Jeffrey Epstein was the subject of a previously undisclosed U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency investigation — a five-year-plus probe targeting him and 14 other individuals for suspicious money transfers possibly linked to illegal narcotics, a newly uncovered document in the Department of Justice’s Epstein files reveals.

 “DEA reporting indicates the above individuals are involved in illegitimate wire transfers which are tied to illicit drug and/or prostitution activities occurring in the U.S. Virgin Islands and New York City,” the 2015 document says.

The 69-page memo is marked “law enforcement sensitive” and remains heavily redacted, concealing the names of the 14 other targets and much of the substantive detail surrounding the investigation.

The document appears to stem from a request made by the DEA to an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces Fusion Center in Virginia seeking information from other agencies related to Epstein and the other targets as part of an active case. The task force is a Reagan-era creation to combat a surge in cocaine trafficking, and the Fusion Center was opened in 2009 as a clearinghouse for intelligence sharing between federal law enforcement agencies. 

For the DEA to open the case, there would have to be a drug nexus, a law enforcement source told CBS News, adding that the request to the Fusion Center indicated the matter was part of a “significant” investigation rather than a routine information inquiry.

The document includes a DEA case number and lists the case’s opening date as Dec. 17, 2010 in New York. It notes that the matter is “judicial pending,” indicating that the investigation remained active at the time the memo was drafted 5 years later. One law enforcement source told CBS News that this designation suggests investigators may have been awaiting court approval for search warrants or other legal action. 

Another law enforcement source said it likely meant an arrest of someone associated with the case had been made. CBS News could not confirm that because the names of other targets were redacted from the document.

A different case launched in 2018 by the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York ultimately landed Epstein in a lower Manhattan federal jail after he was arrested in July 2019 on charges of sex trafficking. 

Sources involved in that case told CBS News the prosecutors were not aware of the earlier DEA investigation. 

Epstein was awaiting trial in the sex trafficking case when he died behind bars in August 2019. His death was ruled a suicide.

Financial transactions and other investigations

The DEA document also reveals the existence of other previously unknown investigations with some link to Epstein. Those include an ICE investigation in West Palm Beach, opened in 2006 and closed in 2008; an ICE investigation in Las Vegas, opened in 2009 and listed as “pending/01/27/2010;” an ICE investigation in Paris, opened in June of 2013 and closed months later, titled Operation Angel Watch; and an FBI investigation opened in 2006 that still remained active in 2015. 

The document also lists prior law enforcement contact and identifies bank accounts linked to Epstein, including accounts in Switzerland, France, the Cayman Islands and New York.

It details approximately $50 million in suspicious wire transfers from 2010-2015, although the names of the individuals linked to those transactions are redacted.The DOJ appears to have accidentally neglected to redact the name of a Polish fashion model who was identified in connection to approximately $2 million in transfers and named as a target of the investigation. 

Emails between that woman and Epstein were included in the release, indicating that they had a personal relationship. CBS News is not identifying the woman at the request of her attorney, who said she was a survivor of Epstein’s. Her attorney did not reply to inquiries about whether she was aware she was a DEA target. 

The memo also lists several businesses associated with Epstein that have come under scrutiny in the past. One of those companies was redacted, the other two are SLK Designs LLC and Hyperion Air. Hyperion Air was used by Epstein as a holding company for his aircraft and SLK Designs was run by two women who were included in Epstein’s 2008 so-called “sweetheart” non-prosecution agreement with the federal government and named as potential co-conspirators. 

Records show those companies were formed and controlled by Epstein’s attorney Darren Indyke. 

CBS News has reached out to an attorney for Indyke and has not received a response. In a prior statement, his attorney Daniel Weiner told CBS News the lawyer “did not socialize with Mr. Epstein, and … rejected as categorically false any suggestion that they knowingly facilitated or assisted Mr. Epstein in his sexual abuse or trafficking of women, or that they were aware of Mr. Epstein’s actions while they provided legal and accounting services to Mr. Epstein.” He added that no judge or court found Epstein’s attorneys committed any wrongdoing of any kind.

Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon who has been pursuing the Epstein investigation as ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, told CBS News that following the money is key to learning more about Epstein’s crimes. . 

“It appears Epstein was involved in criminal activity that went way beyond pedophilia and sex trafficking, which makes it even more outrageous that Pam Bondi is sitting on several million unreleased files.” Wyden said. 

Neither the DEA or the DOJ responded to requests by CBS News for more information or comment.