Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyer, Darren Indyke, and accountant, Richard Kahn, testified separately to the House Oversight Committee that they received millions of dollars in loans from the late sex offender and got $75 million in bequests from his will that they believe to be payment as co-executors of his estate.
According to videos released Tuesday of Indyke’s and Kahn’s closed-door depositions with the committee this month, the men also testified they knew nothing about Epstein’s crimes; described what they called limited interactions with his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell; and said the government’s investigation into Epstein never made it as far as asking them about him.
Both men have denied wrongdoing and have not been accused of crimes.
Millions in loans and bequests from Epstein
Indyke said he received a total of $7 million in loans from Epstein, which he used to invest and support members of his household, among other things. He said he paid interest on those loans over time, and according to Epstein’s estate plan, “all of the loans were to be forgiven.”
Kahn also said Epstein loaned him a total of $3 million over several years, and he stopped making interest payments on the loans when Epstein died. He further testified that he expects the estate, for which he serves as co-executor, to forgive the loans fully.
“Epstein treated these loans for me and probably 10 other employees as retention bonuses,” Kahn said. “He was giving loans to us similar to the way that a brokerage firm would sign on and bring an individual in, they would give a loan to a new employee.”
Epstein’s trust has around $120 million, but with a settlement and several other lawsuits pending and legal fees accumulating, neither man is likely to receive anywhere near the sums set out in the will, Kahn said.
“Currently, Epstein’s will calls for me to receive $250,000 for what will probably amount to 10 years of work,” Kahn said.
Indyke suggested Epstein was not particularly close to many people in his personal life and therefore distributed assets in his estate to those who worked with him in a professional capacity.
“I think that the bequest to me, as well as to Mr. Kahn, were large bequests because there was a lot of work to be done,” Indyke said. “It’s a very complex estate — a lot of work — and the estate planning documents didn’t provide for payment to us. And I think the idea was for the bequests to be payment.”
Epstein’s crimes
Both men denied that they engaged in any sexual activity as Epstein’s employees or witnessed any such thing involving minors. They also testified they took Epstein at his word when he told them that he made a “mistake” in soliciting a minor for prostitution, which he was convicted of in 2008, and that it would not happen again.
Kahn said Epstein told him about the financier’s “legal problems” in 2008 regarding the Florida state charges.
“Epstein then told me that it was a mistake that he was with this minor and that it would never happen again,” Kahn said.
He added he never witnessed any crimes.
“No woman had ever come to me in saying that she was under distress, that she was being sexually abused or sexually trafficked. I never saw any payments that he made that said they were for sex. I never saw payments that said cash massages,” Kahn said, adding he learned about Epstein’s subsequent criminal behavior from a series of Miami Herald articles that brought the story to light.
“In hindsight, I regret that I relied on Epstein’s word that this would never happen again,” Kahn said. “And I believe at the time, we were in the middle of a financial crisis and I had a family to support, so I made the wrong decision and staying for him — staying working for him, because I later learned as co-executor that Epstein continued to abuse hundreds of minors and adults.” Indyke similarly said he never saw or heard of any sexual activity while working for Epstein, despite what witnesses told federal investigators in interviews that were released by the Justice Department. (Those documents have not been verified by MS NOW and are largely uncorroborated.). “And frankly, given the amount of scrutiny that Epstein was under, I didn’t believe he would do something like that, particularly after he told me he wasn’t going to be in that position again,” Indyke said about the time after Epstein served his sentence in Florida. “He was, by all accounts, a very smart man, I couldn’t imagine he would do anything to put himself back in that position again. So, no, there’s nothing that I saw that would lead me to believe that he was engaging in this kind of thing.” Both men said they had limited communications with Maxwell, who is serving 20 years for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors. Indyke said he understood Maxwell to be “an overall household manager” of sorts. He testified that he looked over some of her financial transactions, like agreements related to her purchase of a townhouse. He said he was not paid for any work he did for Maxwell, which was at Epstein’s authorization. Kahn described Maxwell as Epstein’s “chief of staff” and said she would travel with Epstein and make sure that his properties were in order. Kahn said they were “cordial,” but he felt unhappy that he was not being compensated for the work he did for Maxwell while Epstein was serving time for his crimes in Florida. “I thought my work was underappreciated, so I had no desire to deal with her at that point in time any more,” he said. Kahn and Indyke both told the House committee that they were never questioned by any government entity about Epstein’s crimes, raising more questions about the DOJ’s handling of the investigation. “I’ve never been questioned by any government authority,” Kahn said, adding that he received subpoenas from the Southern District of New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands Justice Department for estate documents. Indyke also said he was not interviewed by any law enforcement agency about Epstein or Maxwell.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News. Recommended
Interactions with Maxwell
The government’s investigation into Epstein, Maxwell
