New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez filed a civil suit Wednesday in federal court against the attorney and the accountant of late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Mr. Torrez’s office said in a release the suit alleges that attorney Darren Indyke and accountant Richard Kahn “helped facilitate, finance, and conceal Epstein’s sex trafficking operation, including the abuse of girls and young women at Zorro Ranch in Santa Fe County.”
Mr. Torrez’s office said that with the suit, they seek to prevent Epstein’s estate from paying Mr. Indyke and Mr. Kahn while litigation is ongoing, induce Mr. Indyke and Mr. Kahn to divest from assets they have related to Epstein, award damages to victims and declare that the two violated state and federal racketeering and trafficking laws.
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The ranch, since renamed to Rancho de San Rafael, is located about 370 miles northeast of Phoenix. The attorney general’s office said that Epstein and associates used the ranch for over two decades to recruit, transport, isolate and sexually abuse their victims.
Mr. Indyke and Mr. Kahn are accused of having leadership roles in entities tied to Epstein and being involved in transactions related to Epstein’s trafficking operations. Mr. Indyke, the attorney general’s office said, was in charge of the 2011 transfer of the title of the Zorro Ranch to a company controlled by Epstein.
Mr. Kahn and Mr. Indyke are also accused of profiting personally from their association with Epstein, and the two are beneficiaries of the 1953 Trust controlling his estate’s assets, on top of being co-executors of the estate.
Between 2011 and Epstein’s death in 2019, Mr. Indyke received over $16 million from Epstein and related entities, while Mr. Kahn received over $10 million, the attorney general’s office said.
Dan Weiner, an attorney for Mr. Indyke and Mr. Kahn, told The Associated Press that New Mexico officials did not approach his clients before going to court and that both would have cooperated. He also asserted their innocence.
“Not a single woman has ever accused Mr. Indyke or Mr. Kahn of committing sexual abuse or witnessing sexual abuse, nor claimed at any time that she or anyone else reported to them any allegation of Mr. Epstein’s abuse,” Mr. Weiner told the AP.
The two men are also being investigated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York over their ties to Epstein, sources familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal last month.
Mr. Torrez’s office previously filed suit against the Justice Department in August, seeking unredacted files related to Epstein and the Zorro Ranch.
Epstein was arrested and charged with sex trafficking minors by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York in July 2019; he died in his cell in Manhattan in August 2019 in what authorities deemed a suicide.
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