The release of archives on the financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein shed light not only on his circle of contacts, but also on whom he intended to leave his fortune to. A trust agreement drawn up two days before his death shows that Epstein named as his principal beneficiary Karina Shulyak, a Belarusian dentist. She was the woman he planned to marry and who, according to available information, was the last person to speak with him before his death. The document grants her rights to tens of millions of dollars. It remains unclear, however, whether the money was actually transferred—and whether it can be obtained in the future.
Two Days Before His Death, Epstein Drew Up a Document Listing His Heirs
In the largest and final batch of Jeffrey Epstein files, published by the U.S. Department of Justice on January 30, a trust agreement was found that effectively served as the financier’s will. The 32-page document was drafted two days before his death and set out in detail who was to receive his assets.
Epstein was found dead on August 10, 2019, in a jail cell in New York, where he was being held on charges of human trafficking, including of minors, for the purpose of sexual exploitation. The official investigation classified the death as a suicide, though a conspiracy theory alleging murder continues to circulate.
In 2019, Epstein’s fortune was estimated at nearly $600 million, but in court filings from 2025 that figure already appears at $127 million. Yet in his will the financier disposed of $288 million in assets, along with a number of real-estate holdings. ABC News reported this after reviewing the document’s contents.
Under Epstein’s instructions, after his death the estate was to be divided among several dozen beneficiaries. They included his brother Mark; his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for “recruiting” minors for sex with Epstein and his influential acquaintances; and members of his entourage, including his personal pilot, Larry Visoski. Some names in the agreement were classified.
The document stipulated that Mark Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell would receive $10 million each. The accountant Richard Kahn and the lawyer Darren Indyke, who signed the agreement and were appointed its executors, were to inherit $25 million and $50 million, respectively. The largest share went to Karina Shulyak—the woman whom, the text of the agreement suggests, Epstein planned to marry. She was to receive $100 million, 48 diamonds and a diamond ring, as well as all of his real estate, including apartments in Paris and New York, a ranch in New Mexico, and Little Saint James—a private Caribbean island where Epstein hosted parties.
Epstein’s Main Heir, Karina Shulyak, Is From Belarus
The first public discussion of a woman named Karina Shulyak—described as Jeffrey Epstein’s companion—surfaced in the spring of 2020. The tabloid New York Daily News reported at the time that she was the last person the financier spoke to before his death. According to The New York Times, the call took place on the evening of August 9, 2019, lasted about 15 minutes, and was not recorded. When a guard asked whom he had called, Epstein said it was his mother—though she had died back in 2004. After the conversation he returned to his cell, where he was found hanging the following morning.
Karina Shulyak in 2024.
Karina Shulyak was born in Belarus. She studied at Minsk School No. 2, where, according to acquaintances, she was a quiet and modest pupil and took dance classes, The Daily Mail wrote. After graduating, according to Zerkalo, she enrolled at Belarusian State Medical University. In 2009, when she was 20, Shulyak first went to the United States on the Work and Travel programme, which allowed foreign students to spend the summer in America combining work and travel. It is believed that it was then—or a year later—that she met Epstein.
The acquaintance came soon after Epstein was convicted as a sex offender. In that period almost everyone around him turned away—all except Karina, an anonymous source told The Daily Mail in 2020. According to the source, she was “a very sincere, kind, decent person” and stayed close not for the money but because she was “madly in love with him”.
For his part, Epstein paid for Karina’s training in dentistry at Columbia University—she had studied the same subject in Belarus—and helped her obtain a licence to work, though she ultimately never became a practising dentist. A source quoted by The Daily Mail said he also covered the cost of her mother’s expensive medical treatment in the United States. Belarusian journalists found that in the mid-2010s Epstein repeatedly applied for visas to Belarus, but never travelled there. Even so, he appears to have bought an apartment in Minsk, transferred at least $100,000 to Karina’s parents, and hosted them in the United States several times. In return, they sent him holiday greeting letters.
Victim Compensation May Have Kept Karina From Receiving Epstein’s Inheritance
Whether Karina knew about Epstein’s so-called “massage girls”—and whether she had any connection to his sexual crimes—remains uncertain. The financier’s archive contains a 2013 message in which he reproaches Karina for, as he puts it, “thinking it is her right to keep track of who enters and leaves his massage room, and when.” A source for The Daily Mail said that within Epstein’s circle Shulyak was nicknamed “the inspector” because she allegedly jealously monitored him and constantly pressed him about whom he was seeing.
The New York Daily News, citing sources, wrote that Shulyak was not subjected to sexual exploitation by Epstein and genuinely believed in his feelings. At the same time, tabloids reported that she obtained permanent residency in the United States through a sham marriage to a woman in Epstein’s entourage named Jennifer Kulin. One of the victims’ lawyers, Sigrid McCawley, explained that such sham same-sex marriages allowed the financier to keep in the United States young women who interested him.
There is no information suggesting that law-enforcement agencies have raised any claims against Karina in the Epstein case.
According to the New York Daily News, there was nothing in Epstein’s final phone call with Karina Shulyak that might have pointed to an intention to take his own life. After his death, The Daily Mail wrote, Karina fell into depression. A source for the paper, speculating about how she supported herself, suggested that Shulyak was living off savings left over from her time with Epstein and “hoped for his will”.
More than six years after Epstein’s death, Karina Shulyak is believed to be living in New York. Whether she received any inheritance—and how much—remains unknown. The New York Times noted that the size of Epstein’s estate inevitably shrank after taxes and compensation payments to victims. Daniel Weiner, a lawyer representing the executors of Epstein’s will, Richard Kahn and Darren Indyke, said that none of the trust’s beneficiaries would receive “any money” until all claims against the estate—including victim compensation—had been fully satisfied. According to Weiner, Kahn and Indyke have already paid $170 million to victims.