Files suggest Jeffrey Epstein used US storage units to hide computers and photos, and authorities may never have searched them. Photo / Getty Images
Jeffrey Epstein hid computers and photographs from United States authorities in secret storage lockers across the country, the Telegraph can reveal.
Documents show the paedophile paid private detectives to remove equipment from his Florida home in an apparent attempt to prevent investigators from finding it.
The documents also show that he rented six storage units across the US and used them to house items from his properties, including computers from his private Caribbean island.
He leased at least one unit from 2003, when he was part of a Florida social set that included now-US President Donald Trump. Credit card receipts obtained by the Telegraph show regular storage payments continued until 2019, the year of his death.
Search warrants reviewed by the Telegraph suggest US authorities never raided the lockers, raising the possibility that they may contain unseen evidence relating to Epstein and his associates, including Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Lord Peter Mandelson.
In December, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) released three million files relating to the financier. The revelations they contain led Mandelson to resign from the Labour Party and quit the House of Lords.
They have also led to the arrest of Mountbatten-Windsor on suspicion of misconduct in public office and the prospect of his removal from the line of royal succession. Today, a Cabinet minister suggested the former prince could face a judge-led inquiry.
However, while Epstein has long been suspected of collecting compromising material on his associates, relatively few such photographs or videos have emerged.
That has fuelled claims that the DoJ is seeking to shield powerful figures from scrutiny, although authorities have repeatedly denied this.
The emails the DoJ released, with the financial records the Telegraph has unearthed revealing the secret storage units, raise the possibility that they housed compromising material.
Epstein owned five sprawling properties across the US and France at the time of his death.
Photographs of the properties taken when US authorities raided them after his arrest in 2019 showed that many contained large storage areas and empty basements, so it is unclear why Epstein would need to rent external lock-ups.
This month, the Telegraph revealed that Epstein ordered staff to install secret cameras inside Kleenex boxes at his home after a contact told him, “the Russians may come in handy”. The FBI had previously said there was no evidence Epstein was storing compromising material.
The documents the Telegraph unearthed show that Epstein instructed private detectives to move computers into another lock-up after apparently being tipped off about a police raid on his home in the mid-2000s.
Private investigators were also asked to open a secret storage unit in New York on his behalf, while being paid tens of thousands of dollars for their work.
Separately, Epstein’s staff discussed moving computers and CDs from his private island in the US Virgin Islands into hidden lock-ups.
Material held in these units could pre-date the earliest tranche of Epstein’s emails released by the US Government, which begin around 2009.
The Telegraph approached Epstein’s former private detectives in Florida about the storage lockers. They declined to comment, saying their work for Epstein was confidential. The FBI refused to say whether any storage units had ever been raided.
Epstein is known to have introduced high-profile figures such as Mountbatten-Windsor to women at properties around the world.
In August 2009, a month after his release from jail following a child sex offence conviction, Epstein received an email from a private investigator informing him that Virginia Giuffre had requested missing computer material.
Giuffre filed a civil lawsuit in Florida in 2009 alleging that Epstein sexually abused her as a minor and trafficked her internationally.
On August 23, 2009, Bill Riley – one half of the Riley Kiraly private detective agency that Epstein hired – emailed the financier and his lawyers: “Over the weekend I learned that plaintiff’s counsel are looking to get from me the computers and paperwork I took from Jeff’s house prior to the Search Warrant.
“I have them locked in storage and would like to know what to do with them. They are no longer needed in the criminal case, I assume. Is it possible to give you these items for your review and safekeeping or give it to Darren Indyke [Epstein’s lawyer] or back to Jeff, etc.?”
Authorities have long suspected Epstein was tipped off about the first police raid on his Florida home in 2005. Michael Reiter, the former Palm Beach police chief, later said “the place had been cleaned up” and certain computer material appeared to be missing.
The emails the Telegraph unearthed suggest for the first time that this may have been because Epstein paid private detectives to remove material before the raid.
It is unclear precisely where the computers were stored. However, emails show Epstein had been leasing a nearby self-storage unit in Florida called Uncle Bob’s since 2003.
This period overlaps with his years living in Palm Beach, when he moved in the same social circles as Trump.
Credit card statements show Epstein was billed US$374.13 per month by Uncle Bob’s until March 2015, with a final smaller payment in late 2016.
Photographs taken in August 2012 – believed to be from inside this lock-up – show a cluttered unit crammed with fans, projectors, an old armchair and dozens of cardboard boxes. One box bears an image of a computer.
The Telegraph has also seen transactions for additional storage units across Florida over a 10-year period, including monthly payments of around US$140 for a lock-up in Royal Palm Beach that continued until 2019.
Credit card data show Epstein paid the Riley Kiraly agency US$38,500 from January to May 2010. The agency also sought payment for invoices outside that timeframe.
The Florida lock-ups Epstein is believed to have used were located on industrial estates on the outskirts of Palm Beach and Delray Beach, just north of Miami.
One public storage facility he paid for from 2009 to 2011 featured large garages capable of storing vehicles. The red roller shutters could be accessed by customers 24 hours a day without staff interaction.
An employee told the Telegraph that confidentiality agreements prevented staff from discussing who used the lockers or what they contained. He said he could not confirm whether the FBI had ever raided any of the units.
“It doesn’t matter whether it is Epstein or anyone else,” he said. “We would only disclose information if subpoenaed by the US state attorney.”
Other storage companies that appeared on Epstein’s credit card statements gave similar responses. Many had changed ownership since he began renting units. Employees declined to comment on whether he had ever used their facilities.
It remains unclear whether any remaining material was destroyed, relocated or retained by Epstein’s estate after his death. His brother, Mark Epstein, told the Telegraph he had no knowledge of the lock-ups.
In Florida, companies can auction the contents of a unit if rent remains unpaid for 60 days.
Most of the units were within a few kilometres of the 1300sqm mansion Epstein owned on El Brillo Way in Palm Beach, the property central to the investigation into allegations of sex-trafficking of minors, and where the first allegations against him emerged in 2005.
Emails show Epstein later instructed Riley Kiraly investigators to open a Manhattan storage unit on his behalf. In September 2010, Riley asked Epstein’s accountant to send “credit card information so I can have it put on file to have the monthly charges at Manhattan Mini Storage billed directly to your card”.
Subsequent correspondence shows the unit had been rented since at least May 2010 at around US$500 per month, paid in lump sums of US$2000. It is not known how long the unit was kept on for.
Manhattan Mini Storage appears not to have known it was being used by Epstein.
In 2022, the company launched an advertising campaign mocking the then Duke of York over his links to the paedophile, with billboards stating: “Safe, secure, protected, with minimum charges. Just like Prince Andrew.” The company was approached for comment.
Riley Kiraly – run by former police officers Riley and Steve Kiraly – also stored photographs in the units and were instructed to gather damaging information on Epstein’s victims.
In May 2009, while Epstein was serving his sentence at Palm Beach County Jail, he emailed Riley: “You were going to send me a copy of [redacted’s] picture”.
Riley replied: “I thought I had a copy of it on my computer but it is in storage with everything else. I will get it out next time I go to the storage unit.”
Epstein also appears to have directed staff to move computers from his private island into hidden storage, and to wipe material stored on them.
In January 2015, Janusz Banasiak, house manager at Epstein’s Palm Beach property, wrote that a local unit contained “3 computers” and a screen from Little Saint James, his private island. Another staff member said it also held a “box with CDs”.
Richard Kahn, Epstein’s accountant, forwarded the messages to him, saying: “Janusz would like to review with you as he believes some items such as old computers (once wiped) can be discarded”.
Emails show Epstein also rented another lock-up five minutes from his New York mansion. Though largely used for furniture, Kahn wrote in June 2012 that it also contained “a lot of excess equipment” including “computers, supplies, etc”.
Epstein further discussed paying US$150 a month to store guns in “a secure storage unit” near his Zorro ranch in New Mexico. It is unclear whether he proceeded.
He was first arrested on sex-related charges in 2006 and convicted in 2008 of soliciting a minor for prostitution. A controversial plea deal allowed him to leave jail for up to 12 hours per day; he was released after 13 months.
An audio file in the latest release of Epstein documents confirms authorities found “covert cameras” during the 2005 raid on his Palm Beach home, but no incriminating material.
A Florida detective can be heard telling the FBI: “Two computers were seized. One was the covert cameras, and the other one was Mr Banasiak’s personal computer.”
Asked whether any evidence of sexual activity was found, he replied: “No”.
In 2019, after Epstein’s arrest on sex- trafficking charges, the FBI searched his New York mansion. A warrant shows agents seized two electronic devices from Epstein himself, 33 devices from his Manhattan townhouse, and 27 devices from Little Saint James.
Agents removed a computer monitor, hard drive and USB sticks from “a storage area in the basement of the New York residence”. There is no mention of raids on external units.
During the search of Little Saint James on August 19, 2019, an FBI agent emailed the violent crimes task force: “We are just about finish with the search, I am attaching they sit rep [situation report], we seized several computers storage devices documents, and a couple of servers. Nothing appears to be a smoking gun type of evidence, but we’ll see when we do the computer forensics.”
Last month, the DoJ published dozens of images of CDs and photo albums seized from Epstein’s estate, suggesting he obsessively documented his life and those around him.
Photographs of his New York home taken after his death show a media room with seven screens stacked in a tower.
Many victims have said they believed Epstein installed hidden cameras throughout his properties to record footage for sexual gratification or potential blackmail.
A small number of videos seized and published by the DoJ were apparently recorded using covert cameras. However, they were largely innocuous and unlikely to constitute compromising material. They appear to have been filmed in the living room of Epstein’s Palm Beach home, not in bedrooms or elsewhere.
Last July, both the DoJ and the FBI said there was “no credible evidence” that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals or possessed a “client list”.
An internal FBI memo released in the latest tranche of files stated: “We are aware of the theories circulated in the media and online that Epstein video recorded the abuse of his victims, including by other men, but we have found no evidence to support that theory.
“Indeed, had we found such videos, we certainly would have used them as evidence in the criminal cases we investigated and prosecuted, and would have pursued any leads they generated. We did not, however, locate any such videos.
“The Palm Beach Police Department video-recorded interviews of victims at their police station, video-recorded parts of their search of Epstein’s Palm Beach residence, and seized a small number of videos from Epstein’s Palm Beach residence.
“None of these videos depict the abuse of any victims or provide evidence suggesting anyone other than Epstein and [Ghislaine] Maxwell participated in the abuse of victims.”
The apparent presence of hidden cameras at Epstein’s properties appears to conflict with previous law enforcement statements.
Last March, a federal prosecutor in Manhattan emailed senior FBI officials following searches of Epstein’s island and New York home: “My understanding from the case agent is that there were no cameras found inside any bedrooms or living areas of either residence”.
The Telegraph approached Riley and Kiraly, but they said they were legally unable to comment on work carried out for Epstein.
Emails suggest some of that work was commissioned by lawyers acting for the financier, meaning it would be protected by lawyer-client privilege even after his death.
Today Bridget Phillipson, the UK Education Secretary, refused to rule out a judge-led inquiry into Mountbatten-Windsor’s relationship with the financier.
Phillipson told Sky’s Trevor Phillips: “We’ll look at any sensible proposals that do come forward. But it’s premature at the moment, because we do have the police doing their work.”
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