NEARLY 200 people have been linked to Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous “paedophile island” using newly-discovered mobile phone data.
The devices of wealthy and influential individuals are said to have left an invisible trail from the island back to their homes and offices.
APConvicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in 2019[/caption]
Epstein’s infamous ‘paedophile island’ is now set to be turned into a hotel paradiseThe Mega Agency
The Mega AgencyEpstein accuser Teala Davies, pictured in 2002, flies on a helicopter with the disgraced financier to his compound in the US Virgin Islands[/caption]
Data collected by location data broker Near Intelligence reportedly revealed the home addresses of many guests of Epstein‘s United States Virgin Islands property, Little Saint James.
The paedophile is accused of having groomed, assaulted, and trafficked countless women and girls – some as young as 14 – on the island for elite friends of his.
Location data reportedly pinged from the mobile devices of visitors of the island between 2016 and 2019, when Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges, to platforms used for targeted advertising.
Maps informed by the data, which were recently discovered by Wired, reportedly showed the exact routes visitors took to get to the island, as well as their movements while on the island.
The documented visits began nearly a decade after the disgraced financier was sentenced to 18 months’ jail having pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting and procuring a minor engaged in prostitution.
Some 11,279 coordinates obtained by Wired pointed to as many as 166 locations in the US where Near Intelligence inferred visitors to the island likely lived or worked.
Homes and offices in other cities including in Ukraine, the Cayman Islands, and Australia were also flagged.
In the US, devices which had gone to Little St James were reportedly tracked back to locations in 80 cities across 26 states and territories.
Florida, Massachusetts, Texas, Michigan, and New York were some of the most common locations were Epstein Island visitors seemed to have been based, with coordinates pointing to mansions in gated communities, to island homes, and to a nightclub.
One device sent up a signal from the sidewalk across the street from Trump Tower in New York City.
Other Epstein properties, including the paedophile’s New Mexico ranch and his waterfront mansion in Palm Beach, were supposedly also flagged on the map, as well as lower-income areas where Epstein victims are known to have lived and attended school.
There were no devices tracked back to anywhere in Europe, due to Europe’s comprehensive privacy laws.
Attorney Lisa Bloom, who represented 11 of Epstein’s alleged victims, said she found it “deeply concerning” that the alleged victims’ locations may have been tracked.
She told Wired: “Most of the clients who come to me, their number one concern is privacy and safety.
“It’s deeply concerning to think that any sexual abuse victim’s location will be tracked and then stored and then sold to someone, who can presumably do whatever they want with it.”
Near Intelligence is one of many controversial companies that takes the location data of people’s devices – often used by advertisers to push ads to relevant users – and repackages, analyses, and sells it.
A report seen by Wired featured five maps related to Little St James, including one which revealed the locations of devices observed on the island in the three years up to Epstein’s final arrest.
Another map showed visitors’ locations 30 minutes before and after they arrived on the island, with the devices and their owners carried over from the main island by helicopter and boat.
Any precise location data that could be used to identify the 200 visitors to “paedophile island” were excluded from Wired’s report “to protect the privacy of anyone uninvolved in Epstein’s crimes”.
A timeline of events which came before Epstein’s death in August 2019
Near Intelligence filed for bankruptcy protection in December but has since quietly resumed operations under an entity named Azira.
Kathleen Wailes, speaking on behalf of Azira, told Wired that Near Intelligence deliberately collected the data on Epstein’s island for its own purposes.
She said: “Azira is committed to data privacy and responsible access to and use of location data.
“To this end, Azira works to track and respond to legal developments under emerging new state laws, FTC guidance and prior enforcement examples, and best practices.
“Azira is developing procedures to protect consumers’ sensitive location data. This includes working to disable all sample offering accounts created by Near.”
It was revealed in January that Epstein’s “paedophile island”, sold for a whopping £40million, may be transformed into a holiday resort.
Two islands previously owned by Epstein were bought in May last year by billionaire Stephen Deckoff for less than half the asking price.
Plans are now in motion to convert the 230 acres at Deckoff’s disposal into a hotel paradise complete with a 25-room resort.
ReutersHouses are seen at Little St James Island, one of the Epstein’s properties[/caption]
GettyA house stands above a boat on Little St James Island[/caption]
British former socialite and convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell is pictured with EpsteinThe Mega Agency
Prince Andrew and Epstein go for a stroll together in New York’s Central ParkJae Donnelly