Federal authorities in Manhattan have begun investigating some of the activities of Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime accountant and lawyer, who both serve as executors of the sex offender’s once vast estate, said two people who are familiar with the inquiry but not permitted to speak publicly.
Mr. Epstein’s longtime lawyer, Darren Indyke, and his accountant, Richard Kahn, have repeatedly denied any knowledge of their former employer’s sexual abuse of hundreds of teenage girls and young women.
It is unclear what the inquiry, which includes agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and federal prosecutors in New York, is focused on, the people said.
The Justice Department has been under pressure for years to more aggressively investigate some of Mr. Epstein’s associates, including people who may have enabled his sex trafficking. Some of his victims have denounced past announcements by federal authorities that the Epstein matter was essentially closed.
The release early this year of millions of emails and financial records obtained during federal investigations of Mr. Epstein fanned calls for prosecutors to take a fresh look to see if anyone should be charged with crimes.
The investigation of Mr. Indyke and Mr. Kahn was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.
Lawyers for Mr. Kahn and Mr. Indyke said in a statement that their clients had not been told “they are the subject or target of any investigation.”
The two men are “aware that the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York recently asked to speak with at least one individual who provided services to Jeffrey Epstein,” the lawyers said. “But they do not have any information about the scope or focus of that investigation.”
The statement added, “Mr. Indyke and Mr. Kahn are confident that any investigation will reveal that they were not involved in any of Epstein’s crimes, just as the previous investigation found.”
Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, declined to comment.
The files released by the Justice Department and other court records show that Mr. Indyke and Mr. Kahn were heavily involved in wire transfers and cash withdrawals that went to some of the women whom Mr. Epstein is believed to have abused.
Both men denied any knowledge of Mr. Epstein’s crimes when they testified under oath this year before a congressional committee that has been investigating the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein matter.
If there is money left in Mr. Epstein’s estate, Mr. Indyke stands to collect $50 million and Mr. Kahn $25 million, according to the terms of the will and a related trust that Mr. Epstein had drafted while in jail.
Federal authorities did not interview Mr. Indyke or Mr. Kahn after Mr. Epstein’s arrest and subsequent suicide in his Manhattan jail cell in 2019.
The only other person to be charged in connection with Mr. Epstein was his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. Ms. Maxwell was convicted in 2021 on charges that she helped recruit teenage girls for Mr. Epstein to sexually abuse. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
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