Former First Lady of USVI stayed at Jeffrey Epstein's NYC apartment
EXCLUSIVE: Former First Lady of the US Virgin Islands Cecile de Jongh admitted to staying at Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan apartment in 2017 for knee replacement surgery
- Documents obtained by DailyMail.com reveal Cecile de Jongh stayed at a New York City apartment owned by Jeffrey Epstein in 2017
- In a deposition, de Jongh said she was getting a knee surgery and chose to stay at Epstein’s – instead of her daughter’s – because the building had an elevator
- The apartment is not identified but Epstein and his brother owned a building on the Upper East Side, described in his ‘Black Book’ as the ‘Apartment for Models’
The former First Lady of the US Virgin Islands admitted she stayed at an apartment owned by Jeffrey Epstein while visiting New York for an operation, court documents have revealed.
Cecile de Jongh said she had to stay at the pedophile’s property rather than with her daughter – who also lived in New York – because his building had an elevator.
She also claimed that Epstein’s apartment was far more convenient because it was six blocks away from the hospital.
In a deposition unsealed as part of a sex trafficking case brought by the USVI government against JPMorgan, de Jongh defended Epstein’s practice of giving a turkey to everyone who worked in the customs office at St Thomas, the capital of the territory.
Documents obtained by DailyMail.com reveal former USVI First Lady Cecile de Jongh stayed at a New York City apartment owned by Jeffrey Epstein in 2017
The apartment is not identified but Epstein and his brother owned a building on the Upper East Side, described in his ‘Black Book’ as the ‘Apartment for Models’
Epstein appeared to be currying favor with officers who would have seen him arriving with young women, but de Jongh said it was more like giving a ‘gift to a doorman’.
Her comments came in a deposition in the case where the USVI claims that JPMorgan turned a blind eye to Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.
Epstein, who was a JPMorgan customer between 1998 and 2013, owned two private islands in the territory and abused multiple underage women there.
The USVI is seeking more than $190million in restitution from the bank, which denies the charges and accuses the USVI government of its own blindness when it came to Epstein.
Among the claims already made by JPMorgan is that de Jongh ran Epstein’s business operations for several years including when her husband John de John, was the governor of the USVI.
The bank has said that de Jongh was paid $200,000 in salary and bonuses in 2007, the year her husband took office.
In the deposition, de Jongh said she was getting a knee replacement in 2017 and spoke to Epstein’s assistant Lesley Groff about staying at one of his properties.
While the apartment is not identified, Epstein and his brother owned a building on the Upper East Side where his friends and some victims stayed, described in his infamous ‘Black Book’ of contacts as the ‘Apartment for Models’.
By 2017 Epstein had been out of prison for nearly a decade having served 15 months in prison for soliciting minors for prostitution.
Under the terms of his release he had to become a registered sex offender, including in the USVI.
Facilities at Little St. James Island, one of the properties of financier Jeffrey Epstein, are seen in an aerial view, near Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
De Jongh said: ‘So I asked Mr. Epstein if I could stay there because I had to stay there for my initial rehab and my post-op.
‘And I could have stayed with my daughter, but she was in a fifth floor walk-up. When I talked to my doctor, he said that was not going to work. I needed some place with an elevator.
‘And also the apartment was, like, six blocks from the hospital for surgery. So I flew up. First time stayed with my daughter, did my pre-op. Then went to the apartment, had my surgery and stayed there.
‘I had had some heart complications. So I was there a little bit longer than normal’.
In its response, the USVI said that de Jongh was no longer First Lady when she stayed at Epstein’s and that the point was not ‘material’ to the case.
De Jongh claimed she ‘vaguely’ remembered Epstein giving turkeys to all the customs officers in the USVI.
Being in the good books of these officers would have been critical to Epstein, given he was transporting sex slaves into and out of the USVI on an almost weekly basis.
Asked if she thought such gifts were OK, de Jongh said: ‘Yeah.’
She said: ‘Well, down here, people usually give gifts to people at Department of Finance, they give, you know, they give gifts to people who they normally interact with on a regular basis.
‘You know, it’s similar to, you know, when, you know, my brother-in-law lives in a building where everybody gives a gift to the doorman, you know. So that’s where I was thinking, I had no reason to think anything untoward was happening.’
The attorney asking the questions for JPMorgan responded: ‘Sure. But you would recognize that Customs officials are not like the doorman in your building. They are law enforcement officers, right?’
De Jongh’s answer was not included in the extract of the deposition.
Cecile de Jongh is pictured with her husband John, who was the governor of the territory from 2007-15
In previous filings in the case, JPMorgan claimed that Epstein paid the tuition fees for de Jongh’s children to curry favor with her and her husband.
The bank claimed that she ‘explicitly advised Epstein on how to buy control of the (USVI) political class.’
She also allegedly helped him to get visas to ‘bring victims to his island’, according to court documents.
De Jongh was a ‘ready partner’ in helping Epstein to ‘freely transport and exploit young women,’ it was claimed.
A USVI spokeswoman said that these claims ‘mischaracterized’ Epstein’s interactions with the territory to ‘distract and shift blame away from its role in facilitating Jeffrey Epstein’s heinous crimes.’
JPMorgan has already settled a similar lawsuit brought by an unnamed woman called Jane Doe for $290million.
Deutsche Bank has also settled its own Epstein sex trafficking lawsuit for $90million.
The USVI case is due to go to trial in New York in October.
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