FBI SAFE CONTENTS INVENTORY — 9 EAST 71ST STREET Filed July 2019 — Southern District of New York
During the execution of the search warrant at Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan townhouse on July 6-7, 2019, FBI agents discovered a locked safe in a closet on an upper floor of the residence. The safe required a locksmith to open and its contents were cataloged under strict chain-of-custody protocols.
COMPACT DISCS: The safe contained a collection of compact discs (CDs) with handwritten labels. According to court filings by the SDNY, some of these labels bore the names of individuals followed by the word "young" and a named individual — formatting that prosecutors characterized as potentially identifying both victims and participants. The CDs were immediately flagged for forensic analysis by the FBI's Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory. Prosecutors disclosed the existence of these CDs during Epstein's bail hearing on July 15, 2019, as evidence of the danger he posed and the potential for obstruction if released. The precise number of CDs and the full text of their labels have not been made public, though prosecutors indicated the contents were photographic in nature.
LOOSE DIAMONDS: The safe contained an undisclosed quantity of loose diamonds of varying sizes. Prosecutors argued during the bail hearing that these diamonds, combined with the cash also found, demonstrated that Epstein maintained a "wealth of assets that are readily portable" — a factor weighing against bail. The diamonds were appraised and held as potential evidence. Their presence in a personal safe rather than a secure vault or safety deposit box was cited as indicative of Epstein's desire to maintain immediate access to easily transportable wealth.
EXPIRED FOREIGN PASSPORT: FBI agents recovered an expired Austrian passport bearing Jeffrey Epstein's photograph but issued under a different name. The passport listed a residential address in Saudi Arabia and contained entry stamps from several countries. Epstein's defense attorneys stated the passport was obtained in the 1980s for personal security purposes, claiming that Epstein was advised to carry a non-U.S. passport when traveling in the Middle East due to concerns about anti-American or anti-Semitic hostility. Prosecutors used the passport's existence as evidence that Epstein had means and history of concealing his identity, bolstering their argument that he posed an extreme flight risk.
LARGE QUANTITIES OF CASH: The safe contained piles of U.S. currency totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars in various denominations. This cash was in addition to the diamonds and passport, and prosecutors cited the combined value of the safe's contents as evidence that Epstein maintained a "go bag" of sorts — the kind of readily accessible, untraceable wealth that would facilitate flight from prosecution. The cash was counted, photographed, and logged into evidence.
SIGNIFICANCE TO THE CASE: The safe contents featured prominently in Judge Richard Berman's July 18, 2019 bail denial ruling. Judge Berman cited the "extraordinary" contents of the safe — the CDs with handwritten labels, the false passport, the diamonds, and the cash — as compelling evidence of both flight risk and danger to the community. The ruling noted that these items demonstrated a "sustained pattern of obfuscation" and suggested Epstein had taken deliberate steps to maintain the ability to flee and to preserve potentially incriminating material in a manner designed to avoid detection.
The CDs were subsequently analyzed by FBI digital forensics specialists, and their contents became part of the sealed evidentiary record in the SDNY prosecution. Following Epstein's death in August 2019, the disposition of these materials became subject to ongoing litigation by victims' attorneys seeking full disclosure.