.”

So, what happened to Epstein’s island? Here’s everything to know about the property in the years since Jeffrey Epstein’s conviction and death.

What happened on Epstein’s island?

Epstein’s island of Little Saint James is where the convicted sex offender is believed to have shuttled teenage girls to sexually abuse them.

In a 2020 lawsuit against Epstein’s estate, U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George claimed that Epstein carried out an “expansive criminal enterprise” in which “dozens of young women and children were trafficked, raped, sexually assaulted, and held captive in the Virgin Islands at Epstein’s secluded private island.”

“Participants in the Epstein Enterprise used deception, fraud, and coercion to entice and lure vulnerable girls and young women into human sex trafficking with promises to help them and their families pay for school, health care, or other financial needs,” the Islands further alleged, per the release by the Department of Justice.

That case was settled in December 2022 for $105 million plus half of the proceeds from the sale of Little Saint James, which is one of two islands that Epstein owned.

Where is Epstein’s island?

Epstein’s islands are located in the U.S. Virgin Islands. According to The New York Times, the disgraced financier once described the territory as his “favorite place to be.”

Per the outlet, he paid $7.95 million for Little Saint James in 1998, which is a roughly 70-acre island that he allegedly called “Little St. Jeff’s.”

By 2016, he had bought the larger Great Saint James for $17.5 million. Over time, he spent millions more developing the islands, including building a villa with a library, a Japanese bathhouse and a movie theater, per the outlet.

According to Australia’s ABC, Epstein said during a 2012 business pitch that the U.S. Virgin Islands were “perfect” because they were “so isolated.”

Who visited Epstein’s Island?

Several people have been reported to have visited Epstein’s island over the years, though many of them have denied the claims made against them.

In a 2021 lawsuit filed against the ex-Prince Andrew, the late Virginia Giuffre claimed that the former royal forced her to have sex with him three times between 1999 and 2002 in London, New York and on a private Caribbean island owned by Epstein. Andrew refuted the claim in a November 2019 BBC interview, saying, “I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever. It just never happened.”

That November, Andrew announced he would be stepping back from public duties. By October 2025, he announced he would no longer use his royal titles and honors.

According to Politico, Giuffre also claimed in her lawsuit that while traveling with Epstein, she saw former President Bill Clinton on the island. However, a Freedom of Information Act request for Secret Service records of visits Clinton may have made to Epstein’s Little Saint James Island did not produce evidence that aligned with that claim.

Though he was mentioned in unsealed documents, his spokesperson Angel Ureña released a statement on X in July 2019 that emphasized Clinton had not been accused of wrongdoing and “knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago.”

“He’s not spoken to Epstein in well over a decade, and has never been to Little St. James Island, Epstein’s ranch in New Mexico, or his residence in Florida,” the statement continued.

In March 2006, the late Stephen Hawking visited the island as part of a science conference trip to St. Thomas, shortly before the financier was first charged, per Sky News and The Independent.

Unsealed documents obtained by the news outlets later showed a 2015 email in which Epstein told his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, that she could “issue a reward” to any of Giuffre’s friends, acquaintances or family members “that come forward and help prove her allegations are false,” going on to specifically mention a purported claim that Hawking participated in an orgy in the Virgin Islands. There are no other mentions of any allegation regarding Hawking in the unsealed documents, and the theoretical physicist was never charged with sexual misconduct.

Per BBC, former Barclays boss Jes Staley also visited the island. In a March 2025 tribunal hearing, Staley said he took his family on a handful of trips to Little Saint James, per The Guardian.

During a bilateral meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer in July 2025, President Donald Trump told reporters that while he had been invited to Epstein’s island, he rejected the offer.

“I never had the privilege of going to his island, and I did turn it down, but a lot of people in Palm Beach were invited to his island,” the president said. “In one of my very good moments, I turned it down, I didn’t want to go to his island.”

What happened to Epstein’s island?

A few days after Epstein’s death, FBI agents raided Little Saint James, per NBC News. The raid, in addition to other searches, yielded “a significant amount of material, including more than 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence,” per a July 2025 FBI memo.

The islands have since been managed by his estate. Little Saint James was valued for more than $63 million, while Great Saint James was worth more than $22 million by July 2019, per Forbes.

In May 2023, Bloomberg reported that the pair of Caribbean islands were sold to a buyer, Stephen Deckoff, who planned to build a luxury resort. Per the outlet, the properties sold for a combined price of $60 million. As a result of a settlement Epstein’s estate reached with the government in November 2022, half the proceeds from the sale went to the U.S. Virgin Islands.

According to NPR, Deckoff plans to build a “world-class destination” on the two islands. Deckoff said he was in the process of hiring architects and engineers to develop the resort, which he said could open as early as 2025, as of the outlet’s May 2023 report.

However, according to The Telegraph, development plans have been quietly postponed. A spokesman for the Virgin Islands government told the outlet that Deckoff had not submitted planning applications as of August 2025.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.