Even in death, the secrets of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and his infamous private island remain tightly guarded. But in 2024 WIRED conducted an investigation uncovering the data of mobile devices belonging to almost 200 of his visitors. How strong was the data? So precise that we followed visitor's movements to and from Epstein Island to within centimeters—tracking their countries, neighborhoods, and even buildings of origin. This is Epstein Island’s Secret Data: On The Grid.
Director: Lisandro Perez-Rey
Director of Photography: Constantine Economides
Editor: Matthew Colby
Host: Dhruv Mehrotra
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas; Brandon White
Production Manager: Peter Brunette
Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark
Camera Operator: Vincent Cota
Sound Mixer: Michael Guggino
Production Assistant: Ryan Coppola
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds
Director: Lisandro Perez-Rey
Director of Photography: Constantine Economides
Editor: Matthew Colby
Host: Dhruv Mehrotra
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas; Brandon White
Production Manager: Peter Brunette
Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark
Camera Operator: Vincent Cota
Sound Mixer: Michael Guggino
Production Assistant: Ryan Coppola
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds
Category
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TechTranscript
00:00Even in death, the secrets of Jeffrey Epstein remain tightly guarded, but earlier this year,
00:04I spearheaded a wired investigation that uncovered the data of almost 200 mobile phones belonging
00:09to visitors to his infamous pedophile island.
00:12The data was so precise, we were able to map the paths of these visitors to within centimeters,
00:17including their neighborhoods, buildings of origin, and the paths they took to get to
00:20the island.
00:22These digital trails document the numerous trips of wealthy and influential individuals
00:26seemingly undeterred by Epstein's status as a convicted sex vendor.
00:30Wired's analysis of the data is ongoing, and it raises profound questions about privacy
00:34and surveillance.
00:36This is Epstein Island's secret data, on the grid.
00:41This is Little St. James, aka Epstein Island.
00:45These red dots on the map represent some of the 11,279 coordinates I obtained.
00:50They were left exposed online by a location data broker with ties to the Defense Department
00:54called Near Intelligence, now known as Xera.
00:57Between 2016 and Epstein's final arrest in 2019, Near collected data on more than
01:03200 cell phones that visited the island.
01:05We don't know why they did that, or which client, or prospective client, of Near decided
01:09to query the data in this way, to produce the maps.
01:13But the maps you'll see in this video show where visitors to Epstein Island spent most
01:17of their time.
01:18Let's take a step back.
01:19You might be wondering, where is Epstein Island, anyways?
01:22Well it's here.
01:23Little St. James is a private island that is part of the U.S. Virgin Islands, an unincorporated
01:28territory of the United States in the Caribbean Sea.
01:31Epstein purchased Little St. James in 1998 for $7.95 million.
01:36It's about 71 acres, the size of 54 football fields.
01:40He made the island his primary residence and soon after began welcoming visitors, and throwing
01:44infamous parties where he was accused of having groomed, sexually assaulted, and trafficked
01:49untold numbers of women and girls.
01:51The maps of the data collected by Near, and which we at Wired recreated here, indicate
01:56the most visited spots on the island.
01:58From the main house here with the pool, to the beaches and the large sundial, it's all
02:03on display, including the enigmatic Hilltop Temple site over here, which has been the
02:08focal point in speculations about Epstein's mysterious activities on the island.
02:13But the tracking of phones wasn't contained at Little St. James.
02:16Surveillance continued long after the visitors left.
02:19The data reveals the locations of visitors 30 minutes before and after arriving on the
02:24island, which shows us the exact routes everyone took to get there.
02:28Some landed here, at the Cyril E. King Airport on neighboring St. Thomas Island.
02:33With its private jet and VIP terminals, it was the go-to hub for Epstein's 200-seater
02:38Boeing 727 plane dubbed Lolita Express.
02:42We see data points clustered at various area beaches, hotels, and luxury resorts, including
02:47the Ritz-Carlton Hotel here.
02:49To get to Epstein's island, many visitors got on a boat at a designated dock at the
02:54American Yacht Harbor, a private marina on St. Thomas co-owned by Epstein at the time.
02:59From there, we see a flow of movement through Great St. James Island, the larger island
03:03just to the north, which Epstein purchased in 2016 for $22 million.
03:08He had hoped to develop it, but was met with legal challenges after damaging the island's
03:12coral reefs and protected habitats.
03:15The data then traces visitors' movements as they were ferried to Epstein's private
03:19dock on Little St. James.
03:21Epstein also had a helipad on the island, and owned at least one helicopter, a Sikorsky
03:25S-76, which he used often to transport himself, guests, and victims from the airport or elsewhere,
03:32according to legal documents and testimony.
03:34It's worth noting that the data reveals a regular flow of traffic to and from Little
03:38St. James between 2016 and 2019.
03:41A lot of people were visiting the island even after Epstein had pleaded guilty in 2008
03:46and served jail time for procuring a minor for prostitution.
03:50If we keep following the data trail and we widen our view, we'll see that the tracking
03:54of visitors continues once they have left the island and presumably gone back home.
03:58The near-intelligence data we uncovered pinpoints 166 locations throughout the United States
04:04and 80 cities across 26 states.
04:07Topping the list were Florida, Massachusetts, Texas, Michigan, and New York.
04:13The data points are labeled as common evening locations or common daytime locations, typically
04:18their homes or work.
04:20Many of the visitors were likely wealthy, as indicated by coordinates pointing to gated
04:24communities in Michigan, as well as homes in Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket in Massachusetts.
04:29We even have data points from a downtown Miami nightclub, and also the sidewalk across the
04:34street from Trump Tower in New York City.
04:36Before we jump to conclusions, some sources have highlighted interactions between Donald
04:40Trump and Jeffrey Epstein at social events.
04:42But after Epstein's 2008 conviction, there are no verified reports of Trump maintaining
04:47a relationship with the convicted pedophile.
04:50Take a look at this point over here in New Mexico.
04:52This is a property that was owned by Epstein, a secluded 8,000-acre ranch.
04:57Another property of Epstein's is seen over here on El Brio Way in Palm Beach, Florida.
05:02This waterfront mansion was sold, demolished, and is now being rebuilt, but it was where
05:06prosecutors claimed Epstein trafficked numerous underage girls with the intention of molesting
05:11and abusing them.
05:12But we don't just see the coordinates of wealthy homes amongst the data.
05:15The median household income of Palm Beach is more than twice that of nearby communities
05:19where we also see data points.
05:22Some of these points could represent victims or employees who worked on the island, which
05:25is why we're careful about revealing names and continue to carefully analyze the data.
05:29If we zoom out more, we notice something strange.
05:33There are no data points anywhere in Europe.
05:35Does this mean it was strictly Americans visiting Jeffrey Epstein on his island?
05:39No.
05:40We do see data points from the cache identifying origin cities in Australia, the Cayman Islands,
05:45and way over here in Kyiv in Ukraine.
05:47We know that Epstein himself had a place in Paris, and we know from victim testimony and
05:52flight logs that his associate, Jean-Luc Brunel, owner of a modeling agency in Paris, did visit
05:57the island.
05:58So why don't we see these data points?
06:00One possibility could be Europe's extensive privacy laws.
06:04Considered the strongest privacy and security law in the world, the General Data Protection
06:08Regulation, GDPR, gives Europeans robust rights to their personal data, even outside of Europe.
06:15Under comparatively lax U.S. privacy laws, Near Intelligence was able to source its location
06:20data for this precision surveillance.
06:22To explain how this data might have been collected in the first place, we need to talk about
06:26the world of digital advertising and data brokers.
06:28The reason you get a targeted ad displayed on an app or a website is because apps on
06:32your phone have been transmitting information about you to ad exchanges and real-time bidding
06:37platforms.
06:38That information often includes your location data.
06:40Data brokers like Near Intelligence extract, repackage, analyze, and sell the data from
06:45these ad platforms.
06:47In fact, according to internal company documents from 2019, Near Intelligence, which has roots
06:53in Singapore and Bengaluru, India, claimed to have information on around 1.6 billion
06:58people in 44 countries.
07:00They offer a platform for searching that allows their clients to query their vast dataset
07:04by drawing a box around a specific area like Little St. James.
07:08Near then provides insights about the devices it observed within the selected area.
07:13We don't know who or why someone searched Epstein Island, but the reports and maps they
07:17created were sitting unprotected and totally searchable as publicly accessible code.
07:21And that's where we found them.
07:23And those aren't the only Near Intelligence datasets that we found.
07:27Google's web crawlers were able to locate at least two other reports, one geofencing
07:31the Westfield Mall in the Netherlands and another targeting a park in El Paso, Texas.
07:37This is data unrelated to our investigation about Epstein Island, but it shows how unsafe
07:41personal data can be.
07:43In some cases, it's just a Google search away.
07:45So pro tip, if you don't want your personal data swimming around in the murky waters of
07:49programmatic advertising, make sure you limit ad tracking on your phone, disable location
07:54services and third-party cookies, and use an ad blocker.
07:58So what happened to the island after Epstein reportedly committed suicide in a Manhattan
08:02federal jail while awaiting trial for sex trafficking?
08:04Well, in May of 2023, billionaire investor Stephen Deekhoff purchased both Little St.
08:09James and Great St. James for $60 million.
08:13He's currently building a luxury resort on Little St. James that he says could open as
08:16early as 2025.
08:18Also, Ghislaine Maxwell, former British socialite and Epstein accomplice, was convicted in 2021
08:24on five counts, including sex trafficking of minors by force.
08:27Maxwell was arrested in Bradford, New Hampshire, tracked to a million-dollar home by federal
08:32agents using location data pulled from her cell phone.
08:36I'm Dhruv Marotra.
08:37The Wired investigation into the secret data of Epstein's island continues.