Two FBI agents who attempted to approach two women at the St. Thomas airport in 2007 left without questioning them after Jeffrey Epstein intervened and spoke directly with the agents, according to testimony detailed in a newly released congressional report examining years of federal failures to investigate the convicted sex offender.
Sarah Kellen, a former Epstein assistant and survivor of his abuse, told congressional investigators that Epstein instructed her and another young woman to remain where they were while he approached the agents himself. Approximately 10 minutes later, he returned, told them they could leave, and the agents were gone.
Kellen described the encounter as evidence of the extraordinary influence Epstein wielded, including over law enforcement.
"He could also control any law enforcement agency," Kellen said during her May 21, 2026, interview with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, recounting the incident at the St. Thomas airport nearly two decades earlier.
Her testimony is detailed on page 62 of a 137-page report released November 10 by the committee's Republican majority staff following a 15-month investigation into the federal government's handling of the Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell cases.
Kellen's account is particularly significant because she told congressional investigators that the failure of law enforcement to question her contributed to her belief that Epstein was being unfairly targeted by women seeking his money.
She testified that Epstein presented himself as the victim of false allegations, and because investigators had not questioned her about the accusations, she had little information beyond his version of events.
"Nobody questioned me, nobody approached me, so I only had his narrative," Kellen testified.
The congressional report does not establish what Epstein told the FBI agents at the St. Thomas airport or why they left without questioning the women. The circumstances are presented through Kellen's testimony, rather than an independently established finding about the agents' intentions.
Nevertheless, the incident appears in a section of the report examining missed opportunities to interview people within Epstein's circle as federal prosecutors were investigating allegations of sexual abuse and trafficking.
Congressional Report Concludes Federal Authorities Failed Victims
The House majority report concludes that federal investigators and prosecutors repeatedly failed to pursue evidence and witnesses that could have prevented Epstein from continuing his crimes.
Investigators found that decisions made by federal authorities in South Florida, including the controversial 2007 non-prosecution agreement that allowed Epstein to avoid federal charges, contributed to years of inadequate accountability.
The report concludes that crimes committed by Epstein after 2005 could have been prevented if federal authorities had properly investigated the allegations and pursued prosecution.
The investigation also identified another instance in which Epstein allegedly prevented federal agents from reaching someone connected to him.
According to records cited in the congressional report, investigators planned to serve an alleged co-conspirator with a target letter at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. Epstein instead diverted his aircraft to the U.S. Virgin Islands, preventing the planned delivery.
The report does not establish that the Teterboro episode and Kellen's encounter at the St. Thomas airport were the same incident.
The committee also criticized the failure of authorities to pursue interviews with other Epstein associates and recommended that the Justice Department revisit certain investigative leads.
Its findings describe how Epstein's wealth, personal connections and influence helped him avoid meaningful scrutiny, while women subjected to his control and abuse were left without adequate protection.
Bank Records Reveal $26,260 in Payments to Antilles School
The congressional investigation also uncovered financial records documenting $26,260 in tuition payments by Epstein to Antilles School, the private educational institution on St. Thomas.
The payments are identified in a September 2019 Deutsche Bank presentation prepared for federal prosecutors in New York and later released through the Justice Department's Epstein files.
The bank records identify three transactions: $8,697 on July 17, 2015; $8,688 on August 26, 2016; and $8,875 on January 17, 2018.
Although the congressional report summarizes the payments as occurring between 2016 and 2018, the underlying financial records establish that the first transaction took place in 2015.
The report characterizes the payments as tuition provided on behalf of several Epstein employees. However, the beneficiaries' names are redacted from the publicly released bank records, and their identities have not been established.
The payments add to previously documented financial connections between Epstein-linked entities and Antilles School.
As The Consortium reported in February 2020, Epstein's Southern Trust Company had contributed thousands of dollars to the school's annual fund, which supported tuition assistance.
Those earlier charitable contributions are separate from the three tuition transactions identified in the new congressional investigation.
Neither the House report nor the Deutsche Bank records establish wrongdoing by Antilles School.
The November 10 report draws on testimony, financial documents and investigative records to examine how Epstein maintained his operations despite years of allegations against him.
For the Virgin Islands, Kellen's account of the 2007 airport encounter provides a particularly revealing example of the influence she believed Epstein exercised over people and institutions around him.
It also places a specific encounter on St. Thomas within the broader federal failures that congressional investigators now say allowed Epstein to avoid accountability and continue abusing women and girls for years.
