The attorney general of New Mexico on Wednesday filed a civil lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime attorney, Darren Indyke, and Epstein’s longtime accountant, Richard Kahn, accusing them of having “facilitated and concealed” Epstein’s crimes, and is seeking to stop them from being paid by Epstein’s estate while the litigation plays out.

The lawsuit, filed in the US district court for the district of New Mexico, names Kahn and Indyke as defendants both in their individual capacity, and in their capacity as co-executors of Epstein’s estate. The complaint also names the Epstein’s estate, and the 1953 Trust, which holds the estate’s assets.

“Epstein, with the help of his associates, trafficked, isolated, and abused survivors at alluring locations” including at Epstein’s ranch in Stanley, New Mexico, known as Zorro Ranch, the complaint claims. It goes on to allege that “in exchange for furthering Epstein’s criminal project and remaining silent about it, his associates received generous salaries, access to elite social circles, and lavish gifts, including being named beneficiaries of his multimillion-dollar estate”.

In a statement on Wednesday, an attorney for Indyke shared a statement on behalf of both Indyke and Kahn saying that they “emphatically reject the New Mexico Attorney General’s allegations that they were complicit in or in any way knowingly facilitated Mr Epstein’s sexual abuse or trafficking – conduct that by all accounts occurred behind closed doors, in secluded locations, and at times when neither Mr Indyke nor Mr Kahn was present.”

“Not a single woman has ever accused Mr Indyke or Mr Kahn of committing sexual abuse or witnessing sexual abuse, nor claimed at any time that she or anyone else reported to them any allegation of Mr Epstein’s abuse,” the statement added. “The New Mexico Attorney General’s complaint does not allege anything to the contrary.”

The statement goes on to say that “neither the New Mexico Attorney General nor anyone from his office asked to speak with Mr Indyke or Mr Kahn to seek relevant information from them before filing this baseless lawsuit, raising serious questions about the thoroughness of the Attorney General’s investigation and the motivations for his lawsuit”.

Earlier this year, Kahn and Indyke told the US House committee investigating Epstein that they had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes during their employment.

Among the demands the lawsuit seeks is a court order preventing Indyke and Kahn from receiving estate payments while the case proceeds.

The complaint alleges that both men profited personally from their relationships with Epstein. It alleges that from 2011 to 2019, Indyke received more than $16m from Epstein and related entities and that Kahn received more than $10m.

In a statement on Wednesday, Raúl Torrez, New Mexico’s attorney general, said that Epstein “did not operate alone, and his death does not end the pursuit of accountability for the people who helped make his crimes possible”.

“The allegations in this lawsuit describe a network of people and financial arrangements that helped sustain and conceal the abuse of vulnerable girls and young women, including here in New Mexico,” he said. “Those who allegedly enabled this exploitation should not be allowed to profit from it while survivors continue to live with its consequences.”

In the complaint, Torrez wrote that “through this action, the State seeks to hold these individuals accountable to the fullest extent possible and to ensure that Epstein’s assets are distributed to the survivors of his horrific crimes”.

Several survivors of Epstein’s abuse signed a letter on Wednesday in support of Torrez’s lawsuit “because it can expose what roles Indyke and Kahn played in Epstein’s operation, examine how they handled survivors’ claims, and prevent Epstein’s trusted loyalists from being rewarded for their roles in Epstein’s organization”.

“Survivors deserve accountability and answers under oath. Epstein’s chosen confidants should not get the last word – or the money,” they added.

At a news conference on Wednesday about the new filing, Epstein survivor Anouska De Georgiou thanked Torrez for “standing with survivors”.

“We have carried this burden for long enough,” she said. “It is time for those responsible to answer for their part in it.”

The announcement on Wednesday comes amid a separate ongoing dispute between New Mexico officials and the Department of Justice over files Torrez is seeking as part of the state’s investigation into Epstein’s possible crimes in the state, including at his ranch outside Santa Fe, where multiple survivors have said they were abused.

Torrez sued the DoJ in August, accusing the department and Todd Blanche, the attorney general, of “stonewalling” the state’s investigation, which was reopened in February. Torrez asked the court for access to unredacted Epstein-related files held by the DoJ, and said in its filing his prosecutors had requested access to the records but had “faced sustained resistance” from the department.

The case is ongoing and the DoJ recently filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that “decisions about law-enforcement information sharing are committed to the agency’s discretion” and that turning over unredacted files would violate victims’ privacy.

Epstein’s Zorro Ranch came under renewed scrutiny after the DoJ’s release of roughly 3m files related to Epstein late last year and early this year. The Guardian reported in early February that the newly disclosed Epstein files contained thousands of references to Zorro Ranch, and numerous photos of men and young girls at the property, and that several survivors of Epstein’s abuse had also previously given testimony about abuse they say they were subjected to there.

The Guardian investigation also revealed that, unlike Epstein’s other properties in Palm Beach, in New York and on his private Caribbean island, federal authorities had apparently never searched the New Mexico ranch.

Epstein, who died in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges, bought the property in New Mexico 1993. It was later sold by his estate in 2023.

In late February, Torrez announced that New Mexico would reopen its investigation into Epstein’s activities at the ranch, after the state’s initial investigation was put on hold in 2019 at the request of federal prosecutors in New York, who were pursuing the investigation into Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation that led to his arrest. In March, New Mexico authorities launched a search of the ranch.

Torrez has said that he wants to establish what took place at Zorro Ranch. New Mexico lawmakers also established a “truth commission” to examine activities at the ranch.