[proximitysauce]

Records filed by the estate on Friday indicate that Southern Country had $693,157 in assets when Mr. Epstein died on Aug. 10. Then, in mid-December, the estate transferred $15.5 million to Southern Country in two checks. Southern Country sent back $2.6 million, leaving the total it received at $12.9 million. The documents filed by the estate do not give a reason for the transfers.

It’s also not clear what Southern Country did with that money. Two weeks later, the year-end value of Southern Country’s assets was $499,759, according to the estate’s filings.

So ~$12.5M transferred after his death is missing an unaccounted for? That's pretty outrageous. Are there methods for tracking that money down? The article doesn't really say anything about an investigation into its whereabouts.

[micah94]

It's really hard not to jump down the rabbit hole, but how else to explain the lax "investigation". There's millions of dollars moving around and nobody cares? Of course they could track this down. But the Virgin Islands isn't going to implicate themselves in this. They consider themselves a victim too (metoo!). I'll just leave my comments there.

[Thorrez]

Why do you say no one cares? It sounds like the judge cares. Obviously the New York Times cares too.

> a magistrate judge, Carolyn Hermon-Purcell, questioned the estate’s lawyers about the transfers to Southern Country, saying the disclosure was not satisfactory. The judge said she did not know why Southern Country would be receiving checks from the estate. “There’s no explanation for it,” she said.

> A lawyer for the estate responded that some of the payment had been made in error, but the judge was not satisfied with his response and asked him to follow up with a fuller accounting.

[subpixel]

Similar to the way con-artists go unpunished b/c their victims are too ashamed of losing face, this theory suggests that Epstein was printing money by blackmailing people who had everything to lose if their shenanigans were revealed.

[ithinkinstereo]

The details around his relationship with Les Wexner (billionaire owner of L Brands; Victoria's Secret, Bath and Body Works, etc.) are especially bizarre. Wexner gave Epstein power of attorney; basically granting control of all of his financial assets!

[rowrowrow]

Epstein was good at what he did plus he had lots of money from the ponzi scheme he was involved with.

Wexner is also widely believed to be gay. In his case, I don’t think blackmail is probable considering the power of a smart, rich, confidence artist.

I’m sure there’s no doubt that a variety of intelligence agencies and private groups targeted Epstein for information. But I’m skeptical that this all originated as anything more than ego and confidence skills.

[BubRoss]

You think someone who built multiple retail empires would give someone power of attorney because they seemed skilled? Power of attorney transfer is for people who are dying or mentally disabled.

[londons_explore]

Power of attorney can be used for some international tax dodging schemes - laws are inconsistent on which of the two people must pay/report the tax, and by doing that across a country border, you can avoid the tax without anyone breaking the law.

[jjeaff]

There are also lots of levels of power of attorney. It can be as limited in scope as to a single bank account with limitations. So I question whether this was full on power of attorney or some limited scope that we are lacking details of.

[AndrewBissell]

There's been some recent reporting by ABC News that Wexner also handed Epstein billions of dollars in stock in L Brands with essentially no strings attached. It is crazy that Wexner is not being investigated. There should have been a no-knock raid on his Albany mansion months ago.

[claudeganon]

Wexner is a long time, major financier of Republicans at the state and national level. He’ll never see any investigation, outside maybe some investor suits because L Brands stock is tanking.

[solarhoma]

This is not a partisan issue. This goes well beyond those lines.

[claudeganon]

Of course it does, but those are still the interests that protect Wexner and I don’t think it’s controversial to say as much. I’m sure no shortage of Democrats would rush to protect Bill Gates if his ties to Epstein were more fully exposed.

[taneq]

What about Epstein's black book? Does that go beyond party lines?

[peteretep]

Don’t Democrats control Albany?

[claudeganon]

Wexner lives in New Albany, Ohio, Ohio’s 12th congressional district, which, barring voting for Obama in 2008, has been solidly Republican for a long time:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio's_12th_congressional_di...

[AndrewBissell]

The FBI still hasn't raided Epstein's New Mexico ranch. Probably a lot of potentially fruitful leads are not being pursued.

[clubm8]

Do you have a source on this, this is the first I've heard of it.

[MockObject]

The source is that you've never heard of this ranch being raided.

[chrisbrandow]

Best reply ever.

[AndrewBissell]

There were widespread reports and NYT articles when the NYC mansion and Little Saint James island were raided. The last word on the New Mexico ranch was a CBS report in August that it still had not been raided, and there's been zero word since. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeffrey-epstein-news-ranch-new-...

[wiglaf1979]

Give Moneyland a read/listen to if you want to go down a rabbit hole about how hard money is to track once it enters an offshore bank account. We really have an international finance issue for situations for this.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39979237-moneyland

[blaser-waffle]

This would be the place to mention the Panama Papers...

[arthurcolle]

Bank to bank transactions seem to be pretty much a wild west after you leave 1st world countries, like the US, assuming that there are limited treaties between the two countries, etc... The only reason why these major "bank hacks" (different subject, but just sharing) work is because you can transfer the money out and liquidate without real issues (until you get caught for whatever reason).

[kenneth]

The US virgin islands are part of the US

[arthurcolle]

Yeah, this is very well known.

I could have been more specific but in any case, that's not particularly relevant given the fact that taxation is significantly more favorable there compared to other principalities, territories, et. al. of the US.

[mzs]

Simplest explanation is it's part of a ploy to minimize tax pay-out.