Puerto Rico Mentions in the New Tranche of Epstein Files

Hello, dear reader! After being head down on a couple of larger stories, I have finally had some time to dig into the newest tranche of Epstein documents, which were released by the House Oversight Committee and were obtained from the Epstein estate.

This is not a comprehensive list. Some of this has already been reported and other things haven't. I'm just compiling everything in one place. Here's what's in this article.

• Epstein and his lawyer discussing the 2017 protests and taking a trip to the Dominican Republic
• Someone seemingly setting up a meeting with former Governor Ricardo Rossello while talking about condoms.
• Epstein's accountant and his investment adviser emailing him about Puerto Rico's debt crisis and opportunity zones.
• Banco Popular of Puerto Rico doing an appraisal of a marina partially owned by Epstein in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Before I start, it's worth mentioning that there were a couple of times where ctrl + f'ing "Puerto Rico" caused several newspaper articles to pop up that I haven't included because they're not worth highlighting.

Thank you to Zeteo for compiling all the Epstein documents in one easily searchable database.

Epstein Invites Lawyer to "Hop to My Island" Then Talk About 2017 Protests

In 2017, Epstein had a conversation with his former lawyer, Reid Weingarten, who was seemingly participating in a legal case in Puerto Rico because he told the dead pedophile and financier he had to "pick the jury monday." It's unclear what case Weingarten was referring to. This email was first reported by Tom Elliot.

"for how long? you can hop to my island with your friend if you like," Epstein said. "just give me 24 hrs notice otherwise ill be htre [sic] around the 19th."

"2-3 weeks but not sure how it will roll... supposed to be serious riots here may 1....lefties are pissed and trump said p.r. can fuck itself....what's with you?" Weingarten asked.

"new york fun your girl is in the DR. i have no idea," Epstein said.

Since Weingarten was Epstein's lawyer, there are a myriad of conversations between them in the cache, but I couldn't find any follow up to this conversation.

"Contacted Puerto Rico's Governor to Set Up a Meeting"

Someone named Harry Fisch emailed Epstein saying that he had "contacted Puerto Rico's governor to set up a meeting. Meetings for NY State occurs in 2 weeks then I contact Cuomo." The importance on the email was set to "High." This email was first reported by investigative reporter Daniel Boguslaw.

Fisch had previously talked about New York passing a law similar to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the same email. Then, he talks about condoms.

The email was sent on Jan 25, 2017, couple of days after Ricardo Rossello became Governor of Puerto Rico, a position he would only hold for about two years before being driven out in 2019 by massive protests following mismanagement of the destruction wrought by Hurricane Maria in 2017 and the Center for Investigative Journalism publishing 900 pages of chat logs between him and members of his cabinet where they attacked basically everyone in 2019.

A couple of months earlier, in November 2016, Epstein had emailed Fisch a quote from a Washington Post article about what Trump's presidency means for feminists, and Epstein being mad that Fisch did not honour some agreement they had previously had.

Epstein's Circle Alerts Him to Puerto Rico Crises and President Visit

Richard Kahn, Epstein's former accountant, sent him an email in October 2017 with the subject line "PR Bonds." The only thing in the body of the email is a link to a CNBC article about Puerto Rico's debt crisis and how Trump said it had to be wiped out. At time of writing, the video file on CNBC is inaccessible.

This is the only email in the newest tranche that has the title "PR Bonds."

In January 2019, someone named Paul V. Morris sent Epstein an email whose title is "Opportunity Zones." The body of the email is mostly a copy/paste of an entire Bloomberg article about opportunity zones across the United States. Before that, Morris wrote "Hope all well, are you doing anything around these or clients?"

The article itself doesn't really talk much at all about Puerto Rico other than an initial mention of "Puerto Rican moonshine" (Pitorro) and how officials want to "jump-start local economies" through opportunity zones.

Approximately 95% of Puerto Rico is considered a Qualified Opportunity Zone under federal parameters, according to a local 2019 law. The fact that the archipelago is such a massive opportunity zone has long attracted investors to Puerto Rican soil, where they mostly come to pay little-to-no taxes thanks to a massive tax breaks.

Finally, just because I don't know where else to put it, here's an email exchange between Epstein and Larry Visoski, his former pilot, from September 30, 2017, where the latter was letting Epstein know about Trump possibly visiting the U.S. Virgin Islands. However, Epstein corrected him to say that Trump was only visiting Puerto Rico and that Mike Pence would visit the U.S. Virgin Islands on Friday.

This email came shortly after Hurricanes Irma and Maria destroyed Puerto Rico earlier in September.

"Trump Marks Puerto Rico LLC"

Bit of an odd one here, but a bunch of documents showing Trump's ownership in different brands also popped up during my search for documents that mentioned Puerto Rico.

Trump Marks Puerto Rico / Member Corp was 100% owned by Trump, according to the documents. Meanwhile, he owned 1% of company called Trump Marks Puerto Rico, according to the documents.

It's worth noting here that Trump once had a Trump-branded golf club in Puerto Rico that crashed and burned, according to NPR. It became Coco Beach Golf and Country Club in 2015, then filed for bankruptcy, per NPR.

The document also shows there was a Trump Marks Puerto Rico II LLC and Member Corp that were dissolved in 2016.

Appraisal Report for Marina Partially Owned by Epstein for Banco Popular of Puerto Rico

The last thing I think is worth highlighting is an appraisal document sent to Roberto A. Soltero, Vice President of Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, in December 2015 by Integra Realty Resources – Caribbean. The company appraised the American Yacht Harbor Marina in St. Thomas, which was half-owned by Epstein, according to The Virgin Islands Daily News.

"The purpose of the appraisal is to develop an opinion of the market value of the leased fee (going concern) interest in the property. The client for the assignment is Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, and the intended use is for Commercial credit administration," reads the document.

It's worth mentioning here that Epstein had a bunch of money in Puerto Rico's two leading banks, Banco Popular and FirstBank, according to local outlet El Nuevo Día. A $50 million trust was transferred from Deutsche Bank to FirstBank Puerto Rico after the former ended their relationship with Epstein, the article reads.

The whole document is a couple pages long. You can find the rest of the pages, not in order, here.

If you've made it this far, thank you for reading! If there's anything that I missed or that you think is worth digging deeper into, reach out to me over carlosBP@protonmail.com.