Church Claims Ownership of Jeffrey Epstein’s Santa Fe Ranch

A church that previously filed a fraudulent deed claiming ownership of Jeffrey Epstein’s Florida mansion also has produced paperwork saying it owns part of the late financier and convicted sex offender’s Zorro Ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

A warranty deed created April 4, 2019, and filed in Santa Fe County in October 2020 by Love & Bliss Church, which lists itself as a “church religious organization” and a Florida not-for-profit, says Epstein agreed to sell the church parcels of land on the ranch south of Santa Fe.

The document says Epstein’s company, Cypress Inc., transferred the ranch property to Love & Bliss for $200. It appears to be signed by Epstein and notarized.

Daniel Weiner, an attorney for the Epstein estate, told Santa Fe CBS/Fox television affiliate KRQE News 13 that Love & Bliss had filed a similarly fraudulent warranty deed in Florida, which a judge found “invalid and unenforceable,” then was served with a “cease and desist” order after filing a second deed under another name.

Weiner said the action against Love & Bliss in Florida cost the estate “money and court time to get it thrown out.”

Access to MinistryWatch content is free.  However, we hope you will support our work with your prayers and financial gifts.  To make a donation, click here.

KRQE found that the address listed on the document for the church’s founder, Alexander Leszczynski, is a home in Florida, and that Leszczynski has a criminal record for stalking and battery. The address given for the group’s attorney is a real estate office, and the phone number also does not belong to the church, the station said.

New Mexico First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies told KRQE someone filing such a deed might be doing so to perpetrate fraud, to “get in and maybe then start selling off pieces and portions of it and get away with it.”

She said it’s the notary’s job, not the county’s, to verify if a document is real, and that companies can take legal recourse against fraudulent claims.

Epstein purchased the ranch and built a 33,000-square-foot mansion on the property in the 1990s. Weiner told KRQE the Zorro ranch property is being prepared for sale, and that funds will go toward compensating Epstein’s victims.