Evidence of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes and operations “may have been lost,” warned U.S. Virgin Islands Sen. Oakland Benta (D) in a Monday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with host Rebecca Mansour and special guest host Matt Boyle.

“What’s going on here is what should have happened a long time ago,” said Benta of federal authorities investigating an island owned by Epstein. “As a result of all that has transpired, the federal government decided [to investigate] now, whether it’s too late or not — because there have been so many people on the island since Mr. Epstein has been incarcerated and, at the same time, there’s valuable information, evidence-wise, that we may have lost.”

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Benta added, “What’s going on is that they have seized the island, and they’re moving forward and doing, probably, what you call asset forfeiture, as far as securing what they can.”

Elements of the U.S. Virgin Islands’ government were complicit in Epstein’s crimes, determined Benta.

Benta remarked, “I do pray that once the investigation has taken place, as a result of so many people within this territory who are the leadership of this government, of this territory, hiding behind curtains as parasites, and … bringing young ladies to our shores from elsewhere and destroying their lives at will, with passion, without consideration for the child’s soul. And many individuals who participated in these acts are fathers themselves; they have children as well.”

“I’m very upset that our very government leadership, stewardship of this government, who are part of it — participated and turned a blind eye for financial gain,” stated Benta.

Mansour asked if the U.S. Virgin Islands’ “reputation of being used as a tax shelter” is related to Epstein’s involvement with the territory.

Benta explained, “What has happened with this is the members who are responsible to make sure that the individuals who came in [to the U.S. Virgin Islands] under the program [of economic development] were legitimate, that they, in fact, had the resources as far as what was put on paper, and that they were vetted through Interpol as well as the State Department.”

Benta continued, “What ended up happening was that cash became the access for turning a blind eye and allowing the fraudulent acts to take place on the territory by individuals who did not have what they said they had, and in hiding all of this in hedge funds as they did it, and manipulating and controlling the government of the Virgin Islands. And some senators, who they financed as far as campaigns and other things, a blind eye was turned, and of course, here comes the tax evasion and the fraud … by hiding all that they said they had by fraudulent acts. It was all a scam.”

Breitbart News Tonight broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot channel 125 weeknights from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern or 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Pacific.

Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter @rkraychik.