Newly released Justice Department records show that more than $45 million flowed through a little-known bank owned by Jeffrey Epstein in the months surrounding his 2019 arrest and death, raising fresh questions about the purpose of the financial institution and the movement of millions of dollars that later became the subject of a federal investigation, the Miami Herald reported on Monday.

The records detail activity at Southern Country International, an offshore-style bank Epstein established in the U.S. Virgin Islands that had remained largely dormant for years before suddenly processing tens of millions of dollars in transactions shortly before the disgraced financier was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges on July 6, 2019.

According to the documents, more than $20 million passed through the bank between April and early July 2019. Following Epstein's death at a Manhattan detention facility on Aug. 10, 2019, an additional $25 million moved through Southern Country before the bank's balance fell to less than $500,000 by the end of the year.

The records also show that the FBI and Virgin Islands authorities opened a joint wire fraud investigation in 2020 into a $15 million transfer from one of Epstein's accounts at Deutsche Bank to Southern Country one day after his death.

The investigation was closed four years later, according to an FBI memorandum released by the Justice Department, although the memo provides no explanation for why the case was closed or whether investigators reached any conclusions.

The newly disclosed documents provide the most detailed account to date of Southern Country International, a bank created under a Virgin Islands law allowing the formation of international banking entities designed to attract foreign investment.

Such institutions cannot serve customers within the territory where they are licensed.

Epstein sought a banking license in 2013 after the Virgin Islands enacted legislation authorizing the specialized institutions.

Internal correspondence reviewed by the Miami Herald shows Epstein's longtime tax attorney, Erika Kellerhals, advised him that the territory's banking regulator was willing to move forward with the application while regulations were still being finalized.

Epstein ultimately received a banking license in December 2014 from then-Banking Commissioner John McDonald, who also waived a requirement that international banking entities employ at least three people, allowing Southern Country to operate without staff.

The bank was later renamed Southern Country International.

The licensing has drawn renewed scrutiny because Epstein was a registered sex offender at the time he received regulatory approval. Traditional U.S. bank owners typically undergo extensive background checks and are subject to oversight by federal banking regulators.

Former Virgin Islands Gov. John de Jongh has faced questions over the territory's relationship with Epstein, whose businesses operated extensively in the islands.

During separate civil litigation, JPMorgan Chase alleged that the Virgin Islands government granted Epstein favorable tax treatment and that the governor's wife, Cecile de Jongh, worked for several of Epstein's businesses.

The bank also alleged Epstein had proposed changes to Virgin Islands legislation affecting registered sex offenders.

Danny Cevallos, an attorney for John de Jongh, told the Miami Herald that "Governor de Jongh had no role in the operations of Southern Country International. He had no involvement in its banking-license application or in any subsequent review of its operations."

Financial records show Southern Country remained largely inactive for years, holding less than $500,000 and employing no staff as late as 2017.

Following Epstein's death, TD Bank filed a suspicious activity report with the U.S. Treasury Department stating that many of the accounts had been funded "in a willfully deceitful manner intended to disguise the sources of funds as originating with Jeffrey Epstein."

That report, along with a similar filing by Charles Schwab, was included among documents released by the Justice Department as part of the so-called Epstein files but has since been fully redacted. The department has not explained why the reports were withheld.

The Virgin Islands settled its civil lawsuit against Epstein's estate in 2022 for $105 million.

The estate has denied wrongdoing while resolving the claims without admitting liability.