Like virtually everything in Jeffrey Epstein’s world, the sale of his Gulfstream II aircraft to a mysterious, politically connected Venezuelan is chock-full of intrigue.
Epstein used a shell company, Hyperion Air Inc., to sell his twin engine Gulfstream G II to another shell company, Starbridge Landing Inc., in late 2013.
The use of shell companies by the ultra wealthy for this sort of transaction is generally unremarkable. Delaware, Florida and other states allow near anonymity in corporate registrations.
But Oscar A. Faria, the buyer of Epstein’s plane, has ties to powerful people in his native Venezuela, whose socialist government is starving its own people and is the target of widening international sanctions. He’s part of the growing Venezuelan population in Miami, concentrated in and around Doral.
Despite registration of at least 16 businesses in Florida, Faria, by his own admission, conducts most of his business in developing nations such as Paraguay, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. – READ MORE