Virgin Islands Department of Justice

The Virgin Islands Department of Justice is the law department of the Government of the United States Virgin Islands, headed by the Attorney General of the Virgin Islands and housed at 34-38 Kronprindsens Gade, in the GERS Building on St. Thomas. Under the Revised Organic Act the Attorney General is appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the Legislature and serves while that governor remains in office "unless sooner removed by the Governor." The department kept the territorial sex-offender registry on which Jeffrey Epstein was listed, reduced his required notice of travel to 24 hours in 2012, revoked the reduction in 2019, and after his death sued his estate, sought to intervene in Ghislaine Maxwell's indemnification suit against it, and sued JPMorgan Chase. Governor Albert Bryan removed the Attorney General who brought the estate and bank cases days after the bank suit was filed.¹²³⁴

Structure

The Revised Organic Act of 1954 directed the governor to consolidate the territorial government into no more than nine executive departments. As amended in 1959, it provides that "the head of the department of law shall be known as the attorney general of the Virgin Islands," and that the heads of the executive departments "shall be appointed by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the legislature. Each shall hold office during the continuance in office of the Governor by whom he is appointed and until his successor is appointed and qualified, unless sooner removed by the Governor." Governor Bryan said in March 2026 that the act gave the governor supervision of every department: "I could just tell them do it, you don't do it, you're fired."¹⁵

Epstein's Registration and Travel Notices

The territory's Sexual Offender Registration and Community Protection Act, 14 V.I.C. section 1721 et seq., requires registered offenders to register where they reside and to appear periodically in person to verify their information. In 2009 Epstein's lawyers wrote to Attorney General Vincent Frazer, describing Epstein as "a full-time resident of the Virgin Islands, who maintains his home at Little St. James," to seek the transfer of his Florida supervision to the territory. He renewed his registration each year, and the department also visited or attempted to visit Little St. James for additional address checks. The 2023 trafficking suit against the territory alleged that he had been classified as a Tier 1 offender when he should have been Tier 2.²⁶⁷

In 2012 the Legislature passed Act No. 7372, which required 21 days' notice of travel and allowed the Attorney General to reduce it. After meeting Epstein's lawyers Maria Tankenson Hodge and Darren Indyke, Frazer granted a waiver on July 25, 2012, and on August 14, 2012 allowed Epstein to notify the department "twenty four (24) hours prior to his departure." Cecile de Jongh, the wife of Governor John de Jongh and office manager of Epstein's companies, had written to Epstein on July 1, 2012, according to a later complaint: "we will work with Vincent to give the discretion for status quo for you - thats the least he can do." At his last verification, in July 2018, Epstein refused to let department investigators, assisted by the U.S. Marshals, past the dock of Little St. James, calling it his "front door," and arranged to meet them at his office on St. Thomas. A March 19, 2019 travel notice stated that he would fly to France for ten days; law enforcement later found that he had also gone to Vienna and Monaco.²⁷⁸

Acting Attorney General Carol Thomas-Jacobs revoked the 24-hour arrangement on March 14, 2019. On April 30, 2019 the firm of Epstein's territorial counsel, Erika Kellerhals, asked the incoming Attorney General, Denise George, to reinstate it; on June 2, 2019 George answered that she had not been presented with the documentation required for a waiver, "nor does the VIDOJ have any record of such documentation ever having been submitted to the VIDOJ." In an October 2, 2023 interview with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, George said that Bryan had told her in her first weeks that Epstein wanted a waiver and had texted her, "you need to make a decision on the Epstein matter," and that she "believed that Frazer was pressured by then Governor John De Jongh" to grant the original waiver.⁷⁹

The Estate Case and the Maxwell Subpoena

After Epstein's death, George filed the territory's suit against his estate on January 15, 2020 in the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands under the territory's Criminally Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, later adding the co-executors Indyke and Richard Kahn. She told the FBI that Bryan's first response was "He's dead go for it," that his tone later changed to "End it quickly," and that he told her to settle for 80 million dollars with Henry Smock, who had assisted Epstein's 1998 purchase of Little St. James, as mediator. When the department's outside counsel, Motley Rice, began interviewing estate employees, she received a call from Bryan's chief legal counsel, David Bornn, a former partner of Kellerhals, relaying that Kellerhals wanted to know what George was investigating. Bryan also sent the Port Authority director, Carlton Dowe, to press her to settle. The case settled on December 1, 2022 for 105 million dollars in cash, the return of more than 80 million dollars in tax benefits, and half the proceeds of the sale of Little St. James.³⁹

In 2020 Maxwell sued the estate, its executors and NES, LLC in the Superior Court, No. ST-20-CV-155, seeking indemnification and advancement of her legal expenses "incurred by reason of her prior employment relationship with decedent Jeffrey E. Epstein." The department moved to intervene, arguing that her claims threatened to dissipate estate assets before any forfeiture or disgorgement judgment in its own case. The motion also disclosed that the department was investigating Maxwell herself under section 612 of the act, had issued a "CICO Subpoena Duces Tecum" to her dated March 19, 2020 in "an ongoing investigation...of the rape, abuse, exploitation and trafficking of young women and underage girls by Jeffrey E. Epstein and his associates," and that "Maxwell resisted and evaded service of the subpoena during the three and a half months after its issuance." The federal indictment against Maxwell in the Southern District of New York was unsealed on July 2, 2020, the day of her arrest.¹⁰¹¹

The JPMorgan Suit and George's Removal

George sued JPMorgan Chase in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on December 27, 2022, and Bryan removed her on December 31, 2022. Thomas-Jacobs became acting Attorney General on January 1, 2023 and in 2023 signed the territory's 62.5 million dollar settlement with Leon Black over his payments to Epstein. In 2024 Bryan appointed Gordon Rhea, who had represented Kahn in the estate litigation and said he would recuse himself from Epstein matters. After her removal George received a cease-and-desist letter over her press interviews and later became a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Virgin Islands.⁴⁹¹²