Handel Homes

The 16-Story Condo Where Jeffrey Epstein Kept His Victims

A very boring apartment building on East 66th figured prominently in Epstein’s dealings.
Photo-Illustration: source: homes.com

Everyone knows about the Gilded Age mansion gifted to Jeffrey Epstein by Les Wexner, where he hosted dinner parties for famous men and lured underage girls to his massage room. That mansion, like Epstein’s Palm Beach compound and the complex on his private Caribbean island, was opulent and filled with creepy décor, including a bronze bride statue hanging in the stairwell, a taxidermied tiger and poodle, and cameras mounted in the corners of bedrooms. But recently released emails detail how another Manhattan property just a few blocks east also played a central role in Epstein’s operations: an utterly ordinary, white-brick apartment building on 66th Street and Second Avenue.

More than a dozen apartments in 301 East 66th Street, a 200-unit postwar condo building, appear repeatedly in the files. Some of the apartments were for Epstein’s “girls,” as the emails refer to his victims — marked in Epstein’s address book as “Apts. for models,” The Wall Street Journal reported in 2019 — but he offered other units to visiting friends, acquaintances, foreign dignitaries, employees, and any number of people in his orbit. The use of these otherwise unremarkable studio and one-bedroom apartments was yet another of the many favors Epstein bestowed to gain leverage over people and keep them in his debt. (As the emails illustrate, staying a few nights for free at a clean, furnished apartment in a Manhattan doorman building was a sought-after perk, even among people of considerable means.) Between 2009 and 2019, his assistants and housekeepers seem to have essentially been running the equivalent of an Airbnb operation at about 15 different apartments in the building. The comings and goings were sometimes so busy at 301 that Epstein couldn’t put people up and comped their stays at hotels instead.

Here’s everything we know about the Epstein apartments at 301 East 66th.

As with his townhouse on 71st, Epstein’s connection to 301 came through Wexner, the billionaire Victoria’s Secret CEO who mysteriously funneled large sums of money to Epstein, ostensibly for his services as a financial adviser, beginning in the 1980s. The postwar apartment building was converted to condos in the 1980s by developer Myles Horn, who partnered with Wexner on a number of real-estate transactions during that era, Crain’s reported in 2019. During the market downturn in 1990, Horn told Crain’s that he transferred his stake to Wexner. Public records show that Wexner formed a business partnership with Ossa Properties, the real-estate company helmed by Epstein’s brother Mark, the following year. Ossa also listed the building as its address on the partnership filing. Mark Epstein told Crain’s that he acquired the building in the early 1990s from Wexner “on a tip from his brother.” At that time, according to the 2019 Wall Street Journal story, the mortgage on the building was $7.34 million. In much the same way that many questioned how Jeffrey went from teaching at Dalton without a college degree to immense private wealth managing the accounts of people like Wexner and Leon Black, Mark’s trajectory from artist to property developer is similarly mysterious and the source of his funds unclear.

Mark Epstein has claimed that Ossa had no other ties to Jeffrey, although as Crain’s reported in 2019, Jonathan Barrett, Ossa’s vice-president and CFO from 1992 through 1996, was also an asset manager for J. Epstein & Co., Jeffrey’s financial business, during the same period. Barrett later told the Journal that the two companies were indeed affiliated. His brother Anthony Barrett is listed on city work permits as an owner of 301 East 66 Street and is on record corresponding with Jeffrey Epstein about apartments coming up for sale there as late as 2011.

An email from 2012 shows at least 15 units in the condo being used by Epstein. In March 2012, Lesley Groff, Epstein’s longtime assistant, emailed Richard Kahn, one of his accountants and executors, with a list of units and their inhabitants, some of whom include his longtime household staff (Lynn and Jojo), exes, and assistants:

5P: Lynn and Jojo (studio),

7J: Jean Luc (one bedroom),

11P: Dana (studio)

I4G: Sarah (one bedroom)

8A: Renata (but she is moving out this Sunday) (studio), (Karina to move in on March 11)

2G: (one bedroom),

2C: JE’s brother (one bedroom),

ION: Guest Apartment (one bedroom),

8C: JE brother kids (Joyce) (one bedroom),

11E: (one bedroom converted from a 2 bedroom),

11B: Guest Apt (Sam Jaradeh is occupying for 6 months) (one bedroom),

10B: DKI, PLLC (one bedroom),

10F: HBRK (one bedroom),

4M: Guest Apt. (one bedroom),

8H: Eva’s apt. being occupied by her housekeeper.

Four years later, in July 2016, a rundown of apartments in Epstein’s emails included only eight units and different apartment numbers (it’s unclear if both lists are partial or if Epstein acquired or sold units). In response to a question about who was in 11J now, Groff wrote, “11J is Ehud and Nili … they seem to have taken the apartment over … they installed an alarm system _.!” That is, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and his wife, Nili Priel, who appear to have stayed in the building on a number of occasions.

Property records show that the majority of units in the building — more than 150 of the 200 — are owned by an LLC, 301 66 Owners Corp, which shares the same business address as Ossa’s, on the first floor of the building. When the building was first converted to condos in the 1980s, some units remained rent-stabilized and others were sold to individual owners, but, as mentioned, a majority stake is owned by the LLC with ties to Ossa. Other units in the building have traded hands over the last few decades to and from buyers with no Epstein associations.

Mark Epstein told Crain’s that he knew his brother used a number of apartments at the building — files show him asking Jeffrey about security agents in the building when Barak visited — but Mark claimed he didn’t know who paid the rent for the Ossa-owned units or what was done there.

However, it also appears that Epstein was informed by Ossa when units became available to buy. In March 2011, Anthony Barrett, an executive at Ossa Properties, emailed Jeffrey Epstein to let him know that “An individual owner’s apartment #12B (estate sale) is coming to market. They will ask $599K and probably do a deal one-bedroom around $550K. Layout I (675sf) was thinking and completely perhaps unrenovated. Making an offer. Do you have any interest in this? This is the smallest.” Epstein does not appear to have replied to the email, and records show that it sold in August to another buyer for $540,000.

It’s a standard-issue postwar white-brick apartment building with a full-time doorman, live-in super, garden, roof-deck, parking, and a laundry room on the first floor, according to real-estate listings. The doorman is mentioned frequently in the files, often as the conduit for giving “welcome letters” to guests and receiving deliveries.

301 East 66th Street in Manhattan.
Photo: Coldwell Banker Schmitt Real Estate Co.

There are also emails about routine maintenance, stoves and microwaves being delivered from P.C. Richard & Son, and having units repainted and renovated. In 2018, Karyna Shulyak, Epstein’s Belarusian model-dentist girlfriend who lived in an apartment in the building at one point and helped manage the Epstein units, responded to a $3,500 quote to have 2G fully repainted, saying that it looked “correct” and that she would “choose the color with him when he is back.” At one point in 2014, John Christensen, a former house manager for Céline Dion who was fired for trying to arrange an unofficial visit of her Florida home for Epstein, seems to have toured the units and gave a rather dismal review of how things were being managed:

There are some odd decisions made in the building. Caryna is storing her furniture in a freshly restored apartment, putting a perfectly good apartment out of circulation. Plus risking damage to paint and flooring when the furniture is moved again at some time.

I’d recommend her furniture being moved to the 11th floor in the apartment that needs total renovation instead.

The housekeepers are not doing a great job. Every apartment has burnt out lightbulbs, mismatched bulbs, chipped glasses and plates and no deep cleaning done. Windows are really dirty, not only the glass, but frames as well …

Housekeepers should have a laminated check list for each unit, listing the items they need to check when they clean, lightbulbs to check and inventory of items.

Many closets smell moldy, and so in turn does the towels stored there. It is the result of decades of new paint slapped over the old. The closets look gross and dirty because of that.

I am flying to DC tomorrow but can come back Wednesday to Sunday of next week to do the checklists if you want.

Also, if someone with a credit card can come with me, I can get all silverware and kitchen utensils replenished, buy irons/ironing boards etc.

Epstein had a one-word reply — “outrageous” — and offered his credit card.

In general, Epstein appears to have been unusually involved in some relatively minor stuff at the building: In 2019, Groff asked about heating issues in an apartment and whether the woman who is living there should be moved to another unit in the meantime. Epstein replied, “Buy two large space heaters Today.”

A number of the apartments seem to have been used at any given time for the “girls.” Many of those records have redacted names and sender fields and also come up less frequently in the emails, presumably because they remained in the units for a longer time. In January 2015, Epstein received an email that [redacted] was “asking what apartment can become hers … We currently have: 11J: ‘s old apartment and best apt we have at the moment, 11B: One Bedroom, 11P: Studio, 8A: Studio [redacted] is occupying 10B (one bedroom) while her apt, 10N, is being renovated. What apartment do you want to call her own?”

Several emails involve Epstein’s driver, Jojo, picking up the girls at 301 and bringing them to the house. In 2013, Shulyak, Epstein’s girlfriend, asked Jojo to “please collect the girls tomorrow from 301 at 8:15am and bring them to the house. JE would like everyone to be at the house at 8:30am.”

Another email mentioned a woman who landed at JFK that afternoon. “I am waiting for her at 301. Will show her to apartment and let her settle in before bringing her over. I will try get a pic.”

In a 2022 Daily Mail story, one of Epstein’s victims described arriving at 301: “I remember the apartment clearly. It was relatively small and there was Dannon yogurt in the fridge and a basket of fruit and cookies on the counter.” She described the apartment as a way of making her feel taken care of and grateful before she was taken to the mansion to give Epstein a massage.

While the number of apartments used by Epstein’s victims seems to have varied, in 2017, Shulyak complained to a housekeeper that the weekly cleaning schedule for the girls’ apartments was not being maintained and that “we now have only 4 girls apartments to clean (2G, 8H Karyna, 10N, 11B).” The correspondence suggests that there were usually more than four girls living in the building.

Earlier witness statements also confirm this. When Jean-Luc Brunel, Epstein’s former business partner and the head of MC2 Models, sued Epstein in 2015, his bookkeeper, Maritza Vazquez, said in a deposition, “There is not only one girl. There is not only one apartment. I believe there were like, two or three apartments, and they were put in between four girls per apartment, I believe.” She testified that Epstein, who backed the modeling company, did not charge Brunel for the apartments, but Brunel charged the girls $1,000 each. Many of the “little girls,” as Vazquez called them, were 13, 14, or 15 years old, and picked up by Brunel for parties at Epstein’s house. (Brunel was also charged with rape of minors but killed himself in a French prison cell before the trial could proceed.)

According to a 2008 plea deal for Epstein’s associates and a 2009 deposition by Epstein’s pilot Larry Visoski, Epstein victims who became his accomplices also lived in the 66th Street building, including Nadia Marcinkova, whom Epstein said he bought from her parents as a “sex slave” when she was 14; she registered her aviation company Aviloop at the building for at least seven years.

Epstein’s former business partner, Brunel, had unit 7J, as his assistant noted. Peter Attia, the doctor and longevity influencer whose frequent interactions with Epstein are causing backlash in the medical community, apparently stayed in an apartment. Jack Goldberger, the West Palm Beach criminal lawyer who represented Epstein in 2008, was a frequent guest, requesting various weekends for him and his wife to visit their daughter in the city.

A number of academics were also guests — Groff offered Lawrence Krauss, a theoretical physicist at ASU, apartment 10F for an April 2018 stay: “one bedroom, nice brand new apartment … you for sure should take this one!) and apt 8A (studio … very nice but not as big).” Martin Nowak, a professor of mathematics and biology at Harvard and one of the beneficiaries of Epstein’s estate, requested to stay in an apartment multiple times. Another researcher in Boston affiliated with Harvard and MIT Media Lab, Moshe Hoffman, stayed over. Joscha Bach, a San Francisco AI researcher whose kids’ private-school tuition was paid for by Epstein, requested an apartment on a number of trips to New York. Stephen Kosslyn, a former Stanford professor and neuroscientist, stayed over. Eva Andersson-Dubin, a former model who dated Epstein for nine years and married hedge-fund billionaire Glenn Dubin, also lived there. She later sent requests on behalf of friends to stay in the building, as well as for multiple staff members, like a new au pair whom she didn’t want staying at her home because of ongoing issues with another staffer, and others: “We are worried about them staying outside of the city and getting stuck.”

Employees and others hired by Epstein also stayed at the building: Larry Visoski, Epstein’s pilot, requested apartments regularly for himself, for other pilots, and once for his wife, who had front-row tickets to see Frozen on Broadway. In 2014, the ranch manager at Zorro, Epstein’s isolated New Mexico ranch, asked about staying in October 2017, and was told that “we have 3M available ..but … our last Guest saw several roaches! … Are you ok if you see a creepy crawly? I mean I hope you don’t but need to let you know all this!! What is another option? Stay at 71st or hotel until wed?” (The manager replies that he has “no issues with critters, especially given what we can get at the ranch.”) The Romanian painter Ion Nicola, who worked on Epstein’s New York home and Little Saint James, also stayed at 301.

Sarah Kellen, an Epstein assistant who received immunity as a co-conspirator in the 2008 plea deal, registered her business, SLK Designs, at the 66th Street building. Groff, another assistant who was involved in the plea deal, operated out of a tenth-floor unit there, as did his attorney Darren K. Indyke, who was the co-executor of his estate.

Some foreign dignitaries besides Barak and his wife also stayed in apartments there. Cecile de Jongh, the First Lady of the U.S. Virgin Islands, visited in July 2017. Yoni Koren, an Israeli intelligence officer and aide to Barak, stayed there as well.

Mark Epstein appears to still own a number of units in the condo (up to 150 or more) and, as a 2024 New York Post article revealed, was a key opponent of a New York Blood Center facility being built nearby, which he claimed would destroy the building’s views. The lawsuit he filed in a last-bid effort to stop the center failed, but it did delay the project, and as of last June the developer had not yet filed construction permits.

Mark’s ex-wife, Joyce Anderson, appears to still run her photography studio from an eighth-floor unit.

There is one unit currently for rent in the building — a furnished one-bedroom asking $5,500 a month. No units are for sale.

Sign Up for the Curbed Newsletter

A daily mix of stories about cities, city life, and our always evolving neighborhoods and skylines.

Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice

Exit mobile version