The Architecture Firm That Walked Away: Inside WATG's Unreported Resignation From Epstein's Island Project

In the spring of 2018, one of the world's largest hospitality design firms quietly walked away from a multimillion-dollar project on Jeffrey Epstein's private islands. The firm returned its deposit, refused to explain why, and never spoke publicly about what happened.

The story of WATG's resignation from the Great St. James and Little St. James renovation project has never been reported. Until now, the details existed only in a chain of emails buried in the Department of Justice's Epstein file releases, spanning documents EFTA01029691 through EFTA01029694.

The Firm That Said No

WATG, formerly known as Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo, is an Irvine, California-based architecture and landscape design firm responsible for some of the most recognizable resort properties on Earth. Their portfolio includes the Atlantis in Dubai, the Bellagio in Las Vegas, and luxury hotels across six continents. They are not the kind of firm that returns deposits.

On May 18, 2018, Lance Kalani Walker, WATG's Associate Vice President and Director of Landscape Architecture, sent a letter to Paola Rengifo at Radyca, the Miami architecture firm that had hired WATG as a subcontractor on Epstein's project. The letter was brief and carefully worded:

"Following the abrupt cancellation of what was perceived to be an 'all-hands' onsite meeting even prior to receiving fully-executed agreements, WATG has received information that negatively impacts WATG's association with the Project that has led us to reconsider moving forward as part of the project team. Based upon such information, and given that WATG has yet to receive a mutually executed version of either the purported Prime Agreement or the proposed agreement between WATG and Radyca, WATG regrets to inform you that WATG hereby withdraws its signature from the proposed C401, effective immediately we are resigning from the Great St. James / Little St. James project."

That was it. No elaboration. No negotiation. Just a clean exit.

How They Got There

The connection between Epstein and WATG goes back further than most people realize. In March 2003, Ghislaine Maxwell emailed Hyatt Hotels heir Tom Pritzker asking if he knew "a co. Wimberly Allison Tong and Goo." Pritzker's architectural department responded that homes were "not Wimberly's forte" but noted that Jerry Allison, the "A" in WATG, was building a personal residence for Quincy Jones.

By 2010, Epstein was recommending WATG to associates. He emailed Dr. Henry Jarecki, the options trading pioneer, suggesting "WATG .. either allison or goo. can do quality work."

The formal engagement came in early 2018. Epstein had hired Ramon Alonso of Radyca, a Miami architecture firm, in November 2017 to oversee a comprehensive renovation of both islands. By February 2018, Epstein was asking about landscape architects. Alonso presented four candidates. WATG's proposed fee was $160,000 for the conceptual stage, slightly above the approved $140,000 budget. Epstein approved them anyway.

On March 3, 2018, the decision was made. Alonso later wrote: "March 3rd is when we agreed to go with WATG and we immediately contacted them, met in person and started negotiating the terms of the subcontract."

By mid-April, contracts were signed and deposits paid. A kick-off conference call was scheduled. WATG's team was preparing to fly to the island for a site assessment. Alonso told Epstein on April 25: "WATG the Landscaping team that we hired is flying to the island next week to meet with me and the civil engineer. They are already working on the conceptual sketches."

Then Epstein cancelled the site visit. Abruptly. Without explanation.

The Information

What happened next is the central question of this story.

Somewhere between the cancelled site visit and May 18, WATG conducted what appears to have been a belated client due diligence review. What they found caused them to resign immediately, return their deposit, and refuse to elaborate even when their collaborator at Radyca directly asked for an explanation.

Ramon Alonso wrote to Lance Walker on May 30: "My team and I have tried to reach you in order to understand the reason for WATG's resignation. I would appreciate if you could share with me the information you received."

Walker responded the same day. He spoke with Paola Rengifo. He agreed to discuss further. But the specific information was never shared in writing. The emails suggest WATG's legal counsel had advised a clean break with no documentation of what triggered it.

The most likely explanation is the simplest one. Jeffrey Epstein was a registered Level 3 sex offender on the U.S. Virgin Islands public sex offender registry. A basic Google search of "Little St. James" or "Great St. James" would have surfaced his name and criminal history within seconds. Any competent firm conducting routine client screening would have found this.

WATG had particular reason to be careful. In 2016, the firm had been fined $140,400 by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control for violations of Cuba sanctions. Having already been burned once by inadequate compliance screening, WATG was not going to associate its name with a convicted sex offender's private island renovation.

The Silence

When Alonso informed Epstein of WATG's departure on May 29, Epstein's response was characteristically blunt: "You told me they had started?? Please send all money for landscape back to rich Kahn."

There was no curiosity about why a prestigious firm had walked away from his project. No request for an explanation. No attempt to salvage the relationship. Epstein's reaction suggests he already knew, or at least suspected, what WATG had discovered.

The mobilization payment was eventually returned through Radyca's bank account in mid-June. Richard Kahn, Epstein's financial manager at HBRK Associates, forwarded the entire email chain to Epstein on June 13.

Why It Matters

WATG's resignation is significant for what it reveals about the professional world's relationship with Epstein in the years before his arrest.

The conventional narrative holds that Epstein's criminal history was not widely known in elite circles, that he successfully rehabilitated his image after 2008, and that his 2019 arrest came as a shock to most of his associates. WATG's resignation challenges this narrative.

A landscape architecture firm in Irvine, California, with no personal connection to Epstein, conducted basic due diligence and decided in less than two months that the reputational risk was unacceptable. They chose to walk away from what would have been a $2 million contract (the projected total design fee for the island project) rather than have their name associated with Jeffrey Epstein.

Meanwhile, the architects who stayed, the financiers who continued to visit, the academics who accepted his money, and the socialites who attended his dinners all presumably had access to the same publicly available information. They simply chose not to look. Or they looked and stayed anyway.

WATG looked and left. No one has asked them about it until now.

The WATG resignation letter (EFTA01029691), the Radyca timeline (EFTA00804711), and all correspondence referenced in this article are from the U.S. Department of Justice Epstein file releases, accessible through the Epstein Exposed document database.