EFTA00223910.pdf

1 1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA 2 WEST PALM BEACH DIVISION 3 4 5 6 7 8 IN RE: OPERATION LEAP YEAR 9 10 / 11 12 Grand Jury #07-103 (WPB) west Palm Beach, Florida 13 Tuesday, February 6, 2007 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 APPEARANCE: 22 23 24 25 OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICE (954) 467-8204 Exhibit 17 EFTA00223910 2 1 2 3 4 PROCEEDINGS The sworn testimony of before the Federal Grand was taken Division, Jury, west Palm Beach 5 701 Clematis Street, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach County, 6 State of Florida, on the 6th day of February, 2007. 7 NANCY SIEGEL, Registered Merit Reporter and Notary 8 Public was authorized to and did report the sworn 9 testimony. 10 Thereupon, 11 E. 12 a witness of lawful age, having been first duly sworn by 13 the foreperson, testified on her oath as follows: 14 BY MS. 15 Q Special Agent please state and 16 spell your name for the record. 17 A It is and I work for 18 the FBI in Palm Beach County. 19 Q Can you spell your last name, please. 20 A I'm sorry, it is 21 Q And I know we have some people in the back 22 having trouble hearing you. You said that you work for 23 the FBI. Can you tell the Grand Jury what particular 24 group you are employed with? 25 A I am with the violent Crimes Squad here in OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICE (954) 467-8204 EFTA00223911 3 1 Palm Beach County, I work primarily crimes against 2 children, but have been an agent for the last 3 approximately 10 years. 4 Q Have you received specialized training in the 5 area of crimes against children? 6 A Yes, I have. 7 Q As part of your employment with the FBI have 8 you been involved in an investigation of Jeffrey 9 Epstein? 10 A Yes, I have. 11 Q And can you tell us who Jeffrey Epstein is? 12 A Jeffrey Epstein is an investment advisor who 13 has a part-time residence in the town of Palm Beach, he 14 has got multiple residences across the country to 15 include a ranch in New Mexico, an island in the virgin 16 Isles, and multiple aircrafts, two airplanes and a 17 helicopter to be exact, and -- 18 Q And where is his primary residence? 19 A His primary residence, he has an office in New 20 York, but his primary residence I believe is the island. 21 Q In the virgin Islands? 22 A Yes. 23 Q He also has a home in New York, correct? 24 A Yes. 25 Q How is it that you started investigating OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICE (954) 467-8204 EFTA00223912 4 1 Mr. Epstein? 2 A The Palm Beach Police Department in March of 3 2005 initiated an investigation on mr. Epstein involving 4 multiple underage females that had visited Mr. Epstein's 5 residence and had performed sexual massages or massages 6 for Mr. Epstein of a sexual nature. 7 Mr. Epstein paid the underage females anywhere 8 from 200 to $400, that investigation was around an 8 to 9 10-month investigation, and at that point we became 10 involved in about July of 2006. 11 Q And once the case was presented to you by the 12 Palm Beach Police Department did the FBI open its own 13 investigation? 14 A Yes, yes, we initiated our investigation in 15 July of 2006, we took a look at focusing in on the 16 underage minors and in our investigation we interviewed 17 many of the girls that were underage and we did an 18 independent investigation issuing Grand Jury subpoenas 19 as well as administrative subpoenas getting different 20 documents of financial records, telephone analysis, 21 flight manifests, looking to see if Mr. Epstein engaged 22 in sexual activity with these females. 23 Q All right. And just so the Grand Jury is 24 clear, were some of the girls who went to Mr. Epstein's 25 house 18 or older? OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICE (954) 467-8204 EFTA00223913 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 calls? cell phone records and the majority of the Mr. Epstein would fly into Palm Beach mrs. would contact many of our underage victims A Yes. Q And then there were some that were under the age of 18, correct? A Yes. Q And as part of the federal investigation did you have to investigate what we call the interstate nexus aspect of the case? A Yes. Q And can you explain to the Grand Jury what that is? A we looked at -- Mr. Epstein, as I mentioned earlier, has two aircrafts, and we focused in on the year 2004, 2005, he took approximately 60 trips to his residence in Palm Beach, the majority of that time focusing in on his assistant's cell phone, which his assistant's name is we took a look at her times that either prior to coming into Palm Beach, the day of, the day before, even the day after, and certainly throughout the time that Mr. Epstein was at his residence in Palm Beach. Q And from the interviews of the girls that have been conducted, what was the subject of those telephone OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICE (954) 467-8204 EFTA00223914 6 1 2 3 4 5 A can you restate the question? Q Sure. From the interviews of the girls that have been conducted, what was the subject matter of the telephone calls from A would schedule the underage girls 6 to come and work, perform the massages for mr. Epstein, 7 so she was responsible, she as well as another 8 assistant, they were his personal 9 assistants who would set up appointments for Mr. Epstein 10 for the girls to come and perform their sexual massages. 11 Q All right. Is also considered a 12 target of this investigation? 13 A Yes, she is. 14 Q And I will just -- I will spell 15 for the Grand Jury. The first name is 16 the last name is spelled and 17 and does ms. have a new last 18 name? 19 A Yes, she does, she is married and her name is 20 21 Q Is ms. at least a subject of 22 this investigation, in other words, you are 23 investigating her activity? 24 A we are looking at that. 25 Q In addition to those two assistants, from the OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICE (954) 467-8204 EFTA00223915 7 1 interviews of the girls, is there anyone else who is 2 associated with Mr. Epstein who is thought to be 3 involved in this activity? 4 A as been referred to as his 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 companion, girl friend, personal assistant, she through the testimony of the girls has engaged in sexual activity with at least three of the underage minors. Q And . So Ms. is also at least a subject of the investigation, correct? A yes, she is. Q Now, as part of this investigation you mentioned that subpoenas were issued on behalf of either the old Grand Jury or this Grand Jury. Can you run through what subpoenas have been issued and what documents have been received in response to that? A Sure. We issued a Grand Jury subpoena to Colonial Bank and we received financial records on credit card accounts and individuals. We subpoenaed washington Mutual and they did a search and were unable to locate records at this time. we issued a Grand Jury subpoena for Capital One and served that and that is still unresolved at this time as far as them providing documents to us. OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICE (954) 467-8204 EFTA00223916 8 1 we have subpoenaed Chase Credit Card and we 2 have received documents from Chase. we have subpoenaed 3 two businesses that Mr. Epstein has at least partial 4 ownership or associated to, Hyperion Air, Inc. and JEGE, 5 Inc., they were issued subpoenas and they have provided 6 documentation to us. 7 we have subpoenaed Mr. David Rogers, who is a 8 pilot of mr. Epstein's, and we have received 9 documentation from Mr. Rogers. we have subpoenaed DTG 10 11 12 Operations, who is doing business as Dollar Rent-A-Car, and we have received car rental agreements and financial records from that business. 13 we have subpoenaed Royal Palm Beach High 14 school and have received documentation regarding the 15 students' records. We have subpoenaed three or four of 16 the victims, being the first, and we have 17 received a bathing suit from 18 we issued a Grand Jury subpoena to Tatum 19 Miller, we actually have issued Tatum three subpoenas, 20 and we are still working on resolving her Grand Jury 21 material as well as testimony. 22 we have issued subpoena, we 23 have issued -- she also is one of our underage victims. 24 we've issued Reimer Employment Agency a Grand Jury 25 subpoena and we have received documentation, that is an OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICE (954) 467-8204 EFTA00223917 9 1 employment agency located on the island of Palm Beach. 2 we have subpoenaed the Palm Beach Police 3 Department for their evidence in this case and we have 4 received that. By the way, that is the only thing that 5 I did not bring with me today, I brought everything 6 else, but it is rather a lot of evidence, so we will 7 probably be bringing that to you another time. 8 we have issued the Clerk of Courts of the 9 State of Florida for Grand Jury transcripts in the state 10 matter and we have received those. we have issued the 11 Good Samaritan Hospital for billing records and we have 12 received those. 13 we have issued a Grand Jury subpoena to the 14 Dalton School located in New York and at this time they 15 do not have the records we have requested or could not 16 locate those. 17 we have issued a Grand Jury subpoena to Extra 18 Touch Flowers located here in west Palm Beach and we 19 have received documentation from them. We issued a 20 Grand Jury subpoena to Bill Hammond, another pilot for 21 Mr. Epstein, we have spoken with him. 22 we have issued a Grand Jury subpoena to Larry 23 visoski, another one of Mr. Epstein's pilots, and we 24 have received documentation as well as spoken to him. 25 we have issued a Grand Jury subpoena to Janusz OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICE (954) 467-8204 EFTA00223918 10 1 Banasiak, who is the property manager currently for 2 Mr. Epstein at his Palm Beach residence, and we have 3 received documentation as well as spoken to him, and we 4 have issued a Grand Jury subpoena to 5 and have received some documentation and are still 6 awaiting a response. 7 Q Now, you mentioned that you didn't bring with 8 you the evidence that you received from the Palm Beach 9 Police Department, but did you bring with you all of the 10 other evidence that was received in response to the 11 subpoenas? 12 A i have. 13 Q And is that evidence in the two boxes that are 14 here in the front? 15 A Yes. 16 Q we will bring all of this back to you when we 17 present the indictment, but would anyone like to look at 18 any of the documentation today? 19 A GRAND JUROR: what does the documentation 20 constitute, basically, the subpoenas? 21 THE WITNESS: It is primarily business 22 records, flight manifests, stuff that came from him 23 traveling to and from Palm Beach, credit card 24 records, the businesses as far as the rental 25 agreement which involves some of the underage girls OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICE (954) 467-8204 EFTA00223919 11 1 with the rental cars, and flower shop, you know. 2 A GRAND JUROR: will we have an opportunity 3 later to go through these if we need to? 4 MS. Yes, we will bring them when 5 we present the indictment. Yes, ma'am. 6 A GRAND JUROR: If i should hold this for 7 later let me know, she mentioned the hospital 8 records were subpoenaed, could more information 9 about why they were subpoenaed be provided at this 10 time? 11 BY MS. 12 Q You can answer that. 13 A One of the girls that was an underage that 14 was underage at the time that is involved with 15 Mr. Epstein has had a baby and we were interested and 16 wondering if possibly he was the father of that baby, 17 which at this time we do not believe he was. 18 A GRAND JUROR: Thank you. 19 MS. A question? 20 A GRAND JUROR: Did the flight manifest show 21 passengers on the plane? 22 THE WITNESS: Yes, they do. 23 A GRAND JUROR: Were any of the passengers the 24 underage girls that were a target of the 25 investigation? OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICE (954) 467-8204 EFTA00223920 12 1 THE WITNESS: At this time we have not 2 associated any of these underage girls as being the 3 passengers. The flight manifests, sometimes the 4 pilot if they did not know who the passenger was 5 would put one passenger or one female, one male, 6 these were private planes and they, you know, may 7 not have felt like they can go up and ask, but we 8 don't have any evidence at this time to believe 9 that they were any of our victims. 10 MS. Any follow-up? Any other 11 questions from the Grand Jury? Yes, ma'am. 12 A GRAND JUROR: The records that you 13 subpoenaed from the high school, what were they 14 used for or why were they instrumental in the 15 investigation? 16 THE ITNESS: Those are the girls' school 17 records and we are just looking at the girls' 18 records. 19 A GRAND JUROR: Absenteeism? 20 THE WITNESS: Just looking at some of their 21 grades and performances and how they did in school. 22 MS. Ladies and gentlemen, before 23 we continue, the witness has mentioned a few names 24 of the minors and that is confidential information, 25 obviously everything that you hear within these OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICE (954) 467-8204 EFTA00223921 13 1 walls is confidential. 2 BY MS. 3 Q Now, special Agent after -- in 4 addition to issuing the subpoenas, you mentioned that 5 one of the subpoenas was to the Palm Beach Police 6 Department. Did you review any of the evidence that 7 they collected? 8 A Yes. 9 Q And can you, for example, did the Palm Beach 10 Police Department interview any girls? 11 A Yes, they did, they interviewed several of the 12 girls, most of the girls, they took taped statements 13 from the girls either in the form of a tape-recorder or 14 through video. 15 Q And you have reviewed some of those 16 interviews, correct? 17 A Yes, we have. 18 Q And has the FBI performed any interviews? 19 A Yes, we have, we have performed interviews of 20 past and current employees of Mr. Epstein as well as 21 focusing in on the girls, the girls that were underage 22 at the time of the sexual activity, we wanted to 23 determine with these girls, again, the sexual activity 24 that took place with Mr. Epstein as well as how old they 25 were at the time, if they traveled with Mr. Epstein, any OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICE (954) 467-8204 EFTA00223922 14 1 gifts that they may have gotten, so we did reach out to 2 several of the underage minors and gathered more 3 information from them. 4 Q And through the FBI'S investigation has the S FBI identified additional victims that perhaps the state 6 police officers did not know about? 7 A Yes, we are still trying to identify, get 8 first names of girls and going back and looking through 9 school yearbooks and attempting to try to locate friends 10 of friends, so we are still in the process, when you 11 interview one of the girls and you ask if any of their 12 friends went, they sometimes will give you other names, 13 so we are in the process of still uncovering victims and 14 reaching out and interviewing additional girls that we 15 believe possibly were underage at the time of this 16 sexual activity. 17 Q If I could ask you to step outside. 18 (The witness was excused from the Grand Jury 19 room.) 20 (Questions posed by the Grand Jury.) 21 (The witness was recalled to testify before 22 the Grand Jury.) 23 BY MS. 24 Q Special Agent one of the Grand 25 Jurors asked whether there was any evidence of force or OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICE (954) 467-8204 EFTA00223923 15 1 coercion. 2 A when talking to the girls they were told that 3 they may have to -- they were going there to perform a 4 massage, possibly model lingerie, they went there 5 sometimes on multiple occasions and they may start off 6 wearing their clothing and then he would instruct them 7 to remove their clothing, the girls either performed 8 these massages in the nude or keeping their underwear 9 on. 10 As they went back again and again on some of 11 the occasions the girls would take off more and more of 12 their clothing, so when they first started they may be 13 fully clothed and then when they came back he would 14 instruct them to remove more of their clothing, so as 15 far as coercion, they were paid $200 to $400 to perform 16 these massages. 17 They are not trained in performing massages, 18 they don't -- they are not masseuses, but yet if you ask 19 if they were coerced, they were paid quite a bit of 20 money for 30 to 45 minutes work. 21 Some of the girls, being that they were minors 22 going to his residence, got in over their heads and did 23 not always return or come back, some of our Iictims did 24 not come back after, you know, they did go down to their 25 thong underwear and Mr. Epstein did perform sexual acts OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICE (954) 467-8204 EFTA00223924 16 1 either by -- and I didn't get into that, but either by 2 stroking their vagina on the outside of their panties or 3 sometimes inside their panties as well as fondling them, 4 and the girls, many of our victims did not realize that 5 that was what was going to happen. 6 Q And was there one instance where Mr. Epstein 7 actually engaged in vaginal intercourse with a girl 8 against her will? 9 A Yes, he did, one of our victims who had been 10 going there over a lengthy period of time had told 11 Mr. Epstein on several occasions that he was not to do 12 that and he did turn her around, threw her on the 13 massage table and penetrated her. 14 Q A Grand Juror asked how old Mr. Epstein is. 15 A He was 45 at the time that we are looking at 16 him at that time period. 17 Q A Grand Juror asked if you know the proportion 18 of girls who were underage versus 18 or older. 19 A The majority of the girls that we are looking 20 at are victims, well, all of our victims that we are 21 looking at were under the age of 18. 22 As far as all of the girls that have been 23 interviewed, the majority definitely were under 18. To 24 give you a number, I would have to go and count, but I 25 would say in the state investigation there were over 25 OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICE (954) 467-8204 EFTA00223925 17 1 girls identified and more than a majority would have 2 been under the age of 18. 3 Q A Grand Juror asked whether we have obtained 4 mr. Epstein's DNA and whether there was any DNA testing 5 of the baby that you spoke of earlier. 6 A No, we have not. 7 Q A Grand Juror asked how Mr. Epstein would make 8 contact with the girls, was this done via computer or in 9 some other method? 10 A I am sorry, his personal 11 assistant, would contact, or on some occasions Adriana 12 mucinska would also contact the girls via their cell 13 phone and we have message pads from the residents that 14 also indicate the girls calling the home in response to 15 some of those phone calls, so they would call, 16 would call, the majority of the calls were made 17 by to the girls arranging for these, you 18 know, can you come at this time, can you come at that 19 time. 20 Q And is the cellular telephone a facility of 21 interstate commerce? 22 A yes, it is. 23 Q And then one of the Grand Jurors asked whether 24 the assistants knew that the girls were underage or 25 committed sex acts. OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICE (954) 467-8204 EFTA00223926 1 2 3 age or 4 A 5 6 example, 7 going on? 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 but. 23 24 25 18 Did anybody, have you interviewed pnyhntiv who affirmatively told you that they told heir what was going on behind closed doors? No, no, not at this time, not at this time. And what leads you to believe that she, for knew or should have known what was A There are so many girls that contacted to give Mr. Epstein massages training in massages, and that that have no was aware that girls were bringing other girls, you know, their friends to do these massages. IIIIIIIpas also making appointments for legitimate massages for Mr. Epstein from legitimate masseuses that would come and give him massages, so the number of girls, their appearances at the time would lead us to believe that had knowledge that these girls were underage. Q All right. Thank you very much. Those were all the questions from the Grand Jury. A GRAND JUROR: Actually, I have two more, MS. VILLAFANA: Okay. A GRAND JUROR: what was the actual age range of these girls? OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICE (954) 467-8204 EFTA00223927 19 1 THE WITNESS: 14 to I mean. 2 A GRAND JUROR: The other one was, how did Ms. 3 Kellen actually originally get these girls, how 4 were they brought in, I mean how were they, you 5 know, because you said she called them when he was 6 arriving, but how did these girls come into this in 7 the first place? 8 A GRAND JUROR: Could she speak louder? 9 Special Agent Kuyrkendall, we 10 just had a request that you speak louder. 11 A GRAND JUROR: 14 and what? 12 THE WITNESS: Our victims were 14 to 17, but 13 we have girls that are 18, we have girls that are 14 20, we have girls that are in their early 20s, and 15 your question was? 16 A GRAND JUROR: How did she originally get 17 them in in the first place? 18 THE WITNESS: We are focusing in on 2004, 19 2005, we have some evidence to show that this 20 activity was taking place even earlier than that, 21 certainly to include 2003 if you look at the 22 message pads, but focusing in on 2004, 2005, the 23 chain started with one of our minors and from that 24 minor who goes to the house, Mr. Epstein tells 25 her -- sees that she is maybe not comfortable with OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICE (954) 467-8204 EFTA00223928 20 1 doing the massage the way he would like it and 2 tells her that she could bring other girls to do 3 the massages and she in fact if she brought another 4 girl she would be paid S200 for just bringing 5 another girl, so there starts the chain, and 6 Mr. Epstein would ask the girls or would ask 7 the girls for their phone numbers so each time, you 8 know, if one of the girls brought a girl and he 9 liked her he would ask for her phone number, ask 10 her to leave the phone number, or 11 would get the phone number and then that girl would 12 maybe bring, because if you brought somebody you 13 didn't have to do the massage, but you also got 14 paid for bringing a new person, so not only if you 15 did the massage would you get anywhere from 200 to 16 400, but if you brought a new female you would 17 receive 200 or $400. 18 A GRAND JUROR: Do you know how she solicited 19 that original minor? 20 THE WITNESS: I don't. well, I know that 21 minor was approached by two individuals and we have 22 interviewed one of those individuals who we can 23 connect back to Mr. Epstein four years, possibly, 24 prior to this, and stated that his job was actually 25 to drive some of the girls to the residence and OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICE (9S4) 467-8204 EFTA00223929 21 1 that's pretty much where we start off. 2 the Grand Jury like 3 o maintain the records 4 that we received in response to the subpoenas? 5 A GRAND JUROR: Maintain versus what? 6 A GRAND JUROR: What is our choice? 7 MS. VILLAFANA: I don't know that there is. I 8 guess I could maintain them, but I don't believe we 9 have secure storage in here. 10 would you like Special Agent to 11 maintain custody? 12 A GRAND JUROR: Yes. 13 MS. You should have something to 14 swear her in as a custodian. 15 (The witness was sworn in as the custodian of 16 records.) 17 MS. Thank you, ladies and 18 gentlemen, I am the last person for today, so you 19 guys are free to go and we will see you probably in 20 a couple of weeks, we will be seeing a lot of you. 21 (The witness was excused from the Grand Jury 22 room.) 23 (The testimony of the witness concluded 24 before the Grand Jury.) 25 OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICE (954) 467-8204 EFTA00223930 22 1 CERTIFICATE OF REPORTER 2 3 4 I certify pages 2 through 21 are a true 5 transcript of my shorthand notes of the testimony of 6 before the Federal Grand Jury, 7 west Palm Beach, Florida on the 6th day of February, 8 2007. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICE (954) 467-8204 EFTA00223931