Art Market as Liquidity Channel
$18.9 million in auction proceeds entered the trust network through a single account — then dispersed across the shell structure.
All amounts are (Unverified) automated extractions from DOJ EFTA documents. Appearance in this analysis does not imply wrongdoing. See COMPLIANCE.md for professional standards framework.
What I Found
The Haze Trust collected art market proceeds and redistributed them through the shell network. I pulled $18,974,417 (Unverified) in auction house proceeds flowing into The Haze Trust from Sotheby's and Christie's, followed by $49,727,941 (Unverified) in outflows to Southern Financial LLC and Southern Trust Company — the downstream shells.
It's on Exhibit D of the Deutsche Bank-SDNY production.
The Auction Houses
Two transactions brought art market proceeds into the Haze Trust:
| Date | From | Amount (Unverified) | Source |
| ------ | ------ | ------ | -------- |
| Jun 19, 2017 | Christie's Inc. | $7,725,000 | Exhibit D |
| Oct 24, 2017 | Sotheby's | $11,249,417 | Exhibit D |
Total auction inflows: $18,974,417 (Unverified)
Both went straight into the Haze Trust checking account at Deutsche Bank. June and October 2017 — spring and fall auction seasons.
Where It Went Next
Once inside the Haze Trust, the money moved downstream. I found 8 outbound transfers:
| Date | To | Amount (Unverified) | Source |
| ------ | ------ | ------ | -------- |
| Jun 22, 2018 | Southern Financial LLC (Checking) | $9,000,000 | Exhibit D |
| Aug 20, 2018 | Southern Financial LLC (Checking) | $5,000,000 | Exhibit D |
| Sep 17, 2018 | Southern Financial LLC (DBAGNY) | $5,000,000 | Exhibit D |
| Sep 28, 2018 | Southern Financial LLC (Checking) | $8,000,000 | Exhibit D |
| Oct 1, 2018 | Southern Trust Company Inc. (Checking) | $10,000,000 | Exhibit D |
| Oct 24, 2018 | Southern Financial LLC (Checking) | $5,000,000 | Exhibit D |
| Dec 19, 2018 | Southern Financial LLC (Checking) | $5,000,000 | Exhibit D |
| Jan 10, 2019 | The Haze Trust (DBAGNY → Checking) | $2,727,941 | Exhibit D |
Total outflows to Southern entities: $49,727,941 (Unverified)
Other Money Coming In
Beyond the auction houses, the Haze Trust also got transfers from Deutsche Bank feeding the same outflow pattern:
| Date | Amount (Unverified) | Source |
| Jul 16, 2014 | $2,500,000 | Phase 25 recovery |
| Aug 20, 2018 | $5,000,000 | Phase 25 recovery |
| Sep 28, 2018 | $8,000,000 | Phase 25 recovery |
| Dec 13, 2018 | $58,328 | Phase 25 recovery |
| Jan 10, 2019 | $6,000,000 | Phase 25 recovery |
| Jan 10, 2019 | $2,727,941 | Phase 25 recovery |
| Feb 19, 2019 | $7,000,000 | Phase 25 recovery |
An additional $58,328 arrived from HSBC Bank Bermuda Limited on December 13, 2018 (Exhibit D) — the only non-Deutsche Bank source feeding the Haze Trust.
What It Means
The Haze Trust was a way-station. Art money came in through a legitimate-looking channel — major auction houses with their own compliance departments — and moved straight into the same Southern Trust / Southern Financial network that received money from every other source in the Epstein financial structure.
Look at the timing. Auction proceeds arrived mid-to-late 2017. Outflows to Southern entities didn't start until June 2018. The money sat in the Haze Trust for 8–12 months before moving.
The outflow amounts — $5M, $8M, $9M, $10M — are all round numbers. That's not someone liquidating specific positions. That's someone giving instructions.
What I Can't Determine
- What art was sold. The wire transfers identify amounts and auction houses but not specific lots, artists, or buyers.
- Whether the art was legitimately acquired. Provenance of the art itself is outside the scope of financial wire extraction.
- Where the money went after Southern Financial / Southern Trust. The downstream disbursements from these entities are tracked separately in the chain-hop analysis.
- The $3,738,700 outflow to FINANCIAL_TRUST. One additional Haze Trust outflow went to an entity classified as FINANCIAL_TRUST. I have limited context on this entity.
Source: DOJ EFTA Document Release, Deutsche Bank-SDNY Production, Exhibit D. All data extracted via automated pipeline. Supporting data: <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11lw0QjMZ-rYIjWesv5VG1YKts57ahPEm/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=103970896670138914877&rtpof=true&sd=true" target="_blank">Forensic Workbook (view-only)</a>. This finding appears in the [master wire ledger](../data/master_wire_ledger_phase5i.json) published with this repository.
Source Documents & Exhibits
Primary Exhibit
Exhibit D (<a href="https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%208/EFTA00027019.pdf" target="_blank">EFTA00027019</a>): Haze Trust activity at Deutsche Bank, including art auction proceeds.
Wire Ledger Cross-Reference
11 wires verified, $68,760,686 total. All from Exhibit D.
| Christie's Inc. → The Haze Trust (Checking) | $7,725,000 | 2017-06-19 |
| Sotheby's → The Haze Trust (Checking) | $11,249,417 | 2017-10-24 |
| The Haze Trust (DBAGNY) → Southern Financial LLC (Checking) | $9,000,000 | 2018-06-22 |
| HSBC Bank Bermuda Limited → The Haze Trust (Checking) | $58,328 | 2018-08-20 |
| The Haze Trust (DBAGNY) → Southern Financial LLC (Checking) | $5,000,000 | 2018-08-20 |
| (6 additional wires — see Master Wire Ledger, Exhibit D) | | |
Corpus Statistics Source
Method: Entity co-occurrence analysis across files containing "Haze Trust" and auction house entity variants.
Database: 1,476,377 files, 11.4M extracted entities (see
METHODOLOGY.md).
Scope Note
Haze Trust also co-occurs with Financial Trust Company (19 shared files), which banked at Bear Stearns. The HSBC Bermuda wire ($58,328) confirms an offshore banking relationship beyond Deutsche Bank. See N11 for full multi-bank context.
📄 EFTA Source Documents
Click any document ID to open the DOJ PDF in a new tab. Click a Dataset number to browse neighboring files.
| Document | Source | Description |
| ---------- | -------- | ------------- |
| <a href="https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%208/EFTA00027019.pdf" target="_blank">EFTA00027019</a> | DS8 | Deutsche Bank-SDNY Production: Exhibit D — Art Market Proceeds (Sotheby's, Christie's → Haze Trust) |
| <a href="https://www.justice.gov/epstein/doj-disclosures/data-set-8-files" target="_blank">Dataset 8</a> | DS8 | Browse neighboring documents in Dataset 8 |
📊 Verify in Forensic Workbook
| Exhibit / Analysis | View in Workbook |
| Master Wire Ledger — Exhibit D (Haze Trust wires) | <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11lw0QjMZ-rYIjWesv5VG1YKts57ahPEm/edit?gid=2043824625#gid=2043824625" target="_blank">📊 Open Tab</a> |
| Shell Network — Haze Trust co-occurrence | <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11lw0QjMZ-rYIjWesv5VG1YKts57ahPEm/edit?gid=1040516313#gid=1040516313" target="_blank">📊 Open Tab</a> |
| Entity P&L — Haze Trust | <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11lw0QjMZ-rYIjWesv5VG1YKts57ahPEm/edit?gid=1497389416#gid=1497389416" target="_blank">📊 Open Tab</a> |
| Methodology | <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11lw0QjMZ-rYIjWesv5VG1YKts57ahPEm/edit?gid=1840632994#gid=1840632994" target="_blank">📊 Open Tab</a> |
How to Verify
EFTA document IDs from public DOJ release at <a href="https://efts.gov" target="_blank">efts.gov</a>. Wire data from <a href="https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%208/EFTA00027019.pdf" target="_blank">EFTA00027019</a> Exhibit D. Full methodology in METHODOLOGY.md.