Who Is Karyna Shuliak? Inside the Life of Jeffrey Epstein’s Long‑time Partner and Potential Heir

Karyna Shuliak was born in Belarus and later moved to New York with a modest student visa, hoping to brush up on her English while working as a dental assistant. It was in March 2011, when she was just 21 and he was 58, that she first crossed paths with the controversial financier Jeffrey Epstein.

What started as a chance encounter quickly turned into a relationship that spanned nearly eight years. Epstein, who was already infamous for his criminal convictions, poured money into Shuliak’s life in a way that most of us could only imagine. He paid for her tuition, helped her family back home, and even intervened when Columbia University initially turned her down for dental school. In the end, a roughly $210,000 contribution from Epstein helped her secure a spot at the College of Dental Medicine.

Shuliak went on to earn dental licenses in Florida, New Mexico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and finally New York in 2025 after a brief stint of additional training. Throughout her climb, Epstein’s fingerprints were everywhere – not just on her tuition receipts, but also on her immigration paperwork. In 2013, he arranged a same‑sex marriage between Shuliak and a close associate, a move that later congressional investigators called “potentially illusory” but which effectively gave her a green card. She became a U.S. citizen in 2018 and divorced the associate a year later.

Beyond the personal, Shuliak found herself handling some of Epstein’s day‑to‑day affairs. Emails released to the public show her coordinating staff, overseeing renovations, and even dealing with furniture purchases for his various properties, including the infamous private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Over the years, Epstein transferred close to $1 million directly to her, and he also sent money to her parents in Belarus.

When Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on federal sex‑trafficking charges, the last known conversation he had before his death was a 20‑minute phone call with Shuliak. He told her the legal battle would drag on, urged her to find a new place to stay, and simply said, “be strong.” The following day, on August 10, 2019, he was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell.

After the scandal erupted, Shuliak largely retreated from the public eye, focusing on her dental practice. By 2025 she was working under the name “Dr Karyna” at a Brooklyn clinic, treating patients while the world debated her connection to Epstein. The Justice Department’s massive document dump, which included thousands of emails and photos, shone a brighter light on the depth of their relationship, but it did not allege any criminal involvement on her part.

Perhaps the most striking revelation came from a draft of Epstein’s will that surfaced in the New York Times’ archives. Just weeks before his death, he amended the document to name Shuliak as a primary beneficiary, earmarking assets that could be worth up to $100 million – even a 33‑carat diamond ring “in contemplation of marriage.” However, the estate’s net worth has been dramatically whittled down from an original $600 million to somewhere between $120 million and $200 million after victim compensation payments.

So, is she set to inherit a fortune? The answer remains murky. Legal battles over Epstein’s estate are ongoing, and the exact share Shuliak might receive is still being contested. What is clear, though, is that her life was profoundly shaped by Epstein’s financial support and that she now stands as a key figure in the lingering saga of his empire.