The CEO of a private jet interiors company has been linked to the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to files publicly released by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
Eric Roth, the president and CEO of International Jet Interiors, a company based out of Long Island MacArthur Airport that refurbishes private aircraft for the world’s elite, including President Donald Trump, has been named in over 5,400 results on the DOJ’s public document search as a business associate of Epstein’s from at least 2009 to 2019.
Authorities said Epstein died by suicide while in custody shortly after his 2019 arrest for allegedly committing international sex trafficking. In 2008, Epstein pled guilty to soliciting an underage person for prostitution in Florida and served 13 months in jail before his release in July 2009.
The released documents, comprising emails between Roth, Epstein, and Epstein’s team, do not tie Roth to any of Epstein’s alleged sex crimes, and do not prove or suggest that Roth had any involvement or knowledge of Epstein’s years-long sex-trafficking operation, which prosecutors said involved girls as young as 14 years old.
In the publicly released emails between Roth and Epstein, along with discussions about remodeling and repairs to divans, seats, sinks, and entertainment systems inside Epstein’s Gulfstream jet, numerous emails also show Roth asking Epstein for help getting his daughter into college, and later an apartment.
In May 2013, during an email conversation about pattern designs, Roth told Epstein that his oldest daughter was a junior in high school and had her mind set on the University of Michigan, asking, “Do you have any connections there?”
After emailing Epstein about his daughter’s early action application to the University of Michigan’s undergraduate program in fall 2013, the documents show Roth asked Epstein for support in appealing his daughter’s rejection from the university in spring 2014.
“Is there anything that you can do to influence/appeal... something? Devastated,” Roth emailed Epstein on March 28, 2014, according to a DOJ document.
“Let’s talk when I am back in ny,” Epstein replied shortly after.
“You said that there are always a couple of spots that colleges keep open and I am wondering if there remains an opportunity at University of Michigan for her through you and your relationships?” Roth asked Epstein on April 2, emphasizing the upcoming college commitment deadline.
On April 5, 2014, Roth sent Epstein a draft letter of appeal, which Epstein told Roth needed “a great amount of editing.”
“Do I need to edit and complete the letter prior to your meeting with them on Monday at noon?” Roth asked Epstein.
Epstein said no, and told Roth to highlight his daughter’s entire background in the letter. In brainstorming ideas, Roth said he talked with his daughter about becoming a “Schvartze,” a Yiddish term for Black people that the Oxford English Dictionary says is "now offensive," but her daughter was concerned it would make her look “disingenuous” to the college.
Roth then decided to focus on his daughter’s extracurricular activities and told Epstein how the application process was taking a toll on him.
“This process is grueling. I would rather fly down to Guantanamo tomorrow and be waterboarded for the day,” Roth said.
Then, on April 7, Roth emailed Epstein asking how his meeting went, with the subject line, “Meeting with U of M.” Epstein responded saying he just finished it, and that it was “complicated. But not hopeless.”
“First, let me say thank you. Can you elaborate on complicated but not hopeless?” Roth asked.
“Phone tomorw,” Epstein replied.
This publication could not verify at the time of publishing where Roth’s daughter may have attended university.
In August 2018, years after pleading with Epstein to help his daughter get into college and multiple refitting projects later, documents showed that Roth asked Epstein for help finding a temporary apartment for the same daughter.
Emails between Roth and an Epstein assistant, whose name was redacted from the files, showed that Epstein provided a one-month studio apartment for Roth’s daughter at an Upper East Side apartment complex that Epstein managed, 301 East 66th Street.
Roth has run International Jet Interiors since 1986, according to his LinkedIn profile, refitting aircraft for the world’s wealthiest individuals, like President Trump. In a 2015 CNBC interview, Roth said he refurbished Trump’s S-76 helicopter. When the interview aired, Roth emailed Richard Kahn, Epstein’s accountant, encouraging him to watch it, according to DOJ documents.
Kahn forwarded Roth’s email to Epstein, saying the jet CEO appeared to be requesting a response from Kahn to a previous $10,000 discount Roth offered.
Along with emails about helicopter redesigns, numerous emails also list meetings between Epstein and Roth regarding jet interiors that took place at MacArthur Airport, where International Jet Interiors is headquartered. One of these meetings, according to the documents, was scheduled for May 20, 2017, minutes before Epstein took off from Islip en route to St. Thomas, the nearest international airport to the disgraced financier’s island, Little Saint James, where many of his alleged sex crimes took place.
According to publicly released documents, Epstein flew around the world from MacArthur Airport throughout the 2010s. Along with flying to his private Caribbean island, Epstein flew to Paris alongside accused French sex trafficker Jean-Luc Brunel on at least one occasion, and to Teterboro Airport, in New Jersey.
It was at Teterboro Airport on July 6, 2019, when the FBI and NYPD arrested Epstein on sex trafficking charges after flying from Paris on a Gulfstream jet with the same registration number as an aircraft Epstein had sometimes flown into and had serviced in Islip.
In 2024, five years after Epstein died in custody, the Miami Herald reported that Trump’s re-election campaign used the same now-chartered Gulfstream jet to transport the president and his staff after mechanical issues on Trump’s private plane. Trump’s campaign said they were unaware of the Epstein connection at the time.
The files recently released by the Department of Justice are among 3.5 million documents made public on Jan. 30, following the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act by Congress and President Trump in November after months of public pressure.
Roth did not immediately respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.
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