As it comes to light that Jeffrey Epstein’s girlfriend, Karyna Shuliak, a Belarusian-origin dentist, could inherit $100 million from his estate, including a 33-carat diamond ring, a report revealed how the disgraced financier and convicted paedophile encouraged his girlfriend to marry another woman in New York, where same sex marriage was legalised, as a way to get a Green Card.
According to the report that appeared in The New York Times, Shuliak met Epstein nine months after she arrived in New York in March 2011. She had moved from Belarus on a temporary student visa to study English at a school in Manhattan and was making just $15 an hour as a dental assistant and applying for waitressing jobs.
They got close soon, and by July 2011, she had visited his New Mexico ranch and his private island residence in the U.S. Virgin Islands. This, despite her initial reluctance to befriend Epstein due to his behaviour. She eventually caved in to a relationship after Epstein allegedly helped Shuliak gain admission into the College of Dental Medicine at Columbia University.
By the time she applied to Columbia in 2012, Shuliak had overstayed the student visa she obtained in 2010. However, Epstein found a solution to keep her in the country. In 2013, just two years after New York became one of the first states to legalise same-sex marriage, Epstein arranged for Shuliak to get married to another woman, as it was the easiest way to gain U.S. citizenship without raising red flags, according to the NY Times.
Shuliak’s spouse was an assistant of his, a 30-year-old woman from Minnesota. The woman, who was not identified, was also “a victim of Epstein”, according to her lawyer, who added that as a general rule, “nobody was permitted or dared ever to disobey Jeffrey Epstein.”
Epstein instructed the woman to meet Shuliak on the morning of Sept. 16, 2013, at the New York City Marriage Bureau. The woman was instructed to come with packed bags so she could immediately fly to the Virgin Islands after getting the marriage license, while Shuliak would stay behind to attend her dental school classes, the report added. The women were married three weeks later at the Office of the City Clerk.
Soon after the marriage was registered, a Brooklyn immigration lawyer working for Epstein submitted an immigration form stating that the woman wanted to list Shuliak as her wife and beneficiary. The deportation proceedings were dropped.
Shuliak subsequently got a green card. The couple divorced in May 2018, after Shuliak became a US citizen.
The marriage, however, had signs of legitimacy when it lasted. The women shared an apartment in the Upper East Side building that was partly owned by Epstein’s brother. They had a joint bank account at Deutsche Bank and went on trips together to London, Europe and Japan, the report added.
