Jeffrey Epstein’s estate is facing a new lawsuit filed by two women who allege that Epstein possessed child sexual abuse material (CSAM) of them. They want a judge to order that a program be set up to identify and notify all individuals whose “unlawful sexualized images” might have been in Epstein’s collection, and are also seeking monetary damages.
The complaint was filed this week in the US district court for the southern district of New York on behalf of two plaintiffs, who are anonymous in the filing but described as survivors of Epstein’s child sexual abuse material crimes. The lawsuit was filed against Epstein’s former lawyer Darren Indyke, and Epstein’s former accountant, Richard Kahn, who are being sued in their capacities as co-executors of Epstein’s estate. Attorneys for Indyke and Kahn, who have both said that they had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes during their employment, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the complaint on Wednesday.
The complaint claims that for more than two decades, Epstein, who died in a Manhattan jail in ۲۰۱۹ while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges, possessed, transported, produced and distributed “child pornography and/or child sexual abuse material of countless children”. It alleges that Epstein “acquired by theft” nude or partially nude images of the first plaintiff, referred to in the document as Jane Doe, and that Epstein transported the material across state lines and retained it.
The lawsuit argues that many of those depicted in the CSAM that they say was possessed by Epstein have never been identified or notified through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s victim-identification program.
With regard to the second plaintiff, identified in the complaint under the pseudonym “Amy”, the lawsuit alleges that “upon information and belief, Epstein acquired CSAM images” of her.
The complaint alleges that beginning in the ۱۹۹۰s, Epstein “created and kept” in his locked safe in his New York City home, a “‘modeling book’ of sexualized images of children”. It further alleges that beginning in “at least in the ۲۰۰۰s, Epstein had his assistant take nude, sexualized photographs of multiple children, paid them for the images, and then used those photographs for his own sexual gratification and perhaps that of others.”
Jane Doe alleges that she was around ۱۲ years old when Epstein stole partially nude photographs of her, which the complaint claims had originally been taken “as part of an artist study for and catalogued, numbered and maintained by the artist in a lockbox”.
The lawsuit alleges that Epstein also “stole nude or partially nude photos of another minor” and transported these images across state lines. The complaint also alleges that “despite contemporaneous reports made to law enforcement, specifically alerting law enforcement that Epstein had obtained these photos of Jane Doe, and similar photos of another minor, no one in law enforcement took action to prosecute anyone or even investigate these reports.”
It adds that “upon learning that Epstein had possessed sexualized images of her as a child, Jane Doe suffered and continues to suffer severe emotional distress.”
“Amy” alleges in the complaint that she is a victim of “actively traded CSAM which has been in distribution since the late ۱۹۹۰s to present day”. The lawsuit alleges that “on information and belief” images of Amy are contained within the CSAM collection seized from Epstein’s properties.
In a statement to the Guardian, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, Margaret Mabie of Marsh Law, said that according to the released files, a report completed on Epstein’s collection identified ۱۵ or more hits of known series like Amy’s and that “to our knowledge, none of the victims identified in that report, or in any other CSAM discovered in Epstein’s collection, have ever received notice.”
The complaint also alleges that other people, “including Epstein’s employees and/or coconspirators, had access to, viewed, or otherwise received from Epstein, the CSAM images in his possession, including images of Jane Doe and ‘Amy’.”
The two plaintiffs are bringing the lawsuit both individually and on behalf of a proposed class of other survivors they seek to represent, who are described as “all persons who were under the age of ۱۸ at the time they appeared in any visual depiction of child pornography, including CSAM, contained within any image, video, or electronic media collections seized from properties or devices controlled by Jeffrey E Epstein, including the media identified in the Epstein Files Transparency Act productions and the materials described in the July ۶, ۲۰۲۶ FBI and DOJ Memorandum”.
In a statement this week, Hillary Nappi of AWK Survivor Advocate Attorneys, said that their goal with the lawsuit “is accountability and identification”.
“We want the Estate to preserve and account for everything seized from Epstein’s properties, and we want a real, court supervised process to identify and notify every survivor depicted in that collection,” Nappi said. “Many of them have no idea their images exist in his files, and they deserve to know, and they deserve the chance to seek justice.”
“Survivors have waited years for accountability, and this case opens the door for others depicted in his collection who don’t even know they’re in it,” they added.
