Section 01
Bin Ennakhil: The Palace in the Palmeraie
The property. Bin Ennakhil sits in the Palmeraie — Marrakech's most exclusive residential district, a palm grove north-east of the medina where the city's wealthiest expatriates keep estates. A property brochure in the released files describes it as taking 1,300 craftsmen three years to build, featuring ornate carvings and mosaics. It has been called an architectural masterpiece.
The pursuit. Epstein had been trying to acquire it since 2011 — an eight-year negotiation. Disputes with the seller over valuation and deal structure dragged on for years.
The intermediaries. The broker was Marc Leon of Kensington Luxury Properties, part of the Christie's International Real Estate network in Morocco. Epstein relied on his girlfriend Karyna Shuliak and his Moroccan contacts to conduct inspections. He visited the site himself in 2018.
The Leon Black claim. When Shuliak submitted final bids, she allegedly claimed she was acting on behalf of Leon Black — the billionaire investor and longtime Epstein associate who paid Epstein $158 million in fees. Whether Black knew his name was being used is not established in the released documents.
The terms. Finalised in March 2019, according to Reuters. Marc Leon did not respond to press requests for comment but defended the deal to Reuters, noting he has since sold the palace to another buyer.
Epstein signed a $14.95 million wire transfer on July 5, 2019 as part of an agreement to acquire the offshore company that owned Bin Ennakhil. The deal valued the property at €18 million.
He was arrested the following day — July 6, 2019 — upon his return to New York.
Three days later, his longtime accountant Richard Kahn cancelled the wire transfer. The transaction was never completed.
Reuters reported that Charles Schwab wired approximately $27.7 million on Epstein's behalf to the Moroccan real estate broker in the run-up to the purchase. Epstein had arranged the transfers through a newly opened Schwab account.
Schwab flagged the transfers as suspicious — shortly before Epstein was found dead in his cell in August 2019.
The discrepancy between the $27.7M Schwab figure and the $14.95M signed wire has not been publicly reconciled.
Section 02
The Offshore Structure & the "Tax Strategy"
The proposal. The released files show that Kensington Luxury Properties proposed to Epstein a "sale and tax strategy" with a specific mechanism:
- The property would be registered with Moroccan authorities as sold for €10 million
- A separate transaction of €20 million would take place for the shares of the offshore company that owned Bin Ennakhil
The declared price to the Moroccan state would be half the actual consideration. The difference would move as a share transfer in another jurisdiction, invisible to Moroccan tax authorities and property registries.
What Epstein chose. He ultimately opted to acquire the property by purchasing the shares of the offshore company — not the property itself. This is the structure that makes beneficial ownership opaque: the land register in Marrakech would show no change of owner, because the owner remained the same offshore entity. Only the entity's shareholders changed.
Why this matters beyond tax. An offshore-held property with concealed beneficial ownership is not merely a tax arrangement — it is an asset that is difficult to trace, difficult to seize, and difficult to connect to its true owner in any subsequent legal proceeding.
This is vulnerability 05 from the Africa hub — jurisdictional gaps — in its clearest documented form:
1. Offshore ownership severs the visible link between asset and owner
2. Dual pricing conceals true value from the host state
3. No extradition treaty means the person is beyond reach
4. A property broker openly proposes the arrangement in writing
None of these steps required Epstein to invent anything. Each is a standard feature of high-end international property transactions.
Richard Kahn — Epstein's longtime accountant and later co-executor of his estate alongside Darren Indyke — cancelled the wire transfer three days after the arrest.
Kahn and Indyke were subsequently sued by the USVI Attorney General, accused of depleting the estate from $630 million to $240 million by 2021.
Section 03
Timeline
Section 04
Tangier: The Earlier Thread
Tangier appears on roughly nine pages of the released files — a separate and earlier thread from the Marrakech purchase.
The 2001 trip. The files reference a March 2001 trip involving Prince Andrew alongside Epstein. This predates the Bin Ennakhil pursuit by a decade and sits within the period Giuffre describes in her memoir.
Giuffre's account. In Nobody's Girl, Giuffre wrote that Epstein and Maxwell flew her to Tangier to inspect luxury property interiors. Epstein's stated purpose was aesthetic — he wanted to redesign parts of Little Saint James in a Moroccan style. Giuffre was a minor when Maxwell recruited her at Mar-a-Lago in 2000.
The 2015 negotiations. Emails between Epstein and Marc Leon — the same broker who would later handle Bin Ennakhil — discuss purchasing distinctive luxury properties in Tangier, including a property referred to as the "Italian Palace," with attention to exceptional location and architectural design.
No completed purchase. There is no public data confirming Epstein purchased any property in Tangier. His known real estate portfolio comprised New York, Palm Beach, Paris, New Mexico, and the US Virgin Islands. The Tangier conversations remain, on the public record, exploration and negotiation.
The Tangier thread establishes that Morocco was part of Epstein's operation from the earliest documented period of his trafficking — not a late-stage escape plan.
A trip with a minor to inspect properties. A royal wedding attended on a former president's invitation. A decade of property hunting. Then, finally, a palace bought through an offshore shell the day before arrest.
The 2019 purchase was the culmination of an eighteen-year relationship with the country, not an improvisation.
The March 2001 Tangier trip file referencing Prince Andrew is one of several Morocco-adjacent documents. Prince Andrew has denied all allegations relating to Epstein's trafficking. He settled Virginia Giuffre's civil suit in 2022 without admission of liability, and was stripped of his remaining titles in 2025.
Section 05
The Extradition Question
The fact. Morocco has no extradition treaty with the United States. This is not disputed and not speculative. It is a documented feature of the two states' legal relationship.
The speculation. Moroccan and international press have speculated that one of Epstein's motivations for the purchase may have been to retreat to the country to avoid arrest if new charges were brought against him.
What the files actually contain. The released DOJ documents contain no reference to Epstein discussing Morocco as a possible refuge from US authorities. This is an important negative finding. The extradition inference is drawn by observers from the circumstances — it is not stated in any released document.
The counter-argument. A former Epstein associate, speaking anonymously, said the timing of the transaction showed Epstein "had no clue" about his imminent arrest — because a man expecting arrest would not sign a $14.95 million wire the day before. The same associate added that "it would make sense if he was thinking of a potential sanctuary where he could still live like a king."
Both readings fit the evidence. The purchase could be the act of a man who felt entirely safe, buying a holiday palace he had wanted for eight years. Or the act of a man building an exit he hoped never to need. The files do not resolve it.
Confirmed: Morocco has no US extradition treaty. Epstein signed a $14.95M wire on July 5, 2019. He was arrested July 6. The purchase used an offshore share transfer structure. A dual-pricing "tax strategy" was proposed in writing. Schwab flagged $27.7M in related transfers as suspicious.
Inferred, not documented: That Epstein intended Morocco as a refuge from prosecution. No released file states this.
Assessment
What Morocco Shows
Morocco is the only African country in the files where Epstein's objective was possession rather than access. Everywhere else on the continent he was selling, brokering, or introducing. In Marrakech he was buying — for himself.
The mechanism is instructive precisely because it is so ordinary. An offshore holding company. A dual-priced sale. A luxury broker who proposes the structure unprompted, in writing, because that is how the market works. Nothing about the Bin Ennakhil transaction required Epstein's particular genius. It required only money and a market designed for opacity.
The unresolved question is intent — and it is unresolved because the DOJ files, for all their volume, do not contain a single document in which Epstein explains why he wanted a palace in a country the United States cannot extradite from.
Why was Leon Black's name used? Shuliak allegedly submitted bids claiming to act for Black. Did he know?
What accounts for the $27.7M vs $14.95M discrepancy? Schwab wired substantially more than the signed transfer.
Who was the seller? The offshore company's prior beneficial owners are not identified in released files.
Did Moroccan authorities review the dual-pricing proposal? No indication of any investigation.