Federal prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn, Jeffrey Epstein's longtime lawyer and accountant and the co-executors of his estate, the Wall Street Journal reported on 23 September.

Prosecutors have scheduled interviews with witnesses and requested documents about the two men in recent months, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. No charges have been filed. Neither the focus of the inquiry nor any offence under consideration has been reported.

NBC News and the Washington Examiner each confirmed the investigation through a source of their own. The Examiner's source placed it with federal authorities in New York. The US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment to NBC News.

Daniel Ruzumna, a lawyer for both men, told NBC News that neither had been subpoenaed or told he was a subject or target of an investigation. He said no one had ever accused either man "of sexual abuse or trafficking".

The Justice Department said it has always maintained that "if the evidence presents itself, we will investigate."

What they told Congress

Richard Kahn gave a closed-door deposition to the House Oversight Committee on 11 March that lasted about seven hours, CNN reported. He told the committee he had "never been questioned by any government authority."

Kahn told the committee he had received a grand jury subpoena from the Southern District of New York and a subpoena from the US Virgin Islands Department of Justice, and that both sought estate documents, including Epstein's will and the 1953 Trust, Fox News reported.

Kahn, who began working as Epstein's in-house accountant in the mid-2000s, said in his opening statement that he "never observed any sexual abuse or trafficking of women" while Epstein was alive. He described Epstein's gifts to women and men as "a very small fraction" of his spending and said he "did not see them as red flags for abuse or trafficking." He said Epstein told him his 2006 arrest was a mistake and that he believed him. "Had I learned of any of his horrific behavior, I would have quit work immediately," Kahn said.

Robert Garcia, the committee's ranking Democrat, said after the deposition that Kahn had acknowledged helping to facilitate "a fake marriage between two women connected to Epstein" and impersonating Epstein in communications with banks. Kahn's own account of those episodes has not been reported.

Darren Indyke, who worked for Epstein for more than 20 years, was deposed on 19 March. Asked whether he had been questioned about Epstein's dealings, he said: "Personally, no." He described his work as "corporate, transactional and general legal services" and said he had "no knowledge whatsoever" of Epstein's crimes. He called allegations that he facilitated them "categorically false" and said claims that he arranged sham marriages were "100% untrue".

Garcia said Indyke "played a central role in facilitating" Epstein's abuse of women and girls.

House Oversight had subpoenaed Indyke, Kahn and the retail billionaire Les Wexner on 23 January, after committee Democrats forced a vote.

The money

Five Democratic senators wrote to Pam Bondi, then attorney general, and FBI Director Kash Patel on 17 December 2025 to ask whether federal law enforcement had ever interviewed, subpoenaed or deposed either man, or opened a criminal investigation into them. Ron Wyden led the letter, joined by Richard Blumenthal, Chris Van Hollen, Amy Klobuchar and Sheldon Whitehouse. They asked for answers by 5 January 2026. No public reply has been located.

Epstein paid Indyke $10.7m between 2003 and 2013, the senators wrote. Between 2011 and 2019, Epstein and entities he owned paid Indyke more than $16m and Kahn more than $10m, according to the letter.

In April 2019, about three months before Epstein's arrest, an Epstein trust paid $1m into Indyke's personal TD Bank account and $1m into Kahn's personal JPMorgan Chase account, the senators wrote. In April 2020, eight months after Epstein's death, another Epstein trust moved about $6.5m in investment proceeds to a trust whose beneficiaries included the two men, the letter said.

JPMorgan Chase filed suspicious activity reports flagging more than $1.3bn in wire transfers linked to Epstein, the senators wrote.

The Wall Street Journal has previously reported that Indyke and Kahn used financial and legal manoeuvres to obscure Epstein's transactions and were involved in payments to women.

The estate

Epstein signed his will on 8 August 2019, two days before he died in a federal jail in Manhattan. It placed his assets in the 1953 Trust, which names Indyke for $50m and Kahn for $25m, CNN reported. Kahn told Congress he doubts he will receive any of that money, given the estate's unresolved assets and liabilities.

Indyke and Kahn now control what remains of Epstein's fortune. The estate has fallen from $655.1m to $107.6m and spends $10m to $15m a year on legal and other services, CNN reported on 21 September. It has paid survivors nearly $170m since Epstein's death, according to CNN.

Denise George, then attorney general of the US Virgin Islands, filed an amended complaint in February 2021 that called the two executors the "indispensable captains" of Epstein's rape trafficking scheme. It alleged they "knowingly facilitated" at least three forced marriages to secure immigration status for women Epstein abused. Their lawyers said at the time that neither man had "any involvement in any misconduct by Mr. Epstein of any kind".

The estate settled the Virgin Islands case on 30 November 2022 for more than $105m in cash, half the proceeds from the sale of Little St James island and $450,000 for environmental remediation. The settlement included no admission of liability. Daniel Weiner, the estate's lawyer, said the co-executors "deny any allegations of wrongdoing on their part".

Survivors filed a class action in Manhattan federal court in 2024 alleging that Indyke and Kahn helped Epstein build "a complex web of corporations and bank accounts" that let him hide his abuse and pay victims and recruiters. On 19 February 2026 the estate agreed to pay $25m to settle it, rising to $35m if 40 or more class members qualify. The estate pays, not the two men. Weiner said neither man had made "any admission or concession of misconduct". Judge Arun Subramanian gave the settlement preliminary approval on 3 March.

Six women sued the estate, Indyke and Kahn in New York on 19 August under the city's Gender-Motivated Violence Act. Their complaint alleges the executors "played critical roles in enabling Epstein's acts of gender-motivated violence" by giving him legal and financial support. Lawyers for the two men have "emphatically" rejected the allegations, Forbes reported. CNN reported that the suit could delay any payment to Epstein's advisers from the trust for years.

Prosecutors

Bondi assigned Jay Clayton, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, on 14 November 2025 to examine Epstein's ties to Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman and JPMorgan Chase, after Donald Trump demanded it on Truth Social. None of the three men has been accused of abuse by any of Epstein's victims, Newsweek reported. Whether the inquiry into Indyke and Kahn is part of that assignment has not been reported.

Trump fired Bondi on 2 April 2026. Todd Blanche, confirmed by the Senate on 8 August in a 50 to 49 vote, is now attorney general. Trump nominated Clayton on 11 June to be director of national intelligence.

Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted on 29 December 2021 of five counts, including rape trafficking of a minor, which the indictment calls sex trafficking of a minor. She is serving a 20-year sentence at a federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas, with a scheduled release date of 17 July 2037. Indyke and Kahn were not charged in the 2019 case against Epstein or in Maxwell's prosecution.