A thousand miles off the coast of Florida, influencers have found the secret to instant virality.
One after another, content creators are finding their way to Little Saint James, better known as the private island once owned by the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Armed with cameras, they are capitalizing on and propelling increased interest in revelations from the latest release of the Epstein files — a series of disclosures made by the Justice Department revealing partially redacted documents that were aggregated and produced during its investigation into Epstein. The disgraced financier died by suicide in his jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
Out of a dozen YouTube videos NBC News reviewed of people filming their expeditions to Little Saint James, part of the U.S. Virgin Islands, nine were posted this year, some within days of each other.
The videos have become increasingly popular and have accumulated more than 52 million views in total.
Most of the videos run a similar course. Content creators fly to St. Thomas, the closest neighboring island with an airport, and upon their arrival, speak to locals to get tips and rumors about Little Saint James.
From there, they scope out local Jet Ski and snorkel rentals and swim onto the island’s shore or fly drones over it.
The YouTubers are motivated by the online engagement that comes with all things Epstein, but also by various online theories about the island and unanswered questions about its role in Epstein’s web of sexual abuse of women and girls.
The trips to the island do not appear to be sanctioned or approved by its latest owner, billionaire Stephen Deckoff, who bought Little Saint James and a neighboring island Epstein owned known as Great Saint James for $60 million in 2023. In a press release detailing the purchase, Deckoff had plans to develop a “state-of-the-art, five-star, world-class luxury 25-room resort” that was slated to open last year.
A spokesperson for the Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources said in a statement to NBC News that it has not “received any plans for the development of a resort on either Little or Great Saint James as of March 2026.” Deckoff’s asset management firm, Black Diamond Capital Management, did not respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. Coast Guard deferred NBC News to the U.S. Virgin Islands Police Department for comment. The police department didn’t respond to a request for comment.
YouTuber Ben Lisi, who posted a video attempting to go to the island in February, told NBC News that he opted not to attempt to step on the island because of the legal concerns: “the island is owned by a new person now, so, I don’t really know much about them, but I did obviously want to respect that.”
But others were willing to take on the risk. Jordan-based YouTuber Ahmad Aburob made a video that’s now been viewed more than 15 million times, which shows him stepping onto the island and approaching a structure that’s been dubbed the “temple.”
“I actually went in very quickly to do that video because I knew it will go viral, and I know it really fits my usual content,” he said. For eight of the YouTubers who have made Little Saint James videos, including Aburob, their videos visiting the island are in their top five most-viewed videos.
With the latest release of the Epstein files under the Trump administration, interest in the convicted sex offender has surged dramatically in the past month. Searches for “Little James Island” and “Epstein Island” reached an all-time high in February, according to Google Trends data.
“The latest release of Epstein files, that created a trend, and that trend caused YouTubers to go there to kind of ride on that trend,” Aburob said.
He said that he wanted to attempt to visit the island after seeing videos from content creators Nico Grigg and Tyler Oliveira doing the same, and said he wanted to step onto the island after seeing Grigg only reach the surrounding waters. (He had complained about stepping on sea urchins while approaching the shore.)
Aburob said that he thinks many of the videos are a mix between manufactured drama and genuine curiosity.
“It’s a mix of both,” he said. “As a content creator, it’s your job to create a very entertaining piece. So it’s okay to latch on to whatever drama you can find while doing the experience, in my opinion.”
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