FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ Jeffrey Epstein's surprise death Saturday morning in a New York jail casts uncertainty into the management of the considerable assets the wealthy financier left behind.
Although Epstein has long been rumored to be a billionaire, recent court documents suggest his fortune is worth a little over $559 million.
Included in that number is a Manhattan estate valued at over $50 million and a Palm Beach estate valued a hair over $12 million.
Spencer Kuvin, a Palm Beach attorney who represented three of Epstein's victims in a first federal case against him over a decade ago, has no doubt that new victims who have come forward in recent months will go after Epstein's estate.
However, Kuvin is also quite certain that those victims will face an uphill legal battle before they ever see a penny. "It's going to be a legal mess for years to come," he said.
Kuvin, whose own clients have already settled cases with Epstein, said he did not know any specifics about what might happen to Epstein's wealth and whether Epstein left behind a will.
However, Kuvin did say that during the initial federal case against Epstein in 2008, a full asset search was conducted which revealed that much of Epstein's assets were split among multiple corporations, entities, trusts and offshore accounts.
"It's going to be a morass of legal wrangling to figure out all the connections between everything," Kuvin said.
Roy Black, an attorney from Miami who represented Epstein, declined to comment on the future of his client's estate and whether a will was left behind. "Sorry, but I will not be making any statement," he wrote in an email.
