A survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex ring claims that a financial advisory firm linked to the deceased trafficker “coaxed” women into marriages, put their names on falsified documents, and kept dossiers on victims—and that the pedophile financier loaned her out to his powerful friends for abuse, according to new court papers.
Priscilla Doe, a New York ballet dancer who says Epstein abused her from 2006 to 2012, spells out more disturbing accusations against the wealthy sex-offender and a mysterious corporate entity known as HBRK Associates Inc. The firm was once registered to Richard Kahn, Epstein’s longtime accountant and co-executor of his roughly $210-million estate.
According to an amended complaint filed last week, Epstein coerced the ballerina into giving his powerful friends massages and “at least one of these friends informed [her] that he had Epstein’s permission to do what he wanted to her.”
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Doe’s updated lawsuit follows her rejection of a settlement offer from the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program. Her attorney, Brad Edwards, confirmed that Doe declined the fund’s offer but would not comment on the complaint.
An attorney for Epstein’s estate, however, pushed back on Doe’s claims. “The new allegations against Mr. Kahn and HBRK are completely inaccurate,” Daniel Weiner, a lawyer for the Epstein estate, told us in an email. “Neither Mr. Kahn nor anyone else at HBRK forced, coerced or threatened anyone in any fashion, at any time.”
“It makes no sense to assert (or for your publication to report) that people who worked for Mr. Epstein knew of his private activities—including sexual or other personal interactions between Mr. Epstein and women who worked for or associated with him—simply because they handled some financial and administrative services,” Weiner said.
A source close to Kahn previously told The Daily Beast that the number-cruncher wasn’t aware of Epstein’s abuse of underage girls and young women. “Richard worked out of the office. Did Epstein appear at those offices? Yes. Did Richard see any of the activities that were the focus of press attention? No,” the person said.
Still, Doe’s complaint claims fellow HBRK employees helped to facilitate Epstein’s crimes; they allegedly warned the women “by email or other communication, how powerful and wealthy Jeffrey Epstein was,” and “maintained damaging files on many of the young female victims” to prevent them from cooperating with police or in civil lawsuits against Epstein and his trafficking organization.
“Employees of HBRK knew or should have known that Jeffrey Epstein was a serial sexual abuser of young girls,” the complaint adds. “Those individuals played necessary roles in facilitating Epstein’s sexual abuse to the point that much of it would have been impossible but for the services provided by Defendant HBRK.”
Meanwhile, the lawsuit claims employees of HBRK—as well as Epstein-related entities NES, Financial Trust Company and Florida Science Foundation—arranged for Doe’s transportation to Florida, where she was abused by Epstein during his “work release” privileges. At the time of this alleged abuse, in 2008 and 2009, Epstein was serving a country club jail sentence in Palm Beach for soliciting a minor.
It’s unclear which HBRK employees the lawsuit is referring to, but one Twitter gumshoe noted the firm’s title seems to be derived from the initials of Epstein accountants Harry Beller and Richard Kahn. Both men are signatories on HBRK retirement plan documents, public records show. The most recent filing is signed by “Bella Nlein,” which appears to be a misspelling of longtime employee, Bella Klein, who on LinkedIn describes herself as a “highly trustworthy, discreet, and ethical professional.”
“HBRK employees made it impossible for these victims to escape from the sex trafficking operation,” Doe’s amended lawsuit states. “At times, HBRK even operated out of the apartments located at 301 East 66th Street, where Epstein persuaded a number of his victims to reside under his control.”
“HBRK additionally stored large amounts of cash in its offices to ensure that there were funds available to pay and silence victims of Epstein at any given time,” the document adds.
As The Daily Beast reported, Doe was among multiple accusers to file lawsuits against Epstein’s estate after his death inside a federal lockup in August 2019, just one month after his indictment for trafficking minors. (Doe also was interviewed as part of the 2019 criminal case brought by Manhattan federal prosecutors, the amended complaint states.)
Doe was a 22-year-old ballet dancer when a recruiter brought her to Epstein in 2006. She says that for years, she was forced into sex with Epstein and his associates at his mansions in Florida, New York, New Mexico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The amended complaint also includes new detail on Doe’s background, saying she “worked menial jobs to pay for training at Step on Broadway and the Joffrey Ballet” and “was about to begin rehearsal for The Nutcracker with the Eglevsky Ballet School, when she was recruited to meet Jeffrey Epstein by another young female who had also fallen prey to Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking scheme.” This recruiter offered Doe, who came from a poor family and had been living with her mother, the chance at a job giving massages to a wealthy businessman.
As previously reported, Doe traveled to Epstein’s Virgin Islands compound with an entourage that included alleged accomplices British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell and French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel. She claims once they arrived, Maxwell taught her “the proper way to give a blow job” and kept Doe and other victims on call to service Epstein.
Epstein controlled every aspect of her life, Doe says, and “took her virginity against her will and wishes.” The financier allegedly forced Doe to wear underwear in certain colors, remove body piercings, undergo surgery to remove moles, and have her hair cut and colored the way he wanted through one of his stylists.
Doe also believed Epstein was monitoring her every move while she lived at the Upper East Side apartment he provided for her. When she took a trip to Montreal, Epstein immediately summoned her back to his Manhattan mansion and warned her she wasn’t allowed to leave New York without his permission. “Epstein intermittently ‘surprised’ [Doe] by showing up unexpectedly, causing [her] to believe he was stalking her,” the amended complaint alleges.
At one point, Epstein allegedly forced Doe to serve hors d’oeuvres at a private party with Epstein’s actor buddy Woody Allen. “This server’s role was forced upon [Doe] in order to demean her, frighten her, and impress upon her the need for her to conceal the commercial sex trafficking enterprise he was running,” the original lawsuit alleges.
The amended lawsuit adds another disturbing detail: Epstein “further demeaned her by directing her to sit on a movie theater floor and massage his feet during a movie.”
