Behind high walls outside Marrakesh, Bin Ennakhil unfolds like a private kingdom. The estate spans 4.6 hectares (11.4 acres) and has 60 marble fountains that spill into mosaic-tiled courtyards. Gold-draped salons open onto gardens threaded with olive trees and more than 2,000 palms. A hammam steam spa sits beneath carved ceilings while an outdoor pool glints in the Moroccan sun.
It is the kind of property that keeps its owner beyond the view of the outside world.
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In the summer of 2019, a wire transfer request bearing convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s signature and dated July 4 was submitted to buy the Moroccan palace – in a country that has no extradition treaty with the United States. Two days later, Epstein was arrested at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges.
Newly released US Department of Justice documents reviewed by Al Jazeera show that in the months before that arrest, Epstein had been negotiating to acquire the Moroccan estate through a layered offshore structure spanning the British Virgin Islands and Liechtenstein.
But as scrutiny intensified and details of Epstein’s life and crimes became public, the financial institutions that had long handled his money began to tighten their grip. The documents show banks rejecting wire transfers tied to his accounts and compliance teams escalating internal reviews. Tens of millions of dollars were sent abroad and then pulled back.
The records suggest that a man long adept at navigating complex financial systems was beginning to find those routes closing. A month after his arrest, he was discovered dead in US federal custody.
Epstein and Morocco
Bin Ennakhil palace was not the first time Morocco had appeared in Epstein’s orbit.
Emails examined by French broadcaster France Televisions showed that as early as July 2002, a Swedish national of Algerian origin, Daniel Siad, described by witnesses as a recruiter working for Epstein, sent him a photograph of a young woman in Marrakesh. “Cute French girl in Marrakech,” one message read.
A woman later questioned by French police said Siad “wanted me to meet girls for Epstein, to give him massages, prostitution”. She told investigators Siad showed her photographs of Moroccan girls and asked whether they would appeal to Epstein. “I told him no, that he wouldn’t be interested,” she said, adding that she did not want “another girl to suffer”.
The exchange suggests Morocco was part of Epstein’s international network long before the palace negotiations of 2019.
In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to soliciting a minor for prostitution and served 13 months in jail under a much criticised plea agreement that shielded him from federal prosecution. For years afterwards, he resumed a life of wealth and influence, moving between homes in Manhattan, Palm Beach, the US Virgin Islands and Paris and maintaining connections in finance, academia and politics.
He largely eluded scrutiny until late 2018 when the Miami Herald newspaper published a series of investigations revisiting the 2008 plea deal and giving voice to dozens of his accusers. The reporting triggered a renewed federal investigation. By early 2019, prosecutors in New York were quietly building a new case.
A palace and an offshore financial structure
Documents reviewed by Al Jazeera show that in February 2019, five months before his arrest, negotiations were under way for the purchase of Bin Ennakhil.
The transaction was not structured as a straightforward real estate purchase. Instead, emails show the deal involved acquiring shares in a Liechtenstein company connected to the property through a British Virgin Islands trust.
In the correspondence, the broker noted the arrangement would “save 7% in government taxes”. The proposed buyer was identified as “The Haze Trust”, and the price under discussion was about 25 million euros ($29.5m).
The emails were handled by Karyna Shuliak, who was described in media reports at the time as Epstein’s girlfriend and who also worked for his companies. She advanced negotiations on his behalf.
Rejected wires and new accounts
However, internal banking records reviewed by Al Jazeera show that a month later on March 13, 2019, a wire transfer tied to “Epstein, Jeffrey E.” was marked “Rejected” by Deutsche Bank
The documents do not specify why the transaction failed. According to the Reuters news agency, Deutsche Bank was in the process of winding down accounts held by Epstein in 2019.
About this time, Epstein appeared to turn to a new financial institution: Charles Schwab. It opened three accounts for Epstein-linked companies in April 2019, including one for Southern Trust, an Epstein-owned entity trying to buy the Moroccan palace.
On June 26, 2019, Southern Trust instructed Schwab to wire roughly 11.15 million euros (then worth about $12.7m), to an account in Switzerland held by Marc Leon, the Marrakesh-based realtor handling the sale, according to a suspicious activity report described by Reuters.
The next day, Schwab received a call asking to reverse the transfer. The funds were due to be returned on July 10.
Two days before his arrest, on July 4, 2019, a second wire request was submitted by Southern Trust, this time for $14.95m. It was signed by Epstein.
According to the suspicious activity report cited by Reuters, the Southern Trust account did not contain sufficient funds at that moment because the earlier $12.7m had not yet been credited back to it.
The second transfer was cancelled on July 9, 2019.
The death of Epstein
Additional documents reviewed by Al Jazeera show that by late July 2019, federal investigators were discussing a Charles Schwab account and Switzerland. One internal email noted that Epstein had “tried to send money … to Switzerland”.
Schwab told Reuters it had concerns about attempted wires “for the purpose of real estate, in light of negative media surrounding Jeffrey Epstein” and worries about him being a possible flight risk before a bail hearing.
By early July, the financial systems that had long sustained Epstein’s opulent life were beginning to close around him as transfers were flagged and the flow of funds reversed. Epstein’s financial manoeuvring had collided with a legal reckoning
On July 6, 2019, Epstein was arrested at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey by a Crimes Against Children Task Force on charges of sex trafficking minors from 2002 to 2005.
Investigators seized electronic devices from his homes in New York, Florida and the US Virgin Islands. According to court filings, the search of his Manhattan townhouse yielded evidence of sex trafficking and hundreds, possibly thousands, of sexually suggestive photographs of girls.
Epstein sought release on a proposed $100m bond and offered to submit to house arrest at his Manhattan mansion. US District Judge Richard M Berman denied the request, ruling that he posed both a danger to the community and a serious flight risk.
The palace near Marrakesh with its fountains and marble courtyards was never owned by Epstein. Instead, he was held at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in Manhattan, a federal jail where detainees are confined to small cells behind steel doors.
Weeks later, Epstein was found dead in his jail cell. The New York City medical examiner ruled the death a suicide.
