Epstein allegedly arranged same-sex marriage for girlfriend to get green card
Jeffrey Epstein and Dr Karyna Shuliak (US Justice Department)
Jeffrey Epstein allegedly arranged for his girlfriend Dr Karyna Shuliak to marry one of his female assistants in order to get her a green card.
According to a new report by the New York Times, Epstein helped Dr Shuliak, from Belarus, get her US citizenship after she overstayed her student visa. She had come to the US to learn English, before pursuing studies in dentistry which she had started in her home country.
Emails released by the Department of Justice show Epstein suggesting that an unnamed recipient, which the Times claims is Dr Shuliak, should find “an American girlfriend”, adding: “Same sex marriage will be the fastes way to green card. By far. [sic]”
In another email, from September 2013, Epstein’s assistant – who has been described as one of his victims by her lawyer – was instructed to go to the marriage license bureau one morning and “wait for Karyna”.
Same-sex marriage had been made legal in New York in 2011 and it’s reported that the two women were instructed to get married as it would avoid raising red flags that the union was just for Shuliak to get US citizenship.
The other woman was one of Epstein’s assistants. Her lawyer Brad Edwards told the Times that “nobody was permitted or dared ever to disobey Jeffrey Epstein”.
The women were married three weeks after meeting, and soon an immigration lawyer working for Epstein started the process of getting Shuliak her citizenship, which brought an end to her pending deportation proceedings.
Shuliak got her green card months later, and in May 2018 became a US citizen. The women got divorced a year later.
This year, in a report by Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Shuliak’s ex-wife claimed she was forced into the marriage and did not know it had been scheduled for just a few days before Shuliak’s deportation hearing.
It added that the marriage may have been performed to give Shuliak the “legal basis to continue residing in the United States”. Though there were no recommendations to challenge her citizenship.
It’s reported that, as of spring 2026, Shuliak was living in an Upper East Side condo building part owned by Epstein’s brother, Mark.
She declined to comment when approached by the NY Times, while Mark Epstein said: “I only wish that woman the best.”
