Villa Arabesque and the Boeing 727: The Jaffe Family Connection
Executive Summary
In May 2016, the Jaffe family of Horseshoe Bay, Texas — through their aviation entity Jetran LLC — negotiated directly with Jeffrey Epstein, attorney Darren Indyke, and financial manager Richard Kahn to purchase Epstein's Boeing 727-31 (N908JE), the aircraft widely known as the "Lolita Express." The $1.5 million deal included a $100,000 deposit, an NDA governed by U.S. Virgin Islands law, and an aircraft inspection at Atlantic Aviation in West Palm Beach. The deal fell through in June 2016 after engine corrosion issues.
Four years later, in July 2020, an anonymous caller phoned the FBI's National Threat Operations Center to report that Greg Horvath and Jana Jaffe — owners of Villa Arabesque, a 40,000-square-foot luxury estate in Acapulco, Mexico — had been involved in "drug and/or sex trafficking in the early 2000s." The tipster, who identified as a college friend of Doug Jaffe III (Jana Jaffe's nephew), described being drugged at a connected nightclub, witnessing an 11-12 year old girl "dressed scandalously" at the property, and seeing "large amounts of cocaine." The tip was assigned to the New York Field Office under the main Epstein case file (50D-NY-3027571).
The FBI closed the tip as "Information Only" in October 2021. There is no indication in the available documents that investigators connected the anonymous report about the Jaffe family to the Boeing 727 sale documents that were already serialized in the same case file.
What's documented: The Boeing 727 sale is proven through formal legal documents — a Letter of Intent, NDA, broker emails, and Epstein's personal directives. The FBI tip is an anonymous, unverified report that the Bureau investigated and closed. What is independently verifiable is the
connection between the Jaffe family and Epstein's inner circle, and the FBI's apparent failure to cross-reference within its own case.
Media coverage: One local Texas newspaper (
DailyTrib.com, Feb 4, 2026) reported on the FBI tip. No outlet has reported on the Boeing 727 sale to the Jaffe family or the institutional failure to connect the two threads.
Part 1: The Boeing 727 Sale
The Aircraft
Boeing 727-31, Serial Number 20115, Registration N908JE — owned by JEGE, Inc., a Delaware corporation controlled by Epstein. This is the same aircraft that flew between Epstein's properties in New York, Palm Beach, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and internationally, carrying passengers whose names appeared in pilot logs that became central evidence in federal investigations.
The Letter of Intent (May 11, 2016)
On May 11, 2016, JEGE Inc. issued a formal Letter of Intent to sell the Boeing 727 to Jetran LLC of Horseshoe Bay, Texas, for $1,500,000:
JEGE, Inc., a Delaware corporation ("Seller"), hereby expresses its intent to sell to Jetran, LLC ("Purchaser"), all of Seller's right, title and interest in and to that certain Boeing 727-31 jet aircraft, bearing Manufacturer's Serial No. 20115 and U.S. Registration No. N908JE
The LOI was addressed to "Doug Jaffe, CEO" of Jetran LLC. Terms included a $100,000 fully refundable deposit held in escrow at McAfee & Taft (Oklahoma City), an inspection at Atlantic Aviation in West Palm Beach, and a closing to follow.
The LOI was signed by Darren K. Indyke, identified as "Vice President" of JEGE, Inc. — the same Darren Indyke who served as Epstein's longtime personal attorney and later became co-executor of Epstein's estate.
(EFTA01082630)
The NDA
JEGE Inc. and Jetran LLC executed a Non-Disclosure Agreement governing the aircraft inspection. The NDA's confidentiality provisions were sweeping — covering "the appearance and interior layout of, any and all improvements on, and furniture, furnishings, and other items of personal property contained anywhere in or on, the Aircraft" and prohibiting communication to "members of the general public and to any media representatives, magazines, filmmakers, film companies, publishers, authors, producers, reporters, bloggers, screenwriters, or similar persons or entities."
The NDA was governed by U.S. Virgin Islands law — "construed in accordance with the laws of the United States Virgin Islands applicable to contracts executed, delivered and to be fully performed in such jurisdiction."
(EFTA00585744)
The Deposit and Inspection (May 13, 2016)
Two days after the LOI, Jetran's SVP Legal, Patricia Pfeil Pozza, circulated the executed agreement. The $100,000 deposit was received by escrow. Larry Visoski, Epstein's chief pilot, reported to Epstein:
100k deposit received by escrow. Mr Jaffe's son still requesting brief walk thru of 727 with Power on, Tuesday next week, for 30min, and complete the inspection further May 23rd.
Epstein approved: "ok, you can be on phone." Indyke began drafting the Aircraft Purchase Agreement. The email chain CC'd Douglas Jaffe, Justin Jaffe, Jordan Jaffe, and Judith Cardona — multiple members of the Jaffe family and their legal team.
(EFTA00827561)
The Negotiation Collapses (May 30-31, 2016)
On May 30, 2016, Jetran issued an initial rejection "based on our inspection of the Engines." Indyke forwarded this to Epstein and Visoski; Richard Kahn of HBRK Associates was CC'd.
(EFTA00716734)
But the deal wasn't dead yet. On May 31, aircraft broker Gary Anzalone reported to Visoski after speaking with "Doug Jaffe, the father":
If we did not have these engine issues we would be done, as he likes the overall condition to the aircraft and the ability to purchase the shares with the certificate is appealing to him. HOWEVER, he thinks the quote to repair the engines is grossly under quoted...In the end he said that for him to buy the aircraft AS-IS he would only pay $1,000,000 million dollars, or option B, we call him when it has been repaired and he will give us the $1.5 million.
Kahn suggested "at that price or slightly higher buyer is responsible to pay our broker Gary so we net at least 1mm."
(EFTA00826582)
Later that day, Doug Jaffe walked back even the $1.5M repaired offer. His engine expert "Leo 'the -219 guru'" assessed that engines 7 and 8 had "crapped out" on corrosion inspections and weren't worth repairing. Anzalone reported: "I do not think there is any way he will do this at the 1.5 million any more."
Epstein responded personally: "tell him 1 mill net and they pay garys commiions" [sic].
(EFTA00826502)
Final Rejection (June 8, 2016)
Jetran formally rejected the aircraft for the second time on June 8, 2016. Patricia Pozza wrote to Indyke:
This email will serve as notice from Jetran, LLC that it has rejected Boeing 727-31, Serial Number 20115 and Registration N908JE (the "Aircraft"), based on our additional due diligence. Please authorize Erin Van Laanen at McAfee & Taft, P.C. to refund Jetran's deposit in the amount of US100,000 as soon as possible.
The email CC'd Jaffe Jordan, Justin Jaffe, and Douglas Jaffe. Indyke found the rejection email in his spam folder and forwarded it to Epstein — "I just found this going through my spam folder."
(EFTA00825947)
Transaction Timeline
| May 11, 2016 | LOI issued: JEGE Inc. → Jetran LLC, $1.5M | EFTA01082630 |
| May 13, 2016 | $100K deposit received; inspection walkthrough requested | EFTA00827561 |
| May 30, 2016 | First rejection: engine inspection failure | EFTA00716734 |
| May 31, 2016 | Continued negotiation: Doug Jaffe offers $1M as-is | EFTA00826582 |
| May 31, 2016 | Epstein: "tell him 1 mill net and they pay garys commiions" | EFTA00826502 |
| June 8, 2016 | Final rejection: Jetran requests deposit return | EFTA00825947 |
Key Participants
| Doug Jaffe ("the father") | CEO of Jetran, lead negotiator | Jetran LLC, Horseshoe Bay TX |
| Douglas Jaffe III | Son; requested aircraft walkthrough | Jetran LLC |
| Justin Jaffe | Son; CC'd on transaction emails | Jetran LLC |
| Jordan Jaffe | Son; CC'd on rejection email | Jetran LLC |
| Patricia Pfeil Pozza | SVP Legal, Jetran | Jetran LLC |
| Jeffrey Epstein | Owner (via JEGE Inc.); directed pricing | JEGE Inc. |
| Darren K. Indyke | VP of JEGE, signed LOI, drafted APA | Darren K. Indyke PLLC |
| Richard Kahn | Financial advisor; CC'd on negotiations | HBRK Associates |
| Larry Visoski | Chief pilot; managed inspection logistics | — |
| Gary Anzalone | Aircraft broker; intermediary with Jaffe | — |
Part 2: The FBI Tip
The Anonymous Call (July 13, 2020)
On July 13, 2020, an anonymous female caller from a 408 (San Jose, California) area code phoned the FBI National Threat Operations Center to report "possible sex trafficking by Greg Horvath and Jana Jaffe in New York, NY." The caller identified as a college friend of Doug Jaffe III, Jana Jaffe's nephew, who had invited her to Villa Arabesque during a spring break in the "early 2000s."
The tip was filed under Guardian ID 658904_NY and assigned to the main Epstein case: 50D-NY-3027571 — the same case file that contained the Boeing 727 sale documents.
The Tipster's Account
The anonymous caller reported the following (from EFTA00067074):
On the property:
ANON believes Greg Horvath and Jana Jaffe, owners of Villa Arabesque in Acapulco, MX, were involved in drug and/or sex trafficking in the early 2000's. Horvath and Jaffe currently live in Olympic Tower in New York, but they used Villa Arabesque to house Henry Kissinger and other high profile individuals who had ties to Epstein. Horvath and Jaffe owned multiple private jets which they used to fly people to Villa Arabesque, including ANON.
On a minor at the property:
Upon entering the property, which was built into the side of a mountain, ANON noticed a girl, approximately 11-12 years old, who was dressed scandalously. ANON asked Doug about the young girl being there with all the partying. Doug told ANON the girl was his niece, which she later found out what a lie. Villa Arabesque went on to use the girl, dressed inappropriately, for their advertisements.
On the nightclub:
Doug took ANON and several others to Palladium which had a "pizza shape" symbol. Palladium was known for their show "666 Dance with the Devil", which was an Aztec show where young girls (possibly underage) were brought onto the stage and groped. The girls had their bras removed and breasts fondled. The girls were also bent over after their pants were removed without permission to show the entire audience their butt.
On being drugged:
ANON and her friends were given bottle service, but ANON immediately started to feel like something was wrong. ANON knew she didn't drink enough to feel the way she did. The Palladium owner put ANON in a car and had her taken back to Villa Arabesque. During the ride, ANON was completely incapacitated, but she could still hear what was going on around her. ANON remembers getting stopped at the gate prior to Doug coming out to remove her from the car. ANON was carried inside and placed on a bench where she woke up the next day unsure of what happened after she lost consciousness.
A warning from within:
Tori LNU, the girlfriend of Doug's brother, Jordan Jaffe (Jordan), told ANON she needed to be very careful because everyone who comes to stay at Villa Arabesque likes to take things too far. Tori referenced the fact there are code words used to describe what they do to girls there.
FBI Investigation and Closure
The New York Field Office (Squad NY-C20) conducted database searches on the subjects:
- Greg Horvath: 377 Sentinel/Guardian results, 251 DIVS results
- Jana Jaffe: 81 Sentinel/Guardian results, 15 DIVS results
- Doug Jaffe III: 36 Sentinel/Guardian results, 41 DIVS results
Clear and Accurint searches for Horvath and Jaffe in New York "yielded negative results."
The case was closed on October 8, 2021 as "Information Only" — "Guardian closed, information associated with pending FI [Full Investigation]." It was serialized to the main Epstein case file (50D-NY-3027571) as Serial 660.
(EFTA00067093 | OCR — removed from justice.gov)
Part 3: The Missed Connection
The Boeing 727 sale documents and the FBI tip were both serialized within case file 50D-NY-3027571 — the master Epstein/Child Sex Trafficking investigation. The corpus contains the FBI's master serial listing for this case (EFTA01684300, 166 pages), which catalogs every document associated with the investigation.
The anonymous tip names the Jaffe family and alleges sex trafficking connections to Epstein. The Boeing 727 sale documents — filed in the same case — prove that the Jaffe family had a direct, documented business relationship with Epstein, Indyke, and Kahn just four years before the tip was received. The sale involved Epstein's most notorious asset — the aircraft that carried passengers to his properties in Palm Beach and the Virgin Islands.
The FBI's investigation of the tip consisted of database searches on the named individuals. There is no indication in the available documents that these database searches returned hits on the Boeing 727 sale documents, or that investigators recognized the Jaffe family name from the transactional evidence already in their possession.
This is not a failure of information collection. It is a failure of information integration. The FBI had both puzzle pieces — the tip and the transaction — in the same case file. Whether institutional siloing, volume overwhelm (the NTOC received hundreds of tips), or simple human oversight prevented the connection is unknown from the documents available.
Part 4: Villa Arabesque — Background
Villa Arabesque is a 40,000+ square-foot luxury estate perched on a cliff in Acapulco, Mexico, built between 1978 and 1982 for Baron Enrico "Ricky" di Portanova, a flamboyant heir to the Cullen oil fortune and Italian noble. Designed by architect Aurelio Munoz Castillo, the property features 28 rooms, the "Poseidon discothèque" (capacity 200), the Poseidon Grill (seats 60), and a rooftop terrace called "the Camel Walk."
The property appeared as the residence of drug lord Franz Sanchez in the 1989 James Bond film Licence to Kill. After the Baron and his wife, Baroness Alessandra, died around 2000, the villa passed to Alessandra's brother Gregory Hovas — the person identified as "Greg Horvath" in the FBI tip (the name discrepancy suggesting the anonymous tipster was working from memory or a phonetic approximation).
Jana Jaffe, described as a "renowned interior designer" who operates Atelier Jana Jaffe at 641 5th Avenue in New York, completely renovated the property. Getty Images show Jana Jaffe and Gregory Hovas attending the World Science Festival's 12th Annual Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on May 22, 2019.
The Jaffe family separately controls the Horseshoe Bay Resort in Texas Hill Country, one of the largest golf resorts in the country — 10,000+ acres along Lake LBJ. Douglas Jaffe Jr. is the owner; his son Douglas "Doug" Jaffe III was appointed CEO of Jaffe Group, Ltd. in 2012. The Jaffe aviation entity, Jetran LLC, operates from 1449 Airpark, Horseshoe Bay, Texas — an airstrip within the resort property.
Doug Jaffe III: Subsequent Criminal Charges
In 2024, Douglas "Doug" Jaffe III was charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child under 14 in Burnet County, Texas. The charges were initially filed as sexual assault of a child under 17, then upgraded. A second grand jury declined to indict on the aggravated charges, and the Burnet County DA's office moved to dismiss the case. The charges were dismissed.
Doug Jaffe III is the same person identified in the 2020 FBI tip as the nephew who invited the anonymous caller to Villa Arabesque during college spring break.
Document Summary Table
| ------ | ---: | ------: | ------------- |
| EFTA00067074 | 9 | 3 | FD-71A Guardian Complaint: Anonymous tip re Horvath/Jaffe sex trafficking |
| EFTA00067093 (OCR) | 9 | 5 | Guardian Incident Summary: Full tip, database checks, closure as "Information Only" |
| EFTA00585744 | 9 | 3 | NDA between JEGE Inc. and Jetran LLC for Boeing 727 inspection (USVI law) |
| EFTA00716734 | 9 | 2 | First rejection: Jetran rejects aircraft based on engine inspection (May 30) |
| EFTA00825947 | 9 | 3 | Final rejection: Jetran requests $100K deposit return (June 8) |
| EFTA00826502 | 9 | 2 | Epstein personal directive: "tell him 1 mill net and they pay garys commiions" |
| EFTA00826582 | 9 | 2 | Broker Anzalone: "Boeing Super 27 conversation with Doug Jaffe" — price negotiation |
| EFTA00827561 | 9 | 3 | $100K deposit received; Jaffe son requests 727 walkthrough with power on |
| EFTA01082630 | 9 | 3 | Letter of Intent: JEGE Inc. to Jetran LLC, $1.5M for Boeing 727 N908JE |
| EFTA01245146 | 9 | 5 | XML/structured data version of eGuardian submission |
| EFTA01684300 | 10 | 166 | Master serial listing for case 50D-NY-3027571 (entire Epstein case file index) |
External Sources
| Jana Jaffe and Gregory Hovas at World Science Festival | Getty Images |
| Atelier Jana Jaffe, 641 5th Avenue NYC | Yelp |
This report was compiled from the DOJ EFTA production (Datasets 9 and 10) using the full-text corpus database. All quoted text is from the cited EFTA documents. The anonymous FBI tip is presented as received — its claims are unverified. The Boeing 727 sale documents are transactional evidence.