SANTA FE COUNTY, N.M. (NEXSTAR) – A sprawling New Mexico ranch owned by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is expected to hit the market at $27.5 million, according to Sotheby’s International Realty.
Zorro Ranch, as the property was known, sits on approximately 8,000 acres of land near the town of Stanley in Santa Fe County, and features a 30,000 square foot main home, The Wall Street Journal reported. It’s the third of Epstein’s properties to be sold off following his Aug. 2019 death in prison, after his townhouse in Manhattan and home in Palm Beach, Florida, sold for $51 million and $18.5 million, respectively.
Portions of the proceeds from the sale of Epstein’s properties have been used to replenish the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program, which has so far been funded with $140 million to be used for the compensation of victims, an attorney for his estate said.
A representative for Sotheby’s told the Wall Street Journal that proceeds from the sale of Zorro Ranch would go to Epstein’s estate, “including as necessary to compensate claimants, tax authorities, and creditors.”
Zorro Ranch, which Epstein purchased in 1993, was partially located on two parcels of State Trust Land in New Mexico, which he leased through a grazing contract. State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard officially canceled the leases in Sept. 2019, with plans to hand them over to families who “have a bona fide desire to lease land for ranching purposes,” KRQE reported at the time.
Epstein had not faced criminal charges in New Mexico prior to his death, though multiple women have accused Epstein of sexual abuse at Zorro Ranch. He was on the state’s sex offender list until 2010, but not re-listed due to a requirement that victims be under 16, Forbes reported.
“New Mexico continues to lag behind the rest of the country in strengthening outdated and weak laws that fail to protect our children from abuse,” New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas said in an emailed statement to the Associated Press in 2019, following Epstein pleading not guilty to sex-trafficking charges in New York. “This is a huge black eye for our state.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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