The Bad And The Ugly: Jeffrey Epstein And The US. Virgin Islands Connection

By Colin Benjamin

Photos: YouTube Screenshots

The fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein Files continue to cause major problems for the rich and politically powerful across the globe.

Last week, we witnessed the arrest, in the United Kingdom, of former Ambassador Peter Mandelson. This comes on the heels of the historic arrest of Prince Andrew. The prince’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, also recently announced she was closing her Sarah Trust charity.

Worldwide, major figures have either resigned from political office, or from prominent positions on business corporations. And others are being investigated due to information coming from the Epstein Files. Some of these include: Larry Summers, a former official in the Clinton White House; George J. Mitchell, a former U.S. senator; Former French Culture Minister Jack Lang; Thorbjørn Jagland, the former prime minister of Norway; Mona Juul, a former Norwegian ambassador; Miroslav Lajčák, former Slovakia national security adviser; Mohamed Waheed Hassan, former president of the Maldives; Jes Staley, former CEO of Barclays; Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, an Emirati businessman; Kathy Ruemmler, former chief legal officer at Goldman Sachs; and Thomas Pritzker, chairman of Hyatt Hotels; among others.

But there is a certain U.S. Caribbean contingent that still deserves serious scrutiny: those corrupt political misleaders, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, who were deeply in bed with Epstein. I was born in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and I am appalled by the conduct of our Island’s leaders, in this child sex exploitation scandal of epic proportions.

Many of the horrific sex crimes that Epstein–and his high-flying, jet-setting, international friends–committed happened on the small island of Little St. James, (known as Pedophile Island) located off the south-eastern coast of St. Thomas. Local Virgin Islanders, undoubtedly, have many questions about who in the local government knew what about the horrific serial child sex crimes happening there.

For years, high youth unemployment has plagued the local people. There has long been a need to truly diversify the economy. Smaller islands, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, like Little St. James, should be utilized to promote more industries, like farming, factories, etc. to employ our people. But, instead, money hungry selfish politicians prefer to sellout the citizenry by selling the territories resources to the likes of Jeffrey Epstein, for their personal gain. How Epstein was able to purchase Little St. James, and later Greater St. James, is a important question in of itself.

However, the most important question to be asked now is this: who were the government officials that facilitated Epstein’s sex trafficking into the U.S. Virgin Islands?

It is an understatement to say the relationship between Epstein and certain local politicians is disgusting and despicable. These amoral people aided and abetted this beast, all for monetary gain. There is no way Epstein would’ve been able to traffic these children to the Islands without the help of local officials.

For example, consider this: Little St. James is too small for planes to land there—which means these children had to have been flown in planes that landed at the Cyril E. King Airport, in St. Thomas, before getting other means of transport to Little St. James, which also had a helipad. Are we to believe no airport supervisors, or Coast Guard personnel, ever noticed anything untoward here, with the movements of all these female children? No one thought it strange all kinds of international figures were arriving, and going on secret missions, to Little St. James, where these same trafficked kids were taken too?

These likely local co-conspirators need to be undressed, for the good of the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Some of these Epstein cronies are still likely not known. However, those who are known should feel the heat of scrutiny more intensely now. Let us examine a few of them.

First of all, let’s look at the sordid connection between Epstein and the administration of former Governor John de Jongh Jr., and his wife, Cecile.

In the portion of the Epstein Files, which were just released, deep ties between the de Jonghs and Epstein are shown. Allegedly, from 2008 to 2009, Epstein paid the tuition of the de Jonghs’ children, in checks to: Wake Forest University, American University, Skidmore College and Elon University. Epstein reportedly said doing this “was a treat” that made him feel “as if I had my own kids in college.”

For context, we should keep in mind here that Epstein was first investigated for sexual abuse of children, in 2005, in Palm Beach, Florida–and was convicted of procuring a child for prostitution, in 2008. Is there any scenario where the governor and wife can say they were not aware of Epstein’s Florida conviction?

But it gets worse.

Mrs. de Jongh also, reportedly, sat on the board of the Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation. That foundation was based on Little St. James. For many years, she received a yearly salary of $200,000, from Epstein. Think about that.

But, in a story about the bad and the ugly, here is the really ugly, related to Mrs. de Jongh: she allegedly worked to water down a local sex offender law, in 2011, reportedly, showing Epstein a draft of the legislation saying, “Will this work for you?” Mrs. de Jongh has also been accused of seeking to obtain student visas and work licenses for young women connected to Epstein.

Another politician who is now under the microscope is U.S. Virgin Islands Congressional Delegate Rep. Stacey Plaskett, who has a connection to Mrs. de Jongh, and Epstein.

In 2014, Mrs. de Jongh asked Epstein to fund Stacey Plaskett’s first Congressional campaign. In an e-mail, de Jongh said to Epstein “She needs to raise about $75,000 between now and August. Do you think any of your friends would give to her campaign?” De Jongh also told Epstein “we would have a friend in Stacey.”

Plaskett also worked, as a lawyer, from 2007 to 2012, for Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority, which helped Epstein secure $219.8 million in tax benefits.

From 2014 to 2018, Epstein and his business partners donated over $30,000 to Plaskett’s campaigns. She also visited Epstein mansion, in Manhattan, in 2018, to ask for money, for the Democratic Party. Plaskett was given another 30,000, but the Democratic Party refused to take the money.

But although Plaskett admitted the Democratic Party rejected the money because “He had not passed their vetting,” she has been accused of resisting giving back money that she was given by Epstein. Epstein documents released, in 2025, also reportedly show Plaskett exchanging e-mails, with Epstein, during a 2019 Congressional hearing where former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen was testifying.

Island residents should also ask themselves whether the statements being made by Rep. Plaskett pass the smell test. During an interview with island journalist, Ernice Gilbert, of the Virgin Islands Consortium, Plaskett said she knew that Epstein was convicted of “something” in Florida, but “the true extent of that was not evident to us at the time.”

Even if we were to believe this bullshit, is Plaskett really saying she just wasn’t too interested in knowing what “something” Epstein was convicted of? Or, was the gravy train money just too good to pass up, even it involved the sex abuse and trafficking of children?

It is hard to argue with the Miami Herald’s Julie Brown, when she says, the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands turned a “blind eye to Epstein’s crimes.” But the people of the Islands should not turn a blind eye to the fact that these folks participated in one of the most heinous crimes known to man: raping, sexually exploiting, and trafficking children.

And they facilitated these monstrous crimes, against children, because of their perverted greed for Epstein’s money.