Billionaire Stephen Deckoff spent $60 million to buy Jeffrey Epstein’s two Caribbean islands, which were the the so-called headquarters of the convicted pedophile’s international sex trafficking ring.
The 57-year old co-founder of private equity firm Black Diamond Capital Management has plans to turn the infamous islets — with the smaller of the two dubbed “Pedophile Island” or “Epstein Island” — into a 25-room luxury resort that’s slated for a 2025 opening.
Both of the islands — Great St. James and Little St. James — were originally listed for $125 million in 2021, three years after Epstein died by suicide in his Metropolitan Correctional Center jail cell.
By 2022, the original asking price was later slashed to $110 million, or $55 million each, and a year later Deckoff made the purchase in a nearly two-for-one deal.
A significant portion of the sale proceeds will go towards the $105 million sex trafficking case against Epstein’s estate settled by the US Virgin Island’s government, AP reported.
Nevertheless, it appears that Deckoff doesn’t plan to demolish the creepy compound where Epstein sexually abused girls and young women.
The Financial Times reported that his development includes plans to “convert” Epstein’s estate into a hotel.
“I’ve been proud to call the US Virgin Islands home for more than a decade and am tremendously pleased to be able to bring the area a world-class destination befitting its natural grace and beauty,” Deckoff told the FT in a statement.
A spokesperson for Deckoff didn’t immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Deckoff, who’s worth $3 billion, has added the 165-acre Great St. James and 70-acre Little St. James islands to his already-massive real estate portfolio.
The private equity mogul is a resident of the US Virgin islands — where Epstein’s islands are located.
He lives in a waterfront estate he purchased for $12 million in St. John’s Peter Bay.
He also owns multimillion-dollar properties in Beverly Hills and New York.
Little St. James is where Epstein notoriously took underage girls and young women to sexually abuse them alongside his then-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.
It’s also where Epstein played host to rich and famous friends, including the likes of Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman according to new documents.
Epstein originally bought Little St. James in 1998 for $7.95 million.
It became home to five buildings, including a villa-style compound — which was thought to be the disgraced financier’s primary residence — a library, cinema, detached bathhouse, and cabanas, according to Business Insider.
Two decades later, in 2019, the FBI raided Little St. James and seized Epstein’s laptop to search for evidence pertaining to the sex crimes against him.
Meanwhile, Epstein purchased Great St. James in 2016 for nearly $20 million. The larger of Epstein’s islands remained the lesser developed of the two, although he was reportedly building a compound on the 165-acre island in 2019 before being issued a stop-work order in December that same year.
A spokesman for the Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources told The Post at the time that the order was issued because unauthorized work was taking place.
𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁𝘀, 𝗖𝗼𝗽𝘆𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 & 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘆: nypost.com
𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗗𝗠𝗖𝗔,
𝗣𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗮𝘁 dmca@enspirers.com
