Epstein Data Wiki

Kenneth Mapp

Properties2
tagsperson, us-virgin-islands, governor, lieutenant-governor, government, edc, deposition
aliasesKenneth E. Mapp, Ken Mapp, Governor Kenneth E. Mapp, Kenn Mapp

17 min read

OfficesLieutenant Governor of the United States Virgin Islands, 1995 to 1999; Governor, 2015 to 201912
What he asked Epstein forA loan to the territory: “Would you be open to/ interested in lending the GVI $275M at 4.75 - 5.25%, pledged revenues as security over a 20 year term?”, 27 July 20163
And again, in his last campaign”I’m asking you to help me with one last push to stay ahead. Can u donate 50k to the PAC?”, 13 October 20184
What he told a lawyer, with Epstein copied”Thank Bill. I will stop those efforts and bring them in line with my new policies.” The “efforts” were his own Lieutenant Governor’s office proposing that exempt companies report their beneficial ownership5
What his written request was worthAn adviser recorded that a donation outside the approved list could be treated as qualifying for Epstein’s tax benefits “because the governor asked you (in writing) to donate to this entity”6
The charity he solicitedThe Queen Louise Home for Children on St. Croix, “the orphanage of the territory operated by Lutheran social services”78
A 1998 instrumentA certificate incorporating Financial Trust Company, Inc. on 6 November 1998 bears the printed block of the Lieutenant Governor of the Virgin Islands, surname MAPP. Financial Trust was later renamed Southern Trust Company910
DepositionDeposed 24 May 2023 in the territory’s action against JPMorgan Chase. His transcript is not in the released corpus, while those of his successor, his DPNR commissioner and both de Jonghs are11
AllegationsNone in the material reviewed. No survivor account accuses him of anything, and he has not been charged with any offence

Kenneth E. Mapp was Governor of the United States Virgin Islands from 2015 to 2019, and Lieutenant Governor from 1995 to 1999. Emails and text messages released by the Justice Department under the Epstein Files Transparency Act record a direct correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein across his governorship: a request that Epstein lend the territory $275 million, a request for a campaign contribution, Epstein commenting on the Governor’s public language and being thanked for it, the Governor routing a donation to the Department of Education by text message, and the Governor telling a lawyer, with Epstein copied, that he would stop his own Lieutenant Governor’s office from requiring companies to disclose their beneficial owners.

Nothing on this page is a finding of wrongdoing. He is a government official named here for acts done in office. No survivor account in the material reviewed accuses him of anything, and he has not been charged with any offence.

Several messages quoted below carry transmission damage in the print itself, an ”=” standing where a character was lost. Supplied characters are given in square brackets, and nothing the print actually carries has been altered. Abbreviations the documents leave unexpanded are left unexpanded here.

A note on the name, and on a second man

Seven spellings of his name appear in the release. The largest is not the obvious one: “ken mapp” stands on 276 sheets in 113 containers, more than “kenneth mapp” (73/64), “governor mapp” (73/62), “kenneth e mapp” (109/100) or “gov mapp” (110/105).12 The form “kenn mapp” is a correspondent’s own spelling and marks the earliest contact in the release.2

⚠ The bare surname cannot be used, and not only because of noise. A different man, David Mapp, Executive Director of the Virgin Islands Port Authority, stands on 47 sheets, and Epstein’s office corresponded with him too: “Is there a particular time you would like to speak with David Mapp, or whenever I can get him on the phone for you?”13 Because both men are genuinely relevant to this corpus, no relevance filter separates them. Every figure on this page is bound by forename.

Neither “lt governor mapp” nor “lieutenant governor mapp” occurs anywhere in the release, which is why the 1998 instrument described below is not reachable by searching for his name at all.12

1998: an instrument signed by a Lieutenant Governor

Two renderings of a single document appear in the release as exhibits in the territory’s action against JPMorgan Chase. Both print the heading GOVERNMENT OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS OF THE UNITED STATES, the docket C-III-99, and the text: “I, the undersigned. LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, do hereby certify that FINANCIAL TRUST COMPANY, INC. of the Virgin Islands filed in my office on November 6. 1998 … Articles of Incorporation”. The signature block reads Lieutenant Governor for the Virgin Islands, above the surname MAPP.9

⚠ The initial above that surname is rendered differently in the two copies, and this page does not assert which is printed. The text layer cannot settle it and the page images were not examined.9 What the instrument establishes is the office, the surname, the company and the date. Kenneth E. Mapp held the office of Lieutenant Governor on that date; that is a matter of public record rather than of this document, and it is stated here as a separate fact.1

The company matters because of what it became. A pleading filed by the Government of the Virgin Islands states: “Epstein received these benefits through two entities: Financial Trust Company, which was later renamed Southern Trust Company.” The same pleading records that Financial Trust’s application for Economic Development Commission benefits “was approved in 1999”, that its incentives were extended in 2012, and that “in 2014, Epstein’s STC was granted tax incentives spread over 10 years, from 2013 to 2023.”10

⚠ This page does not assert that Financial Trust or Southern Trust was a Virgin Islands exempt company, the class of entity discussed in the 2017 exchange below. The office is the same corporate registry; the class of company is not shown by anything reviewed here to be the same.

2014: the approach, and the transition

The earliest contact in the release is from Epstein’s side of the territory. In September 2014, while Mapp was a candidate, Erika Kellerhals, Epstein’s Virgin Islands lawyer, wrote to him under the subject “Mapp”: “Had an interesting meeting with Mapp today. I liked him.”14

On 2 December 2014, a month after the election, Andrew Farkas wrote to Epstein under the subject “Transition”: “Mapp transition offices will be @ yhg.”15 Epstein replied the same morning: “If Ok with Ben I would like my attny kathy ruemmler to be at the meeting? she was white house counsel”, a reference to Kathryn Ruemmler.15

A briefing prepared for Epstein in the administration’s early weeks reads as political intelligence. Its bullets record that Mapp “said that he would engage the National Guard, if need be, to curb crime”, that he “has been roundly criticized for renting a $12,500/month house on the east end of STT after stating in his State of the Territory that the VI is broke”, and that “The Commissioner of Finance designee has testified that the GOVI only has two weeks of cash on hand.”16

Its first bullet, ahead of all of those, concerned a personnel decision:

Mapp has not appointed JP Oriol as DPNR Commissioner. To lead the DPNR, he nominated Dawn Henry, an attorney who has worked as legal counsel in the department’s Division of Environmental Protection for the last 10 years.16

Epstein’s reply the same day is two words: “great help”.16 See Jean-Pierre Oriol and Dawn Henry.

2016: a request for $275 million

On 27 July 2016 the Governor put a proposition to Epstein by text message:

Good afternoon; question. Would you be open to/ interested in lending the GVI $275M at 4.75 - 5.25%, pledged revenues as security over a 20 year term?3

The counterparty answered: “I may be back in territory next week . Let’s discuss . How taxed ? Sinking fund ? Other collateral , ? Land , ? Use of funds ?” Mapp: “If you have the appetite, I’m ready to discuss.”3

Nothing reviewed for this page records such a loan being made.

2016: the donation, returned and restored

On 13 April 2016 Mapp texted a payment routing: “You’re most welcomed. Will advise. Comm of ed will contact your o[f]fices for annual donation. Make payable Dept. Of Education”, and then “DOE, Government of VI”.17 Epstein forwarded it to Cecile de Jongh under the subject “From Mapp”, and her reply records something the text message alone does not:

Ok. Are we making this donation to replace what was returned to us in 2015? Or, is this a new donation for 2016?18

The documents reviewed here do not record the answer, or what had been returned in 2015, or by whom. An earlier message in the same text thread, from October 2015, reads: “If you prefer the laptops anonymously ok with me.”17

What that routing was worth is recorded by one of Epstein’s own advisers later in the year. Writing under the subject “Charitable Giving 2016”, the adviser reported that a particular recipient “is not an approved pub[l]ic school program or initiative”, and continued:

We can take the position that, beca[u]se the governor asked you (in writing) to donate to this entity, we a[r]e therefore considering it to be a public school initiative even though it[ ]has not been officially sanctioned as such by the VIDOE or the EDC6

A written request from the Governor was being used to make a non-qualifying donation count toward the conditions of Epstein’s tax benefits. The adviser’s words are quoted as the adviser’s own characterisation of the position being taken.

The orphanage

One of the donations the Governor solicited is named in his own messages, and it is named here for that reason. He wrote:

By the way, I’m fundraising for the queen louise home for children on stx. It’s one of my favorite non profits. I fund raise every year for them for the past 10-12. It’s the orphanage of the territory operated by Lutheran social services. Could I interest you in making a donation to home this year?7

And afterwards:

Good evening. I wanted you to know that the presentation to the Queen Louise Home for Children was excellent today. I named each of the businesses who contributed. The media came out in full force, coverage was great. The total donation presented was $140,500.00. Thank you for helping me pull this off.8

No child is named on any sheet cited here and none would be reproduced. The institution is named because withholding it would leave a charitable donation looking like something else.

2016 to 2017: drafting, and messaging

In October 2016 a lawyer sent Epstein a draft of a document intended to go out over the Governor’s name. William Blum wrote:

Dear Jeff — Attached is the proposed transmittal letter to the Legislature from the Governor. I tried to draft it as a mostly “political” document, as opposed to the Explanation section of the bill itself which is more technical and “explanatory.” Please give me any comments.19

Epstein forwarded that message to the Governor five days later, adding only “see you tues?”19

In January 2017 Epstein was commenting on the Governor’s public language. He wrote: “I will send comments when I land ?,but no need to use the ‘crisis ’ word so often . You don’t want the wsj headline to read governor says daunting cash crisis .” Mapp answered within the minute: “Good point. Thanks”. On 31 January 2017 he wrote: “Thank you for your valuable input.”20

Minutes later in the same exchange, Epstein raised his own regulatory grievance: “Footnote dpnr unresolved . Forced to appeal instead of allowed reconsideration . No flagpole dock or cleaning . But much money spent by govt making life difficult.”20

2017: beneficial ownership

On 18 May 2017 William Blum wrote to “Governor Kenneth E. Mapp”, copying Epstein at [email protected], under the subject “Financial Services Improvement Act of 2017”. He reported that an attorney in the Lieutenant Governor’s office had circulated proposals affecting Virgin Islands exempt companies, including higher fees and a contract with the government, and:

We also understand that Attorney McLean is suggesting that reporting forms be changed to require exempt companies to report their beneficial ownership to the government. At present, such disclosures to the government are only required with respect to certain tax return filings — which is entirely appropriate. But this change, if implemented, would make the USVI the first jurisdiction of all the U.S. states and territories to require such information be reported to the corporate formation authorities.5

He added that the proposals “will almost certainly kill the USVI exempt company business entirely.”5 The Governor replied at 02:33 the following morning, Epstein still copied:

Thank Bill. I will stop those efforts and bring them in line with my new policies. I’ll get back to you.5

Enforcement

One message in the text correspondence is seven words long. The Governor wrote: “The Nova was not released.” The counterparty answered “Ok”.21 The page for Jean-Pierre Oriol sets out the enforcement history of Great St. James and Little Saint James, including a separate occasion on which the Governor told Epstein “I’ve emailed Oriol directly. It is silly.”

2018: the last campaign

On 13 October 2018, three weeks before the general election, the Governor wrote:

Good morning Jeff. Hope all is well. I’m asking you to help me with one last push to stay ahead. Can u donate 50k to the PAC? I need to bring more expertise on messaging4

That message is attributed with unusual certainty: besides the text-message export, a forensic device report in the release prints it with an explicit sender field, Sender: Ken Mapp, timed 2018-10-13 12:37:02 UTC, matching the export word for word.4 The documents reviewed here do not record whether the contribution was made. The following day, asked whether a runoff was likely, he answered: “GM. It appears so. So I’ve hired a political mercenary.”22

He lost. On 21 November 2018 he wrote:

Good evening, thank you for your tremendous help and support. I sincerely appreciate our work on a number of issues. Its unfortunate we didn’t get the EISA passed. I do wish the good people of the VI well. We’ll talk soon. Thanks much23

“EISA” is not expanded anywhere in the material reviewed and is not expanded here.

What the record does not establish, and one thing it withholds

  • The visits. A pleading filed by the Government of the Virgin Islands states that “Other USVI officials (including Governor Mapp, Dawn Henry, and First Lady de Jongh) visited Epstein’s islands, Little St. James (‘LSJ’) and Great St. James (‘GSJ’), with regularity”, citing exhibits not reproduced in the material reviewed.10 That is a litigant’s assertion in its own pleading, not a finding of this page, and no document reviewed here records a particular visit by him.
  • The loan and the contribution. Nothing reviewed records the $275 million loan being made or the $50,000 contribution being paid.
  • ⛔ His own testimony. He was deposed on 24 May 2023 in the territory’s action against JPMorgan Chase, and his transcript does not appear in the released corpus, while the transcripts of his successor as Governor, of his DPNR commissioner and of both de Jonghs do. That absence is recorded here as a fact about the release. No cause for it is asserted.11
  • Four messages in one text log cannot be attributed at all, because the sheet stops printing sender labels partway down. They are not used on this page.24

Method note

Claims on this page are drawn from the released documents cited in the footnotes, each pinned to the sheet and page where the quoted words appear. Counts are floors over a union of seven name-forms, and the bare surname is excluded because a second man of the same surname also corresponded with Epstein’s office. Text messages are quoted only where the sheet prints a sender label for the message quoted, or where a forensic device report supplies an explicit sender field; where a sheet stops labelling, nothing is attributed. Page images were not examined, so where the text layer is unreadable this page says so rather than describing what a mark might be. A telephone number appears in one of these logs and is not reproduced.

Footnotes

Footnotes

  1. His tenure as Lieutenant Governor, 1995 to 1999, and as Governor, 2015 to 2019, is a matter of public record and is not established by any document cited here. It is stated separately because the 1998 instrument at 9 prints an office and a surname but no legible forename. ↩ ↩2

  2. The spelling “kenn mapp” is a correspondent’s own and marks the earliest contact in the release, in August 2014. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02388584 p.1 carries the related September 2014 message at 14. ↩ ↩2

  3. Text-message log headed “Platform: SMS” and “Timezone: UTC+0000”, under the date header 2016/07/27, the quoted message labelled Ken Mapp at 10:44:39 pm. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01616720 p.1. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. Text-message log under the date header 2018/10/13, the quoted message labelled Ken Mapp at 12:37:02. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01620542 p.1. The forensic device report printing Sender: Ken Mapp at 2018-10-13 12:37:02 UTC is at https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00781903 p.11. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. William Blum to Governor Kenneth E. Mapp, May 18, 2017 6:38:05 PM, copying Epstein, subject “Financial Services Improvement Act of 2017 (FSIA)”, and Mapp’s reply of May 19, 2017 02:33:45. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01045547 p.1. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  6. Adviser to Epstein, subject “Charitable Giving 2016”. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02387069 p.1. ↩ ↩2

  7. Text-message log, the quoted message labelled Ken Mapp. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01620481 p.5. ↩ ↩2

  8. The same log. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01620481 p.7. ↩ ↩2

  9. Certificate of incorporation of Financial Trust Company, Inc., docket C-III-99, filed Nov 6, 1998, produced as an exhibit in Government of the United States Virgin Islands v. JPMorgan Chase. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02808820 p.2 and https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02814142 p.2. The two renderings print different characters for the initial above the surname and neither is relied on. The page images were not examined. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  10. Pleading of the Government of the United States Virgin Islands. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02807815 p.10. The exhibit numbers it cites are not reproduced in the material reviewed for this page. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  11. His deposition of May 24, 2023 is referenced by exhibit in the JPMorgan litigation. A search of the released corpus for his transcript returned nothing, while transcripts of other territorial witnesses in the same action are present. ↩ ↩2

  12. Measured against the released corpus: “ken mapp” 276 sheets / 113 containers; “gov mapp” 110/105; “kenneth e mapp” 109/100; “governor kenneth e mapp” 92/87; “kenneth mapp” 73/64; “governor mapp” 73/62; “kenn mapp” 20/20. “lt governor mapp” and “lieutenant governor mapp” each return 0. Counts are of sheets in the release and duplicate copies of one message are counted separately. ↩ ↩2

  13. Epstein’s assistant to Epstein, Aug 2017. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02638938 p.1. “david mapp” stands on 47 sheets in 47 containers; he is named elsewhere in the release as Executive Director of the Virgin Islands Port Authority. ↩

  14. Erika Kellerhals to Jeffrey Epstein, a Thursday in September 2014, subject “Mapp”. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02388584 p.1. The date line is damaged in the print; the month is legible and the day and year are not, and the fuller treatment is on Erika Kellerhals. ↩ ↩2

  15. Andrew Farkas to Epstein, Dec 2, 2014 1:26 PM, subject “Transition”, and Epstein’s reply of 13:42:42 the same day. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02597131 p.1 and https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01002184 p.1. ↩ ↩2

  16. Briefing prepared for Epstein, with Epstein’s two-word reply the same day. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01746665 p.1; a second copy at https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00862389 p.1. Quoted with its pin also on Dawn Henry. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  17. The same log family, under the date headers 2015/10/05 and 2016/04/13, the quoted messages labelled Ken Mapp. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01616715 p.1. ↩ ↩2

  18. Cecile de Jongh to Epstein, Apr 13, 2016 5:58 AM, in a thread Epstein headed “From Mapp”. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00829487 p.1. ↩

  19. William Blum to Epstein, Oct 18, 2016 6:15 PM, subject “Legislation”, forwarded by Epstein to “Governor Kenneth E. Mapp” on Oct 23, 2016 10:49:10 AM. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01738723 p.1; a second copy at https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00813687 p.1. The attachment itself is not in the released copies. ↩ ↩2

  20. Text-message log, the “crisis” message from the counterparty and the two replies labelled Ken Mapp, the second under the date header 2017/01/31. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01620488 p.3. ↩ ↩2

  21. Text-message log, the quoted message labelled Ken Mapp. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01620449 p.7. ↩

  22. The same log, under the date header 2018/10/14. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01620542 p.1. ↩

  23. The same log, under the date header 2018/11/21, labelled Ken Mapp. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01620542 p.3. ↩

  24. One sheet in the text-message family stops printing sender labels partway down, and the messages below that point cannot be attributed to either party. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01616731 p.2. ↩

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