Jeffrey Epstein Victims' 'Worst Fears Have Been Realized' As Payments Stop

[Corrections 2:42 ET: This article has been updated after some initial inaccuracies.]

The fund set up by Jeffrey Epstein’s estate to compensate his alleged victims has halted payments after running into liquidity problems.

The attorney general for the Virgin Islands has moved to freeze the late millionaire’s estate’s assets, but representatives say it can't make payments unless they are allowed to sell off property, The Associated Press reports.

Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program was to have no cap or limitation on funds available to compensate all eligible claimants. Its co-executors of the estate say many assets are in real estate and haven’t been sold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 150 claimants that have come forward are also nearly double the number the estate expected.

“My office’s worst fears have been realized as we learned the Epstein Estate will not make its currently owed payment to the fund it claimed to have set up to compensate sexual abuse survivors and victims of Jeffrey Epstein,” said Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George.

In a statement to the AP, estate attorney Daniel Weiner said George’s statements were “factually and legally unsupportable,” and praised the “remarkable efficiency” of the estate’s actions thus far.

Jordy Feldman, who is an administrator of the fund, said it needed to pause payments until the March 25 claims filing deadline.

“Issuing a compensation offer that cannot be timely and fully funded and paid, consistent with the way the program has operated to date, would compromise claimants’ interests and the guiding principles of the program,” Feldman said.

Officials don’t seem to be buying the arguments of the estate’s lawyers, putting them on track for a legal battle. George pointed out that the fund had had no issues paying other expenses.

“The Estate has found its way to pay for lawyers, landscaping, and helicopter fees, but not the brave women who have stepped forward to participate in the compensation fund. It is, unconscionably, another promise made and broken by Epstein and now, his Estate,” she said.

Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on suspicion of running a sex trafficking ring. He died a month later in a New York City prison in what was ruled a suicide. He was 66.

His long-time associate Ghislaine Maxwell remains in prison after having been denied bail.