Finally, in May , it was sold to a wealthy investor for less than half of its original asking price , with the hope of turning it into a luxury resort. Little St James is a small island fringed by coral reefs in the bright blue waters of the US Virgin Islands, with sheltered inlets and forested groves rising to dramatic windswept ridges and craggy cliffs.
The Virgins were purchased from Denmark by the US government at the height of the First World War in order to stop them being used as a German submarine base.
Today, many financial experts regard them as a tax haven , with huge discounts on corporation tax and personal income tax available to companies based there. It was in the Virgins that Epstein registered as a sex offender in , following his first conviction for child prostitution in The new owner quickly scoured away all the native vegetation and replaced it with foot palm trees. Starting in , Epstein began a massive programme of building and remodelling that drew suspicion from local officials.
His main compound nearly doubled in size, sprouting into a plush mansion with an outside terrace connecting the master bedroom and the swimming pool, along with a desalination system. Satellite photos show a sprawling network of terraces, cottages, beach houses, swimming pools, docks, utility buildings, a helipad, a tennis court, slipways, some kind of enclosed lake or lagoon, and various huts of unknown purpose, all connected by palm-lined roads where golf buggies ferried guests from place to place a journey across the island reportedly took about five minutes.
Stunning drone footage posted on YouTube offers a closer look, with a huge sundial at the centre of the island big enough to walk around on and two tall American flags posted at opposite ends of the island. It previously had a golden dome and two gold statues on its roof, which were reportedly torn off in Hurricane Maria. Theorists have variously described it as the entrance to an underground lair, an altar to an Egyptian deity, a burial ground for his parents, or a site of ritual sexual abuse, but an investigation by Business Insider concluded that it was most likely a private study and music room for Epstein.
