Little St James, southeast of Great St James off St Thomas’s southern coast, was formerly owned by Jeffrey E. Epstein and identified as a site where many minor victims were allegedly sexually abused. Photo: VIC

In 2023, Little St James and Great St James were sold to investment firm SD Investments LLC, which intended to build a luxury resort that investor Stephen Deckhoff said would have been open in 2025. Delaware-based holding company LSJVI, LLC now reportedly holds title to the property. 

A civil complaint filed Thursday in Superior Court by LSJVI, LLC names Benjamin Owen and Ryan Dalton as defendants against allegations of civil conspiracy, trespass and being a private nuisance. A third, unnamed alleged co-conspiratory and a  Tennessee nonprofit named “We Fight Monsters, LTD” are also named in the lawsuit.

We Fight Monsters

Mr Owen was arrested in late April after reportedly being found on Little Saint James by caretakers and maintenance workers, who captured and bound him with duct tape before calling police. Mr Owen reportedly runs the We Fight Monsters organisation, which purports to “rescue, recover, and restore people trapped in trafficking and addiction,” according to their website. 

The lawsuit describes Mr Owen as “a violent man with a history of significant drug abuse,” which has left him “detached from reality” and “prone to embracing and pursuing wild conspiracy theories.” One of those theories, which he reportedly shares with Mr Dalton, is that Jeffrey Epstein is not dead but rather living in secrecy on Little St. James. 

Mr Dalton, the complaint alleges, runs an organisation named “Closed Horizon” which bills itself as a platform for crowdfunded investigations, but which the lawsuit calls “nothing more than a social media page peddling conspiracy theories regarding Jeffrey Epstein.”

The two men and the yet-to-be-named co-conspirator flew from the mainland to the US Virgin Islands and on April 28 rented a dinghy on St John. They recorded themselves on Little St. James, reportedly “with the intent to post and monetise their conduct,” which the lawsuit describes as trespass and burglary. 

Mr Owen was ultimately arrested after being detained on the island, while Mr Dalton was reportedly able to make his escape. The two are “part of a burgeoning subset of internet publicity seekers to continuously trespass and burglarise Little St James seeking fame and notoriety online,” the lawsuit contends. Indeed, one of the current residents of the island was herself arrested in connection with the chase and detention of a pair of brothers in a separate incident of unwelcome intrusion onto the island. 

The lawsuit asks the court for punitive and compensatory damages, as well as the disgorgement of any funds earned from the two men’s recordings of their visit to the island.