Georgia businessman Thomas Huff has lodged a lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstein's estate over a Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation jet that was previously owned by the late convicted sex trafficker and was bought by Huff weeks before the disgraced financier's arrest in 2019.
In the lawsuit filed in Atlanta, Huff, who runs a charter plane business based in Cobb County, argued that JEGE LLC, the company once controlled by Epstein and which owns the aircraft, has been "damaged by the stigma" pertaining to the convicted paedophile.
Jeffrey Epstein is shown in this undated Florida Department of Law Enforcement photo
© REUTERS / Florida Department of Law Enforcement/Handout
"JEGE's customers, some of which are very well known to the public, are tracked, surveilled, and reported to the press for using, what they believed to be Jeffrey Epstein's company", the suit reads.
According to the complaint, the disgraced financier sold Huff the "controlling interest in JEGE" without mentioning he "was engaged in a massive criminal enterprise involving rape, sex trafficking, sexual abuse, physical assault, blackmail, intimidation, fraud, and deceit".
The document underscores that Huff "would not have purchased JEGE" if he knew about Epstein's purported sex ring, adding that the Georgia businessman tried to stop the sale once the feds detained the sex trafficker.
"Upon Mr Epstein's arrest and his crimes against children becoming public knowledge, Thomas Huff contacted Jeffrey E. Epstein's counsel and gave him notice of rescission of the purchase agreement. This was rejected by Jeffrey E. Epstein", who "committed fraud by failing to disclose a material fact that could not have been known through any amount of due diligence by Thomas Huff", the lawsuit reads.
In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to procuring a person under 18 for prostitution and felony solicitation of prostitution. The billionaire financier was later released under a plea deal, only to be charged with sex trafficking in July 2019.
In August of that year, he was found dead in his prison cell in New York City, with officials declaring his death a suicide. The cause of his death, however, remains disputed amid conspiracy theories wondering whether Epstein was murdered to prevent him from testifying against high-profile friends, including Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, and Prince Andrew.