---
alias:
- Financial Trust Company, Inc.
- Financial Trust Co.
- The Financial Trust Company
- TFTC
- FTC (Epstein)
category: Private Organization
created: 2026-09-25
location: St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
relations:
- end: 2019-08-10
  fn: 2
  reverse: true
  role: sole shareholder
  start: 1998-11-06
  type: owned
  with: '[[Jeffrey Epstein]]'
- fn: 4
  reverse: true
  role: president and chief executive officer
  type: head_of
  with: '[[Jeffrey Epstein]]'
- end: 2020-05
  fn: 11
  reverse: true
  start: 2016-06
  type: represented
  with: '[[Troutman Sanders]]'
start: 1998-11-06
summary: Jeffrey Epstein's St. Thomas money-management company, incorporated in 1998,
  which held Virgin Islands tax exemptions from 1999, a large Bear Stearns stake,
  and was accused of receiving Towers Financial proceeds.
tags:
- Organization
- JeffreyEpstein
- VirginIslands
- FinancialTrustCompany
- ShellCompany
- TaxHaven
- BearStearns
- TowersFinancial
updated: 2026-09-25
---

Financial Trust Company, Inc. was a [U.S. Virgin Islands](/places/us-virgin-islands/) corporation owned and run by [Jeffrey Epstein](/people/jeffrey-epstein/), incorporated on [St. Thomas](/places/st-thomas/) in November 1998 to provide "financial counseling and investment advice" and to serve as trustee or fiduciary for clients. It received territorial tax exemptions from 1999, held a block of [Bear Stearns](/organizations/bear-stearns/) stock through the firm's 2008 collapse, bought shares in the 2011 initial public offering of [Apollo Global Management](/organizations/apollo-global-management/), and reported 212 million dollars in assets on its last public balance sheet in 2012. Epstein's successor entity, [Southern Trust Company](/organizations/southern-trust-company/), took over its role in the territory's tax-incentive program from 2013. Investors in [Towers Financial Corporation](/organizations/towers-financial-corporation/) and [Steven Hoffenberg](/people/steven-hoffenberg/) alleged in two federal suits that the company was capitalized with money taken from the Towers Ponzi scheme; both suits ended within weeks of filing.[^1][^2][^3]

### Incorporation

The Articles of Incorporation of Financial Trust Company, Inc. were executed on November 6, 1998 and stamped received by the Office of the Lieutenant Governor of the Virgin Islands the same day. The corporation's principal office was listed at 41-42 Kongens Gade, St. Thomas, with the attorney Paul Hoffman as resident agent, and the articles were signed by three incorporators before Hoffman as notary. The stated purposes were "to provide financial counseling and investment advice to clients both within and without the United States Virgin Islands, including serving as trustee and/or fiduciary for such clients and others," together with a general clause permitting any commercial, industrial, agricultural, marketing, transportation or service activity. The articles provided for perpetual existence and "unlimited" indebtedness.[^1]

The articles do not name Epstein. Epstein's own 2009 verified complaint against Bear Stearns described him as "the president, a director, and the sole shareholder of Financial Trust," and a 2018 investor complaint sued him "in his capacity as President and Chief Executive Officer of The Financial Trust Company." The same 2018 complaint described the company as "a hedge fund formed under the laws of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1996," a date that differs from the 1998 articles Epstein's lawyers filed in response. The Virgin Islands government, in its 2022 complaint against the estate, gave the incorporation date as November 6, 1998 and stated that the company "had assets of $212 million when it publicly filed its last balance sheet in 2012."[^2][^3][^4]

### Tax Exemptions From 1999

According to documents released by the [Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority](/organizations/virgin-islands-economic-development-authority/) in February 2020, Epstein was first granted tax benefits for Financial Trust Co., Inc. in 1999 by the authority's predecessor, the Virgin Islands Industrial Development Commission. The certificate, signed by commission director Frandelle Gerard, granted a 90 percent exemption from income tax and 100 percent exemptions from gross-receipts and excise taxes for ten years, and a 100 percent exemption of taxes "on real property used for the business of financial and economic consulting, money management, investment advisory and fiduciary services for its clients."[^5]

The certificate was amended in 2012 under the [Economic Development Commission](/organizations/economic-development-commission/), which added "special conditions": at least 100,000 dollars a year to "various Virgin Islands charities, youth sports organizations and clubs; and symposiums held in the Virgin Islands," scholarships of 10,000 dollars a year for five years at Kean and Charlotte Amalie high schools, 22,500 dollars to the commission's Workforce Development fund, and 3,000 dollars a year to the Territorial Scholarship fund. The amended certificate was signed by the commission's chairman, [Albert Bryan](/people/albert-bryan/), then serving under Governor [John de Jongh](/people/john-de-jongh/); Bryan also signed the later certificate for Southern Trust Company and was elected governor in 2018. De Jongh's wife, [Cecile de Jongh](/people/cecile-de-jongh/), worked for Epstein from 1998 and was listed as the office manager of both companies.[^5][^6]

In January 2020 the authority's assistant chief executive, Wayne Biggs Jr., told the Virgin Islands Daily News that Epstein "was in the program before he was convicted of any sex crimes under Financial Trust. And he changed from Financial Trust to Southern Trust." Authority officials declined to disclose how much any of the commission's 72 beneficiary companies received in tax breaks each year, and the value of the Financial Trust exemptions was not published at the time. The same reporting noted that Epstein owned 50 percent of American Yacht Harbor in Red Hook, where Southern Trust kept its office, and that the marina was still receiving commission tax breaks in 2020.[^5]

### Bear Stearns Holdings

Financial Trust was Epstein's principal vehicle for his long relationship with Bear Stearns, where he had worked from 1976 to 1981. In an August 5, 2009 verified complaint filed in the District Court of the Virgin Islands, the company stated that "Epstein has had a relationship with Bear Stearns beginning in 1976. Since 1981, Epstein has conducted hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions with Bear Stearns for his own, as well as his clients', accounts and he conducted this business with the senior management of Bear Stearns." Financial Trust then held 120,000 Bear Stearns shares in a Merrill Lynch brokerage account, and Epstein alone made its investment decisions on the stock.[^2]

The complaint alleged that Bear Stearns induced Financial Trust to keep its shares because "other large investors would view Financial Trust's sale of a significant block of shares of Bear Stearns stock as a loss of confidence in Bear Stearns by a company owned and managed by a person seen by such large investors as close to the firm," at a time when the firm's valuations were being examined by the press, "including Landon Thomas at the [New York Times](/organizations/new-york-times/)," after the collapse of two Bear Stearns Asset Management hedge funds in the summer of 2007. Financial Trust sold 56,350 shares on August 6, 2007 at 101.38 dollars. That day, according to the complaint, Epstein spoke by telephone from the Virgin Islands with chief executive James Cayne, who told him the problems were "contained to those two funds," described a pending one billion dollar capital infusion from China Citic Group, and advised him to "hold tight." The company sold its remaining 120,000 shares for 34.99 dollars (20,000 shares, March 14, 2008) and 3.41 dollars (100,000 shares, March 17, 2008) as [JPMorgan Chase](/organizations/jpmorgan-chase/) took over the firm. The complaint sought compensatory and punitive damages for fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation, naming Cayne, [Alan Greenberg](/people/alan-greenberg/), Warren Spector, Samuel Molinaro and Alan Schwartz as the officers whose statements Epstein had relied on. It was verified by the company's vice president and filed by the St. Croix lawyer John K. Dema.[^2]

Epstein was also an investor in the funds themselves. Fox Business reported in 2019 that he had put about 60 million dollars into the Bear Stearns High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Fund, "making him one of its largest investors," and that a plan for investors to take control of the fund was put to him in the summer of 2007 and "fizzled." The [Securities and Exchange Commission](/organizations/securities-and-exchange-commission/) charged the funds' managers, Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, in June 2008 with misleading investors before the funds collapsed in June 2007 with losses of about 1.8 billion dollars; the release does not name individual investors.[^7][^8]

### Apollo Shares and the Leon Black Payments

The law firm [Dechert](/organizations/dechert/), reporting to the conflicts committee of Apollo Global Management in January 2021, found that "in 2011, one of Epstein's entities, Financial Trust Company, purchased 263,257 shares of Apollo's stock in its initial public offering" through a directed share offering program, and that the shares "appear to have later been transferred to a second Epstein entity, Southern Financial LLC, and appear to have been held through at least September 2019." The same review found that Apollo's co-founder [Leon Black](/people/leon-black/) paid Epstein 158 million dollars for work performed from 2012 through 2017; the written 2013 service agreement it described was with Southern Trust Company, Inc., which received the first payments. Dechert reported no evidence that Black paid Epstein for anything other than "legitimate advice."[^9]

### The 2007 Grand Jury Subpoena

The company was subpoenaed in the federal investigation that ended in Epstein's [non-prosecution agreement](/events/epstein-non-prosecution-agreement/). The investigation timeline kept by the [U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida](/organizations/us-attorneys-office-for-the-southern-district-of-florida/) records subpoenas on May 31, 2007 to Financial Trust Company, Inc., returnable June 12, 2007, and to the J. Epstein Virgin Islands Foundation, Inc., J. Epstein & Company, Inc. and "Epstein Interests," returnable June 21, 2007, with the defense lawyer [Gerald Lefcourt](/people/gerald-lefcourt/) as the correspondent, and a "Production response to 5/31/07 subpoenas" from all four on June 13, 2007. The same log lists earlier subpoenas to Chase and JPMorgan Chase in 2006 and 2007 and a subpoena to Bear Stearns returnable September 4, 2007.[^10]

### The Towers Financial Allegations

On May 27, 2016, Steven Hoffenberg, the former chief executive of Towers Financial Corporation, sued Epstein and "The Financial Trust Company" in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, individually and as self-described "constructive trustee of the Noteholders and Bondholders of Towers Financial Corporation." Epstein and the company were represented by Bennet J. Moskowitz of Troutman Sanders, who wrote to Judge Richard J. Sullivan on June 28, 2016 seeking dismissal with prejudice on the grounds that Hoffenberg lacked standing, that every claim was time-barred, that he was barred by in pari delicto, and that he failed to state a claim. Hoffenberg withdrew the complaint with prejudice by letter of July 1, 2016, and Sullivan dismissed the case on July 5, 2016.[^11][^12]

On August 20, 2018, two Towers noteholders, Marvin Gerber and Kalma Koenig, filed a putative class action against Epstein and Financial Trust. Their complaint alleged that Epstein used proceeds of the Towers scheme "to start his own company, Defendant TFTC," and attached an affidavit Hoffenberg swore on August 17, 2018 stating that "Epstein used the monies he misappropriated and earned from his illegal trading activities and used them as start-up capital for his corporations, including The Financial Trust Company." Moskowitz moved to dismiss with prejudice on September 14, 2018, filing the 1998 Financial Trust articles among his exhibits, and the case was terminated on October 5, 2018. Epstein's lawyers called the action "Hoffenberg's rehashing of several of his prior lawsuits aimed at harassing" Epstein and his businesses; Epstein was never charged in connection with Towers.[^3][^4][^13]

A draft of the Troutman Sanders memorandum of law for Epstein and "The Financial Trust Company," marked "Privileged and Confidential; Attorney Work Product," is among the [Justice Department](/organizations/department-of-justice/)'s Epstein releases. Headed "Multiple SDNY Judges Warned the Person Driving This Action Against Such Frivolous Lawsuits," it recounted that Judge [Richard M. Berman](/people/richard-m-berman/) had warned Hoffenberg in 2001 that "he may not assert baseless claims or abuse the judicial process through the instigation of frivolous or duplicative suits," that Judge [Robert W. Sweet](/people/robert-w-sweet/) had found in 2003 that Hoffenberg "will be enjoined from filing any further litigation ... without prior approval," and that Judge P. Kevin Castel had found a 2013 Hoffenberg petition "appears in several respects to be a frivolous pleading filed in violation of Rule 11(b)." It summarized the complaint as alleging that Hoffenberg, Towers' chief executive from 1975 to 1993, hired Epstein "as a consultant back in 1987," and quoted Hoffenberg's counsel telling Sweet on December 5, 2013 that "Mr. Epstein is a critical player here. ... and he's [Epstein] not a victim." It cited the 2003 *Vanity Fair* account of Hoffenberg's claim to an Illinois grand jury in 1993 that Epstein "came up with the idea" of financing takeover bids through Towers' purchase of two Illinois insurers and was the "technician" executing the schemes. The draft noted that "Defendants have never been found guilty of any wrongdoing related to Hoffenberg's fraud."[^14]

After Epstein's death, a civil suit by a plaintiff identified only as "VE," No. 1:19-cv-07625 (S.D.N.Y.), named Financial Trust Company, Inc. as a defendant alongside the estate's co-executors [Darren Indyke](/people/darren-indyke/) and [Richard Kahn](/people/richard-kahn/), Nine East 71st Street Corporation and NES, LLC; Charles L. Glover of Troutman Sanders appeared for all of them in May 2020.[^15]

[^1]: Articles of Incorporation of Financial Trust Company, Inc., executed November 6, 1998, with Consent of Agent for Service of Process (Paul Hoffman), received by the Office of the Lieutenant Governor of the Virgin Islands November 6, 1998; filed as Exhibit N to the Declaration of Bennet J. Moskowitz, Gerber v. The Financial Trust Company, No. 1:18-cv-07580-JPO (S.D.N.Y.), ECF No. 16-14 (September 14, 2018), pp. 2 to 8. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.499593/gov.uscourts.nysd.499593.16.14.pdf
[^2]: Financial Trust Company, Inc. v. The Bear Stearns Companies Inc., Civil No. 2009/106 (D.V.I.), Verified Complaint dated August 5, 2009, paragraphs 1 to 53 and verification; reproduced as Exhibit 253, ECF No. 244-8 (filed July 25, 2023), in Government of the United States Virgin Islands v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., No. 1:22-cv-10904-JSR (S.D.N.Y.). https://web.archive.org/web/20260117011822/https://www.justice.gov/multimedia/Court%20Records/Government%20of%20the%20United%20States%20Virgin%20Islands%20v.%20JPMorgan%20Chase%20Bank,%20N.A.,%20No.%20122-cv-10904%20(S.D.N.Y.%202022)/244-08.pdf
[^3]: Marvin Gerber and Kalma Koenig v. The Financial Trust Company, XYZ Corp., ABC, Inc., and Jeffrey E. Epstein, No. 1:18-cv-07580-JPO (S.D.N.Y.), Complaint, ECF No. 7 (filed August 21, 2018), paragraphs 11 to 12, 32, 53 to 54, and Exhibit B, Affidavit of Steven J. Hoffenberg sworn August 17, 2018, ECF No. 7-2, paragraphs 12 and 18. https://truthinadvertising.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Gerber-v-The-Financial-Trust-Co-complaint.pdf
[^4]: Government of the United States Virgin Islands v. Darren K. Indyke et al., No. ST-20-CV-14 (V.I. Super. Ct.), Second Amended Complaint (filed November 30, 2022), paragraphs 139 to 141; reproduced as ECF No. 1-1 in Government of the United States Virgin Islands v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., No. 1:22-cv-10904-JSR (S.D.N.Y., filed December 27, 2022), ECF p. 30. https://web.archive.org/web/20260117011558/https://www.justice.gov/multimedia/Court%20Records/Government%20of%20the%20United%20States%20Virgin%20Islands%20v.%20JPMorgan%20Chase%20Bank,%20N.A.,%20No.%20122-cv-10904%20(S.D.N.Y.%202022)/001-01.pdf
[^5]: Suzanne Carlson, "Epstein estate could be ordered to repay more than $144 million in tax breaks," *Virgin Islands Daily News,* February 13, 2020, reproduced as Exhibit 36, ECF No. 158-36 (filed May 23, 2023), in No. 1:22-cv-10904-JSR (S.D.N.Y.). http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/epstein-estate-could-be-ordered-to-repay-more-than-144-million-in-tax-breaks/article_b84d9710-14af-5e69-a890-bcf8265cf8f9.html
[^6]: "V.I. Officials Enabled Epstein to Act With Impunity, JPMorgan Alleges in Latest Salvo," *St. Thomas Source,* June 16, 2023, on the January 24, 2014 Southern Trust certificate signed by Albert Bryan. https://web.archive.org/web/20240721172424/https://stthomassource.com/content/2023/06/16/v-i-officials-enabled-epstein-to-act-with-impunity-jpmorgan-alleges-in-latest-salvo/
[^7]: Charles Gasparino and Lydia Moynihan, "The woes of Jeffrey Epstein: How he maintained Wall Street connections while downplaying child sex accusations," *Fox Business,* August 10, 2019. https://www.foxbusiness.com/features/jeffrey-epstein-wall-street-connections-child-sex-trafficking
[^8]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Litigation Release No. 20625, SEC v. Ralph R. Cioffi and Matthew M. Tannin, Civil Action No. 08 2457 (FB) (E.D.N.Y.), June 19, 2008. https://www.sec.gov/files/litigation/litreleases/2008/lr20625.htm
[^9]: Dechert LLP, Memorandum to the Apollo Conflicts Committee, "Investigation of Epstein/Black Relationship and Any Relationship Between Epstein and Apollo Global Management, Inc.," January 22, 2021, pp. 3 to 4, 16 to 17, filed as Exhibit 99.1 to Apollo Global Management, Inc., Form 8-K (January 25, 2021). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1411494/000119312521016405/d118102dex991.htm
[^10]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00224943, DataSet 9, "Epstein Investigation Timeline," Exhibit A-1 (U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida), pp. 1, 4-7, 11. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00224943.pdf
[^11]: Letter of Bennet J. Moskowitz, Troutman Sanders LLP, to Hon. Richard J. Sullivan, June 28, 2016, Hoffenberg v. Epstein, No. 1:16-cv-03989-RJS (S.D.N.Y.), filed as Exhibit G, ECF No. 16-7, in No. 1:18-cv-07580-JPO (S.D.N.Y.). https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.499593/gov.uscourts.nysd.499593.16.7.pdf
[^12]: Hoffenberg v. Epstein, No. 1:16-cv-03989 (RJS) (S.D.N.Y.), docket (complaint filed May 27, 2016; terminated July 5, 2016), and Order of Judge Richard J. Sullivan, July 5, 2016, filed as Exhibit I, ECF No. 16-9, in No. 1:18-cv-07580-JPO. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/13248845/hoffenberg-v-epstein/ ; https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.499593/gov.uscourts.nysd.499593.16.9.pdf
[^13]: Gerber v. The Financial Trust Company, No. 1:18-cv-07580 (S.D.N.Y.), docket (filed August 20, 2018; terminated October 5, 2018; Judge J. Paul Oetken), including Declaration of Bennet J. Moskowitz in support of motion to dismiss, ECF No. 16 (September 14, 2018); Joseph N. DiStefano, "Accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein's old boss says he knows where the mystery millions came from," *Philadelphia Inquirer,* July 11, 2019, quoting the defendants' response. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/7698990/gerber-v-the-financial-trust-company/ ; https://www.inquirer.com/business/jeffrey-epstein-hoffenberg-trump-clinton-20190711.html
[^14]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00802452, DataSet 9, draft Defendants' Memorandum of Law in Support of Their Motion to Dismiss, Gerber v. The Financial Trust Company, No. 1:18-cv-07580-JPO (S.D.N.Y.), Troutman Sanders LLP, September 2018. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00802452.pdf
[^15]: VE v. Darren K. Indyke and Richard D. Kahn, as Joint Personal Representatives of the Estate of Jeffrey E. Epstein, Nine East 71st Street, Corporation, Financial Trust Company, Inc., NES, LLC, No. 1:19-cv-07625-AJN (S.D.N.Y.), Notice of Appearance of Charles L. Glover, Troutman Sanders LLP, May 12, 2020 (ECF No. 62). https://web.archive.org/web/20260117012714/https://www.justice.gov/multimedia/Court%20Records/VE%20v.%20Nine%20East%2071st%20Street,%20No.%20119-cv-07625%20(S.D.N.Y.%202019)/062.pdf