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Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged “sex slave” recruiter Sarah Kellen and her NASCAR-driver husband Brian Vickers have caused misery at celebrity condominium in SoHo, according to neighbors who complain of their endless apartment renovation.
Kellen, 41, has been accused by the late pedophile’s victims of being the “lieutenant” who helped Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s procure hundreds of girls. She denies the accusations, saying she was a “victim – not a monster.”
Now she faces fresh allegations that she and Vickers are a headache for residents of a luxury building at 92 Greene St. that was once home to Lindsay Lohan.
The couple lives in the three-bedroom, $10-million penthouse of the Mercer Greene building, where Vickers is president of the condo board. The 14 apartments are above ground-floor retail space that once housed the Ivanka Trump Boutique, and is now designer Brett Johnson’s US flagship store.
The building has been plagued by constant construction work for years, dating back to before Vickers became president in 2015, and residents complain about the costs and inconvenience of this maintenance. One homeowner says they’ve been charged $100,000 in assessments in the last five years.
Over the last few years, homeowners have had to contend with interior and exterior improvements, and 18 months of scaffolding, which finally came down in December.
Apartment owners are now being assessed thousands of dollars more for maintenance projects, including ongoing roof issues. Management firm Douglas Elliman says that Vickers and four other board members have to unanimously approve any work in a vote.
A lawyer acting on behalf of Mercer Greene Condominium and the board states that its members have never “improperly caused an assessment to be imposed on all owners for personal gain,” or “engaged in executing improper contracts for construction work.”
Residents also complain about the disturbance caused by Vickers’ and Kellen’s own projects. “They’ve also done their own renovations over the last five years,” despite spending much of the time elsewhere, said one condo owner. “It’s the other homeowners that have to put up with it.”
Vickers and his firm Requiro Terra LLC are currently facing a lawsuit filed by Midhattan Woodworking Corp., who claim they completed work on the penthouse’s interior in 2016 costing $668,201, and are still owed $64,921.01. The work included a “shoe pullout wardrobe cabinet” and teak adornments to the shower door. Vickers didn’t respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
The high cost of repairs appears to be “driving people out of the building,” said a source. Since 2014, seven of the 14 units have been sold. Flat 5A, owned by Chefs Club Belgian entrepreneur Stephane De Baets, is on sale for $4,995,000.
According to the city Building Department records, in the last three years the board had permits approved for “installing chimney liner” costing an estimated $50,000; “facade repairs” worth $88,005, and replacing two gas boilers with three domestic water heaters, priced at $215,000.
In recent years, little has been seen of Kellen, who reappeared in New York after Maxwell’s arrest in July. It left some residents to wonder if Kellen will testify against Maxwell at her trial. Maxwell has denied recruiting young girls for Epstein’s sex-abuse network.
“They’re definitely not in hiding,” the source said.
Epstein’s victims have spoken out against Kellen for grooming trafficked girls. Victim Sarah Ransome alleged in court testimony: “It was Ghislaine and Sarah Kellen that showed me how to please Jeffrey.”
Another survivor, Haley Robson, says Kellen kept the names and numbers of girls who gave Epstein massages and would call around to see who was available to work. Kellen’s name appears 350 times on flight logs of Epstein’s private plane, nicknamed the Lolita Express. She was given immunity from prosecution when Epstein was sentenced to 13 months in prison in 2008.
Last month, Kellen fought back against the accusations, telling The Sun, “I’ve been made out to be such a monster — but it’s not true. I’m a victim of Jeffrey Epstein. I was raped and abused weekly.”
Kellen started working for Epstein when she was around 18 years old and continued for at least a decade before moving to Hawaii after his 2008 jailing. She met Vickers four years later.
Along with her husband, she now claims to be supporting prison and anti-cult charities, according to his personal website.
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