Epstein’s girlfriend married a woman, showing how he gamed immigration

In early 2013, Jeffrey Epstein’s girlfriend, Karyna Shuliak, was stressed about her US visa status. Later that year, she married an American citizen and her worries were gone.

A Green Card followed, and in 2018, citizenship. Then Shuliak divorced her spouse: a woman named Jennifer who had been in a relationship with Kimbal Musk – Elon Musk’s brother – after Epstein connected them.

“now that she’s an american you should throw her a big ole party,” one of Epstein’s go-to immigration lawyers messaged on the day of Shuliak’s naturalisation interview. “with a mechanical bull, red white and blue balloons, and deep fried snickers bars on flag toothpicks”.

Shuliak’s immigration story – and the stories of several other women revealed in a cache of files released by the US Department of Justice – show how Epstein used student visas, English language courses and sham marriages to make sure the women in his orbit stayed right where he wanted them.

The convicted paedophile had arranged for Shuliak’s admission to Columbia University’s dental school, as a transfer student from Belarus who had not finished her degree, via a complicated process that began in 2011.

After she got in, communications between her and members of the Ivy League school’s international student office show her immigration case was another hurdle to clear.