SANTA FE, N.M.
New Mexico’s attorney general went after the money on Wednesday. Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed a civil lawsuit on October 21 against Darren Indyke, Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime attorney and employee, and Richard Kahn, Epstein’s longtime accountant — the two co-executors of Epstein’s estate — accusing them, in the lawsuit’s words, of having “facilitated and concealed” Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.
Those are allegations in a civil complaint, not findings by a court, and this story reports them that way throughout. Both Indyke and Kahn have denied any knowledge of or involvement in Epstein’s trafficking operation. CNN reported it has reached out to lawyers for both men for comment on the new lawsuit. The Associated Press, via the Las Vegas Review-Journal, also reported the filing on Wednesday.
The practical goal of the suit is specific and financial. Torrez said at a Wednesday news conference that the lawsuit aims to prevent Indyke and Kahn from receiving money from Epstein’s trust. Under Epstein’s will, as CNN has previously reported, Indyke was left $50 million and Kahn was left $25 million. The lawsuit asks, in effect, that those distributions never happen.
“Frankly, if anyone is entitled to a recovery of Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, it’s the survivors,” Torrez said. “There should be no distribution of Mr. Epstein’s remaining assets to people like Mr. Indyke and Mr. Kahn for participation in what I think is one of the most horrific criminal enterprises in modern American history.” That, too, is the attorney general’s characterization, offered at his news conference — the question of what Indyke and Kahn knew, and what they did or did not do, is what the litigation itself would have to establish.
Who Indyke and Kahn are in this case
Indyke served as a longtime Epstein employee and attorney, and Kahn as his longtime accountant, according to CNN’s reporting. Together they became the co-executors of Epstein’s estate after his death — the two people charged with administering what he left behind, including the trust at the center of Wednesday’s lawsuit. That executor role is a large part of why they have faced sustained scrutiny over their ties to Epstein since the Justice Department released files related to him late last year.
Wednesday’s civil lawsuit is not the only legal pressure on either man. Indyke and Kahn are also reportedly under federal investigation, according to CNN, and they have additionally faced multiple lawsuits from survivors seeking compensation. None of that amounts to a criminal charge described in this reporting, and both men’s stated position remains the same one they have held throughout: they deny any knowledge of or involvement in the trafficking operation.
Zorro Ranch is why New Mexico is the state filing this
New Mexico is not a bystander jurisdiction in the Epstein case. Epstein owned a large property in the state known as Zorro Ranch, and Torrez’s office began investigating that property earlier this year after allegations about it were included in the files released by the Justice Department.
In February, Torrez reopened New Mexico’s criminal investigation into Zorro Ranch. CNN reported that the reopening followed the release of files that included a 2019 email received by a local radio host alleging that two foreign girls were buried in the hills outside the ranch “on orders of Jeffrey and Madam G.” Previously is presenting that strictly as what it is: an allegation contained in an email in the released files, reported by CNN — not an established fact, and not a finding by investigators in this reporting.
What the lawsuit would change, if it succeeds
Strip the case down to its mechanics and it is about the order in which money moves. Epstein’s estate and trust still hold assets. His will directed very large sums — $50 million to Indyke, $25 million to Kahn, per CNN’s prior reporting on the will — to the two men now accused in the attorney general’s complaint of having facilitated and concealed the operation that produced Epstein’s notoriety. Torrez’s lawsuit seeks to block Indyke and Kahn from receiving money from the trust, on the attorney general’s stated reasoning that any recovery from the estate belongs to survivors first.
A civil lawsuit, it is worth being precise about, is decided on a lower burden of proof than a criminal case, and filing one proves nothing on its own. Indyke and Kahn will have the opportunity to answer the complaint, challenge its claims and present their denials in court. What Wednesday’s filing changes immediately is not the final destination of the money but the fight over it: the distributions described in the will are now contested by a state attorney general in a public court proceeding, with the survivors’ claims placed at the front of the argument.
The files changed the timeline
None of this happens on this schedule without the Justice Department’s release of Epstein files late last year. Scrutiny of Indyke and Kahn intensified after those releases, according to CNN; New Mexico’s property investigation began earlier this year because of allegations included in the files; and the state’s criminal investigation was reopened in February because of what the files contained. Wednesday’s civil suit is the next step in that sequence — from documents, to investigation, to a court filing aimed at the estate itself.
What happens next will move at court speed, not news-conference speed. The defendants’ lawyers have been contacted for comment, per CNN, and their formal responses will come through the case. Previously’s Southwest coverage this week also includes the flood watch in Phoenix as the Pacific storm system crosses Arizona and Los Angeles facing its wettest October since 2009 from the same system — a different kind of story entirely, but the same region this lawsuit will now work its way through, in public, for months to come.
