Great St. James

Great St. James is a private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, made up of at least three recorded parcels totaling about 5.15 million square feet,, 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

Great St. Jim, LLC was organized under Virgin Islands law on October 26, 2015, three months before the purchase, with Epstein as manager and member and its business described as "holding assets." According to the Recorder of Deeds, it acquired three parcels on January 28, 2016: Parcel 109801010100 (3.5 million square feet, valued at 17.5 million dollars), Parcel 109801010200 (450,000 square feet, valued at 2.8 million dollars), and Parcel 109801010300 (1.2 million square feet, valued at 2.7 million dollars). The warranty deed shows Epstein paid 5 million dollars each for the two smaller parcels, about 10 million dollars against their combined valuation of 5.5 million. The territory's complaint gives no purchase price for the largest parcel; reporting at the time of the 2023 sale put the total price at about 22.5 million dollars. The estate's petition for probate listed a second Epstein company, Poplar, Inc., incorporated November 22, 2011 with Indyke and Kahn as officers, as holding title to Great St. James, and a certificate of incumbency filed with the Department of Planning and Natural Resources authorized Poplar to handle "transactions related to permitting matters submitted on behalf of Great St. Jim, LLC."¹⁴

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. Poplar, Inc. was listed as the signatory for Great St. Jim's 2017 annual report, with a signature that appears to be Epstein's; at his death the estate valued Great St. James and Little St. James together at 86 million dollars, against the 60 million dollar sale price. As of February 2026 no resort had been built, and the only construction permit Deckoff had requested for either island was for a warehouse on Little St. James.¹⁹ 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

Purpose and Inspections

The territory's 2020 complaint against the estate alleged that Epstein bought Great St. James, "the island with closest proximity to Little St. James," to "further shield his conduct on Little St. James from view, prevent his detection by law enforcement or the public," and continue the enterprise, and that the scale of the investment showed an intent to expand it "for years to come." It alleged that Epstein's organization repeatedly objected to routine Department of Planning and Natural Resources site visits to inspect unpermitted construction on the island, calling them "invasions" of Epstein's constitutional right to privacy in his home, "which he described defined as the entire island."¹

The 2019 Stop-Work Dispute and the Governor

In May 2019 Jean-Pierre Oriol, Governor Albert Bryan's nominee for commissioner of the Department of Planning and Natural Resources, told the Virgin Islands Daily News that Epstein was continuing illegal construction on Great St. James despite the stop-work order. Epstein complained to Bryan in text messages later released by the Justice Department: "Jp going after me in the press!! Army corps told us ok. This is very wrong!" and "Accusing me of illegality!!!" Bryan replied, "We got u." Bryan did not answer the Daily News's questions about why he told Oriol to recuse himself. At a March 2026 briefing he said he had not helped Epstein secure permits, and that "even if I had told DPNR to grant his permit, it's perfectly within the right and power of the governor of the Virgin Islands."¹⁰

The stop-work order had been issued on December 21, 2018, in the last weeks of Governor Kenneth Mapp's administration; Bryan was inaugurated on January 7, 2019, and Epstein contacted him days later, corresponding with him in the months before his arrest. Epstein was arrested in New Jersey on July 6, 2019, two months after the exchange over Oriol.¹⁰ Under the estate's 2022 settlement with the territory, the 450,000 dollar remediation payment for Great St. James covered damage where, according to the government, Epstein had razed the remains of structures built by enslaved workers.⁷