A previously undisclosed Drug Enforcement Administration investigation opened in 2010 named Jeffrey Epstein and 14 other individuals as targets of a federal probe into suspicious money transfers believed to be tied to illegal narcotics and prostitution. The existence of the probe emerges from a newly releaseddocumentnow publicly available through the Department of Justice's Epstein files library.
'DEA reporting indicates the above individuals are involved in illegitimate wire transfers which are tied to illicit drug and/or prostitution activities occurring in the U.S. Virgin Islands and New York City,' the 2015 document states.
The 69-page memo is marked 'law enforcement sensitive' and remains heavily redacted - the names of the 14 other targets and much of the investigation's substance are withheld. It was drafted in connection with a DEA request to an Organised Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces Fusion Center in Virginia, seeking information from other federal agencies.
According toCBS News, which first reported the document's contents, a law enforcement source said the request indicated the matter was part of a 'significant' investigation rather than a routine information inquiry. For the DEA to have opened the case within that framework, the same source confirmed, there would have had to be an established drug nexus.
The document carries a DEA case number with an opening date of 17 December 2010 in New York and was listed as 'judicial pending' at the time the memo was drafted five years later.
One source told CBS News that the designation suggests investigators may have been awaiting court approval for search warrants or other legal action. A second source believed it more likely indicated an arrest connected to the case had already been made.
The document details approximately $50 million (£39.5 million) in suspicious wire transfers recorded between 2010 and 2015. Most of the individuals linked to those transactions remain redacted. The DOJ appears to have inadvertently failed to redact the name of a Polish fashion model identified in connection with roughly $2 million (£1.6 million) of the transfers. Emails between her and Epstein were included in the release, indicating a personal relationship. CBS News is not identifying the woman at the request of her attorney, who said she was a survivor of Epstein's.
Bank accounts linked to Epstein in the memo span Switzerland, France, the Cayman Islands, and New York. Two companies associated with him are named: SLK Designs LLC and Hyperion Air. Hyperion Air served as a holding company for his aircraft. SLK Designs was operated by two women named as potential co-conspirators in Epstein's 2008 non-prosecution agreement with the federal government.
Records show both companies were formed and controlled by Epstein's attorney Darren Indyke. An attorney for Indyke previously told CBS News that his client 'did not socialise with Mr. Epstein' and rejected as categorically false any suggestion that Indyke knowingly facilitated or assisted in Epstein's crimes. No court has found Epstein's attorneys committed any wrongdoing.
The newly disclosed DEA investigation adds to a long record of federal agencies investigating Epstein across multiple jurisdictions without ever bringing charges that reflected the full scope of his alleged conduct.
Source: International Business Times UK
