Great St. James

Great St. James is a private island of roughly 160 to 165 acres in the U.S. Virgin Islands, lying directly across a narrow channel from Little St. James off the southeastern end of St. Thomas. Jeffrey Epstein acquired it in January 2016 for a total of about 22.5 million dollars through the shell entity Great St. Jim LLC, after the seller declined to deal with him directly because of his status as a registered sex offender. Epstein then conducted extensive construction across the island without the required permits, drawing a cease-and-desist order in 2016 and a stop-work order in December 2018 from the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources, along with a 70,000 dollar penalty for unpermitted land clearing. The estate sold Great St. James together with Little St. James to the investor Stephen Deckoff in 2023.¹²³

Acquisition and the Shell Company

Epstein sought to buy Great St. James from Christian Kjaer, described as one of Denmark's wealthiest men, who according to later reporting did not want to be publicly associated with Epstein given his sex-offender status. Epstein structured the purchase through the shell entity Great St. Jim LLC and arranged for the name of the Dubai businessman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, the longtime chairman of the ports operator DP World, to appear as the ultimate beneficial owner on contractual paperwork. Reporting indicated that bin Sulayem had declined Epstein's request to use his name and that no signature of his appeared on the documents.²

The acquisition closed in two recorded transactions in January 2016: a purchase of Kjaer's parcels through Great St. Jim LLC for about 17.5 million dollars, and a further purchase of additional parcels through the same LLC for about 5 million dollars, totaling roughly 22.5 million dollars. Some accounts cite an 18 million dollar figure that reflects only part of the transaction; the combined recorded total is about 22.5 million dollars.⁴

After the deal closed, bin Sulayem's name did not appear on subsequent filings, and local land-use permit documents identified Epstein as the sole member of Great St. Jim LLC, revealing his ownership. The concealment surfaced again in 2026 when the connection to bin Sulayem drew renewed scrutiny; on February 13, 2026 he was removed from his chairman and chief-executive roles at DP World and a related Dubai entity after disclosures tied him to Epstein.²

Unpermitted Construction and Stop-Work Orders

The U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources issued a cease-and-desist order on October 28, 2016 for unauthorized development in the coastal zone on Great St. James, after inspectors found clearing and construction activity that the department had not permitted. The department and Great St. Jim LLC subsequently reached a settlement under which the company paid a 70,000 dollar penalty and agreed to corrective actions over unpermitted land clearing.³⁵

Permit records showed that Epstein planned a complex of structures across the island connected by a private road, including a barge dock, two homes, cottages, an amphitheater, gardens, a marine electrical cable, and a solar array with a generator. Reporting noted that only a single minor permit, for a flagpole and cistern repairs, had been approved, indicating that most of the planned construction proceeded or was attempted without proper authorization.⁶

On December 21, 2018 the territory's Coastal Zone Management program issued a stop-work order, and Epstein was subsequently accused of violating it by failing to remove a beach-bar cabana and by expanding a driveway. The construction and clearing on the island continued to draw enforcement attention into 2019. The territory later found, in the course of its civil case, that Epstein had razed the remains of centuries-old structures associated with enslaved workers to make room for his development, and the 2022 settlement required 450,000 dollars to remediate environmental damage on the island.⁶⁷

Sale With Little St. James

Great St. James was sold together with Little St. James in May 2023 to an entity controlled by the investor Stephen Deckoff, founder of Black Diamond Capital Management, for 60 million dollars. The two islands had been listed in March 2022 at a combined asking price of 125 million dollars, and the sale closed at well below half of that figure.⁸

Deckoff announced plans to develop a luxury resort of about 25 rooms on one of the islands, with reporting citing a planned opening in 2025. The sale resolved part of the estate's obligation under the 2022 U.S. Virgin Islands settlement, which had also directed half of the Little St. James sale proceeds to the territorial government and required environmental remediation on Great St. James.⁷⁸

The transaction transferred both islands out of the Epstein estate. The combined sale ended Epstein's ownership of the two adjacent islands he had assembled off St. Thomas, the second of which he had acquired and developed largely outside the territory's permitting system.⁸