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New Mexico Sues Epstein's Lawyer and Accountant
· Confirmed
In Short: New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Jeffrey Epstein's attorney Darren Indyke and accountant Richard Kahn, accusing them of helping finance and conceal Epstein’s sex trafficking operation, including abuse at his Zorro Ranch south of Santa Fe.
Torrez said in a statement announcing the suit that 'Jeffrey Epstein did not operate alone, and his death does not end the pursuit of accountability for the people who helped make his crimes possible.'
The lawsuit seeks to stop Indyke and Kahn from receiving any payments from Epstein’s estate, estimated at more than $100 million, the Associated Press reported.
The lawsuit filed in federal court names Epstein's personal attorney Darren Indyke and accountant Richard Kahn as the two people the attorney general is seeking enforcement action against.
Torrez argued that Epstein could not have maintained his operation without assistance from people responsible for managing his wealth and business activities.
Indyke worked closely with Epstein for decades, and Kahn for more than 10 years, before Epstein's 2019 death in a federal jail, where he was being held on charges of sex trafficking minors.
The lawsuit claims that Indyke and Kahn were 'enmeshed in the functioning' of Epstein's enterprise and provided 'more than ordinary legal and accounting services.'
Indyke allegedly withdrew more than $200,000 annually from a single bank between 2013 and 2017, years after Epstein pleaded guilty to a sexual offense in Florida and registered as a sex offender.
Indyke began working for Epstein in 1996, while Kahn joined his financial operation in 2005.
The lawsuit alleges that from 2011 to 2019, Indyke received more than $16 million from Epstein and related entities and that Kahn received more than $10 million.
Torrez said that 'none of this could be done by just one man. This was something that was facilitated, that was made possible, by handlers, by lawyers, by accountants, by others who have yet to face real consequence.'
Epstein purchased the Zorro Ranch in Stanley, a sparsely populated ranching community about 30 miles south of Santa Fe, in 1993, building a mansion, airstrip, and helipad on the property.
The lawsuit is separate to the state's ongoing criminal probe into Epstein, which was re-launched in February.
What this adds
Indyke served as Epstein’s personal attorney from approximately 1995 or 1996 until Epstein’s death, according to the complaint.
Also in August, a commission established by state lawmakers to investigate whether local authorities looked the other way, released a 119-page report that said authorities repeatedly deferred to investigations in New York, Palm Beach, Florida, and the Virgin Islands, while leaving Epstein’s offenses in New Mexico unexamined and unpunished.
Background
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Jeffrey Epstein's attorney Darren Indyke and accountant Richard Kahn, seeking to prevent them from receiving payments from Epstein’s estate.
What's confirmed
- New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said in a statement announcing the suit that "Jeffrey Epstein did not operate alone, and his death does not end the pursuit of accountability for the people who helped make his crimes possible."
- "Those who allegedly enabled this exploitation should not be allowed to profit from it while survivors continue to live with its consequences." Indyke and Kahn said in March testimonies before Congress that they were unaware of Epstein's crimes, beyond a 2008 guilty plea on prostitution charges.
- Lawyers for the men said Wednesday that they "emphatically reject the New Mexico Attorney General's allegations that they were complicit in or in any way knowingly facilitated Mr. Epstein's sexual abuse or trafficking – conduct that by all accounts occurred behind closed doors, in secluded locations, and at times when neither Mr. Indyke nor Mr. Kahn was present."
- The lawsuit seeks to stop attorney Darren Indyke and accountant Richard Kahn from receiving any payments from Epstein’s estate, estimated at more than $100 million, the Associated Press reported.
- Unless the court intervenes, Torrez said, Indyke and Kahn "stand to benefit substantially" from Epstein's estate.
- The lawsuit filed in federal court names Epstein's personal attorney Darren Indyke and accountant Richard Kahn as the two people the attorney general is seeking enforcement action against.
- New Mexico has sued Jeffrey Epstein's longtime lawyer and accountant, accusing them of helping finance his sex trafficking operation, conceal payments to victims, and move millions of dollars through his businesses.
- New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed a federal civil lawsuit on Wednesday against the co-executors of Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, seeking to prevent Epstein’s former attorney and accountant from profiting after Epstein’s death "from the illegal activity that they enabled and furthered," according to the court filing.
- New Mexico lawsuit claims ‘in exchange for furthering Epstein’s criminal project, his associates received generous salaries’ New Mexico lawsuit claims ‘in exchange for furthering Epstein’s criminal project, his associates received generous salaries’ The attorney general of New Mexico on Wednesday filed a civil lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime attorney, Darren Indyke, and Epstein’s longtime accountant, Richard Kahn, accusing them of having “facilitated and concealed” Epstein’s crimes, and is seeking to stop them from being paid by Epstein’s estate while the litigation plays out.
- "My abuse did not happen in isolation. It could not have continued for as long as it did without people facilitating it, looking the other way, or choosing to do nothing to stop it," said Epstein survivor Anouska De Georgiou.
- "Accountability cannot end with Epstein and Maxwell. It must extend to those who knowingly made their abuse possible, especially those who stand to profit from it."
- "This was not Jeffrey Epstein alone, and if you really boil down the core of the civil complaint that we have filed today, it is, I think, at its heart, a recognition of the fact that none of this could be done by just one man," Torrez said at a news conference Wednesday.
What's still developing
- "an informal network of associates bound together by a single purpose: knowingly facilitating and concealing his decades-long criminal conduct to preserve and grow Epstein's fortunes and influence."
- It's alleged that both are beneficiaries of the 1953 Trust and are co-executors of the Epstein estate who are involved in managing and distributing assets.
- The office alleges that Indyke handled the 2011 transfer of the title for Zorro Ranch to an Epstein-controlled company.
- Also in August, a commission established by state lawmakers to investigate whether local authorities looked the other way, released a 119-page report that said authorities repeatedly deferred to investigations in New York, Palm Beach, Florida, and the Virgin Islands, while leaving Epstein’s offenses in New Mexico unexamined and unpunished.
- After Epstein's 2019 arrest, federal prosecutors asked New Mexico to cease its own investigation of Epstein's activities in New Mexico.
- He added that the New Mexico prosecutor never asked to speak to either man "before filing this baseless lawsuit", and that they both have "cooperated with any and all investigations when asked to do so".
- Prosecutors in the US state of New Mexico have filed a civil lawsuit against two longtime aides of Jeffrey Epstein, accusing the men of profiting from the late financier's sex trafficking ring.
- The judge in the case said on Friday that the prosecutor "failed to act in a fair and impartial manner".
- FILE — This photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein on March 28, 2017.