The Zorro Ranch, a New Mexico desert property formerly owned by the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, has been sold for an undisclosed amount after being on the market for two years.
The new owner, San Rafael Ranch LLC, registered with New Mexico’s secretary of state office in July, the Associated Press reported.
The Santa Fe ranch was initially listed for $27.5 million in 2021, with the price later reduced to $18 million.
Epstein committed suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
The New Mexico ranch features a 26,700-square-foot mansion, private airstrip, hangar, helipad, ranch office, firehouse, and heated garage. Although he was never charged in New Mexico, the state’s attorney general’s office had confirmed an investigation into Epstein’s activities at the ranch.
It’s not the only property formerly owned by Epstein that sold this year.
Stephen Deckoff, founder of Black Diamond Capital Management, bought from Epstein’s estate two private islands off the coast of St. Thomas — one of which, Little St. James, was a notorious enclave where Epstein reportedly sexually abused dozens of teenage girls — for $60 million, about half of the asking price, the New York Times reported. The other island is called Great St. James.
Deckoff said in a release that he plans to build a 25-room resort on the islands, though there is no mention of which island the construction is planned for. Little St. James is more developed than Great St. James.
Savvy real estate investors aren’t shy about acquiring properties from their infamous former owners, though there appears to be a difference between whether the alleged malfeasance took place at those properties.
A New York City townhouse owned by Epstein sold for $51 million in 2021 after being listed for $86 million, Air Mail reported.
In 2010, Al Kahn, the licensing executive behind Pokémon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, was quick to snap up the penthouse at 133 East 64th Street previously owned by disgraced financier Bernie Madoff, who had just pleaded guilty to running the largest Ponzi scheme in history. Khan paid $8 million, 20 percent less than the asking price.
— Ted Glanzer