On July 5, 2011, a midlevel director at U.S. Customs and Border Protection signed three pieces of paper. Each renewed a federal license. Each authorized worldwide transport of foreign nationals into the United States without visa review. Each was countersigned by the same man — a registered sex offender on federal supervised release, whose victims were at that moment fighting in federal court for the right to be recognized as victims at all. The federal government’s internal review note, attached to the file: no evidence the previous contract was terminated.
The director was Dennis McKee, of CBP's Fines, Penalties and Forfeitures Division. The three pieces of paper were Visa Waiver Program carrier agreements for L.S.J. LLC, Hyperion Air Inc., and JEGE, Inc. — three corporate entities Jeffrey Epstein wholly owned and personally signed for as Managing Member and President. Each agreement ran through 2018.
This article is part of my Epstein Files series, the reporting I published as I worked through the federal record in real time. That reporting became the foundation of Shadow Empire: The Epstein Files.
The articles followed individual threads as I found them. The book follows how they connect: thirty-four chapters, in the order events happened, with every claim footnoted to a document at justice.gov/epstein and its federal Bates number. Where an article and the book differ, the book reflects the fuller record.
The rest of this article continues below for paid subscribers. For the complete account, the book is the place to start.
