INSUFFICIENT FUNDS?

Epstein Lawyers Claim They Can’t Pay Electric Bills, Upkeep for Vast Estate

The attorneys said liens imposed on the estate have left them unable to pay for upkeep and electric bills for Epstein’s various properties.

Lawyers for the late accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein's $600 million estate claim liens imposed by an attorney general in the U.S. Virgin Islands have left them unable to pay workers at the financier’s properties, The Miami Herald reports. In a Thursday filing to the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands, the lawyers asked the court to strike down the liens or allow priority for expenses of estate administration. The attorneys said the liens are crippling their efforts to sell off assets—with “insufficient funds” available for electric bills, pest-control services, upkeep for Epstein's aircraft and vehicles, and salaries for caretakers of his properties in Florida, New Mexico, and New York. Power may be turned off at properties soon, and payments for employee health insurance have allegedly bounced. They also said they could not pay for the defense of the “twenty-two lawsuits pending against the Estate arising from claims of sexual abuse by Mr. Epstein” as a result of the liens. Attorney General Denise George previously told the newspaper that she imposed the liens in late January because the lawyers were involved in fraud to win tax breaks while Epstein lived in the Virgin Islands.