What if weekends at Epstein's island were primarily a tax avoidance retreat for the ultra-rich?
This piece is purely a thought experiment and not investigative reporting.
Nobody will argue that everyone hates paying taxes, and none hate it more than the ultra-rich.
I'm just thinking out loud, but what if...
The Silence That Speaks Volumes
Here's the most telling detail: Not one billionaire has provided a compelling innocent explanation for their repeated visits to Epstein's island.
If you went to Little St. James for legitimate reasons—scientific conferences, charitable planning, business meetings—you'd be screaming it from the rooftops to clear your name. Instead, we get vague, lawyerly non-denials:
Les Wexner: "I was NEVER aware of the illegal activity"
Leon Black: Epstein was a "confirmed bachelor with eclectic tastes"
Bill Gates: "It was a huge mistake to spend time with him"
What they're NOT saying:
"I went there for my foundation's marine biology initiative"
"We were planning a scientific research collaboration"
"I was there for a legitimate business meeting about X"
Why the silence? Because the truth might be just as damning:
"I went there to network with fellow ultra-wealthy tax avoiders and learn sophisticated avoidance strategies."
Hanlon's Razor Applied
The simplest explanation isn't an elaborate pedophile ring and blackmail scheme
—it's an "I hate paying taxes" rich person's club.
Perhaps billionaires kept returning because Epstein offered something invaluable: access to a network of peers sharing sophisticated tax avoidance strategies in complete secrecy. This is not to say this is all they talked about, though I'm sure this is something that they all share a big common interest in.
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"
—or in this case, the KISS principle:
Keep It Simple, Stupid.
The Financial Evidence: Following the Money
Epstein's Tax Avoidance Business Model
By relocating his business to the U.S. Virgin Islands, Epstein was able to reduce his own federal income taxes by 90 percent. More importantly, one of his self-professed specialties was helping the ultra-rich reduce their taxable income and estate obligations.
According to reports, Epstein's "biggest thing was GRATs"—sophisticated trusts that allow wealthy people to transfer assets to family members without paying large gift or estate taxes.
His standard fee structure: Either a flat fee of as much as $40 million per year, or—more commonly—a percentage of the money he saved clients on taxes. For every $100 saved, he would take between 5% and 10%.
Epstein seems to have sought out individuals willing to write big checks to lighten their tax load.
According to reports, one Washington lawyer noted that the scale of Epstein's fees was unprecedented: "You could be the best lawyer in Manhattan working on the most complicated trusts and estates and it would never come anywhere close to that kind of money."
The Tax Avoidance Spiritual Retreat
Jeffrey was the master of ceremonies.
Bringing together his clients and other like-minded ultra-rich to network over a weekend of 'wholesome' entertainment—scientists, magicians, comedians, the occasional Nobel laureate.
It made the weekend more entertaining—and gave you a respectable reason to explain why you were there at all.
The Visitor List: Evidence of Compartmentalization
The Scientists and Legitimates
The famous non-billionaire guests weren't there for the tax avoidance club. They may have been paid to appear.
The documented presence of legitimate figures supports the compartmentalization theory:
A 2006 scientific conference on gravity on neighboring St. Thomas included multiple renowned physicists
Stephen Hawking visited in 2006 and took a submarine cruise
Other visitors included Nobel laureate Lawrence Krauss and various researchers who received Epstein funding
They provided perfect cover—prestigious names adding legitimacy to the guest list and creating plausible reasons for wealthy financiers to visit the island.
If lots of ultra-rich people got together without some good reason, it would clearly be suspicious.
Alas, "The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry" —Robert Burns
What made it suspicious instead was something they didn't know about:
Epstein's hobby.
I don't believe that any of those famous ultra-rich people would have set even one foot on that island if they saw underage girls in bikinis or any hint of impropriety. Nor would they have looked the other way.
The Infrastructure for Segregation
As of 2008, Little St. James had a staff of 70, five buildings including villa-style compounds, library, cinema, detached bathhouse, and cabanas.
This operational capacity suggests the ability to run completely segregated activities—different groups experiencing different versions of the island with no crossover. Any illegal activities could have been limited to different parts of the island or to those guests being invited at a different time.
What we do know is that two very different things happened there—likely separated by time or location.
Why This Theory Fits Better Than the Pedophile Ring Alternative
The pedophile ring theory has a fundamental math problem: there just aren't that many pedophile billionaires on the whole planet. Pedophilia affects a very small percentage of any population, including the ultra-wealthy. People don't become pedophiles when they get rich; it's a pathology, not a privilege.
Looking at the documented visitor list, none of those people have any history of that kind of behavior. You couldn't build a sustainable business model around such a tiny customer base, especially when those customers would be terrified of exposure and would avoid anything that was in the open and that left traces.
But tax avoidance? That appeals to nearly 100% of ultra-wealthy people. Every billionaire wants to minimize their tax burden, and they all have hundreds of millions or billions at stake. The business model makes perfect sense at that scale.
It's possible that not all billionaires were looking specifically for tax avoidance help—it may have simply made it appealing for them to meet with other wealthy elites. I don't really know who did what and am not accusing anyone of anything. But these ideas seem plausible to me if you're searching for answers but without answers that belong in Rosemary's Baby—or in the mind of a conspiracy theory junkie.
Why an Island Made Perfect Sense
Let's say you want to talk about ways to avoid taxes.
Unlike digital communications that leave traces, face-to-face meetings on Little St. James would provide:
No email records
No phone logs
No financial transaction papers
Complete control over who witnessed what
Natural barrier against surveillance or raids
Some Parting Thoughts
Just thinking. Thanks for joining me on my little thought experiment. This issue is clearly on so many minds. So here is some food for thought.
No unsavory conspiracy required. Just shared incentives, plausible deniability, and a little help from the Virgin Islands tax code.
This is a speculative analysis based on publicly available information.