Darren Indyke

Darren K. Indyke is a New York lawyer who was Jeffrey Epstein's longtime personal attorney, an officer or director of many of the companies through which Epstein held property and moved money, and, with the accountant Richard Kahn, co-executor of Epstein's estate and co-trustee of the trust Epstein signed two days before his death in August 2019. The trust names Indyke to receive 50 million dollars, second in order of payment. The U.S. Virgin Islands government sued him in his personal capacity in 2020 as one of the "indispensable captains" of what it called the Epstein Enterprise, victims sued him and Kahn in a class action that the estate agreed in February 2026 to settle for up to 35 million dollars, and in September 2026 federal prosecutors in Manhattan were reported to be investigating both men. Indyke and Kahn deny knowing of Epstein's sex trafficking or knowingly helping him.¹²³⁴

Early Career, the Wexners and Maxwell

The Daily Beast reported in August 2020 that Indyke graduated from Colgate University in 1986 and Cornell Law School five years later, and then spent four years at the boutique firm Gold & Wachtel, which had represented Epstein "at least as far back as 1988"; the firm's principal, William Wachtel, said he hired Indyke as a favor to his father. According to the same report, Indyke was listed as secretary of The Wexner Foundation in SEC filings from 1998 to 2001 and on its tax forms through 2006, and in 2008 Abigail Wexner gave him power of attorney over her condominium at 15 Central Park West, according to property records. The report stated that his name appeared on corporate filings for the company that bought Ghislaine Maxwell's East 65th Street townhouse from Lynn Forester in 2000 for 4.95 million dollars, that he was a trustee of Maxwell's Max Foundation from 2001 to 2010, and that he had retained the criminal defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo. A source familiar with the victims' litigation described him to the publication as the "in-house counsel to Epstein's enterprise." A printout of the article is among the Justice Department's Epstein releases.⁵

Officer of the Epstein Companies

According to the Virgin Islands government's Second Amended Complaint, filed in November 2022, Indyke or Kahn, "frequently both," were officers or directors of the Butterfly Trust, of the companies holding Epstein's real property, and of Financial Strategy Group, Ltd.; Financial Trust, Inc.; FT Real Estate Inc.; Gratitude America, Inc.; Hyperion Air, Inc.; the J. Epstein Virgin Islands Foundation, Inc.; Jeepers, Inc.; Mort, Inc.; Nautilus, Inc.; and Zorro Development Corporation, and had "signatory authority over virtually all of the accounts held by the Epstein Enterprise entities." The territory alleged that the two men "organized, controlled, and directed almost every aspect of the Epstein Enterprise," that with Epstein they "held and managed at least 140 different bank accounts for Epstein and Epstein-owned entities, many of which existed only to transfer payments to other entities and accounts," and that "in many instances, Kahn and/or Indyke structured these transactions in order to evade the bank's reporting requirements."²

Indyke sat with Epstein and Kahn on the board of Southern Trust Company, the St. Thomas company that obtained a Virgin Islands tax-incentive certificate on the representation that it ran a "biomedical and financial informatics" business. He was signatory on its primary bank account, into which funds were wired "primarily from a single source," and authorized a majority of the wire transfers out of it to Epstein's other entities and personal accounts. The territory estimated that the certificate let Epstein avoid 80,576,236 dollars in taxes. When Epstein formed Cypress, Inc., Maple, Inc. and Laurel, Inc. as Virgin Islands corporations in November 2011 and moved title to the Zorro Ranch, the 9 East 71st Street townhouse and his Palm Beach house into them, Indyke became vice president, secretary and director of each. The territory alleged that these transfers "were made for the sole purpose of sheltering these assets from collection."²

Indyke was listed as president of the J. Epstein Virgin Islands Foundation, a tax-exempt private foundation, as of October 23, 2007. Between September 2015 and June 2019 he signed foundation checks for more than 400,000 dollars payable to young female models and actresses, including more than 380,000 dollars in monthly payments of 8,333 dollars to a former Russian model; in November 2017 he signed a foundation check to a New York immigration lawyer whose memo line referenced that model's surname. Earlier in 2017 he signed a foundation check for 160,000 dollars to resolve an environmental fine Epstein had incurred for construction on Great St. James, which the estate later repaid to the foundation after questions were raised about it. The territory called the payments "inconsistent with the charitable purpose of the Foundation."²

The Cash Withdrawals

The territory's complaint described transactions on Epstein's personal accounts, for which Indyke was signatory, that bank representatives and the New York Department of Financial Services flagged as potentially suspicious. On July 20, 2016 Indyke cashed a 7,500 dollar check and told the bank he would cash a second, for 4,000 dollars, the next business day "to avoid all the paperwork," which he did on July 21. From June 2018 to February 2019 there were 97 separate 1,000 dollar withdrawals from one account at an ATM near his law office, and from April 9 to May 8, 2019, 21 more on all but one business day. Eleven checks between April 2016 and April 2019 converted more than 126,000 dollars into euros, some marked "Euros for safe." On January 17, 2018 Indyke cashed a 100,000 dollar check after Kahn arranged with the bank for the cash to be ready. Payments of more than 2.5 million dollars went from the account to dozens of women with Eastern European surnames, described as hotel expenses, tuition and rent, and to the immigration lawyer.²

The complaint alleged that in at least three cases Indyke and Kahn "participated with Epstein in coercing his sex trafficking victims ... to enter into arranged and forced marriages in order to obtain immigration status for the foreign women," that Indyke paid the immigration lawyer, and that he "threatened at least one who indicated that she would seek a divorce." Former Attorney General Denise George told the FBI in 2023 that her investigation concluded Indyke "was in charge of coordinating female to female marriages to gain immigration status in the United States." Indyke has denied the allegations and was not charged.²⁶

The Carbyne Investment

In early 2019 Indyke handled the exercise of warrants in Carbyne, the Israeli emergency-response company chaired by Ehud Barak, for Southern Trust Company, which as a limited partner of SUM (E.B.) Limited Partnership put up 2.4 million dollars of the 3.6 million dollar call, alongside NJF Capital, the company of Nicole Junkermann. When the partnership's Tel Aviv lawyer, Tomer Toor, relayed the Israeli bank's anti-money-laundering request for the name and citizenship of each limited partner's controlling person, Indyke wrote to Epstein on March 12, 2019: "Not sure how to respond. I thought we did not want your name associated with this Investment? Also, Tomer is asking for a bank rec letter from the transferring bank which is DB. I have asked Rich to find out from Stewart Oldfield at DB with whom Rich has a decent relationship if that would even be possible at this point." Epstein replied "ok," and on March 14 Indyke asked, "Am I correct that by your 'ok' you mean that I may confirm that you are the controlling person of the STC?" Epstein answered, "Yes."⁷ Deutsche Bank had notified Epstein on December 21, 2018 that it would no longer service his accounts.⁸ On March 7, 2019 Indyke forwarded Carbyne's audited 2017 statements, draft 2018 statements and three-year projection to Richard Kahn, and on March 20 sent further Carbyne documents to Toor.⁹

Deutsche Bank's know-your-customer page for "The 2013 Butterfly Trust," produced to the federal grand jury in New York, listed Indyke among the trust's "Current Potential Beneficiaries," with Epstein's assistant Lesley Groff, his pilot Larry Visoski and others.¹⁰

Payments to Indyke

The territory alleged that "from 2011 to 2019, Epstein and Epstein-owned entities paid over $16 million net" to Indyke, including loans still outstanding to Indyke-related entities, that tax forms from Epstein entities "did not report nearly the full compensation," and that he was paid through Birch Tree BR, LLC, Harlequin Dane, LLC and Darren K Indyke, PLLC, which it described as shell companies. Indyke was also a beneficiary of the Butterfly Trust, a trust for people who worked for Epstein that also paid numerous young women with Eastern European surnames; Indyke and Kahn signed trust checks of more than 1 million dollars to young women or their entities, some of whom were not beneficiaries.² Through their lawyers, Indyke and Kahn have said they had no knowledge of Epstein's crimes.¹

Co-Executor

Indyke and Kahn filed Epstein's will for probate in the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands on August 15, 2019, valuing the estate's Virgin Islands property at 577,672,654 dollars, and filed a Certificate of Trust for the 1953 Trust on August 26, 2019. The trust entitles each co-executor to 250,000 dollars a year for running it, which both testified they have not received. The estate's February 2021 accounting valued its assets at about 240.8 million dollars, and by September 2026 court filings put them at 107.6 million dollars. The territory alleged in 2022 that "since they were appointed as Co-Executors ... Indyke and Kahn have approved the release of Estate funds to pay for the legal fees and costs of persons who, like the Co-Executors themselves, are alleged herein to have participated in the criminal activity of the Epstein Enterprise"; Kahn testified in 2026 that the estate spends 10 to 15 million dollars a year on legal and other fees and covers the co-executors' legal bills.¹²

The territory's action against the estate, Indyke, Kahn and the Epstein companies settled on December 1, 2022 for more than 105 million dollars, half the proceeds of the sale of Little St. James, and the return of more than 80 million dollars in tax benefits.¹¹ Testifying to the House Oversight Committee on March 19, 2026, Indyke said he could only speculate that Epstein left him so much "because there was a lot of work to be done," and that "as to the why he did, what he did and why he gave money to whom he gave the money to, he never had conversations like that with us." He testified that Epstein's 40 million dollars invested in 2015 and 2016 in two funds of Valar Ventures, co-founded by Peter Thiel, was worth about 172 million dollars and would expire in 2026.¹

Victim Suits and Federal Investigation

Victims represented by Boies Schiller Flexner sued Indyke and Kahn personally in 2024 (Doe 3 v. Indyke, No. 1:24-cv-01204, S.D.N.Y., before Judge Arun Subramanian), alleging that they built "a complex web of corporations and bank accounts" that let Epstein hide the abuse and pay victims and recruiters while they were "richly compensated." On February 19, 2026 the estate agreed to pay up to 35 million dollars to settle. Indyke's lawyer, Daniel H. Weiner, said: "Neither of the co-executors has made any admission or concession of misconduct. Because they did nothing wrong, the co-executors were prepared to fight the claims against them through to trial, but agreed to mediate and settle this lawsuit in order to achieve finality." A further suit filed in August 2026 alleged that "each played critical roles in enabling Epstein's acts ... by providing Epstein the necessary financial and legal support for his sex trafficking operation." After a victims' attorney raised the co-executors' overlapping roles as beneficiaries, defendants and executors at a September 2026 settlement hearing, Jennifer Freeman, a lawyer for Epstein victims, told CNN: "You're making a decision about your own personal liability, so they decided they had no liability. Surprise, surprise." Weiner and Kahn's lawyer, Daniel Ruzumna, said their clients "emphatically reject" any allegation that they were complicit in or knew of Epstein's crimes and that no women have accused them of committing or witnessing abuse.¹³ In a separate suit by a plaintiff identified as "VE," Indyke and Kahn appeared in May 2020 as co-executors, alongside Nine East 71st Street Corporation and Financial Trust Company, through Charles L. Glover of Troutman Sanders, the firm that had defended Epstein and Financial Trust against Steven Hoffenberg in 2016.¹²

On September 23, 2026 the Washington Examiner, citing a source familiar with the matter, reported that federal authorities in New York had opened an investigation of Indyke and Kahn; the Wall Street Journal, which first reported it, said prosecutors in Manhattan were arranging witness interviews and requesting emails and financial records, and that people interviewed described questions about the men's roles in legal entities allegedly used to conceal Epstein's activities. A Justice Department spokesman said, "We don't comment on the existence, or lack thereof, of investigations." Both men have said none of the women told them they were being abused.⁴