Karyna Shuliak was Jeffrey Epstein’s last partner and main heiress. She won’t benefit from his will
Karyna Shuliak and Jeffrey Epstein in New York, April 2014.
A loyal companion of sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, Karyna Shuliak was the last person to speak to him on the phone shortly before his suicide in prison on August 10, 2019. Close to the disgraced financier, to whom she was simultaneously a lover, manager and dependent, she appears as his main beneficiary in the will he wrote in his cell before his death.
According to that document, Shuliak was supposed to inherit $100 million (€85 million) and the criminal’s properties: his Manhattan townhouse, his apartment on Avenue Foch in Paris, his private islands, his ranch in New Mexico, as well as a 32-carat ring purchased for $1.2 million. Despite this lavish inheritance, the 36-year-old, who currently lives in New York, will not see a penny, as American and French authorities have decided to freeze the estate to allocate it to a victims’ compensation fund.
It all began in 2009. Shuliak, then a 20-year-old student of dental medicine at Minsk University, started corresponding with the billionaire, who was 36 years older than her. Known for his preference for women from Eastern Europe, Epstein invited her – all expenses paid – to the United States, promising help with her studies and support for her visa application. Arriving in New York in August of that year, the young woman became part of the financier’s life, just after he had served his first prison sentence for procuring minors for prostitution. He liked her, and he kept his promises.
‘Donation’ to the dean
To begin with, he arranged for her admission to Columbia University’s College of Dental Medicine, which was a complicated process, since she had not completed her studies in Belarus. This obstacle was easily overcome, as revealed by Epstein’s emails, when he made a “donation” of $100,000 to the dean. He then lobbied his network of businesspeople and lawyers to help her secure a residence permit.
When that permit expired in 2013, Epstein suggested that Shuliak marry one of his acquaintances: Jennifer K., a former partner of Kimbal Musk, brother of Elon Musk. In August 2013, immigration lawyer Arda Beskardes wrote an email to Epstein: “We should also talk about the marriage as soon as possible. Are you in NYC?” The pair married in October 2013 and divorced in 2018, shortly after the Belarusian was granted American citizenship. “Now that she’s an American, you should throw her a big ole party,” the lawyer suggested. The many email exchanges regarding Shuliak’s status show how Epstein used his networks and finances to maintain control over his victims.
With her slender figure and angelic face, the young Belarusian quickly came to play an essential role in the shadowy world of the predator, notably as the manager of his properties and social affairs. Illustrating her importance, her name appeared 40,144 times in more than three million documents recently released by the US Department of Justice. Throughout these documents, she could be seen acting as an interior decorator, managing orders for furniture and lamps, receiving uniforms for household staff, and arranging meetings with influential personalities.
Regular on the ‘Lolita Express’
Sentimental, she sent lovesick messages to her lover. “I love you very much, you will always have me, no matter what, as long as it makes you happy,” she wrote to Epstein in 2012. In another email, she stated: “You are the purest man out of all men.” Yet, her protector’s insatiable appetite for young women was likely no secret to her. After all, she was a regular passenger on the “Lolita Express,” the private jet used by the sex offender to transport his young victims to their abusers. Photographs show her repeatedly aboard this plane.
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One thing was certain: Epstein played the role of a doting father figure to Shuliak. The 32-carat ring was meant to seal their engagement, and the young woman spent lavishly. According to the Russian tabloid Argumenty i Fakty on February 15, he significantly improved the lives of Karyna’s parents, Feodor and Tatiana Shuliak, a modest couple living in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. After receiving transfers of several tens of thousands of dollars from the financier, the couple reportedly moved “into a high-end apartment.”
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The paper also claimed that Epstein covered the entire cost of treatment for Tatiana, Karyna’s mother, who underwent surgery for a tumor at a New York clinic in 2013.
Epstein was drawn to Belarus. In 2016, he applied for a visa, claiming he wanted “to explore potential investments,” according to the application he submitted to the Belarusian consulate in New York. For her part, Shuliak pledged to host him at her home, as confirmed by a letter. At first glance, the trip never materialized. According to Argumenty i Fakty, Epstein’s special relationship with Belarus was not so much about recruiting girls, but rather because his ancestors were from the country and he wanted “to reconnect with his roots.”
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Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.
