British
billionaire warned Epstein was a ‘sexual deviant’ decades before FBI closed in
on the abuser
Sir James
Goldsmith’s links to Hilton Head, South Carolina, add to mystery of Jane Doe 4,
who claimed she was abused by Epstein in the 1980s
Marilyn
W Thompson
Wed 7 Oct
2026 16.00 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/07/british-billionaire-epstein-jane-doe-4
For Jeffrey Epstein,
the billionaire Goldsmith family was a gateway to elite society and he wanted
to be in their circle.
The
disgraced financier, who died in prison in 2019 facing sex-trafficking charges,
longed for a billionaire’s lifestyle and cultivated the family’s friends,
bankers, business associates and advisers.
But Sir
James Goldsmith, who was knighted by the Queen in 1976 and became a prominent
British politician, remained wary of the American financier and even “despised”
him, his daughter Jemima recently told the Guardian.
Two
decades before Epstein came under federal investigation, Goldsmith – who died
in 1997 – told a confidant that Epstein was a “sexual deviant” who was
recruiting children for illicit activities.
Goldsmith
“told me not to have anything to do with him, that he was a pervert, and he
didn’t want him near any of us. He had four daughters to protect,” recalled the
famous French architect Robert Couturier, who designed opulent homes for
Goldsmith in New York and Mexico.
Goldsmith’s
alleged warning came around 1987, years before complaints about Epstein’s solicitation
of young girls for sex began filtering into federal law enforcement. Epstein’s
network of pretty “girls” evolved into what authorities describe as a global
sex-trafficking ring that catered to the ultra-rich and powerful.
It would
become a scandal that touched royals, politicians, businessmen, academics,
foreign diplomats and celebrities around the world, and left more than 1,000
victims in its wake.
“That is
the pity of it all. It was all preventable,” Couturier told the Guardian.
Epstein, born on Coney Island, had been on the radar of New York’s elite since
he first surfaced at society events, often on the arm of heiresses, Couturier
said.
“He was a
charmer and a talker. Lots of rich people are deeply gullible, as protected as
they are from reality. No one did anything about it.”
Jeffrey
Epstein in 1985. Photograph: TT News Agency/Alamy
In the
mid-1980s, Sir James Goldsmith – known as “Jimmy” – announced he was making a
shift in his US business operations. Goldsmith had hired a new chief executive
who would open an office for him in Hilton Head, South Carolina, an emerging
luxury resort.
Goldsmith’s
Hilton Head office is rarely mentioned in writings about his reign as the
“lucky gambler”, as Time Magazine called him, an adviser to US presidents who
became one of the world’s richest men by betting on undervalued companies. His
conglomerate, with command centers in Paris and London, had its US headquarters
in New York, close to his elegant Manhattan townhouse where Goldsmith
entertained and where the young Epstein trolled for wealthy clients.
Hilton
Head at the time was undergoing a chaotic development boom that brought in a
rush of speculators, shady operators and vacationers lured by star-studded golf
tournaments and tennis matches. Its population, 11,000 in 1980, doubled in a
decade. Its tiny airport was suddenly a busy landing strip for private jets,
including a $10m Gulfstream owned by Goldsmith’s company that was parked there
for quick hops.
Epstein
developed a lifelong fascination with Goldsmith, his family and fortune, an
investigation by the Guardian found.
Epstein’s
connection to Goldsmith, and the presence of the billionaire’s company and his
associates on a South Carolina sea island – which was attracting an infusion of
investors – is potentially relevant because of an alleged sexual assault that
is said to have occurred there in the 1980s. A woman known only as Jane Doe 4
claimed in four FBI interviews after Epstein’s 2019 arrest that he had
assaulted her during his visits to the island in the 1980s, when she was still
a teenager. She has also claimed the man she only knew as “Jeff” trafficked her
to other men, including Donald Trump.
The White
House has vehemently denied the allegation about the US president, calling it
“completely baseless” and “backed by zero credible evidence”.
The
Guardian has been examining records, digging into archives and conducting
interviews to explore intersections of Goldsmith and Epstein and try to
understand if Epstein, with decades of secretive movements and a web of global
financial ties, might have had reason to be on Hilton Head in the 1980s when
those alleged assaults by Epstein occurred. This remains a mystery, but
Epstein’s relationship with Goldsmith provides some additional clues.
Those who
dismiss the claim of Jane Doe 4 – including Epstein’s brother Mark – have cited
the lack of a public record of his presence on the island as proof that her
story is untrue. Mark Epstein told the Guardian he has “no knowledge of him
being in Hilton Head”.
Understanding
how Epstein won and retained access to power and privilege throughout his life
is important as criminal investigations of his sexual abuse and financial
crimes continue around the globe. Federal prosecutors in New York have opened
an investigation into the two overseers – Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn –
of Epstein’s $577m estate, according to the Wall Street Journal. Both have
denied they knew of Epstein’s criminal behavior. The Department of Justice has
said that Epstein “harmed” over 1,000 people, including minors who were
sexually abused.
The
justice department has released about 3.5m documents under the Epstein
Disclosure Act, including reams of emails, letters and bank transactions. But
the trove includes almost no records from the 1980s, leaving a large gap in the
public’s understanding. Epstein’s alleged victims continue to accuse the
justice department of a cover-up for holding back documents that might
implicate Trump and other powerful men in Epstein’s exclusive circle. Trump has
said he ended their friendship in 2004 after a real estate dispute and kicked
Epstein out of his Mar-A-Lago club in 2007 for poaching employees.
It is
unclear whether Goldsmith’s concerns about Epstein stemmed from specific
encounters, and there is no indication that Goldsmith ever reported his
concerns to local or federal law enforcement.
It took
decades for the FBI to catch up with Epstein’s crimes. Federal investigators in
Florida charged him in 2008 with soliciting sex from minors after a two-year
investigation in which they interviewed young women, including some minors, who
he paid for sexual encounters in his Palm Beach mansion. He served 13 months in
jail under a lenient deal cut with federal prosecutors.
Epstein
abuse survivor Annie Farmer holds up a photo of her younger self with her
sister Maria Farmer during a news conference with lawmakers on the Epstein
Files Transparency Act outside the US Capitol on 18 November 2025. Photograph:
Heather Diehl/Getty Images
Until
now, the earliest warning about Epstein’s criminal behavior is believed to have
come in 1996, when one alleged victim – an artist named Maria Farmer – claims
she alerted authorities that she was sexually assaulted by Epstein, according
to a lawsuit she has brought against the FBI. Farmer has also claimed that
Epstein stole nude images she had of her two minor siblings, which she kept for
her personal use in her artwork. The FBI has said in response to the ongoing
litigation, which now includes 34 alleged victims, that agents do not have a
duty to investigate “every single tip that comes across their desk”.
A
fascination with ‘Sir James’
Since
Epstein’s death, Goldsmith has been portrayed as an important influence in his
early career.
The New
York Times last year described Sir James as a connection Epstein shrewdly
calculated was “worth nurturing for the long haul”. It recounted a party scene
at Goldsmith’s Upper East Side mansion where Epstein, trained in classical
piano, serenaded guests with a piano solo from the grand entry hall.
Goldsmith’s
warnings about Epstein came just as Epstein signed one of his biggest clients,
the Ohio retail magnate Les Wexner, the founder of Victoria’s Secret, who was
then ranked by Forbes as the 10th richest person in the US. Wexner says he
severed the relationship with Epstein in 2007 after discovering he had stolen
funds from Wexner.
Some
questions about Epstein and Goldsmith may never be answered given the secrecy
surrounding these events and the refusal of key sources to answer questions.
Posters
with photos of the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, with the words: ‘Ask
Todd Blanche about Epstein’ displayed along a street in Washington, on 17 July
2026. Photograph: Kevin Carter/Getty Images
Meanwhile,
the debate over the government’s release of the Epstein files rages on.
Attorney general Todd Blanche has declined to release about 2.5m Epstein
documents he deemed duplicative. An independent journalist, Katie Phang, is
suing Blanche to try to force their release, and Blanche recently quietly
turned over some of the documents related to Jane Doe 4 to a federal judge, who
is reviewing the documents in his chambers.
Prominent
figures caught up in the Epstein controversy include former US president Bill
Clinton, former Prince Andrew, former Harvard president Larry Summers and
billionaire investor Leon Black. Black was recently held
in contempt of Congress for his refusal to comply with subpoenas issued to
him by the House oversight committee in connection to its Epstein
investigation.
Epstein’s
emails about the Goldsmiths sometimes suggested bruised feelings and revealed
he was watching the family from afar. He was not among the dozens of invited
guests in 1997 to Jemima Goldsmith’s grand wedding party to the
cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, who served as Pakistani prime minister,
according to the guest list.
Just
before he finished his lenient 2008 sentence for sex crimes in Palm Beach,
Epstein scolded a young Romanian admirer for turning down her exclusive invite
to a swanky dinner at Jemima’s Oxfordshire estate.
“That was
a BIG mistake,” he wrote in an angry 2010 email.
Epstein
criticized daughter Jemima’s choice of husband, calling Khan – who is now
divorced from Goldsmith and in
jail on corruption charges – a “whacko”.
Diana,
Princess of Wales in Lahore, Pakistan, with Imran Khan and Jemima Khan, during
her visit to the Shaukat Memorial hospital, on 21 May 1997. Photograph: Tim
Graham Picture Library/Tim Graham Photo Library/Getty Images
In a 2018
text, Epstein wrote of Imran Khan: “makes donald look like einstein. incapable
of truth. , devout islamisist . many nuclear weapons. ( not erdogan or
khomeni). he was married to two friends of mine. one daughter of jimmy
goldsmith.”
After the
family distanced itself from him, Epstein gathered gossip about James’s
daughter Isabel’s haughty behavior and joked when a hurricane seemed destined
to damage Las Alamandas, her posh Mexican resort.
“hurricane
will hit isabel goldsmith resort and bye bye,” he wrote to a friend in 2015.
Epstein
elevated his access to the British elite when, in 1990, he started dating Ghislaine Maxwell,
the daughter of a British media baron, who hobnobbed with British royals and
enhanced Epstein’s standing among upper-crust families like the Goldsmiths.
Maxwell became Epstein’s closest partner in recruiting young women, according
to her federal indictment. She is serving a 20-year sentence.
Three
Goldsmith heirs told the Guardian in emails they never met Epstein and doubted
their father had any business dealings with him. Isabel Goldsmith did not
respond to messages.
From
left: Donald Trump and his girlfriend (and future wife), former model Melania
Knauss, Jeffrey Epstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago club, in Florida,
on 12 February 2000. Photograph: Davidoff Studios Photography/Getty Images
“I’m not
sure I had ever heard of Jeffrey Epstein
before he hit the news for the first time. So I’m presuming my father did not
know him,” said Ben Goldsmith, an environmentalist and investor who was 16 when
his father died.
Zac
Goldsmith, a conservative member of the House of Lords, said he never met
Epstein and was not aware of his fascination with the family.
Jemima
Goldsmith Khan, who owns a London-based film production company, said she never
met Epstein. “I heard that my father despised him – he was certainly not a
friend of his,” she said.
Sir James
was a king of US corporate takeovers in a frenetic era of Wall Street
deal-making, earning hundreds of millions by seizing control of vulnerable
companies and cutting thousands of American jobs. Goldsmith sold his New York
investments in 1987 and made a hasty exit back to London after correctly
predicting the Black Monday stock market crash.
Epstein
was a takeover amateur who concocted his own deals while working as a
consultant to a shady Manhattan debt collection company, Towers Financial,
whose chief executive, Steven Hoffenberg, was later convicted of running a
$450m Ponzi scheme. Before his death, Hoffenberg accused Epstein of
masterminding the scheme. Epstein was never charged.
Hoffenberg’s
most ambitious effort was an attempted takeover of troubled Pan Am Airlines,
the prestigious international carrier Epstein had fantasized as a boy about one
day owning, according to an email from one of his friends.
Working
from its Hilton Head office, Goldsmith’s takeover team had already analyzed Pan
Am’s books and backed off from making an offer. Developer Donald Trump also
flirted with a takeover bid but never made it, media reports show.
Couturier
met Epstein through Isabel Goldsmith, the titan’s oldest daughter. Jet-setting
Isabel became friendly – but not romantically involved – with Epstein, he said,
and Isabel and Epstein both socialized in New York City’s nightlife scene.
Epstein kept Isabel’s phone contacts at several addresses in his “little black
book” later seized by the FBI as evidence.
Couturier
had grown close to James Goldsmith and his long-term girlfriend, who hired him
in 1981 to renovate a mansion on East 80th Street. Goldsmith cut famous
takeover deals around the dining room table, and his catered parties attracted
the cream of Manhattan society.
Jemima
Khan, right, and her sister Isabel Goldsmith at David Frost’s annual summer
garden party in Chelsea on 25 June 1998. Photograph: Tom Wargacki/WireImage
Isabel
told Couturier that Epstein wanted to discuss hiring him for another renovation
at a huge Upper East Side brownstone purchased by Wexner, he said. Epstein
later moved into the restored mansion at 9 East 71st Street, about a half mile
from Goldsmith’s, and decorated its dark wooded interior with his private art
collection and gaudy fabrics. It became a center of his sexual misconduct, an
address where the FBI in 2019 carried out boxes of photographs of alleged
victims, massage tables and sex toys.
Wexner
also owned a dilapidated historic townhome next door at 11 East 71st Street
that needed total renovation. The house was eventually bought through a trust
by Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, who has said he hardly knew
Epstein, his nextdoor neighbor. Under
questioning by House investigators, Lutnick acknowledged visiting Epstein for
lunch at the predator’s Caribbean island, Little Saint James.
Couturier
was approached and interviewed by the FBI in 2010, after Epstein’s first
arrest. A record of the interview, which is included in the Epstein files,
indicates that Epstein had approached Couturier for a high-paying project on
Little Saint James Island, where he was asked to provide “decor and furniture
appropriate for teenage girls, with pink furnishings and bunk beds”.
Couturier
told the Guardian he remembered Sir Jimmy’s earlier warning. He withdrew from
the contract, leading to a legal dispute.
The
British financier and businessman Sir James Goldsmith (1933 - 1997) with his
family, left to right: Jemima, Sir James, Zac, Ben and his wife, Lady Annabel,
on their estate in Marbella, Spain, circa 1987. Photograph: Peter
Jordan/Popperfoto/Getty Images
Goldsmith
was hardly a prude, Couturier said, but he had no tolerance for inappropriate
behavior with children. Goldsmith’s own domestic life was what his daughter
Alix once
described as “unconventional”, with three wives, numerous girlfriends and
eight children. Two children were born in New York to his longtime girlfriend,
a French journalist who moved with him to the city.
Another
link between Epstein and Goldsmith was Bear Stearns, where Epstein was a junior
broker until he was targeted in an internal investigation of his trading
practices. He quit in 1981 with an indignant resignation letter that was
included in the Epstein files.
Goldsmith
remained a major Bear Stearns client, and Epstein, who somehow remained on good
terms with the brokerage top brass, invested his own and his clients’ money
into the firm, which collapsed in 2008.
Epstein
always kept an air of mystery around his business deals. In the 1980s, he
described himself to friends as a “bounty hunter” who traveled the world to
recover stolen money for rich clients.
He and
Goldsmith knew many of the same influential people. The Saudi billionaire Adnan
Khashoggi, an international arms dealer, hired Epstein in the 1980s for
unspecified work, according to published reports. Khashoggi and Goldsmith were
both trusted advisers to President Richard Nixon, who met with them after his
1974 resignation to discuss overseas income opportunities, according to a Nixon
biographer.
Epstein
became friendly with a wealthy international investor, Jean “Johnny” Pigozzi,
who was in Goldsmith’s circle of advisers and is one of the trustees of
Goldsmith’s estate, according to published reports. At one point, Epstein’s
girlfriend Maxwell emailed Pigozzi to get price estimates for his French estate
and nature preserve in Panama, saying she had an interested potential buyer,
the emails show.
Pigozzi,
an art collector and heir to an auto fortune, is best known in popular culture
as the inventor of the “selfie” because of his candid photographs of the rich
and famous, including Goldsmith. He did not respond to messages.
Bear
Stearns brokerage firm in New York in 1998. Photograph: James
Leynse/Corbis/Getty Images
Goldsmith’s
massive holding company, GOSL, had operations around the world and a corporate
office in Manhattan run by his trusted team.
But in
1985, GOSL filed papers with the state of South Carolina seeking authorization
to do business in the state, the Guardian found. It opened an office in Hilton
Head, the home of Al Dunlap, a notorious corporate raider Goldsmith was hiring
to run his US operations.
Dunlap
had been living part-time on Hilton Head since the early 1980s when he was
running a company that made paper cups. He was among the many corporate bigwigs
who had discovered Hilton Head as a sanctuary for executives and government
officials who needed privacy. Most exclusive neighborhoods were gated and
developed on former rice plantations.
Dunlap –
who died in 2019 – had the Wall Street clout to ask investors to come to him. A
newspaper account describes one session in 1985 at a new Marriott waterfront
resort in Hilton Head where Dunlap pitched a Lily-Tulip stock offering backed
by Wall Street firms to 70 out-of-town investors before leaving on a global
capital-raising tour.
An image
of Al Dunlap on Hilton Head island from a 1987 Island Packet newspaper article.
Photograph: Island Packet
Some
locals say the atmosphere on the island was so frenetic, with investors and
deal makers arriving for meetings, that anyone could slip in and out without
notice.
Goldsmith’s
office in Hilton Head was tasked with selling millions of acres of forest land
the company had acquired in takeovers of US paper companies. Its vast new
holdings stretched from the Pacific north-west to the Adirondacks, making
Goldsmith’s company one of the largest owners of undeveloped US land.
The
Guardian tracked down former GOSL executive Phil Lader, who was in charge of
land sales, to ask if he recalled seeing Epstein in Hilton Head during the time
GOSL had an office there. The short answer was “no”.
Lader was
a Hilton Head resident and former chief executive at Sea Pines. In 1981, he
founded the prestigious Renaissance Weekends, which drew luminaries to the
island for private invitation-only retreats. He was especially close to Bill
Clinton, who was governor of Arkansas when he and his wife, Hillary, began
coming to Lader’s exclusive gatherings. Other featured guests included Wall
Street executives, university and government officials and leaders in the arts
and sciences.
Bill
Clinton is greeted by the Lader family after arriving in Hilton Head, South
Carolina, for the annual intellectual retreat known as ‘renaissance weekend’ on
30 December 1996. Photograph: Wilfredo Lee/AP
Goldsmith
hired Lader as a GOSL vice-president in 1986, just after he lost a Democratic
party bid for the South Carolina governorship. Lader was appointed Clinton’s
deputy White House chief of staff in 1993 and moved to London four years later
when he was appointed ambassador to the court of Saint James’s.
Lader
said he never met Epstein and “never heard the name Jeffrey Epstein in my years
on Hilton Head”. Epstein reportedly made 17 visits to the Clinton White House
and later flew Clinton on his private jet.
A
partially redacted 2011 exchange in Epstein’s emails shows
he was aware of Renaissance Weekends, which are promoted on social media as
gathering places for “thought-leaders”. An unnamed friend asked if Epstein had
heard of the gatherings.
“Of
course,” Epstein wrote. Asked if it was “something i should do?”, Epstein wrote
“yes”.
Renaissance
Weekends were held in Hilton Head for 20 years, then moved to Charleston.
Similar programs are also held in other cities.
The woman
who would come to be known as Jane Doe 4 first called an FBI victim hotline to
report her alleged abuse on 10 July 2019. It was four days after Epstein’s
arrest at a New Jersey airport. The agent manning the phones recommended that
she be interviewed in person, near her home in Vancouver, Washington. One of
her close friends made a separate call to anonymously report Jane Doe 4’s
abuse.
Jane Doe
4’s federal class-action lawsuit, filed later in New York against the Epstein
estate, alleges she met Epstein around 1984, when she was a teenager, and had
sex with him for several years when he visited the island. She said he rented
properties, including a villa at Sea Pines, from her mother’s realty firm.
In four
FBI interviews in 2019 she described her abuser’s specific sexual quirks –
including his use of butt plugs. Several were seized when the FBI gathered
evidence in Epstein’s home in 2019.
Some
details squared with accounts given by other young victims who came forward
during the previous Florida investigation. She described how he allegedly asked
her to recruit friends and took nude photographs of her, also part of a
pattern, and repeatedly plied her with drugs and alcohol. The FBI seized
thousands of photographs and videos depicting victims when it searched his
various properties.
The
Marriott hotel on Hilton Head figures heavily in her allegations. She told the
FBI about a pool party there with local teenage girls and older males. She
claimed the older man she knew as “Jeff” made a brief appearance at the pool
before taking her back to his rented villa. She also mentioned a neighbor she
had talked with during the period of alleged abuse.
Her local
attorney told the Guardian he sat in on the FBI interview and interrupted when
she began describing telling other girls about “Jeff”. The lawyer said he
feared the FBI might accuse her of aiding her abuser in soliciting other
minors.
FBI notes
in the case, which were first reported by the Post and Courier in Charleston,
South Carolina, repeat the woman’s allegation that at one point, Epstein
transported her to New York or New Jersey where she claims he introduced her to
Trump, who forced her into a sex act. She estimated she was about 13-15 years
old, which would place the dates between 1983 and 1985, but she
acknowledged a fuzzy memory. Trump said in a 2002 interview with New York
magazine that he had known Epstein for 15 years, which would date their
relationship to 1987. The White House has denied Jane Doe 4’s allegations.
Jane Doe
4 also offered names of some
of her high school friends who might have seen her with Epstein.
But there
is no evidence the FBI ever followed up on the leads Jane Doe 4 gave
investigators. Its interest in her case appears to have died abruptly when she
asked agents what the point was of her continued cooperation and told them she
intended to join a class-action lawsuit, filed by the Bloom Law Firm in
December 2019.
A
relative of Jane Doe 4 told the Guardian that she had been scarred by “layers
of trauma” as a young girl from family tragedies and upheavals. She had spent
time in foster care and had just finished elementary school when the family
made its way south.
Jane Doe
4 declined to answer questions from the Guardian relayed through the relative,
who considers her account “plausible” because she was often unsupervised in her
early teens. Three friends contacted by the Guardian did not respond to
messages.
Jane Doe
4’s attorney at the Bloom Law Firm told the Post and Courier she ultimately
reached a settlement with Epstein’s estate but declined to give an amount.
Court
records show a claim she filed with the Epstein victims’ compensation fund, a
formal review panel funded by the estate, was denied. The dates of her alleged
abuse are much earlier than most other victims who have come forward with
claims.
In
response to lawmakers’ questions about whether Jane Doe 4 had received a
settlement from the estate, an attorney for Epstein’s accountant, Richard Kahn,
said he could not recall details of all 60 women who settled with the estate
outside of the compensation fund.
Richard
Kahn, an accountant for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, arrives for a
House oversight committee deposition about Epstein, on 11 March 2026.
Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images
The
record is far from definitive about whether Epstein ever visited Hilton Head
during this time. He did not own a private plane in the 1980s, so no travel
logs are available. Epstein did have other real estate development interests at
that time, including a long friendship with a developer who was building an
oceanfront golf course on nearby Kiawah Island.
Later
records in the Epstein files show his plane landing at the nearby Savannah
airport several times from 2013 to 2019, for unknown reasons. The emails show a
redacted exchange in 2014 suggesting he was on Hilton Head for a March visit.
Kenneth
Lannon, a retired FBI expert in child sexual victimization who has trained
hundreds of law enforcement agents to investigate abusers, said it was “highly
likely” Epstein had victims pre-dating his Florida arrest and that he probably
“started out slowly and just got better and better at it as time went on.
The
typical child sex abuser, he said, begins targeting and grooming potential
victims soon after puberty, although they may come across as “nice guys” in
regular social interactions. Money and the ability to travel freely make the
crimes easier to pull off, he said.
Child
victims are often so starved for attention they become compliant and have more
than one encounter with the abuser.
Jane Doe
4 had a troubled life after leaving Hilton Head. She married several times and
moved to the west coast. She returned to be with family in Georgia and was
arrested in 2023 for stealing money from a dying man. She pleaded guilty and
spent a year in jail. Her brothers were well educated; one worked for a few
years as a Bear Stearns trader before the brokerage collapsed in 2008.
A family
member told the Guardian in June that Jane Doe 4 was “staying off the grid” and
lived in fear of retaliation from the Trump administration amid the ongoing
controversy over the handling of the case.
Additional
research by Sophie Sullivan
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