Jeffrey Epstein had close relationship with Eric Roth, owner of Long Island jet design firm, emails reveal

Jeffrey Epstein owned a Gulfstream private jet that he used to visit his private island and allegedly traffic underage girls that was outfitted by a Long Island company that creates luxury aircraft interiors for the rich and famous, including President Donald Trump, recently released Justice Department emails show.

The documents, made public in January following mounting public and political pressure on the Trump administration to release files on the late convicted sex offender, illustrate a close relationship between Eric Roth, CEO of International Jet Interiors of Ronkonkoma, and Epstein, more than a decade after the financier served time for soliciting sex from a child.

In between discussions about remodeling sinks and replacing aircraft carpeting, Roth, whose company is based out of Long Island MacArthur Airport, solicited Epstein’s help in getting his teenage daughter accepted at the University of Michigan and years later finding her an apartment in Manhattan, emails show.

The emails also reference a 2014 "island" trip by Roth and his family where they socialized with Epstein. The documents do not make clear if the visit occurred at Epstein's private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands known as Little Saint James, where authorities said much of the abuse of young girls occurred. 

The documents do not implicate Roth, 62, of Syosset, in any of Epstein’s alleged sex crimes, nor do they offer any proof that he knew who was traveling on the Gulfstream 550 that his company was outfitting.

Roth did not respond to repeated requests for comment from Newsday about his relationship with Epstein.

Luxury in the sky

Epstein purchased the Gulfstream jet in 2017 from Chevron USA for around $16 million and it was flown 20 to 30 times, according to a 2020 FBI memo. 

"I do not know how you envision the aircraft as you noted in prior conversations that you ‘always’ keep the bed out," Roth emailed Epstein in 2017. "How will you (or the girls) get to the aft cabin two single seats, galley, aft lavatory without climbing over the bed?"

Epstein also owned a Boeing 727 that he sold in 2017, a Gulfstream IV and a Sikorsky S-76 private helicopter whose interior Roth's company also designed in 2009, the emails show. 

International Jet Interiors' work on the Gulfstream was completed in 2018. The jet, records show, was used for the last flight of Epstein's life — from Paris to New Jersey's Teterboro airport — where FBI agents arrested him in 2019 on charges of sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors. Prosecutors said that between 2002 and 2005, Epstein sexually exploited and abused dozens of underage girls. 

More than a decade earlier, Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a child for prostitution and served 13 months of an 18-month sentence. He was also required to register as a sex offender.

But as Newsday has reported, upon his release from prison, Epstein was able to resume his jet-setting lifestyle, including on Long Island, where he partied with moguls, real estate titans, authors, modeling agents, television hosts and music producers.

Epstein also had a friendship and business relationship with Roth from 2009 — shortly after his release from prison — through 2019, only months before he died by suicide inside a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, records show.

In the emails, Epstein and Roth discuss whether the Gulfstream's toilet seat should be "veneered to look like a bench"; if the blue carpet would reflect the light better than a wood-colored shade; and whether the helicopter's divan — a couch-like piece of furniture — should have an armrest.

In a 2021 interview with Newsday, Roth said International Jet Interiors focuses on larger aircraft such as Gulfstreams, Falcons, Challengers and Boeings, which can cost from $8 million to $60 million before modifications.

The company's clients, he said, invest anywhere from $100,000 to more than $3 million on refurbishment projects that could involve changing floor plans, adding new technology or introducing fresh design schemes.

A 2017 email from Roth to Epstein detailing the proposed modifications to his Gulfstream had a price tag of $347,564.

"We pride ourselves on being a distinctive, custom refurbishment center that provides one-on-one attention as we produce couture-like craftsmanship for each project we execute," Roth told Epstein.

'If you have any connections'

Roth's interactions with Epstein were not all business-related. For instance, they included a 2017 invitation to see the financier's new Bentley and occasional visits to his Upper East Side townhouse.

On Dec. 28, 2014, Roth wrote to Epstein thanking him for a visit to an unnamed island.

"Thank you once again for inviting us today," Roth wrote. "Adrianne, the girls and I had a really great time with you. We found all your work on the island extremely interesting (I expected nothing less from you?). As limited as it may be, what I appreciate most is our friendship."

He added: "I commandeered your boat for a drop off to St. John," referencing the smallest of the three main U.S. Virgin Islands, located a short distance from Epstein's infamous private island. 

In 2009, Roth reached out to Epstein, seeking help in getting a male student, who he described as "like a son to me," admitted to Harvard University, where the financier was a generous donor.

Roth asked Epstein to review the student's grades, test scores and essay. Epstein reviewed the essay and said it was "not good at all," "boring" and "not well organized," according to an Oct. 23, 2009, email.

It was not clear if the student was ultimately admitted to Harvard.

Last month, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers announced he would resign from teaching at Harvard as the campus reviews his ties to Epstein. Summers, the university's former president, communicated regularly with Epstein and the two often discussed women and romance. Summers, who has been married for 20 years, has not been accused of any wrongdoing and has said he regrets his affiliation with Epstein.

Seeking 'connections' at Michigan University

Four years later, Roth again sought Epstein's assistance, asking if he has any "connections" at the University of Michigan, where his daughter, then a junior in high school, wanted to attend, the emails show.

"I cannot be any more honest and transparent than this. If you have connections that can get my daughter ... into the University of Michigan, then l would happily reduce the cost of the entertainment system by $7,500," Roth wrote in a June 26, 2013, email to Epstein, referencing work on an aircraft.

Epstein reviewed the daughter's early action application and when she was denied admission, offered advice with an appeal letter to the university's Office of Undergraduate Admissions.

In their correspondence, Epstein encouraged Roth to have his daughter's appeal focus on academics, extracurriculars or diversity.

Roth, seemingly throwing out potential ideas, then suggested his daughter consider changing her identified background on the application but later said the appeal would focus on extracurriculars. 

"This process is grueling," Roth told Epstein. "I would rather fly down to Guantánamo tomorrow and be waterboarded for the day."

Two days later, Epstein told Roth that he met with University of Michigan officials on behalf of his daughter, emails show.

"Just finished," Epstein wrote. "Complicated. But not hopeless."

A Michigan spokesman said Roth's daughter never attended the school and they found no instance of Epstein ever meeting with university officials.

"University of Michigan does not allow any intermediary, or person of influence — inside or outside the University — to secure admission on behalf of an applicant," said Michigan spokesman Paul Corliss.

After the same daughter graduated from college in 2018, Epstein provided, at Roth's request, use of one of his Upper East Side apartments for a month.

The units on East 66th Street were linked to some of Epstein’s victims, records show.

"The apartment is perfect," Eric Roth emailed Epstein’s assistant. 

About a month later, Roth thanked Epstein for his daughter’s stay at the apartment. No money appeared to be exchanged.

The apartment was then quickly cleaned and turned around for then-Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Epstein associate David Stern to occupy for one day, according to the DOJ emails. 

There is no indication that Roth’s daughter was a victim or was connected to the federal investigation.

A 2011 FBI report alleges that then-Prince Andrew, who has denied any misconduct, had sex with a 17-year-old girl that Epstein trafficked. British authorities are also investigating whether he shared confidential government information with Epstein.

Stern, a German businessman, allegedly acted as a conduit between Prince Andrew and Epstein, and is mentioned repeatedly in the Justice Department emails, including discussing visiting the private island. Stern has not commented on his relationship with Epstein. 

The Trump connection

Among Roth's high-end clients is another name mentioned in the Epstein files: President Donald Trump.

Roth has said in media interviews that years before taking office, his firm outfitted the interior of Trump's personal Boeing 757 with suede paneling, marble furniture and an abundance of gold, including seat buckles with 24-carat coating.

The price tag, Roth said in media interviews: $37 million.

International Jet Interiors, Roth has said, also retrofitted Trump's S-76 helicopter — the same type of aircraft that he outfitted for Epstein years earlier.

Trump and Epstein were once close friends but the president has said they had a falling out and that he was unaware of the financier's sex crimes.

As for Epstein's Gulfstream that was refurbished by Roth, that plane also found its way to the 45th and 47th president of the United States.

In August of 2024, during the final months of his third campaign for the White House, Trump's Boeing 757, known as Trump Force One, faced engine problems and was temporarily grounded.

On Aug. 9 and 10, Trump's campaign chartered the Gulfstream that was once owned by Epstein to fly to Montana, Wyoming and Colorado for fundraisers and rallies, reports indicate.

Trump's campaign said at the time that they were unaware of the plane's previous ownership when they chartered it.

Epstein's Gulfstream was sold by his estate shortly after his death about five years earlier.

The current owner, FAA records show, is an LLC that tracks back to James Previti, CEO of Frontier Enterprises, a California-based real estate company, and longtime Republican donor.

Messages left with Frontier Enterprises and Previti were not returned.

Newsday's Joshua Solomon contributed to this story.