New Mexico AG sues Epstein's lawyer and accountant, alleging they facilitated and concealed his trafficking

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, a Democrat, filed a federal civil lawsuit Wednesday, Oct. 21, against two of Jeffrey Epstein's closest professional associates. The suit accuses them of helping to finance and conceal his sex trafficking operation.

The defendants are Darren Indyke, Epstein's longtime personal attorney, and Richard Kahn, his longtime accountant. The 49-page complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, also names Epstein's estate and the 1953 Trust that holds its assets.

What the state alleges

The complaint brings claims under the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act and the New Mexico Racketeering Act. The racketeering counts allege kidnapping, criminal solicitation and conspiracy.

According to the complaint, Indyke and Kahn were "enmeshed" in Epstein's operation and personally involved in "countless transactions" that facilitated trafficking and abuse. It says they structured payments, helped organize corporate entities and managed money that sustained the enterprise.

The state says that by 2005 the two men held or managed at least 140 bank accounts tied to Epstein and his businesses. Some of those accounts, the complaint alleges, moved money between entities. Others allegedly paid girls and young women who were abused or recruited.

The complaint says Indyke arranged payments to survivors to "purchase their silence." It also says he handled the 2011 transfer of the Zorro Ranch title to an Epstein-controlled company.

Zorro Ranch is the sprawling property in Stanley, about 30 miles south of Santa Fe, that Epstein bought in 1993 and where he built a roughly 26,700-square-foot mansion. Witnesses at Ghislaine Maxwell's 2021 trial testified that she and Epstein abused women there. Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence.

The money

The state's central demand is that a court bar Indyke and Kahn from collecting anything from the estate while the case proceeds. Torrez's office values the estate at more than $107 million.

The suit says Indyke is eligible for a $50 million bequest and Kahn for $25 million, subject to available funds. Both men serve as co-executors.

The complaint also alleges that from 2011 to 2019, Indyke received more than $16 million from Epstein and related entities, and Kahn more than $10 million. It says they received "generous salaries, access to elite social circles, and lavish gifts" in exchange for "furthering Epstein's criminal project and remaining silent about it."

"It is unconscionable in my mind that people who actively participated in the efforts of that trafficking enterprise, that they should in any way benefit from what is left of his estate," Torrez said at a press conference. "Those resources rightfully belong in the hands of survivors."

Two survivors, Anouska De Georgiou and Julia Molchanova, appeared with him. "Accountability cannot end with Epstein and Maxwell," De Georgiou said. Six survivors also issued a joint statement praising the suit.

The defendants' response

Daniel Weiner, a lawyer for Indyke and Kahn, said both men "emphatically reject" the allegations. He said the conduct at issue "by all accounts occurred behind closed doors, in secluded locations, and at times when neither Mr. Indyke nor Mr. Kahn was present."

Weiner said no woman has ever accused either man of committing or witnessing sexual abuse. He also said no one reported abuse allegations to them. In his words, the complaint "does not allege anything to the contrary."

He also said no one from the attorney general's office asked to speak with either man before filing. He called the suit "baseless" and said that raises "serious questions about the thoroughness of the Attorney General's investigation and the motivations for his lawsuit."

Both men told the House Oversight Committee in March that they had no knowledge of Epstein's crimes. Indyke testified he would have stopped working for Epstein had he known. In their depositions, the two said they have not been paid for their work on the estate. Their lawyers have told CNN that any fees or bequests would come only after creditors and claimants are paid and probate ends.

Other investigations

The New Mexico suit follows a series of separate actions. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times each reported last month that federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York were investigating the pair. Their lawyer said at the time that the men had not been told they were under investigation. The Justice Department has not commented on any federal probe of the two.

Torrez reopened the state's own inquiry into Zorro Ranch this year. His office has a criminal probe underway there, and in August he sued the Justice Department, accusing it of blocking New Mexico's investigation. The government said it was withholding some information from the state. Epstein never faced charges in New Mexico. He died by suicide in a New York federal jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial.

CBS News has reported that Indyke and Kahn recently settled a separate lawsuit accusing them of facilitating sham marriages that let foreign-born victims obtain immigration status.

What happens next

Torrez told CNN's Jake Tapper that the men will have "every opportunity" to appear before a jury in New Mexico and explain what they knew and when. A judge now has to decide whether to freeze the bequests while the case moves forward. The defendants have not yet filed a response in court.