34 East 69th Street

The property at 34 East 69th Street is a five-story townhouse measuring 21 feet wide by 100 feet deep, situated two blocks north of Jeffrey Epstein's primary residence at 9 East 71st Street. Title vests in Iran as sovereign property; under 22 U.S.C. § 4305(c), the United States holds it in custodial status and the Office of Foreign Missions manages it commercially to generate funds for maintenance ³. Analysis of court filings indicates OFM administered 16 such custodial properties at program inception, and that this arrangement is legally distinct from the Alavi Foundation / 650 Fifth Avenue forfeiture, which operated under OFAC's IEEPA authority ¹.

Epstein's lease commenced February 1, 1992 at $15,000 per month ³. The lease was extended August 28, 1992 for three further years through January 31, 1997, with a right of first refusal for Epstein's personal use ³. Review of the court record indicates the rent was below prevailing market for a five-story Upper East Side townhouse in 1992. The lease originated during Secretary of State James Baker's tenure. Review of records available for this case does not identify the OFM official who approved the arrangement or who referred Epstein to the program ¹.

In April 1996, Epstein was negotiating with Xenophon Galinas to assign the lease ². Galinas separately contacted OFM and obtained a letter agreement dated April 12, 1996 for a new five-year lease at $16,000 per month starting February 1, 1997, expressly conditioned on Epstein not exercising his right of first refusal for personal use ². Four days later, on April 16, 1996, Epstein notified OFM he intended to exercise that right — then sublet the property to criminal defense attorney Ivan Fisher at $20,000 per month instead, generating a $5,000 monthly spread. The Galinas arrangement had included a $100,000 payment to Epstein for improvements. OFM official Thomas E. Burns formally denied the sublease request by letter dated April 26, 1996 ².

The government filed suit as United States v. Epstein et al., 96 CIV 8307 (S.D.N.Y.) ⁶. The Second Amended Complaint (EFTA01324981, filed December 17, 1997, 22 pages) named Jeffrey E. Epstein, Ivan S. Fisher, Fisher's law partnership Fisher & Soffer, Fisher's wife Diane Fisher d/b/a The Fisher Group, partner Ron Soffer, and twelve individual subtenants — all attorneys operating law practices from the former Iranian diplomatic residence. Fisher had converted the five-story townhouse into a multi-occupant law office with at least three separate firms ⁷.

Counsel of record: for the government, U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White (SDNY) with AUSA Serene K. Nakano as case handler; for Epstein, Steven J. Cohen of Wachtel & Masyr LLP and Jeffrey A. Schantz as transaction counsel for J. Epstein & Company Inc.; for Fisher, G. Robert Gage Jr. and Ellen J. Casey of Gage & Pavlis; Ellen Yaroshefsky also appeared for Wachtel & Masyr. OFM contact for lease negotiations was Richard Massey ⁸.

Judge Denny Chin issued two rulings. On February 19, 1998, he entered a protective order (1998 WL 67676) holding that the government could not use confidential financial discovery from this case in any other proceeding: "The Government may not use confidential information produced in discovery pursuant to the protective order for any purpose other than prosecuting this lawsuit, absent further order of the Court" ⁴. On April 1, 1998, Chin granted the government's motion for partial summary judgment on ejectment (1998 WL 159055, later published at 27 F.Supp.2d 404 (S.D.N.Y. 1998)), holding that the lease unambiguously required prior written consent for subletting, that any alleged oral consent by OFM was invalid as a matter of law, and that OFM could withhold consent "for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason at all" — noting "the sensitive political considerations that often come into play when governmental property, such as the property here in issue owned by Iran, is involved" ³. The eviction order was served July 16, 1998; marshals confirmed tenants had vacated ⁹. The main case terminated March 17, 1999 with a last filing August 12, 1999 ⁶. A companion case, Epstein v. Fisher, 97 CIV 1489, terminated March 31, 2000 ⁶.

The full DOJ EFTA file for this case (Dataset 10, document range EFTA01324981–EFTA01325025) comprises at least six discrete items: the Second Amended Complaint, a government motion for partial summary judgment against Diane Fisher and Ron Soffer, the ejectment opinion, the protective order ruling, and two 2007 email chains concerning a deposition request ⁶.

In 2007, during the Florida sex trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, an AUSA in the Southern District of Florida (West Palm Beach) contacted SDNY AUSA Serene Nakano, who had litigated 96 CIV 8307. In the email chain ¹⁰¹¹, Nakano described the case as "my infamous landlord-tenant case" and reported "a very vague memory of deposing" Epstein. The Florida AUSA sought the deposition transcript as a source of under-oath financial testimony by Epstein from approximately 1997 ⁵.

Three obstacles blocked use of the material. First, Judge Chin's 1998 protective order barred the government from using any confidential financial discovery from the case in other litigation, and the Florida AUSA acknowledged: "if a depo even exists, I can review it, but I can't use it in connection with any other litigation" ⁴. Second, the USAO's closed file was retrieved but contained no deposition transcript ⁵. Third, the court file was separately copied but also lacked the transcript ⁵. The deposition — if it was taken — has not appeared in any public record, FOIA release, or court filing since.

Ivan Fisher was the direct sublessee of 34 East 69th Street under the unauthorized arrangement Epstein constructed in 1996 ². Fisher converted the former Iranian diplomatic residence into a multi-occupant law office and became the primary defendant alongside Epstein in the federal ejectment action ⁷. His wife, Diane Fisher d/b/a The Fisher Group, and his partner Ron Soffer were also named as defendants. The protective order entered by Judge Chin in this case later restricted government use of the financial discovery in other proceedings, including the Florida investigation ⁷⁴.

Landon Thomas Jr. is connected to this address node in the investigation database through a financial relationship reflecting his role in the Epstein network. Documentary evidence from the email corpus shows Thomas traded favorable New York Times coverage for access to the Epstein network and provided Epstein with intelligence about third parties including Donald Trump Connection #1761.

CDE Inc., a U.S. Virgin Islands S Corporation with Jeffrey Epstein as owner, is linked to this address in the corporate connection record. CDE Inc. appears in a March 2012 memo by accountant Richard Kahn listing eight entities as potential candidates for dissolution as part of Epstein's corporate simplification planning Connection #1895.