Documents reviewed by the British daily The Telegraph suggest convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein stored computers and other materials in rented storage units across the US in an apparent attempt to keep them from investigators.
According to the newspaper, Epstein paid private detectives to remove equipment from his Florida home after he was tipped off about a possible police raid in the mid-2000s. The documents indicate the computers were moved into multiple storage facilities.
The report says Epstein rented six storage units across the US. Credit card receipts cited by the newspaper show regular payments for at least one unit from 2003 until 2019, the year of his death. Some of the items reportedly stored included computers from Little Saint James, his private island in the US Virgin Islands.
Search warrants reviewed by the newspaper suggest US authorities did not raid the storage units. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) declined to say whether any such lockers were ever searched.
Epstein, who owned several large properties in the US and France, was arrested in 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges.
Photographs taken during searches of his properties showed extensive storage space and empty basement areas, raising questions about why external storage facilities were used.
In December last year, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) released thousands of files related to Epstein.
While Epstein had long been suspected of keeping potentially compromising material on associates, relatively few photographs or videos have been made public. US authorities have repeatedly denied claims that they are withholding evidence to protect powerful individuals.
The Telegraph also reported that private investigators were paid tens of thousands of dollars to access a storage unit in New York on Epstein's behalf.
Separately, staff discussed moving computers and CDs from his private island into hidden facilities. Some of the material stored could date back to before 2009, the starting point of the emails released by the US government.
The newspaper said it contacted Epstein's former private detectives in Florida, who declined to comment, citing client confidentiality. The FBI also declined to comment on the existence or status of any storage units.
