New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday against Jeffrey Epstein's longtime attorney Darren Indyke and accountant Richard Kahn, accusing both men of having "facilitated and concealed" Epstein's sex-trafficking crimes. The complaint, filed in the US district court for the district of New Mexico, names Indyke and Kahn both individually and as co-executors of Epstein's estate, and also targets the estate itself and the 1953 Trust that holds its assets. The core allegation is structural, not incidental. The AG claims Indyke received more than $16m and Kahn more than $10m from Epstein and related entities between 2011 and 2019 — compensation the complaint characterizes as payment for "furthering Epstein's criminal project and remaining silent about it." Torrez is seeking a court order to block both men from receiving further estate payments while the case proceeds, a move that would freeze the financial incentive structure the suit describes. Indyke and Kahn pushed back forcefully. Their joint statement emphasized that "not a single woman has ever accused Mr Indyke or Mr Kahn of committing sexual abuse or witnessing sexual abuse," and that the AG's office never contacted them before filing. Earlier this year, both men told the US House committee investigating Epstein that they had no knowledge of his crimes during their employment. The defense will hinge on the distinction between proximity to a criminal enterprise and knowledge of it — a line that civil litigation, with its lower burden of proof, will test differently than criminal proceedings would. Several Epstein survivors signed a letter supporting the lawsuit, explicitly seeking to "expose what roles Indyke and Kahn played in Epstein's operation" and to "prevent Epstein's trusted loyalists from being rewarded for their roles." Survivor Anouska De Georgiou appeared at a news conference, saying "it is time for those responsible to answer for their part in it." The survivor coalition is not demanding criminal conviction — they want discovery, testimony under oath, and redirection of estate funds. This lawsuit sits inside a broader conflict between New Mexico and the federal Department of Justice. Torrez sued the DOJ in August, accusing Attorney General Todd Blanche of "stonewalling" the state's investigation into Epstein's activities at Zorro Ranch outside Santa Fe. The DOJ recently moved to dismiss, arguing that information-sharing decisions are at the agency's discretion and that releasing unredacted files would violate victims' privacy. New Mexico reopened its Epstein investigation in February after the federal release of roughly 3 million Epstein-related files revealed thousands of references to Zorro Ranch and numerous photos of men and young girls at the property. The Guardian's investigation revealed that, unlike Epstein's properties in Palm Beach, New York, and the Caribbean, federal authorities had apparently never searched the New Mexico ranch — a gap that became the catalyst for the state's independent action. New Mexico authorities launched a search of the ranch in March. State lawmakers also established a "truth commission" to examine activities at the property, which Epstein bought in 1993 and which was sold by his estate in 2023. The lawsuit's real function is twofold: it uses civil litigation to pry open the financial architecture surrounding Epstein's operation, and it challenges the premise that co-executors of a trafficking-linked estate should continue drawing from it while survivors' claims remain unresolved. Whether Indyke and Kahn knew is a legal question. Whether they should keep getting paid while that question is litigated is the immediate one Torrez is forcing.
