Months before his July 2019 arrest, Jeffrey Epstein had an urgent problem he wanted resolved. Officials in the US Virgin Islands investigating unauthorized construction on his private islands had issued a stop-work order and were weighing potential fines.
As the dispute intensified — and press coverage grew — Epstein turned directly to the territory’s top elected official for help: Gov. Albert Bryan Jr.
Text messages from 2019 reviewed by CNN show Bryan, a Democrat, telling Epstein that he had spoken with the territory’s top environmental official and asked him to pause enforcement until they could discuss the matter.
As Epstein complained about possible mounting fines and negative press coverage, Bryan later wrote that he had asked the commissioner overseeing the case to “recuse himself and concede on all previous permit requests.”
“We got u,” Bryan added in a later message.
Amid the millions of pages of documents released in investigations and civil litigation tied to Epstein, his exchanges with Bryan offer a rare window into how the mysterious financier operated in the US Virgin Islands — leveraging his wealth, business footprint and promises of investment as he sought to influence local officials overseeing matters that affected his interests.
While it’s unclear if any actions were taken as a result, a CNN analysis of dozens of text messages and emails exchanged over a several-month period shows Bryan expressing a willingness to engage with regulators on Epstein’s behalf and reassuring him that he was addressing the dispute.
In his communications with Bryan, Epstein at times framed the dispute as an economic threat. In one message, he warned that enforcement actions would “kill all interest and send investors to puerto rico instead !!,” suggesting capital could flow to competing jurisdictions if the Virgin Islands did not address problems like his.
The exchanges also show that Bryan and Epstein planned to meet privately as the dispute unfolded.
“Can you spare 15 minutes?” Epstein wrote in April 2019.
“For u absolutely,” Bryan replied.
When the governor suggested meeting at the office of Epstein’s Virgin Islands attorney, Epstein responded: “You choose im there.”
Bryan is identified only as “Albert” in the text messages, but he is addressed as governor, and the schedule of public events he referenced in the texts ahead of the meeting — including a luncheon with the League of Women Voters — aligns with publicly available records from that day.
Emails reviewed by CNN suggest the April 2019 meeting was not Epstein and Bryan’s first contact.
Correspondence from September 2018 shows Epstein’s personal assistant, employees at Epstein’s Southern Trust Company and his longtime Virgin Islands tax attorney coordinating a meeting with Epstein, Bryan and his campaign manager John Engerman during Bryan’s campaign for governor while Epstein was in the Virgin Islands.
Bryan, who is now in the final year of his second term as governor, was at the time challenging the sitting governor and campaigning on bringing new economic development to the island.
“Confirmed. See you there,” Engerman wrote.
Southern Trust Company was one of Epstein’s main financial firms registered in the US Virgin Islands. The company maintained offices at American Yacht Harbor, a marina and commercial complex in Red Hook on St. Thomas’s east end that Epstein at one point owned half of.
Other emails suggest additional meetings and a call as well.
In January 2019, Epstein’s longtime personal tax attorney in the Virgin Islands, Erika Kellerhals, asked if Epstein could meet “Albert,” at her office. “yes,” Epstein replied.
Another email from Epstein on February 2, 2019, to Kellerhals also referenced a phone call to “Albert,” complaining about local officials who said there was unauthorized construction on Great St. James, one of his two neighboring private islands.
Epstein had texted Bryan that same day asking for a call.
“Gm gov Would like to talk opportunity zones. -Will see you face to face when I return but if you can spend 5 minutes today - lets speak,” Epstein wrote. “Ok,” Bryan replied.
In the same email exchange, Epstein warned that enforcement actions would jeopardize investment tied to federal “opportunity zones” tax incentives if the territory became viewed as hostile to development — which Epstein claimed could be worth billions of dollars to the US Virgin Islands.
“I spoke to albert,” Epstein wrote. “no one will develo= things in the USVI if they have to worry about moving trees. instea= of bringing in revenue.”
Separate messages from February 2019 also show Epstein discussing Bryan with Virgin Islands Delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett. In one exchange, Epstein asked, “Have you talked to Albert face to face yet?” Plaskett replied, “Went well. We’ve ‘talked’ a few times. He talked generally I tried to ask for specifics.”
The text messages between Bryan and Epstein span January through May 2019, when Epstein — who pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution, including from a minor — was facing renewed scrutiny following investigations by The Miami Herald into the plea agreement that had allowed him to avoid more serious federal charges.
Even as scrutiny intensified, the texts and emails show Epstein, a decadeslong landowner in the territory and investor in major property with business ties to the island, retaining direct access to the territory’s highest elected official.
In 2023, Bryan was questioned under oath as part of a civil lawsuit. During his deposition, Bryan testified that his understanding of Epstein’s 2008 Florida case was that he had “copped a plea to having sex with a hooker who was under age.” Asked about Epstein’s 2019 arrest, Bryan said he “wasn’t really interested” in learning about the new charges.
Bryan also was asked repeatedly whether he had provided Epstein with any special treatment. “No,” Bryan answered each time.
Through a spokesman, Bryan later apologized for his wording, “I believe that we should honor and support all victims of human trafficking. That was a terrible use of language, and I should never had said that. It was disrespectful.”
Neither Bryan nor his spokespeople responded to multiple requests for comment from CNN.
Epstein had been a fixture in the US Virgin Islands since the late 1990s, when he purchased Little St. James and began developing the island into a private compound.
He later acquired Great St. James in 2016.
Although Epstein had owned property in the Virgin Islands for years, the emails and documents suggest the territory became a more central base for his operations after his 2008 Florida conviction.
At the time of the spring 2019 exchanges, the territory’s Department of Planning and Natural Resources had issued a stop-work order on construction at Little St. James and Great St. James, citing unauthorized development.
Permit filings showed plans for extensive construction, including docks, residences and other infrastructure. A department spokesman told The New York Post in May 2019 that work had continued despite the order.
In April 2019, Epstein texted Bryan that the department’s commissioner, Jean-Pierre Oriol, was “going to issue fines against me,” referring to Oriol in texts as “JP.”
Bryan replied that the commissioner “is not aware of any fines” but had mentioned a notification of violations. “I asked him to hold everything until he and the attorney spoke to me,” the governor wrote.
Epstein responded negatively to two articles in the New York Post and Virgin Islands Daily News in May 2019, which featured spokespeople for the Department of Planning and Natural Resources saying unauthorized work had continued on Great St. James.
“Jp going after me in the press!!” Epstein wrote.
“I asked him to recuse himself,” responded Bryan.
“New York Post , read by the largest op zone guys has jp , Dpnr, attacking me,” he added in another message.
Later in the May 2019 exchange, Bryan told Epstein he had met with Oriol and another official and discussed the dispute over alleged permitting violations.
“I met with JP and Vonetta. They claim that the road work and the roll on roll of ramp were never applied for,” Bryan wrote. “I asked him to recuse himself and concede on all previous permit requests.”
In civil lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase, Oriol would testify that Epstein received no special treatment from his department.
The messages end in May 2019. Two months later, Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges. He died in a Manhattan jail cell in August of that year while awaiting trial.
The following year, the government of the US Virgin Islands filed a sweeping civil lawsuit against Epstein’s estate, alleging that he had used the territory as the base of a long-running sex trafficking operation and citing a range of violations tied to his activities on the islands, including environmental and permitting issues.
The estate later agreed to a settlement with the territory that included the sale of the islands and tens of millions of dollars in payments.
CNN’s Em Steck contributed to this report.