The Files

EPISODE 23: The Lawyer - Alan Dershowitz and the Non-Prosecution Agreement

Alan Dershowitz, the renowned Harvard Law professor and criminal defense attorney, was part of the legal team that negotiated Jeffrey Epstein's controversial 2008 Non-Prosecution Agreement with federal prosecutors in South Florida. Years later, Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre named Dershowitz as one of the men she was trafficked to as a minor. Deutsche Bank records show Epstein paid Dershowitz's legal fees and transferred $85,000 to his consulting company. FBI documents confirm Giuffre named Dershowitz during interviews with agents in 2011. Dershowitz denied all allegations and was never criminally charged. The defamation litigation between Giuffre and Dershowitz exposed sealed court records, disqualification battles, and the complex relationship between a powerful attorney and the client he helped shield from federal prosecution. All information in this episode is drawn from publicly released Department of Justice documents, court filings, financial records, and FOIA releases.

EPISODE 22: The Model Agent - Jean-Luc Brunel and the MC2 Pipeline

Jean-Luc Brunel was a French modeling agent who ran Karin Models in Paris and MC2 Model Management in New York. Federal investigators accused him of conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to recruit young European models for sex trafficking. Deutsche Bank financial records submitted to SDNY prosecutors document hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments from Epstein's accounts to MC2 Model Management, to an apartment building at 301 East 66th Street where the models were housed, and to immigration attorneys handling paperwork for foreign nationals. Brunel was arrested at Charles de Gaulle Airport in December 2020 while attempting to board a flight to Senegal. He was found dead in his Paris prison cell in February 2022. All information in this episode is drawn from publicly released Department of Justice documents, Deutsche Bank financial records, and FBI reports obtained through FOIA.

Episode 21: The 2019 Trusts

On January 18, 2019, Jeffrey Epstein created a trust. On August 8, 2019, while incarcerated at the Metropolitan Correctional Center awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, he created another one. Two days later, he was dead. This episode examines the legal architecture Epstein deployed in his final months. The Jeffrey E. Epstein 2019 Trust, created while he was free but under federal investigation. The 1953 Trust, created after his arrest and bail denial. And the two men he chose to carry it all forward: his personal lawyer Darren Indyke and his accountant Richard Kahn. We review the DOJ documents that name the trustees, the grantor, the trust structures, and the assets. An irrevocable trust that made assets significantly harder for victims to reach. A choice of domicile in the US Virgin Islands with its own probate code. And a timeline that compresses the entire strategy into six days: trust created August 8, Epstein dead August 10. The trusts are still in operation. Indyke and Kahn are still trustees. The legal battles continue. Documents cited: EFTA01417448, EFTA01417492, EFTA01417521, EFTA01625438, EFTA01282143, EFTA01269393

Episode 20: The Two-Bank Pipeline

How did Jeffrey Epstein maintain access to the global financial system after his 2008 sex offense conviction? Through a two-bank pipeline that shifted his accounts from JPMorgan Chase to Deutsche Bank. In this episode, we examine Deutsche Bank's own Know Your Customer forms, obtained from the DOJ document release. The compliance question reads: "To the best of your knowledge, has the client ever been convicted of a criminal offense?" The answer, checked in black and white: Yes. Despite documenting Epstein's conviction on their own forms, Deutsche Bank's Private Wealth Management division approved his account anyway. We trace the money trail through 581 documents linking both banks, examine Lesley Groff's six-to-one banking ratio that reveals where the operation really ran, and uncover the compliance failures at two of the largest financial institutions in the world. In 2023, JPMorgan settled with victims for $290 million. Deutsche Bank settled for $75 million. The settlements came because the evidence was overwhelming. Both banks knew. Both banks chose the money. Documents cited: EFTA01282185, EFTA01282225, EFTA01283858, EFTA01282264, EFTA01283822, EFTA01282044, EFTA01294910, EFTA01294969, EFTA01283911, EFTA01283955

Episode 19: The Maxwell Trial

On July 2, 2020, the FBI arrested Ghislaine Noelle Maxwell at a 156 acre property in Bradford, New Hampshire. The superseding indictment charged her with six federal counts including conspiracy, sex trafficking, and perjury. This episode traces the case from the arrest warrant and search of 62 electronic devices seized from Epstein's island, through the trial that began November 29, 2021, to the guilty verdict on five counts and the twenty year sentence imposed on June 28, 2022. All from the court records and DOJ files.