Jeffrey Epstein Signed $577M Will 2 Days Before His Death

NEW YORK — Jeffrey Epstein signed a will leaving his hefty fortune to a trust just two days before hanging himself in a Manhattan jail cell. The pedophile financier handed over his $577 million estate to an entity called The 1953 trust, apparently named for the year of his birth, according to a copy of the will obtained and published Monday by the New York Post.

Epstein signed the document on Aug. 8 — two days before he died by suicide at the Metropolitan Correctional Center while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.

The will was filed in a local court in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein owned a private isle that was his primary residence. The vast fortune he left to the trust includes about $56.5 million in cash; about $18.5 million in aircraft, vehicles and boats; and nearly $195 million in "hedge funds & private equity investments," the records show.

The value of Epstein's art collection — which reportedly included a bizarre portrait of Bill Clinton in a blue dress — has yet to be determined, according to the documents.

The will names the lawyers Darren K. Indyke and Richard D. Kahn as the executors of Epstein's estate. It also appoints the onetime Bill Gates adviser Boris Nikolic as a backup executor if the other two men are unable to carry out Epstein's will — a role Nikolic told the Daily Beast he has "no intent" to fulfill.

The will was unearthed as federal prosecutors moved Monday to dismiss the charges against Epstein following his death at age 66.

The Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office, which was prosecuting the Brooklyn-born sex offender, has tried to contact "all identified victims" since learning of Epstein's passing and will tell them about the motion to drop the case, prosecutors wrote in a Monday letter to U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman.

"As this office has previously stated publicly, it remains committed to doing its utmost to stand up for the victims who have already come forward, as well as for the many others who have yet to do so," the prosecutors wrote.

Epstein was facing charges that he sexually abused dozens of girls at his Upper East Side and Florida homes. His death, which New York City's medical examiner ruled a suicide on Friday, has spurred investigations into how such a high-profile defendant was allowed to take his own life.