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I'm being sued for going to Epstein's Island, which is insane because it's like out of all the god-awful things that have gone down there, barely anyone faced any real repercussions. All right, be really careful right here. This video shows YouTubers sneaking onto the island that once belonged to Jeffrey Epstein, and the new owner isn't happy about it. Billionaire Stephen Deckoff bought Epstein's two islands in 2023 to build a resort. He's since sued nine influencers and conspiracy theorists, accusing them of trespassing. YouTuber Andrew Peterson told me, "That's like buying a concentration camp from the Holocaust, and like, yeah, we're going
to turn this into a resort." What are you talking about? I've spent years reporting on Epstein, and at this point, it's pretty hard to surprise me. But I was shocked when I read these court filings about the island's caretaker. She was originally hired by Epstein and was recently charged with assault for allegedly capturing and hog-tying one of these influencers. So, how did all this happen? And what the heck is going on that island? Jeffrey Epstein actually owned two islands in the Caribbean off of St. Thomas. The larger one is uninhabited. The smaller one, Little St. James, was where he tasked his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, with setting up a
sprawling compound. Ghislaine not only brought in home furnishings, but also sand and palm trees. This was the main house. The bedrooms inside were where accusers say Epstein raped them. This room with dental equipment and face masks have been the center of many conspiracy theories. Epstein's fiance at the time was a dentist, but that doesn't really explain the masks. In this picture, you can see there were security cameras all over.
Victims said they felt trapped on the island. Epstein used the island to host powerful people. Visitors included Google co-founder Sergey Brin, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, who said it was part of a fundraising trip for MIT, and Howard Lutnick, who's now commerce secretary. And we had lunch on the island. That is true for an hour. Brin, Hoffman, and Lutnick haven't been accused of any wrongdoing related to Epstein. One of Epstein's accusers, Virginia Giuffre, wrote in her memoir that then Prince Andrew had sex with her there. The ex-prince settled a lawsuit with her without admitting wrongdoing. After Epstein killed himself in a federal jail cell in August 2019, the two islands were placed under the
control of his executors. And in March 2022, they put them on the market for $125 million. About a year later, a billionaire private equity firm founder, Stephen Deckoff, bought the islands for 60 million [clears throat] and announced his plans to build a resort. His spokesperson told me that Deckoff and Epstein had never met. But a resort has never been built and Little St. James looks largely the same. The only visible change was that the so-called temple was repainted white. And the only construction permit Deckoff has filed was to build a warehouse. That temple was at the center of many conspiracy theories that drew influencers to the islands. And as far as I know, more than a dozen YouTubers
have gone to film it. I spoke to Andrew Peterson behind the YouTube channel Side Quest Drew. He chronicled his August 2025 journey to the island in this video. Wait, wait, watch out. There might be a camera out there. We're going to be filming and stuff here, right? No, we still have to go to the temple. He told me he was dead set on landing on Little St. James because he wanted to seek the truth about the islands once owned by a famous pedophile. But YouTube videos like his are why he and eight other people are being sued for
trespassing. The footage shows Andrew and his friends renting kayaks in St. Thomas and paddling to Little St. James. Oh, yeah. And the Category 5 hurricane was pummeling the area at THE TIME. PADDLE, PADDLE. KEEP GOING. GO, GO, GO. THE VIDEO SHOWED THEM RUMMAGING around the temple and the main house. They had a lot to say about this art. Bro, that's literally a tortured person statue. By then, the storm was getting worse. And Andrew told me he realized they'd made a huge miscalculation. With this wind, there's no way I'm getting on the kayak on the open ocean.
There's no way. Right now, our reservation No. Yeah, we're we're I think we got it. We're staying here. We got to camp here. So, they decided to stay the night. Yeah, I was thinking they'd have this guest house like stocked with snacks. I got really upset just thinking about that stuff. Like I feel the weight of the tears in my eyes. Like that's how heavy it is. He told me they didn't find any underground tunnels, a conspiracy theory that had taken the internet by storm. In the morning, the group put up a release the files flag next to the temple. At the time of filming, the Trump administration hadn't dropped any
documents. The Justice Department did release some files later that year. Then the group left. And as they paddled away, they heard security yelling at them from the shore. We got this. Sorry. We lost control of the boat. Based on my reporting, Andrew and his friends were lucky they didn't encounter the island's caretaker, Anne Rodriguez. In March, she caught two YouTuber brothers flying a drone over the islands. According to one of the brothers' accounts to the US Virgin Islands police, she pulled her boat up to theirs and ordered one of them to swim to her boat. She was pointing what looked like a gun at his head. A Coast
Guard member found that brother hog-tied and totally naked in the back of her boat. The weapon ended up being a BB gun designed to look like a Glock. A rental company blamed Deckel employees for destroying the two jet skis the brothers rented. In May 2026, US Virgin Islands authorities brought false imprisonment, assault, and destruction of property charges against Anne Rodriguez. When I called her for comment, she said, "Hell no. Have a good day." Deckel then turns around and files a lawsuit against both of the YouTuber brothers as he did against Andrew Peterson and Ryan Dalton, creator of this conspiracy theory crowdfunding site who visited in April, and against the YouTuber behind this
video. Deckel's lawsuits seek any money the content creators made from their videos. Andrew said his group had already donated $30,000 of the revenue from the videos to Polaris, an organization that fights human trafficking. A spokesperson for Deckel told me that trespassers pose a danger for the people who work on the island, and they will continue to pursue every legal remedy particularly for people who film themselves trespassing and make money off these videos. Andrew told me his group anticipated potential legal consequences including going to jail, which he said would be pretty insane. But because he viewed going to the island as necessary for his role as an independent journalist, he went anyway.
I don't see this trend stopping anytime soon. As long as people have questions about Jeffrey Epstein, people have questions about the island. Just like the influencers that got pursued, a lot of Americans still want answers.
