Jeffrey Epstein’s office relied on a dedicated team at American Express Co. to book travel for dozens of women, in some cases arranging sham itineraries designed to help them obtain visas, according to a new Bloomberg investigation. 

The reporting draws on documents that detail how Epstein, a longtime holder of American Express’s invite-only Centurion, or “Black,” card, used the card’s concierge-style service to move women, often from Eastern Europe, between his properties in the United States, Europe, and the Caribbean.

Epstein’s Centurion relationship manager and more than a dozen American Express colleagues booked, canceled, and rebooked flights for women whose travel patterns and supporting documents two human-trafficking experts cited in the article say should have raised red flags. Some flights were arranged and then scrapped purely so the women could present itineraries at visa interviews, the report said.

An American Express spokesperson told Bloomberg that the company terminated Epstein’s account after he was charged with federal sex-trafficking offenses in 2019 and regrets having had him as a customer. 

Epstein, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to a Florida state sex offense and was arrested on federal sex-trafficking charges in July 2019, died in federal custody the following month. More than 100 women have accused him of abuse, Bloomberg said. 

The disgraced financier had been an American Express customer since 1977 and held a Centurion card from at least 2004, according to the public files reviewed by Bloomberg. At one point in 2017 his account included as many as nine Centurion cards, and a post-arrest tally compiled by American Express for prosecutors listed Centurions, a Platinum, Golds, a Blue Cash card, and business cards including Plum and Gold.

The main point of contact for Epstein’s office was Natalia Molotkova, a Russian-born Centurion relationship manager based outside Atlanta who had once worked at a “visa agency” in the city, according to her emails cited by Bloomberg. 

In one December 2012 exchange detailed in the report, Epstein’s longtime assistant, Lesley Groff, asked Molotkova to arrange a “fully refundable” trip for an Eastern European model who needed an itinerary for “an interview with the consulate.” Groff told the relationship manager to book any hotel and that the woman would “alter the dates herself on the reservation to match the air ! (she knows how to do it with Word),” Bloomberg reported.

Molotkova replied: “Does she need the reservation only for the visa purpose? It is against AMEX policy, to be honest,” before offering to hold the booking until that night, according to the documents cited by Bloomberg. After the appointment, Groff asked her to cancel the trip and added, “You have been great.”

In January 2016, Groff asked Molotkova to find a “decoy flight” from Rome to London, telling her the traveler “will not really take it” but “needs to show an itinerary for this flight,” Bloomberg reported. Molotkova sent options, according to the article.

The emails repeatedly show Epstein’s office demanding that flight confirmations be sent only to Groff. After a 2017 confirmation reached multiple recipients, Groff messaged Molotkova: “PLEASE HELP! Take ALL Email Addresses OUT of OUR ACCOUNT!!” She added that Epstein was “livid” because he was “EXTREMELY private,” according to the report.

“I am petrified that all these tickets we have coming up this week from Russia to Paris will somehow resurface and get emailed to someone in our ‘list’ of emails,” Groff wrote in the same message. Molotkova later offered to smooth things over with 60,000 reward points, telling Groff, “we do value Mr. Epstein’s business. And your HARD work,” according to the documents cited in the article.

Epstein’s account routinely racked up large sums, at times more than $1 million a year, generating tens of thousands of dollars in fees for American Express. Among the cards on his account was one in the name of Celina Dubin, daughter of his billionaire friends Glenn and Eva Andersson-Dubin, and another belonging to his girlfriend Karyna Shuliak, with a $60,000 monthly limit, Bloomberg said. 

Two human-trafficking experts who spoke to the news outlet, also anonymously because of the legal sensitivities involved, said the booking patterns and fake itineraries described in the emails were the kind of activity that should have prompted alarm.