New Mexico Attorney General Sues Epstein's Former Lawyer and Accountant, Seeks to Block Estate Payments

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez on Wednesday, Oct. 21, filed a civil lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime personal attorney, Darren K. Indyke, and his accountant, Richard D. Kahn. The suit accuses the two men of helping to facilitate, finance and conceal Epstein’s sex trafficking operation, including abuse at Epstein’s Zorro Ranch in Santa Fe County.

The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico. It also names the Estate of Jeffrey Epstein and the 1953 Trust, which holds the estate’s assets. The New Mexico Department of Justice described it as the first law enforcement action against the two men.

Indyke and Kahn deny the allegations. None of the claims in the complaint have been proven in court.

What the state alleges

The state brings claims under the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act and the New Mexico Racketeering Act, according to the attorney general’s office.

The complaint alleges that Indyke and Kahn did more than provide routine legal and accounting services. It says both men held leadership roles in Epstein-related entities, managed financial accounts and authorized transactions connected to the trafficking operation. The complaint alleges, for example, that Indyke handled the 2011 transfer of Zorro Ranch’s title to a company Epstein controlled.

The state also alleges that, between 2011 and 2019, Indyke received more than $16 million from Epstein and related entities and Kahn received more than $10 million. Both men are beneficiaries of the 1953 Trust and serve as co-executors of Epstein’s estate.

What the state is asking for

New Mexico is asking the court to prevent payments from the estate to Indyke and Kahn while the case proceeds. According to the attorney general’s office, the estate is valued at more than $107 million, and the complaint says the two men are eligible for bequests of $50 million and $25 million, subject to the availability of funds.

The lawsuit also asks the court to restrict the men’s ability to authorize and receive estate payments, declare that they engaged in racketeering and trafficking activity, require them to divest Epstein-related interests, and award damages, restitution and disgorgement to survivors, including treble damages under state racketeering law.

“Jeffrey Epstein did not operate alone, and his death does not end the pursuit of accountability for the people who helped make his crimes possible,” Torrez said in a statement.

Torrez announced the suit at a news conference in Albuquerque alongside two Epstein survivors, Julia Molchanova and Anouska De Georgiou, who support the state’s action.

The defense response

An attorney for Indyke and Kahn, Dan Weiner, said the two men “emphatically reject” the allegations, according to the AP. Weiner said New Mexico officials never sought to interview his clients before going to court and that they would have cooperated.

“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,” Weiner said in an email quoted by the AP.

The AP reported that both men have testified to Congress that they did not know about Epstein’s abuse. Earlier this year, as executors of the estate, they agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by Epstein accusers for up to $35 million, without admitting wrongdoing. The U.S. Justice Department declined to comment to the AP on any federal investigation of the two men.

Background

Epstein bought Zorro Ranch, near Stanley, about 30 miles south of Santa Fe, in 1993, according to the AP. The attorney general’s office said a separate criminal investigation that Torrez announced earlier this year remains ongoing.

In August, New Mexico also sued the U.S. Justice Department, seeking access to unredacted federal investigative files related to the ranch for that criminal probe.