Epstein Data Wiki

9 East 71st Street

Properties2
tagsplace, manhattan, new-york, epstein-property, forfeiture
aliases9 E. 71st Street, Nine East 71st Street

19 min read

Address9 East 71st Street, Manhattan, New York1
Block / lotBlock 1386, Lot 1012
BuiltCommissioned in the early 1930s by Herbert N. Straus; architect Horace Trumbauer. A U.S. Marshals Service worksheet gives the year built as 1910.34
Earlier occupantsUnfinished at Straus’s death in 1933; given to a hospital in 1944; the Birch Wathen School from 1962 to 19893
Deeds of recordBirch Wathen School, Inc. to Nine East 71st Street Corporation, September 6, 1989; Nine East 71st Street Corporation to Maple, Inc., December 23, 20112
Owner from 2011Maple, Inc., a U.S. Virgin Islands corporation1
SearchedJuly 6–7 and July 11, 2019, on warrants issued in the Southern District of New York56
ForfeitureNamed in the July 2, 2019 indictment; Notice of Pendency filed July 11, 2019; the indictment was dismissed on August 29, 2019 after Epstein’s death789
In the estateHeld through Maple, Inc. and reported at $55,931,000 in the February 2020 probate petition10

9 East 71st Street is a seven-storey house on the north side of 71st Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues in Manhattan. It was Jeffrey Epstein’s New York home from the 1990s until his arrest in 2019.11 Leslie Wexner’s corporation bought it in 1989 and only one further deed was ever recorded: a December 2011 transfer, for a stated ten dollars, from that corporation to a Virgin Islands company of Epstein’s.21 The July 2, 2019 indictment of Epstein called the house “the New York Residence,” alleged that he abused minors there between 2002 and 2005, and sought its forfeiture.127 The FBI searched it twice that month.56

Ownership and title

Before 1989

Herbert N. Straus, an heir to the Macy’s fortune, commissioned the 40-room mansion in the early 1930s and engaged the architect Horace Trumbauer, but died in 1933 leaving it unfinished and unoccupied. His family gave the residence to a hospital in 1944, and in 1962 the Birch Wathen School bought it and used it as a schoolhouse; the school moved out after Wexner bought the house.3 A Southern District of New York memorandum of December 2019 gives the same outline, dating the school’s occupation from 1962 to 1989.13

The 1989 purchase

A certified title search run for the government in June 2019 records that on September 6, 1989 Birch Wathen School, Inc. deeded the property to Nine East 71st Street Corporation, recorded September 11, 1989 at Reel 1617, Page 2412, with New York State transfer tax of $52,800 paid.2 The 2019 SDNY memorandum states that the corporation “at the time was wholly owned by Leslie Wexner.”13

The New York Times reported in July 2019 that Wexner had paid $13.2 million, at the time the highest recorded sale price for a Manhattan townhouse, and had then spent at least as much again on a gut renovation, which included artwork works by Picasso, Art Deco furnishings, Russian antiques, rosewood tables and doors, a cellar divided for red and white wines, and security devices including a network of cameras. The renovation was on the cover of the December 1995 issue of Architectural Digest.3 The paper also reported that Wexner never moved in, staying in Columbus, Ohio, and quoted Epstein telling it in 1996 that “Les never spent more than two months there.”3 The 2003 Vanity Fair profile of Epstein said Wexner had bought the house “through a trust”; the deed of record names a corporation.142

The transfer to Epstein

No deed of record appears between 1989 and 2011. What the government understood to have happened in the interval comes from two December 2019 memoranda to the U.S. Attorney. The first states: “In or about 1998, Wexner agreed to sell the New York Residence to Epstein for $20 million. We believe the change of ownership occurred through a transfer of control of the Nine East 71st Street Corporation.”13 The second records the account Wexner’s lawyers gave prosecutors, that “at some point in 1998, Epstein sold himself the New York residence in which he resided until his arrest in 2019 at a deeply discounted price,” the Wexners having moved out in 1995.11 A spokeswoman for Wexner said in July 2019 that he had “severed ties” with Epstein about a decade earlier.15

Bloomberg reported in July 2019 that Wexner sold the house in 1998 to a Virgin Islands entity called NES LLC, attributing this to a person familiar with the matter, and noted that no New York property record documented a transfer until 2011.16 Epstein’s pilot Lawrence Visoski testified at Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial that he first went to a home of Epstein’s on 69th Street in 1991 and that “probably a year or maybe two years later” Epstein had moved to a townhouse on 71st Street, which he identified as 9 East 71st Street.17

The gap was noticed at the time by the prosecutors themselves. Reviewing the ACRIS records on June 27, 2019, an Assistant U.S. Attorney wrote to the FBI: “it doesn’t look like there’s any record of the property changing ownership between 1989 and 2012, and the sale in 1989 is to ‘Nine East 71st Street Corporation’ … So did he own it that entire time, rather than Wexner, as had been advertised?? Or did Wexner own it through a corporation for which Epstein was the president until 2012?”18

The 2011 deed

The last deed of record is dated December 23, 2011 and was recorded on January 10, 2012 under City Register File No. 2012000008342. Nine East 71st Street Corporation, a New York corporation, conveyed the property to Maple, Inc., a U.S. Virgin Islands corporation, “in consideration of the sum of TEN DOLLARS ($10.00) and other good and valuable consideration.”1 The deed describes the lot as 50 feet wide along 71st Street and 102 feet 2 inches deep to the centre line of the block.1 It was returned to Erika Kellerhals, Esq., in St. Thomas, who also notarised it.1 The title company’s summary of the same transfer reads “No Consideration.”2

The deed itself is signed once, on the grantor’s line: “BY: JEFFREY E. EPSTEIN, President,” and the notarial acknowledgment records that he appeared only in his capacity as president of the grantor.1 The affidavit of compliance with the smoke-detector requirement filed with the deed carries signatures on both the grantor line, for Nine East 71st Street Corporation, and the grantee line, for Maple, Inc., sworn before the same notary on the same day.19 A senior financial investigator working with the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote to colleagues on June 27, 2019 that in the ACRIS record “the Grantor and Grantee lines are both signed by Jeffrey Epstein,” and Bloomberg reported that “Epstein signed for both sides of the transaction.”2016 The deed as recorded does not itself show a second Epstein signature.

The building

The affidavit supporting the July 2019 search-warrant application described the house as “a nearly 19,000 square foot multi-story single-family residence.”21 The FBI’s own appraiser, working from the assessment records and an exterior viewing, classified it as a single-family masonry property.22 The New York Times put it at 21,000 square feet with five bathrooms, a two-storey reception room, many bedrooms and three three-room suites on the fourth floor;3 the 2003 Vanity Fair profile said nine floors and 51,000 square feet.23 An FBI agent told a federal grand jury in June 2020 that it was “a seven story home; it’s located near Central Park. It’s reportedly the largest residence in Manhattan.”24 Visoski, describing photographs at Maxwell’s trial, said the house was “approximately seven stories” and that a spiral staircase off the foyer led up through the levels, with a large living room and a kitchen on the first floor and a dumbwaiter down to a professional kitchen in the basement.25

From the street the Times described a 15-foot oak front door, large arched windows on the ground floor, a balcony on the second floor, and a brass plaque by the door bearing Epstein’s initials,15 and a heated sidewalk to melt snow.26 Bloomberg described the same initials at the entrance.27

The 2003 Vanity Fair profile, whose author records that Epstein refused to give her an interview for it, described an entrance hall hung “not with paintings but with row upon row of individually framed eyeballs,” a marble foyer with a painting “in the manner of Jean Dubuffet” whose author Epstein would not identify, a “leather room” where tea was served, and an “office” spanning the width of the house with a gilded desk Epstein said had belonged to J. P. Morgan and no computer in it.23 The Times, drawing on visitors, described Epstein working at a dining table seating twenty with several monitors, a wall of framed photographs of public figures, and a photorealistic mural on the second floor of a prison scene with Epstein in the middle; a public relations specialist who saw it in 2019 quoted Epstein as saying “that’s me, and I had this painted because there is always the possibility that could be me again.”3

Both the grand jury testimony and the search warrant record that the house contained a room used as a massage room.2829 The FBI’s evidence inventory for the investigation lists, among the items held, a set of blueprints for the residence stamped received 2003.30

The criminal case

The 2019 indictment

A grand jury in the Southern District of New York returned an indictment against Epstein on July 2, 2019, charging conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors and sex trafficking of minors.3132 The indictment designates the house “the New York Residence” and alleges that Epstein “possessed and controlled a multi-story private residence on the Upper East Side of Manhattan,” and that “between at least in or about 2002 and in or about 2005, EPSTEIN abused numerous minor victims at the New York Residence by causing these victims to be recruited to engage in paid sex acts with him.”12 It alleges that a victim arriving at the house was escorted to a room with a massage table, that victims were as young as 14, and that Epstein or an employee paid each of them in cash afterwards.33 A New York-based employee, identified only as “Employee-1,” is alleged to have telephoned victims to arrange their return.34 The forfeiture allegations name “the lot or parcel of land … located at 9 East 71st Street, New York, New York, with block number 1386 and lot number 10, owned by Maple, Inc.”7

The searches of July 2019

An FBI operations order prepared for the arrest stated that a search warrant for the New York residence “will be sworn out the day of arrest.”35 The warrant application described the premises and asked the court for authority to seize, among other categories, “any and all massage tables and massage paraphernalia,” busts or three-dimensional representations of female torsos, sex toys and paraphernalia located in the massage room, and “any and all taxidermied dogs.”2129

The FBI’s collected-item log records that the warrant issued on July 6, 2019 was executed at the house at about 6.15 p.m. that day, that an amended rider was then drafted and sworn before Judge Moses, and that further search measures were carried out from about 2.05 a.m. on July 7.5 That amended rider, signed by Judge Moses, is itself stamped as issued at 2:03 a.m. on July 7, 2019, and directed execution on or before that date.36 The New York Times reported that the police pried the front door open with a crowbar during the search, and Bloomberg that the doors bore crowbar marks the following Monday.1527

A second warrant was issued on July 11, 2019 at 12.50 p.m. and executed at the house at 2.35 p.m. the same day. Agents found that items originally kept in a safe were gone. An FBI special agent contacted Richard Kahn, who said that the house manager had, on July 7, packed Epstein’s belongings from the safe into a black and a blue suitcase and taken them to Kahn’s home nearby, and that he had not opened them; Kahn brought the two suitcases to the house about half an hour later and they were inventoried on the spot. Among the contents were binders of compact discs, several United States passports in Epstein’s name, an Austrian passport bearing his photograph, jewellery, watches, loose diamonds and envelopes of cash.637

In a letter to the court on July 12, 2019 the government wrote that “the defendant’s maintenance of a substantial collection of photographic trophies of his victims and other young females in his mansion, as discovered by the Government through its search warrants,” demonstrated an ongoing danger, and that discs found in the residence carried handwritten labels the letter reproduced with the names removed.38 Judge Richard M. Berman’s order of July 18, 2019 remanding Epstein recorded the government’s account of a “vast trove” of sexually suggestive photographs and of a “substantial collection of photographic trophies,” and treated the search results as evidence of dangerousness.393840 The order also records the government’s report that a safe in the house had recently held more than $70,000 in cash, 48 loose diamond stones and a large diamond ring, which the government said was “consistent with the capability to leave the jurisdiction at a moment’s notice.”41

What the house was said to be worth

DateFigureSource
June 1, 2019$55,931,000, estimated market value on the property tax bill42
July 13, 2019$86,250,000, appraisal commissioned by the FBI, exterior viewing only22
July 15, 2019$55,931,000 in the defence asset summary; a footnote records the U.S. Attorney’s figure of $77,000,00043
August 22, 2019$81,000,000 broker price opinion; net equity of $77,553,796 after maintenance and sale costs4
February 2020$55,931,000, the value given for the Maple, Inc. shares in the probate petition10

The U.S. Marshals Service worksheet gives base-year real estate taxes of $345,286.05 and, in a transcription error, describes Maple, Inc. as “a U.S. Virginia Islands Corporation.”4

Forfeiture

A Notice of Pendency was filed in United States v. Epstein, 19 Cr. 490 (RMB), giving notice that the government had commenced a forfeiture action against the property, and was stamped by the New York County Clerk at 3.43 p.m. on July 11, 2019.8 The county clerk’s lien index records the instrument as a lis pendens under the heading “Court: Supreme Court,” with the United States of America as creditor, an amount of $0.00, a docket date of July 11, 2019, a date received of July 16, 2019 and an expiry of July 11, 2022; the federal criminal case number appears on it as “Index # 19 CR.490.”44 The title company’s June 2019 search likewise listed the lis pendens as an objection to title and found no open mortgages or judgments against the property.45

Epstein died in federal custody on August 10, 2019. The government moved for an order of nolle prosequi on August 19, 2019 on the ground that the indictment had to be dismissed under the rule of abatement, and the court dismissed it on August 29, 2019, which ended the criminal forfeiture.329

Estate

Epstein’s will, dated August 8, 2019, left his property to the trustees of the 1953 Trust and named Darren K. Indyke and Richard D. Kahn as executors.46 Their petition for probate, filed in the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands, Division of St. Thomas and St. John, and produced in litigation in February 2020, lists among the estate’s personal property “10,000 shares of Maple, Inc., a U.S. Virgin Islands corporation which holds title to 9 East 71st Street, New York, NY 10021,” valued at $55,931,000, subject to appraisal.10 In July 2020 the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote to counsel for the two men, in their capacity as co-executors of the estate and co-trustees of the 1953 Trust, about the estate’s obligations in the prosecution of Ghislaine Maxwell.47

The records this page draws on end there. A search of the released files under “9 East 71st Street,” “East 71st,” “Maple, Inc.” and the block and lot number returned the documents described above and nothing dated after the probate petition about what became of the house.

Surveillance

The 1989–1995 renovation installed security devices including a network of cameras, according to the New York Times.3 Asked by the Deputy Attorney General in a Justice Department interview on July 24, 2025 whether she knew of cameras inside any of Epstein’s residences, Ghislaine Maxwell said “never, with one exception,” and named Palm Beach, where she said the police had installed cameras in 2003 after money was taken.48 Asked specifically about 71st Street, she said there were cameras “in the 71st Street that did the plant, the physical plant, because it was a commercial building,” and one camera “on the front door, internal … as I recall,” but that she knew of “no other cameras inside the house.”49

Leslie Wexner; Ghislaine Maxwell; Darren Indyke; Richard Kahn; United States v. Epstein (S.D.N.Y. 2019); Southern District of New York; Little Saint James; Zorro Ranch.

Footnotes

  1. Bargain and sale deed, Nine East 71st Street Corporation to Maple, Inc., dated December 23, 2011 and recorded January 10, 2012, CRFN 2012000008342, in the New York City Register’s recording package. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00022151 pp.1–4 (pages as printed on the instrument and as opened in the viewer). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  2. Jade Data Research, Inc., title search 19-J-9358, 9 East 71st Street, certified as of 8 a.m. on June 10, 2019. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00020929 pp.1, 3. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  3. Matthew Haag, “Inside Epstein’s $56 Million Mansion: Photos of Bill Clinton, Woody Allen and Saudi Crown Prince,” The New York Times, July 8, 2019, in SDNY News Clips of July 9, 2019. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00076657 pp.6–7. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  4. U.S. Marshals Service, Real Property Net Equity Worksheet, pre-seizure, valuation date August 22, 2019. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00031559 p.1. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. FBI collected item log, “Search Warrant Executed at 9 East 71st Street, New York, New York 10021,” dated July 8, 2019. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00172005 p.1. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. FD-302 of the July 11, 2019 search, drafted July 17, 2019 by Special Agents Brian S. Mitchell and Kelly Maguire. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01301594 pp.1–2. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. Same indictment, forfeiture allegations, ¶25(a), p.12. https://epstein-data.com/DOJ-OGR-00000258 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  8. Notice of Pendency, United States v. Epstein, 19 Cr. 490 (RMB), stamped by the New York County Clerk on July 11, 2019. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00040006 p.26. Other pages of this production are not cited. ↩ ↩2

  9. Department of Justice, Office of Professional Responsibility, executive summary of report, November 2020. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00023059 p.7. ↩ ↩2

  10. Petition for probate and for letters testamentary, Superior Court of the Virgin Islands, Division of St. Thomas and St. John, in the same exhibit. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02751207 pp.14–15. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  11. Memorandum to Geoffrey S. Berman, U.S. Attorney, “Investigation into Potential Co-Conspirators of Jeffrey Epstein,” December 19, 2019, section on counsel for Leslie Wexner. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02731082 pp.65–66. ↩ ↩2

  12. Same indictment, ¶8, p.3. https://epstein-data.com/DOJ-OGR-00000258 ↩ ↩2

  13. Memorandum to Geoffrey S. Berman, U.S. Attorney, “Analysis of Possible Corporate Prosecution,” December 5, 2019. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02731069 pp.1–2. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  14. Same article. https://epstein-data.com/DOJ-OGR-00032040 p.15. ↩

  15. Same article. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00076657 p.8. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  16. Tom Metcalf, Caleb Melby and Sophie Alexander, “The Mystery Around Jeffrey Epstein’s Fortune and How He Made It,” Bloomberg, July 9, 2019, in the same clips package. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00076657 p.10. ↩ ↩2

  17. United States v. Ghislaine Maxwell, No. 20-cr-330 (AJN), trial transcript, Doc. 741, November 29, 2021, transcript p.104 (viewer p.91). https://epstein-data.com/DOJ-OGR-00011666 ↩

  18. Email from an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the same thread, June 27, 2019. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00037757 p.1. ↩

  19. Affidavit of compliance with the smoke detector requirement, filed with the same deed. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00022151 p.7. ↩

  20. Email chain “Re: 9 E 71st Street New York NY DEED”; the quoted passage is from the original message, sent by a Senior Financial Investigator at 1:44 p.m. on June 27, 2019, which the top-level reply at 5:58 p.m. that day forwards to counsel and Assistant U.S. Attorneys. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00026663 ↩

  21. Application for a search and seizure warrant and supporting affidavit, ¶3. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00028388 p.3. ↩ ↩2

  22. Appraisal Reports, Inc., restricted use residential appraisal report F907005.1 for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, effective July 13, 2019, signed July 15, 2019. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01307753 pp.3–4, 7. ↩ ↩2

  23. Vicky Ward, “The Talented Mr. Epstein,” Vanity Fair, 2003, in a public records production. https://epstein-data.com/DOJ-OGR-00032040 pp.11, 13. ↩ ↩2

  24. Grand jury testimony of an FBI special agent, Southern District of New York, June 29, 2020, transcript p.7. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00008631 ↩

  25. Same transcript, transcript pp.106–107 (viewer pp.93–94). https://epstein-data.com/DOJ-OGR-00011666 ↩

  26. Same article. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00076657 p.6. ↩

  27. Same article. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00076657 p.9. ↩ ↩2

  28. Same testimony, transcript p.8. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00008631 . The passage was read back to a grand jury on March 29, 2021, transcript p.9: https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00008744 ↩

  29. Same warrant, Attachment A, items to be seized. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00021303 pp.3–4. ↩ ↩2

  30. FBI evidence inventory for the investigation, case SOD-NY-3027571, item 1B5. https://epstein-data.com/DOJ-OGR-00022170 p.3. ↩

  31. Indictment, United States v. Jeffrey Epstein, 19 Cr. 490 (RMB), filed July 2, 2019, p.1. https://epstein-data.com/DOJ-OGR-00000258 ↩

  32. Nolle prosequi, United States v. Epstein, 19 Cr. 490 (RMB), Doc. 47-1, filed August 19, 2019. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00010422 pp.2–3. ↩ ↩2

  33. Same indictment, ¶¶9–10, p.4. https://epstein-data.com/DOJ-OGR-00000258 ↩

  34. Same indictment, ¶11, p.5. https://epstein-data.com/DOJ-OGR-00000258 ↩

  35. FBI operations order for the arrest and search, case file 31E-NY-3027571, prepared July 2, 2019. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00037984 p.1. ↩

  36. Amended rider to the search and seizure warrant, signed by Hon. Barbara Moses, U.S. Magistrate Judge, and stamped issued at 2:03 a.m. on July 7, 2019. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00021303 p.1. ↩

  37. FBI collected item log, “Seizure of items from safe of 9 East 71st St, NY, NY,” August 7, 2019. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01301613 pp.1-2. The event title is cut off at the page edge on p.1 and prints in full on p.2. ↩

  38. Letter from the U.S. Attorney’s Office to Hon. Richard M. Berman, United States v. Epstein, Doc. 11, filed July 12, 2019, p.10. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00015532 ↩ ↩2

  39. United States v. Epstein, Doc. 32, Decision & Order Remanding Defendant, filed July 18, 2019, pp.11–12. This document has no PDF in the store and cannot be image-checked. https://epstein-data.com/DOJ-OGR-00000472 ↩

  40. The same order as reported, 425 F. Supp. 3d 306, 315 (S.D.N.Y. 2019). https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00066191 p.10. ↩

  41. United States v. Epstein, 425 F. Supp. 3d 306, 323 (S.D.N.Y. 2019), as reproduced in the Federal Supplement. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00066191 p.18. ↩

  42. New York City property tax bill for the premises, in the lien search package. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00030126 p.21. ↩

  43. “Asset Summary — June 30, 2019,” submitted at the bail hearing and docketed by order of July 15, 2019, Doc. 14. https://epstein-data.com/DOJ-OGR-00000366 p.18. ↩

  44. County clerk lien and judgment search for Block 1386, Lot 10, in the same package. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00030126 p.19. ↩

  45. Same search, objections to title. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00020929 p.2. ↩

  46. Last will and testament of Jeffrey E. Epstein, dated August 8, 2019, filed as Doc. 52-2 in No. 1:19-cv-08673 (S.D.N.Y.) on February 14, 2020. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02751207 p.1. ↩

  47. Letter from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York to counsel for the co-executors, July 23, 2020. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00015838 pp.1–2. ↩

  48. Interview of Ghislaine Maxwell by the Deputy Attorney General, July 24, 2025, transcript pp.78–80 (condensed transcript, viewer p.21). https://epstein-data.com/DOJ-OGR-00022656 ↩

  49. Same interview, transcript pp.80–81 (viewer p.21). https://epstein-data.com/DOJ-OGR-00022656 ↩

Backlinks