That photo's been around a while
This one, too:
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by cptmarginal » Mon Jul 15, 2019 7:45 am
That photo's been around a while
by seemslikeadream » Mon Jul 15, 2019 8:20 am
Jeffrey Epstein’s cell is 3 doors down from El Chapo
https://nypost.com/2019/07/12/jeffrey-e ... -el-chapo/
Ghislaine Maxwell’s Father Was a Dark and Mysterious Figure, Just Like Jeffrey Epstein
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty
Robert Maxwell set out to build a media empire. He ended up like a John le Carré villain embracing spooks across the world. Even his death is an enigma.
Clive Irving
Updated 07.14.19 3:56AM ET / Published 07.13.19 10:21PM ET
Ghislaine Maxwell, the most elusive figure in the Jeffrey Epstein ménage, grew up in a family of dissemblers. In fact, the family business was built on dissembling.
No charges have been filed against 57-year-old Maxwell but she has been named in civil lawsuits alleging that she acted as a procurer of young women for Epstein. Their relationship has varied over the years from romantic to a more practical partnership in which she used her social connections to introduce Epstein to some notable figures, including Prince Andrew, the raciest member of Britain’s royal family.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell attend an event at Cipriani Wall Street on March 15, 2005 in New York City.
Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty
Ghislaine’s father Robert Maxwell was one of the darkest and most mysterious men to appear in British public life.
Even his death remains a mystery. In November 1991 he disappeared from the deck of his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, named for his youngest daughter, as it was anchored off the Canary Islands. (Like all Maxwell’s nine children Ghislane is French by birth—they were all delivered by the gynecologist sister of Maxwell’s wife Betty at a maternity home in Maisons Laffitte, a suburb of Paris.)
Robert Maxwell on his yacht Lady Ghislaine.
Rick Maiman/Sygma via Getty
His naked body was found floating 15 miles away by a fisherman. Pathologists who performed post-mortem examinations disputed the cause of death. Two said he had fallen from the yacht after suffering a heart attack and drowned, a third said his heart condition had not been responsible, that he had fallen and drowned.
Throughout his whole life Maxwell concealed as much as he revealed. Outwardly he played the part of a charismatic businessman. But this performance was always based on an increasingly complicated web of companies with links that only he understood.
After his death it emerged that the Maxwell Communications Corporation owed money to 43 banks, with a total debt of more than $4 billion.
Seen through the eyes of forensic accountants it seemed like the life of a swindler and consummate con man. But the motivation behind it was more a self-created fantasy than greed. This was a pathology that I got to see myself, up close.
FAQ
Everything You Need to Know About the Jeffrey Epstein Case
Tracy Connor
Maxwell first appeared as a small, flickering blob on my radar in 1963, in the first year of my leadership of an investigative reporting team at the London Sunday Times.
The paper’s science editor suggested that we take a dive into the records of a publishing company called the Pergamon Press, based in Oxford.
He explained that Pergamon published scientific journals. Pergamon’s list was originally built on an extraordinary coup planned by its owner, Maxwell.
At the beginning of World War II a young Czech refugee, born Jan Ludvik Hoch, enlisted in the British Army as Private Robert Maxwell. By the end of the war he had fought from the Normandy beaches all the way to Berlin and risen to the rank of captain.
In Berlin Maxwell realized that a mother lode of scientific papers produced in Germany during the war had never been published in the West. While he was still in the British army and then in following years Maxwell arranged through German publishers to share the rights in these papers and he would publish them in English.
This was the West Berlin caught in the movie The Third Man, written by Graham Greene, in which Orson Welles is the unscrupulous Harry Lime making shady deals with shady people. Maxwell was not as cynical as Lime but he became adept at dealing in the hungry trading of the city where many of the deals were not in money but in bartered goods—in return for access to the scientific papers Maxwell could offer in exchange essentials that were in short supply.
Maxwell was in an obsessive pursuit of his own Great White Whale, in the form of Rupert Murdoch.
Maxwell’s personality thrived in such a world where his fluency in languages and his cunning and wits were fully engaged. He made contacts in Eastern Europe, behind the Iron Curtain, that paid off later.
But London was a different challenge. There he felt like an outsider in a place where the old boy network still ran everything, particularly in book publishing. Very quickly, he got on the wrong side of them.
At the Sunday Times we learned enough to figure out that Maxwell had developed a new business that took him way beyond the potential of the German archives. Across the world science was splintering into many more specialized disciplines. Pergamon editors spotted each new field of work as it emerged and contacted its leaders. They were offered positions on an editorial board, a title was created and a new journal appeared.
There was no risk involved. The journals sold on subscriptions at a price that guaranteed profits. Some of the authors complained of being paid a pittance but that was normal in scientific journals.
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There was no scandal to be exposed. The one thing that we did discover was why Maxwell was deeply disliked among London publishers. This was because in 1954 a book wholesaler he took over had quickly failed, leaving many publishers with large unsold stocks.
One of the publishers was the family firm of a future Tory prime minister, Harold Macmillan. “We have lost a fortune but my lawyers say we’ll never get our money back,” Macmillan complained. He was a forerunner of many others who did business with Maxwell, and he never forgot. But there was still no story for us.
Robert Maxwell stands talking to a police officer, with Big Ben rising above them, on his arrival at the Houses of Parliament to take his seat as MP for Buckingham, London, England, Great Britain, in October 1964.
Hulton Archive/Getty
A year later, in 1964, Maxwell was elected to parliament, part of a resurgent Labour Party after Macmillan had resigned from office following the Profumo scandal. Harold Wilson, the Labour prime minister, was apparently well informed about Maxwell’s background. He called him “the bouncing Czech.”
I finally met Maxwell in person in 1967.
A London court stopped the publication of the gay classic Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby. Most London publishers decried the move as a relapse into censorship. But Maxwell supported the ban.
I was then a producer of David Frost’s live interview show and we invited Maxwell to defend his position alongside the book’s publisher, John Calder.
Calder got the better of the encounter. He accused Maxwell of supporting censorship. Maxwell said he was against censorship but then erupted like a Victorian prude: “I’ve read this book and I consider it muck and filth of the worst kind.” The studio audience greeted this with derision.
Maxwell was unfazed. In the Green Room he was an imposing presence: a bear-like hulk, a booming baritone, Bela Lugosi eyebrows and a bone-crushing handshake. He bore no grudge against Frost. In fact, he had spotted someone he thought might be useful to him.
He decided that Frost might help him to achieve his ultimate ambition, to get into the television business.
In a series of meetings with Frost, which I attended, it became clear that Maxwell was in an obsessive pursuit of his own Great White Whale, in the form of the Australian Rupert Murdoch.
Rival publishers Robert Maxwell (standing, left) and Rupert Murdoch (center) await a vote on their respective bids for the News Of The World newspaper, during a shareholders' meeting at the Connaught Rooms, London, January 2, 1969. The shareholders are to vote on whether to accept a share exchange deal with Murdoch's company, News Ltd, or approve a 34 million pound takeover bid by Pergamon Press, owned by Maxwell. The vote later went in favor of Murdoch's offer.
Aubrey Hart/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty
A bitter battle was about to erupt between the two men for control of Britiain's biggest-selling newspaper, the weekly News of the World. Murdoch won, and then outbid Maxwell to add a moribund daily, The Sun, to his Fleet Street stable, relaunching it as a racy tabloid in late 1969.
He had the Daily Mirror executive floor bugged so that he knew what his top managers were saying about him.
Murdoch made it clear that he intended to move next into television and Maxwell intended to beat him to it. When the government opened up a number of commercial television franchises Maxwell tried to enlist Frost’s help in bidding for one. Frost refused.
Murdoch launched his television empire without needing to win a franchise. He spotted the potential of satellite-beamed broadcasting and launched Sky in Europe and, of course, ultimately Fox News. Maxwell never got into television.
A while after those meetings Maxwell read a long piece I wrote about the shortcomings, as I saw them, of the British newspaper industry. He invited me and my wife to his country mansion near Oxford—“to further explore my ideas” he said.
It didn’t turn out to be a very private experience. Other house guests included several members of the Labour government. I found that they were as leery as I was at the prospect of Maxwell as a newspaper proprietor, even if he supported the party. They liked his company and his wine cellar but to them Maxwell remained the bouncing Czech.
And when I did talk to him about my ideas it was apparent that he would use a newspaper as he saw fit, with no respect for editorial independence.
But one of Maxwell’s stock responses was to treat an opposing view as something that might be reversed if he persisted. After that meeting he twice offered me a job as an editor. Each time I refused and in one of those cases I advised him against buying the paper. I knew he would ignore it.
Robert Maxwell at a press conference in London after it was announced that he had bought the Daily Mirror and its sister newspapers for 113.4 million.
PA Images via Getty
In Maxwell’s head the contest with Murdoch never ceased. He did acquire newspapers, in Scotland and in London, where he bought a legendary tabloid, the Daily Mirror. And he followed Murdoch across the Atlantic after he bought the New York Post, by buying the New York Daily News.
But he had none of Murdoch’s editorial instincts. And the papers were financially hollowed-out as Maxwell juggled funds between the 400 private companies that he ran on the basis that nobody else, not even the two sons, Kevin and Ian, who were closest to him, would know how seriously they were building up debt.
After his death it emerged that Maxwell had looted hundreds of millions from the Daily Mirror pension fund. Eventually, with the help of the British government, the pensioners got half of what they were due.
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There was a kind of grandiose dementia behind Maxwell’s empire. It never approached the omnipotent media power he craved and that Murdoch had achieved. He had the paranoia of someone who felt that he could never trust anyone around him. He had the Daily Mirror executive floor bugged so that he knew what his top managers were saying about him. Although many banks loaned him money he felt that British bankers in particular held their noses while taking his business.
Ian Maxwell (left) looks to his brother Kevin outside the High Court, London, after a judge ruled that Kevin should not stand trial for a second time on charges relating to the collapse of his disgraced father Robert's media empire.
Fiona Hanson - PA Images/PA Images via Getty
Ian and Kevin Maxwell were acquitted on charges of conspiracy to defraud by a jury in 1996. Kevin was declared bankrupt with debts of $600 million.
There are people who believe that Maxwell’s departure from the Lady Ghislaine was neither accidental nor voluntary. It was easy to conjure conspiracy theories—his life was in some respects like a John le Carré villain’s. His connections embraced spooks in London, Tel Aviv and Moscow. But the clearest motive was the simplest: The game was up. There was no way out of the pit of debt that he had created.
Robert Maxwell and his daughter Ghislaine watch the Oxford v Brighton football match, October 13, 1984.
Staff/Mirrorpix/Getty
Ghislaine Maxwell is variously described as a “socialite” and, more quaintly, as a member of the plutocratic jet set. Her father was never in any set and never had any interest in a frivolous life. In that respect, at least, she is not a chip off the old block. Her celebrity (or notoriety) does raise a question familiar to all old Maxwell watchers: Where does all the loot come from? The same question is often asked of Epstein.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/ghislaine ... ref=scroll
Ponzi Scheme Victims Say Epstein Swindled Them
There are allegations Epstein scammed his way to his fortune.
Updated 07.15.19 4:08AM ET / Published 07.14.19 8:47PM ET
In a court filing last week, prosecutors said they had determined that financier Jeffrey Epstein was worth at least $500 million and earning $10 million a year—the first concrete details about his wealth to emerge in years.
But while the documents confirmed that the accused sex trafficker is fantastically wealthy, the source of Epstein’s fortune remains a mystery. How did a money manager with a single confirmed client amass riches including a $77-million Manhattan mansion and his own private Caribbean island?
Convicted financial swindler Steven Hoffenberg has offered an explanation: He claims Epstein is a Ponzi schemer who helped him bilk tens of thousands of investors in the 1980s and 1990s.
“Epstein and the corporations he formed were my co-conspirators,” Hoffenberg alleged in an affidavit for a federal lawsuit.
“Epstein has remained free and has used and benefited from the ill-gotten gains he amassed as a result of his criminal and fraudulent activities.”
Hoffenberg is a cartoonish character who burst onto the public scene in 1993 when then-Gov. Mario Cuomo asked the bill-collection kingpin to rescue the New York Post, then owned by bankrupt real estate titan Peter Kalikow.
Hoffenberg had barely taken control of the paper, while waiting for his deal with Kalikow to go through, when the Securities and Exchange Commission, which had been investigating him for years, filed a civil suit against him and his company, Towers Financial.
A year later, Hoffenberg was under indictment, charged with selling $460 million worth of bogus notes and bonds and using the proceeds from some to pay interest to others in what was then one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in history.
He pleaded guilty, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and was released in 2013. Three years later, he filed a lawsuit against Epstein, blaming him for the fraud and claiming that he had tried to warn authorities about Epstein’s financial chicanery for years.
Hoffenberg, often described as Epstein’s former mentor, has told journalist Vicky Ward that they met in the 1980s, shortly after Bear Stearns gave Epstein the boot over “illegal operations.” (Ward would discover a 1989 deposition for a civil case, in which Epstein admitted to a possible “Reg D” violation—allegedly loaning a friend $20,000 to buy stock—which led to his departure from the investment bank). Epstein was running his own consulting company, International Assets Group Inc., from his New York apartment.
Hoffenberg claims he hired Epstein and that his purported protégé devised a failed scheme to take over Pan American Airways and Emery Air Freight Corp, financing bids through Towers Financial’s acquisition of two ailing insurance companies in Illinois, Associated Life and United Fire.
Epstein made trades through others, because he didn’t have a broker’s license, and he “misappropriated the proceeds for personal use in connection with his investment business,” Hoffenberg’s lawsuit alleges.
Hoffenberg says he and Epstein, and others at Towers, promised to invest $3 million into the companies, in order to persuade the Illinois Department of Insurance to approve their acquisition. But instead, they used $3 million of the companies’ bonds to buy Pan Am and Emery stocks, the complaint states. As a result, the insurance companies allegedly lost more than $1 million.
Epstein also “manipulated the price of Emery stock to minimize the losses which occurred when Mr. Hoffenberg’s and Mr. Epstein’s bids failed and the share price began to fall,” the lawsuit alleges. “This involved multiple brokerage accounts which were controlled by Mr. Epstein.”
Meanwhile, Hoffenberg alleges, Epstein was misappropriating and transferring the insurance companies’ investments and cash to brokerage accounts in New York.
In 1991, the director of insurance for the state of Illinois sued Hoffenberg; Epstein was not a defendant, but the complaint claimed he and his company improperly received $215,000 worth of checks from the insurance companies’ accounts.
When Towers became insolvent in the late 1980s, Hoffenberg and Epstein allegedly masterminded another Ponzi scheme by selling about $272 million in promissory notes. Towers provided investors with “bogus income and asset figures to conceal [its] true financial condition,” court papers allege.
In 1990, the duo fraudulently sold about $210 million in bonds and again provided phony financial statements, the lawsuit says. The proceeds from the sale of bonds and promissory notes were used to pay Towers’ operating expenses.
When the feds indicted Hoffenberg and he pleaded guilty, he did not implicate Epstein. But in the 2016 lawsuit, perversely seeking restitution on behalf of the victims, Hoffenberg claimed that for more than 15 years, he “has made every effort to expose Mr. Epstein’s fraudulent Ponzi schemes.”
Epstein’s attorney, Bennett Moskowitz, asked Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Sullivan to dismiss the case, noting that another federal judge had previously warned Hoffenberg “against pursuing frivolous or otherwise improper litigation” related to his victims.
“Hoffenberg’s victims, whom he is prohibited from contacting, are better positioned to pursue their own rights than the man who defrauded them,” Moskowitz wrote to the court.
Hoffenberg ultimately withdrew the suit, saying the victims “may be in a better position to pursue and assert their own claims” against Epstein.
In August 2018, two victims did file a class-action lawsuit against Epstein in New York, describing him as “an uncharged co-conspirator” of Hoffenberg’s Ponzi scheme and claiming Epstein used his ill-gotten gains “to support a lavish lifestyle.”
The complaint, filed by Marvin Gerber and Kalma Koenig, contains the same allegations surrounding the failed Pan Am and Emery acquisitions. Epstein, they said, manipulated the stock price by opening a number of brokerage accounts to execute false trades and artificially inflate the price of Emery stock. “As the puppet master of Emery stock fraud, Epstein was making sizeable profits off his trading on insider information,” the lawsuit states.
The victims’ complaint alleges that prosecutors offered Hoffenberg a reduced sentence in exchange for divulging information about his co-conspirators, but Hoffenberg didn’t provide any intel on Epstein—until his lawsuit in May 2016.
In a September 2018 motion to dismiss the victims’ suit, Moskowitz stated “Hoffenberg remains intent on shifting blame for his own massive Ponzi scheme.” He argued the victims’ claims should be dismissed because the statute of limitations had passed and because Epstein’s firm wasn’t even formed until several years after the Ponzi scheme in question.
In October 2018, Gerber and Koenig voluntarily dismissed their complaint, without prejudice, leaving them open to filing claims in the future.
When Epstein was first accused of trafficking underage girls, in Florida in 2005, Hoffenberg was still in prison, serving his sentence for the Ponzi scheme. Epstein dodged a federal indictment and pleaded guilty to a state charge of prostitution, serving 13 months, mostly work release.
But Hoffenberg was a free man when Epstein was arrested last week on federal sex-trafficking charges in New York. He gave an interview to Quartz in which he reiterated his claims that Epstein was his accomplice.
“He was my colleague daily, seven days a week,” Hoffenberg said.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/did-jeffr ... nzi-scheme
by cptmarginal » Mon Jul 15, 2019 8:32 am
They told lurid tales of his sex orgies with midget Filipino hookers.
by seemslikeadream » Mon Jul 15, 2019 12:14 pm
Adam Klasfeld
Meanwhile, feel free to shoot me any questions in the comments here before the hearing. I may not have the time to answer before the bail hearing starts, but it will help clarify what might needs clarification as the case unfolds.
Great questions, all. Keep them coming, but I'm going to duck out for now to prepare coverage.
Back in less than 15 minutes.
Lots of folks are asking why the Miami properties haven't been searched.
It's not in the Southern District of New York, and the Southern District of Florida entered into this non-prosecution agreement more than a decade ago, which you can expect to hear wrangling about today.
That word "globally" is going to get a lot of mileage from Epstein's defense attorneys.
Note: The non-prosecution agreement has not yet been voided, even though a federal judge in Florida ruled it broke the law (the CVRA). That Florida judge will later decide the penalty.
Read the full non-prosecution agreement starting at page 18. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-conte ... n-bail.pdf …
Prosecutors and defense attorneys have taken their seats at the tables. Empty seat waiting for Epstein.
Epstein has taken his seat.
"All rise."
We're about to begin.
Judge Berman: For your information and for the people sitting in the overflow courtroom, we have tried to accommodate everyone.
Berman notes that pretrial services reports have been filed with him, an initial report and another filed today.
It says: "There is no condition or combination of conditions that will reasonably assure the appearance of defendant as required and the safety of the community."
The report, which like other pretrial services reports, is not public, recommends that Epstein remains detained.
Berman says he won't rule today, but he will decide on Thursday, July 18.
(Context: That delay between bail hearing and ruling is typical.)
Berman adds that several victims are in court and can be heard "if they wish to be heard."
Prosecutors will be up first today, as they have the burden in these proceedings.
Berman notes he will question each side, and he begins to preview some of those queries.
Berman summarizes the arguments of both of the parties before arguments begin and the burden each party has.
His question for the defense: "How was the burden rebutted in this case?"
For the govt: "Whether that presumption has been rebutted, and if so, how has govt proved that remand appropriate, in this case?"
More specifically, Berman notes Epstein's his sex-offender registration reqs. in New York, Florida and Virgin Islands. What about New Mexico, he asks
Essentially, Berman's seeking more information about proceedings in the various states and jurisdictions related to Epstein's sex-offender status.
Next, Berman moves onto Epstein's finances.
Berman said he allowed Epstein to file financial information under seal so as not to slow down proceedings, but he describes that information as "cursory" and suffers from an "absence of detail."
Berman: "I am inclined to place the summary on the docket." He'll hear args on it.
Berman moves onto alleged witness tampering and obstruction of justice on the recent payments.
See here: https://www.courthousenews.com/feds-eye ... ld-expose/ …
He wants to know what add'l insights into this episode they can share.
"I reserve the right to have more questions," Berman says.
Prosecutors up.
AUSA Alex Rossmiller for the govt, talking about the "extraordinary risk of flight" and the danger to the community.
He joins with pre-trial services recommendation and request of the victims.
Rossmiller has many questions about Epstein's finances before beginning to consider bail application.
"How much money does he have? Where is it?... How much of it is in diamonds or art?"
Also, what accounts and more.
Rossmiller: "Many individuals identifying themselves as victims and witnesses" have come forward and prosecutors have been able to "dramatically expand" the scope of their investigation.
No estimate of the number of new accusers.
Assets in "diamonds and art" found in Epstein's UES mansion.
"We're just relying on the defendant's word for all of this," Rossmiller says, referring to Epstein's finances.
What is known about his finances should "alarm" the court, he adds.
"We became aware today" of a passport issued by a foreign country, in the 1980s, expired currently, with Epstein's picture but not his name, Rossmiller says.
Rossmiller alludes to the police reports the government has submitted and reviews the known evidence of witness tampering.
Judge Berman wants more information about that.
Rossmiller: The government took no position on the defendant's sealing application because they had no idea what he was going to submit and deferred to the court.
Rossmiller slams Epstein's defense for pursuing "longshot, dubious legal arguments" at some future time.
This case "will go forward," and he's confident Epstein "will be convicted," he adds.
Epstein's team now up.
Epstein's defense attorney doesn't introduce himself and goes into presumption of innocence.
"The stakes are grave, and one of the most important reasons for Epstein's release" are to give him the right to prepare a defense.
"You don't punish first and have a trial second."
Berman: You said high-level DOJ officials approved the non-prosecution agreement. Who are they?
Epstein's counsel: First the criminal division and it's head. (Will get name in transcript.) They had a meeting in Washington with that division of the DOJ.
Epstein's attorney arguing now appears to be Martin Weinberg, who just said that they plan to file a motion to dismiss.
Berman presses him about series of cases involving minor victims where the presumption of remand maintains.
Berman: "[W]e totaled up 12 cases all of which involve minor victims, kidnapping, sex-trafficking of children, aggravated sexual abuse" plus a further litany of offenses, all of which all carried "presumption of remand instead of bail."
Adam Klasfeld Retweeted Jennifer Taub
Essentially, Berman's pressing Epstein's counsel on this astute observation by @JenTaub.
Adam Klasfeld added,
Jennifer Taub
Verified account
@jentaub
So. That's not what the federal bail statute says. It's not about punishment. It's about flight risk and public safety. Presumption against release for accused of sex trafficking children
Epstein's counsel notes that the government has not alleged allegations of further abuse since 2005.
The indictment charges conduct between 2002 and 2005.
Berman: "I have a question about that too."
Berman notes that defense claimed any danger Epstein posed to the community has "abated" or "evaporated."
"You don't cite any case that says 14 years and it's over and it evaporates," he says.
The idea that he will abandon "his 14 years of self-discipline," he doesn't think the govt can carry that burden and that weight, the defense attorney says.
Berman invokes studies about recidivism that measure recidivism beyond 10, or 14, or 15 years.
Recidivism actually goes up after 15 years, and it's higher than after five years, according to this study Berman's citing.
Plus, Berman notes, victims don't always come forward and so a lot of these cases not reported.
Note: Judge Berman is a licensed clinical social worker.
Interesting fact: The National Association of Social Workers bestowed Judge Berman with a leadership service award in late March.
Another profile of mine goes into that.
Berman: "The question is, how do you know that?" referring to claim that Epstein has not reoffended since 2005.
Epstein's counsel cites visibility of the case and says he didn't flee before the Florida non-prosecution agreement.
Service advisory: Ducking out momentarily to work on quick update. Be right back.
Berman discloses that he read the New York Post report that Epstein was not in compliance with his obligations in New York. (He emphasizes that this is a news report, but questions the attorney about it.)
That NYP story:
Epstein's counsel replied there has been no notice of violation, outside of media reports.
Berman also presses him on sex-offender registration in New Mexico, where Epstein's counsel said he's not required to register.
More on those New Mexico requirements.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/11/us/j ... exico.html …
Epstein's attorney denies that a private investigator tried to run a father off the road, an allegation prosecutors cited among witness tampering claims.
Epstein's counsel on the suspicious payments after the publication of "Perversion of Justice": "The payment of an employee and the payment of a friend is not 'witness tampering' because the @MiamiHerald wrote an article."
Berman: "Respectfully, I don't think the financial summary" is sufficient. "For one it's an unverified... un-audited, and not very detailed either."
"It seems to me there has to be a fuller financial picture to know what would be appropriate."
Epstein's counsel called the bail submissions "admittedly rough," but his client would agree to any bond to "virtually guarantee" his appearance.
"He would sign any bond and give your honor and U.S. District Court clerk with any collateral" the court orders.
Arguing against publishing a summary of Epstein's finances, Weinberg says: "We are facing a trial someday."
"Every fact that is generated by this proceeding becomes the basis of a... series of articles," he adds.
Epstein's counsel praises his adversary at the prosecution table: "Mr. Rossmiller writes eloquently and speaks eloquently."
But the counsel adds the SDNY kept a leash on other defendants out on bail: "Madoff was released on bail. He surrendered."
Epstein's counsel turns to the private security question, referring obliquely to the case of Reza Zarrab, whom he notes--accurately--was arrested en route to Disney after landing in Miami.
He notes that Berman rejected that bail package and he read the opinion.
"We need him released, judge," the attorney says. "This is an enormously challenging case for defense counsel."
Epstein's counsel says his client's in the SHU, aka isolation unit.
Berman notes that many people in Rikers Island can't afford bail.
"Everybody has the right to consult with counsel," Berman notes. "If that's the standard, what are we going to tell all those people can't make a $500 or $1,000 bail..."
Epstein's counsel replies that most of them aren't facing such high-profile, well-resourced prosecutions.
Note: Epstein is also prodigiously well-resourced, and gave only a glimpse of those resources in his bail memo.
Rossmiller back up for the prosecution again, "briefly."
Rossmiller's "lightning round":
Responding to the question of Epstein's ability to prepare a case having access to counsel behind bars, the AUSA says: "This court has significant experience with that kind of case with a detained defendant with Zarrab."
Rossmiller says that Epstein's asking for "special treatment" to be locked up in his "gilded cage," using the turn of phrase memorably coined in a headline by @BenWeiserNYT's story in the @NYTimes in the case of Reza Zarrab.
Rossmiller on defense statute 1591 is "enslavement" & "pimping people out":
"Your honor, it's underage girls that are involved in this case, and it's underage girls that are the victims," Rossmiller notes, emphasizing consent can't be an issue and saying elements of crime met.
Rossmiller: "The idea that if there was misconduct it would have been charged" if it existed is "particularly rich in this case."
There's plumes of smoke, and it's reasonable to assume there's fire, he adds.
On Epstein counsel claiming their client had been "disciplining himself" since 2005, Rossmiller says: "The defendant keeps telling on himself here."
It concedes predisposition.
"Your honor this is the Southern District of New York," Rossmiller said, in what may be fairly read as a veiled dig at the Southern District of Florida.
Epstein's counsel back up: There's an inherent contradiction between the government tying these two payments to witness as if this is akin to attempt to influence a witness, and his landing near NYC.
"He was arrested flying into Teterboro from Europe," Weinberg says.
David Boies, for the victims, gets "the last word," Berman says.
Boies asks for one of the victims whom he represents to speak briefly. "Sure," Berman said, granting permission.
Annie Farmer, one of Epstein's accusers: "I was 16-years-old when I had the misfortune to meet" Jeffrey Epstein, and she was flown into New Mexico.
"His wealth, his privilege and the notoriety of the case would make it... more difficult," Farmer says, her voice cracking.
Asked a question by Berman, Farmer said: "He was inappropriate with me and I would prefer not to go into the details about labeling that at this time."
Another attorney is about to read a statement from a client.
Berman adjourns the hearing and will issue his ruling on Thursday. I have a lot of new information to add to this DEVELOPING stub of a story, @CourthouseNews.
Look out for more quite soon.
https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/sta ... 9306140672
by Cordelia » Mon Jul 15, 2019 1:31 pm
...Berman says he won't rule today, but he will decide on Thursday, July 18.
(Context: That delay between bail hearing and ruling is typical.)...
by seemslikeadream » Mon Jul 15, 2019 1:47 pm
Cordelia
by 8bitagent » Mon Jul 15, 2019 3:44 pm
Details from a 2015 defamation case involving a woman who claimed financier Jeffrey Epstein forced her to have sex with Britain's Prince Andrew are set to be released to the public.
Virginia Roberts accused Epstein — who was charged with sex trafficking and conspiracy last week — of recruiting her as a sex slave back in 2001, when she was just 17-years-old.
Roberts alleged that she had been procured for sexual activities by Epstein's personal aide Ghislaine Maxwell, who was a reported friend of Prince Andrew's.
Maxwell denied Roberts' claims, calling her a liar — which resulted in Roberts suing Maxwell for defamation in 2015, a case in which she brought forward her allegations against Epstein and the prince.
After a new court ruling, 2,000 sealed files from the case will become available to the public.
Buckingham Palace has emphatically denied the allegations against Prince Andrew.
by Cordelia » Mon Jul 15, 2019 4:12 pm
Epstein — who was arrested on sex-crime charges last week — landed in cell No. 4, three doors down from Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo’’ Guzman, sources said.
Chapo is in cell No. 1 in the notorious solitary-confinement unit of the Metropolitan Correctional Center known as “10 South.”
https://nypost.com/2019/07/12/jeffrey-e ... -el-chapo/
Prisoners Endure A Nightmare 'Gulag' In Lower Manhattan, Hidden In Plain Sight
By Aviva Stahl
June 19, 2018
Half a block behind Manhattan’s federal courthouse, two blocks from City Hall, three blocks from the Brooklyn Bridge, and less than a mile from the hustle-and-bustle of Wall Street, sits a detention center that has been condemned by a United Nations human rights expert for exposing its inmates to conditions akin to torture.
While reports of the horrendous conditions on Rikers Island helped spur Mayor Bill de Blasio’s pledge to shutter the jail’s violence-plagued facilities, far less attention has been paid to the environment inside the Metropolitan Correctional Center, the federal jail which mainly holds people who have been charged but not yet convicted of crimes, who in the eyes of the law are still presumed innocent.
Yet those locked up at the MCC are subject to their own indignities and rights violations, say those who have spent time there on both sides of the bars. These include filthy conditions, vermin infestations, substandard medical care, and violence and abuse at the hands of guards. Interviews with a dozen people who have spent time locked up there as recently as 2017, as well as with attorneys who have represented clients at MCC, human rights groups, and others with direct knowledge of the prison, confirm that those incarcerated at MCC often endure a rat-infested, high-rise hell just yards from the federal courts that send them there.
MORE: https://gothamist.com/2018/06/19/mcc_ja ... orture.php
In a special jail-within-a-jail called 10 South, alleged terrorists, mobsters and drug kingpins are subject to some of the most brutal conditions of solitary confinement in the nation. This extreme isolation, reserved for those charged with the most heinous crimes, was described as “a punitive measure that is unworthy of the United States as a civilized democracy,” according to a former special monitor on torture and punishment for the United Nations who investigated the case of one prisoner held there for three years.
by identity » Mon Jul 15, 2019 5:59 pm
"We became aware today" of a passport issued by a foreign country, in the 1980s, expired currently, with Epstein's picture but not his name, Rossmiller says.
by seemslikeadream » Mon Jul 15, 2019 9:54 pm
Tarot Politics
@TarotPolitics
Yes I was there this is correct. They refused to specify the country that has presumably issued the passport, but said that that fake passport listed an address in Saudi Arabia as his address.https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/sta ... 2818847745
Jeffrey Epstein keeps a framed photo of MBS in his mansion.
https://twitter.com/VickyPJWard/status/ ... 2704284673
The State Department Once Rented A Townhouse Seized From Iran To Jeffrey Epstein — Then Sued Him For Subletting It
A weird and forgotten case from the 1990s shows how connected Jeffrey Epstein was to power.
Rosie Gray
BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on July 14, 2019, at 7:56 p.m. ET
US Attorney Geoffrey Berman announces charges against Jeffery Epstein on July 8, in New York City.
Jeffrey Epstein’s Upper East Side mansion has become notorious for its reportedly macabre interior decor, immense size and monetary value, and as the site of some of his lurid alleged crimes.
But Epstein, the financier who has been charged with sex trafficking and accused of sexually abusing young girls, used to live in a different Upper East Side mansion only a few blocks away. It's a mansion that embroiled him in a dispute involving a lawyer for French Connection heroin ring suspects, the State Department, and transitively the government of Iran.
The now-forgotten case — laid out in newspaper clips from the time and extensive court documents — offers a glimpse into a strange facet of Epstein’s life at the time, and constitutes an early example of Epstein popping up in the media as a rich and connected but mysterious New York figure.
Beginning in February 1992, Epstein rented a former Iranian government building that had been taken over by the State Department during the Iranian revolution, at 34 East 69th Street in one of Manhattan’s most expensive neighborhoods, and at a rate of $15,000 a month.
But things went sour when the government sued Epstein in the Southern District of New York, alleging that he had at one point failed to pay the rent on time and had violated the lease by moving out in early 1996 and subletting the place without the State Department’s permission. His subtenant was Ivan Fisher, a New York City criminal defense lawyer who had famously defended members of the French Connection and Pizza Connection drug rings. The government also sued Fisher.
A lawyer for Epstein did not respond to a request for comment, and attempts to reach Fisher were unsuccessful.
A New York Daily News article from the time, headlined “Lawyer Pays Not A Cent For Palatial East Side Digs,” said Fisher had stopped paying rent after learning that the State Department had terminated Epstein’s lease as a result of the conflict over Fisher’s subtenancy, and was thus living in the home for free.
“I’m the perfect tenant,” Fisher told the Daily News. The paper described the home’s opulence: “carved oak doors, a white marble foyer, three kitchens, three bedrooms, a library with floor-to-ceiling bookcases, a steam room, 19th-century chandeliers, brass sconces, and a white marble central staircase.” “I pray to God I can stay,” Fisher told the Daily News.
Epstein is described in the story as a “Palm Beach, Fla., financial advisor.” The incident is also briefly mentioned in Vicky Ward’s 2003 Vanity Fair profile of Epstein.
The government’s complaint rested on its assertion that Epstein had not received permission before installing Fisher as the subtenant, and its grievance with Epstein was only intensified by his charging Fisher $20,000 a month for the rent when State was charging $15,000 — netting Epstein a monthly profit.
The voluminous court documents in the case include a later-amended complaint by the government, which added more defendants to the suit — a clutch of other lawyers whom, the government alleged, were in turn subletting office space from Fisher. In a sworn statement, one of those lawyers, Lawrence Gerzog, told the court that he had given Fisher free legal services in exchange for office space, among several other lawyers.
The government eventually moved to evict Fisher, and the court ordered Fisher and Epstein — who in the course of the process were eventually involved in litigation against each other — to pay the back rent and to vacate the premises. An eviction order was served on July 16, 1998, and the marshal noted on the service receipt that the tenants had moved out.
Photo of a New York Daily News story
A story on the case in the New York Daily News, Dec. 23, 1997.
Getting there wasn’t an easy process for the State Department, which had begun by exchanging strongly worded letters with Epstein’s lawyer, Jeffrey Schantz. These were included in the court filings.
“As you are aware, Mr. Epstein’s apparent departure from the house and his failure to make timely rental payments in February and March of this year have been matters of serious concern to this office,” wrote Thomas E. Burns Jr., then the deputy director of the Office of Foreign Missions, in April 1996 in a letter attached to court filings. Burns wrote that the OFM had already found someone to take over the lease from Epstein, a developer named Xenophon Galinas, and that they would not approve the sublease to Fisher.
In June, Burns wrote again, this time directly to Epstein, to notify him that he had violated the lease by leaving the property and subletting it and give him 30 days to kick Fisher out and move in again himself. In August, Burns wrote again to tell Epstein that because Fisher was still there, the State Department was ending the lease. At the end of October, the government filed suit.
Epstein was accused of carrying out an effort to put someone else in the house in his stead without clearing it with the State Department. When Richard C. Massey, an OFM official who had been the point person for Epstein’s lease, was deposed in 1997 by the defendants’ lawyers, he told them Epstein had appeared to make a concerted effort to put someone else in the property without State knowing. “Mr. Epstein was shopping the property around town without our knowledge, all over town,” Massey said. “We had calls from real estate agents who asked us about it. I do not know how many people in the City of New York had a copy of Mr. Epstein’s lease.”
Massey was not able to be reached for comment.
What was Epstein up to? Why had he abandoned the decadent mansion so abruptly and moved out without getting permission to sublet? Epstein made it publicly known when he was moving out, telling the New York Times in January 1996 that the mansion on East 71st Street that would become famous in the context of his alleged crimes was now his. It belonged to Epstein’s client and mentor Les Wexner. It’s unclear how much Epstein paid for the house, if anything, as it was reportedly transferred without a purchase price from a trust linked to both him and Wexner to a company controlled by Epstein.
Fisher, who reportedly once counseled law students to look into a mirror and practice telling potential clients their retainer was $100,000, was banned from practicing in federal court in the Southern District of New York in 2013 after a court grievance committee ruled that he had stolen money from a client.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ro ... department
by seemslikeadream » Tue Jul 16, 2019 9:18 am
Olga Lautman
Olga Lautman Retweeted Vicky Ward
Same people keep coming up. Epstein was dealing with Adnan Khashoggi during the 80’s. That’s the same time Manafort and Trump were in Khashoggi’s circle
Olga Lautman added,
Vicky Ward
@VickyPJWard
I can tell you that, according to one of my sources, one of the rich people for whom Jeffrey Epstein chased down money was Adnan Khashoggi, a powerful Saudi businessman.
Manafort and his protege Matthew Freedman (worked secretly w Bolton recently) during those years were involved with Ferdinand Marcos while Khashoggi was dealing with his wife Imelda. Meanwhile Khashoggi sold his yacht to trump
There were reports that Khashoggi was involved w Russian mafia/Mogilevich. Same Mogilevich whose operatives/associates ended up being in Trumps circle. Mogilevich was also partners with Ghislaine Maxwells (Epstein’s girlfriend and part of the ring) dad who worked w Mossad and KGB
My biggest frustration researching Trumps dealings with Russian mafia is that this should have been on the radar of law enforcement and intel in the 80s and 90s. Why was nothing done to prosecute these people? It’s the same group of people who have been doing this for decades
Ghislaine Maxwells father was close to Kryuchkov who was head of KGB and was behind developing some of the methods in the 80s used to recruit and compromise influential people in order to blackmail them to do the Soviets bidding
https://twitter.com/olgaNYC1211/status/ ... 1996051456
by liminalOyster » Wed Jul 17, 2019 12:10 am
Jeffrey Epstein's lawyers: He had a doctored passport to ward off hijackers, terrorists
Prosecutors revealed the existence of the passport at a Monday bail hearing, arguing that it demonstrated the accused sex trafficker was a flight risk.
July 16, 2019, 7:03 PM EDT
By Tom Winter and Rich Schapiro
Jeffrey Epstein's lawyers offered an unusual explanation for a passport found in his home with his photo and a different name on it, saying he obtained the travel document years ago to ward off "kidnapers, hijackers and terrorists."
"The passport was for personal protection in the event of travel to dangerous areas, only to be presented to potential kidnapers, hijackers or terrorists should violent episodes occur," his lawyers wrote in court papers Tuesday, saying that Epstein's Jewish faith and ample finances made him a target in the Middle East.
Federal prosecutors revealed the existence of the passport at a Monday bail hearing, arguing that it demonstrated Epstein was a flight risk and should remain behind bars. The prosecutors said the expired passport was issued in the 1980s and indicated that Epstein was living in Saudi Arabia.
Police find expired passport with Jeffrey Epstein's photo, different name, residence in Saudi Arabia
JULY 15, 201903:26
In the court papers filed Tuesday, Epstein’s lawyers said the travel document came from Austria and had expired 32 years ago.
"The government offers nothing to suggest – and certainly no evidence – that Epstein ever used it," his lawyers said. "In any case, Epstein – an affluent member of the Jewish faith – acquired the passport in the 1980s, when hijackings were prevalent, in connection to Middle East travel."
Epstein, 66, is facing up to 45 years in prison if convicted on charges of operating a sex trafficking ring and preying on underage girls as young as 14. He has pleaded not guilty.
His lawyers have requested that he be allowed to remain at his $77 million Manhattan home with electronic monitoring as the case proceeds.
At the Monday bail hearing, prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Richard Berman that, in addition to the passport, federal agents found piles of cash and dozens of diamonds inside a safe in his townhouse.
In court papers filed Tuesday, the prosecutors detailed the discovery: $70,000 in cash and 48 loose diamonds ranging from 1 to 2.38 carats.
"Such ready cash and loose diamonds are consistent with the capability to leave the jurisdiction at a moment’s notice," prosecutors say.
Berman is slated to decide on Epstein's bail request on Thursday.
The wealthy financier was facing similar allegations in 2007 when he signed a controversial non-prosecution deal in Florida that allowed him to dodge the prospect of a long federal prison sentence.
Epstein ultimately pleaded guilty to state charges of soliciting minors for prostitution, and served a 13-month sentence in a Florida county jail. He was also ordered to pay restitution to his victims and register as a sex offender.
Former Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, who was the U.S. attorney in Miami at the time, stepped down last week after the new charges ignited fresh criticism of his handling of the decade-old case.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justic ... s-n1030596
by Elvis » Wed Jul 17, 2019 12:26 am
he obtained the travel document years ago to ward off "kidnapers, hijackers and terrorists."
"The passport was for personal protection in the event of travel to dangerous areas
by JackRiddler » Wed Jul 17, 2019 5:22 am
Elvis wrote:he obtained the travel document years ago to ward off "kidnapers, hijackers and terrorists."
"The passport was for personal protection in the event of travel to dangerous areas
Well yeah...like any spy.
by seemslikeadream » Wed Jul 17, 2019 6:26 am
random facts girl.
@soychicka
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Ohai, It's Larry Visoski, Jeffrey Epstein's chief pilot, hanging out with @KellyannePolls just before NYE 2016.
Weird, huh?
https://twitter.com/soychicka/status/11 ... 1566397442
Portlus Glam
12/28/16: That’s the day before Obama sanctions and Flynn’s call w/ Kislyak... where are they?
Matthew Brady
He was in Palm Beach. Also, They are wearing warm weather clothing.
Agenthades
Replying to @bradym80 @PortlusGlam and 2 others
Think you're right.
You can see the same kind of floor pattern and that wooden escalator railing behind the KC pic. The two on the right are from Palm Beach Int Airport.
https://twitter.com/Agenthades1/status/ ... 7741377536
Agenthades
@Agenthades1
Follow Follow @Agenthades1
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Thanks and credit to @Barbsydoll for this great find!
This is Epstein's pilot's Larry Visoski's Instagram page.
His daughter happens to be in Army Mil Intel. Not really relevant but want to make a note of it.
His jets and at Epstein's Zorro Ranch.
https://twitter.com/Agenthades1/status/ ... 7821168642
More
Replying to @LuluLemew @kelly2277 and 3 others
Ahhh yes, Sarah Kellen, Epstein’s recruiter, now married to Don Juniors “buddy” Brian Vickers. Such a small world.
https://twitter.com/LuluLemew/status/11 ... 2681434112
random facts girl.
@soychicka
Jul 15
More
For reference....
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/p ... sh-4961541 …
https://twitter.com/soychicka
Seth Abramson
Verified account
@SethAbramson
13h13 hours ago
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EPSTEIN FACTS
▪️Told a reporter he represents a Middle Easterner tied to oil looking to invest $18B in US; the list of who could invest so much is tiny—and includes MBS.
▪️Has a framed photo of MBS in his home.
▪️Has a fake passport listing his place of residence as Saudi Arabia.
PS/ Imagine what it'll mean for Trump's international collusion if we learn that (a) he was in contact with Epstein following his June 2015 announcement of a presidential run and later adoption of a secret "grand bargain" with Saudi Arabia, and (b) Epstein worked with or for MBS.https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status ... 8989200384
Even from jail, Jeffrey Epstein manipulated the system
| Miami Herald
Nov. 28, 2018
By continuing to use this site, you give your consent to our use of cookies for analytics, personalization and ads. Read more
Virginia Roberts was working at Mar-a-Lago when she was recruited to be a masseuse to Palm Beach hedge fund manager Jeffrey Epstein. She was lured into a life of depravity and sexual abuse.
Even from jail, sex abuser manipulated the system. His victims were kept in the dark
Perversion of Justice logo
A decade before #MeToo, a multimillionaire sex offender from Florida got the ultimate break.
Palm Beach County Courthouse
June 30, 2008
Jeffrey Edward Epstein appeared at his sentencing dressed comfortably in a blue blazer, blue shirt, jeans and gray sneakers. His attorney, Jack Goldberger, was at his side.
At the end of the 68-minute hearing, the 55-year-old silver-haired financier — accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls — was fingerprinted and handcuffed, just like any other criminal sentenced in Florida.
But inmate No. W35755 would not be treated like other convicted sex offenders in the state of Florida, which has some of the strictest sex offender laws in the nation.
Ten years before the #MeToo movement raised awareness about the kid-glove handling of powerful men accused of sexual abuse, Epstein’s lenient sentence and his extraordinary treatment while in custody are still the source of consternation for the victims he was accused of molesting when they were minors.
Beginning as far back as 2001, Epstein lured a steady stream of underage girls to his Palm Beach mansion to engage in nude massages, masturbation, oral sex and intercourse, court and police records show. The girls — mostly from disadvantaged, troubled families — were recruited from middle and high schools around Palm Beach County. Epstein would pay the girls for massages and offer them further money to bring him new girls every time he was at his home in Palm Beach, according to police reports.
The girls, now in their late 20s and early 30s, allege in a series of federal civil lawsuits filed over the past decade that Epstein sexually abused hundreds of girls, not only in Palm Beach, but at his homes in Manhattan, New Mexico and in the Caribbean.
In 2007, the FBI had prepared a 53-page federal indictment charging Epstein with sex crimes that could have put him in federal prison for life. But then-Miami U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta signed off on a non-prosecution agreement, which was negotiated, signed and sealed so that no one would know the full scope of Epstein’s crimes. The indictment was shelved, never to be seen again.
Epstein instead pleaded guilty to lesser charges in state court, and was required to register as a sex offender. He was sentenced to 18 months incarceration.
But Epstein — who had a long list of powerful, politically connected friends — didn’t go to state prison like most sex offenders in Florida. Instead, the multimillionaire was assigned to a private wing of the Palm Beach County stockade, where he was able to hire his own security detail. Even then, he didn’t spend much time in a cell. He was allowed to go to his downtown West Palm Beach office for work release, up to 12 hours a day, six days a week, records show.
He was permitted to hire his own private psychologist for his required sex-offender counseling, and after his release from jail, his subsequent year of probation under house arrest was filled with trips on his corporate jet to Manhattan and to his home in the U.S. Virgin Islands — all approved by the courts with no objections from the state.
On the morning of his sentencing in 2008, none of Epstein’s victims were in the courtroom to protest his soft jail term or the unusual provisions of his incarceration and probation — and that was by design.
Palm Beach multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein has been a free man, despite sexually abusing dozens of underage girls according to police and prosecutors. His victims have never had a voice, until now.
Emails and letters contained in court filings reveal the cozy, behind-the-scenes dealings between federal prosecutors and Epstein’s indomitable legal team during the run-up to his federal plea deal, as they discussed ways to minimize his criminal charges and avoid informing the girls about the details of the deal until after the case was resolved.
That arrangement benefited Epstein in a number of ways. Unlike other high-profile sex crime cases, federal prosecutors agreed to keep his sentencing quiet, thereby limiting media coverage. His underage victims — identified in FBI documents — weren’t told about the plea deal so they weren’t in court, where they could voice their objections and possibly sway the judge to give Epstein a harsher sentence or reject the agreement altogether.
Most important, Epstein’s crimes would be reduced to felony prostitution charges, giving him the ability to argue that the girls weren’t victims at all — they were prostitutes.
Four accomplices named in Epstein’s non-prosecution agreement — Nadia Marcinkova, Sarah Kellen, Adriana Ross and Lesley Groff — were also given immunity from federal prosecution. Marcinkova was a young girl when Epstein brought her from Yugoslavia to live with him. Several victims told police that she was involved in orgies with Epstein and underage girls. Ross, Groff and Kellen, now known by her married name, Vickers, were schedulers who arranged his underage sex sessions, according to the FBI and police.
Marcinkova and Kellen, through their attorneys, declined to comment for this story. The Herald was unsuccessful in reaching Ross and Groff.
Acosta, who is now President Donald Trump’s secretary of labor, told lawmakers last year at his confirmation hearing that he did not know that Epstein would receive such liberal treatment while incarcerated. But court records show that federal prosecutors under his authority acquiesced to many of Epstein’s demands, including that he not go to federal or state prison.
“I can’t remember how I found out that he had taken a plea,’’ said Courtney Wild, identified by the FBI as one of more than three dozen underage girls — some of them as young as 13 — who had been molested by Epstein at his waterfront estate between 2001 and 2005.
“We were purposefully misled into believing that his sentencing [in state court] had nothing to do with the federal crimes he committed against me or the other girls.’’
Epstein, now 65, was released in 2009 after serving 13 months.
Wild, who was 14 when she met Epstein, is suing the federal government, alleging that prosecutors kept her and other victims in the dark as part of a conspiracy to give Epstein — described in the lawsuit as “a powerful, politically connected multimillionaire” — one of the most lenient deals for a serial child sex offender in history.
Courtney Wild NEW 03 EKM.jpg
Courtney Wild is suing the federal government, claiming that prosecutors deliberately kept her and other victims of Jeffrey Epstein in the dark about the status of his case. The U.S. Attorney’s Office signed a non-prosecution agreement with the multimillionaire. Emily Michot emichot@miamiherald.com
Now 31, Wild is Jane Doe No. 1 in “Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2 vs. the United States,” which seeks to overturn Epstein’s plea agreement on the grounds that it was executed in violation of the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act. The measure affords crime victims a series of rights, including to confer with prosecutors and to be notified about plea negotiations and sentencing.
That lawsuit — and an unrelated state court case scheduled for trial on Dec. 4 — could expose more about Epstein’s crimes, as well as who else was involved and whether there was any undue influence that tainted the federal case.
Support investigative journalism
The Miami Herald obtained thousands of FBI and court records, lawsuits, and witness depositions, and went to federal court in New York to access sealed documents in the reporting of "Perversion of Justice." The Herald also tracked down more than 60 women who said they were victims, some of whom had never spoken of the abuse before.
Some of Epstein’s victims will finally have an opportunity to testify for the first time as part of the Dec. 4 case in state court in Palm Beach County. It pits Fort Lauderdale attorney Bradley Edwards against Epstein, who had accused Edwards of malfeasance in his representation of several victims.
Jack Scarola, the attorney representing Edwards, said Epstein should be held accountable for his unrelenting attacks against Edwards — as well as others who were involved in his case.
“We are going to demonstrate through this case that no one — no matter how much money they have — can abuse children and then attempt to bully those who come to the defense of children,’’ said Scarola, a former state prosecutor.
Florida and beyond
Few people had as much insight into Epstein’s lifestyle — and its international reach — as Virginia Roberts. By age 16, Roberts had lived a life that was beyond that of most high school girls.
At 11, she says, she was sexually molested by a family friend. At 12, she was smoking pot and skipping school. At 13, she was in and out of foster homes, and at 14, she was on the street.
In Miami, the runaway became a captive of a 65-year-old sex trafficker, Ron Eppinger. For months, she says, she was sexually abused, kept in an apartment and pimped out to pedophiles. After his indictment in 2000 on trafficking charges, Roberts returned to West Palm Beach and tried to heal.
VirginiaRoberts 22.jpg
Virginia Roberts, now Giuffre, says she was 16 and working as a locker room attendant at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort when she was approached by Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s associate, about becoming a masseuse for Epstein. Courtesy of Virginia Roberts
That summer, when Roberts was 16, she said her father helped her get a job as a locker room attendant at the spa at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, records show. Her father worked at the resort as a maintenance man.
There she said she met Ghislaine Maxwell, an Epstein friend and socialite daughter of the late British publishing magnate Robert Maxwell. She offered Roberts an opportunity to become a massage therapist, working for Epstein.
In a sworn court affidavit and in a recent interview with the Herald, Roberts described how Epstein and Maxwell began grooming her — not just to perform massages, but to sexually pleasure them and others.
“It started with one and it trickled into two and so on,’’ Roberts told the Herald. “And before you know it, I’m being lent out to politicians and academics and royalty.’’
Roberts, too, was ordered to find Epstein girls — the younger, the better — by trolling areas where teenagers congregated, such as shopping malls, to lure girls to whatever residence Epstein was staying in at the time, she told the Herald.
She began to travel with Epstein and Maxwell to Epstein’s other homes, in New York, New Mexico and the U.S. Virgin Islands — and her trips are documented in flight logs that frequently list her name or her initials as a passenger, court records show.
“His appetite was insatiable. He wanted new girls, fresh, young faces every single day — that was just the sickness that he had,’’ Roberts said.
Neither Epstein nor his lead attorney, Goldberger, responded to requests for comment.
Roberts alleges that Epstein had cameras throughout his homes and said he liked her to tell him about the sexual peccadilloes of various important men she had sex with.
“Epstein and Maxwell also got girls for Epstein’s friends and acquaintances. Epstein specifically told me that the reason for him doing this was so that they would ‘owe him,’ they would ‘be in his pocket,’ and he would ‘have something on them,’ ” Roberts said in a court affidavit. “I understood him to mean that when someone was in his pocket, they owed him favors.’’
Roberts elaborated in her interview with the Herald, saying that Epstein had access to girls through a modeling agency that recruited them from overseas.
Epstein, who was close to Les Wexner, the owner of Victoria’s Secret, often talked about his connections to people in the modeling, fashion and acting industries, Roberts told the Herald.
“He [Epstein] would tell the girls, ‘Hey, I will give you a modeling contract if you go have sex with this man [whichever acquaintance Epstein designated],’ ’’ she said.
Roberts’ story about the modeling agency is supported, to a degree, by the sworn statement of a Miami woman named Maritza Vasquez, who was later interviewed in New York by an FBI agent from Miami. Vasquez worked as a bookkeeper for Mc2, owned by Epstein associate Jean-Luc Brunel. He employed scouts in South America, Europe and the former Soviet Union to find him models to bring to the United States, Vasquez said in a 2010 sworn court deposition obtained by the Herald.
Vasquez stated in the deposition that from 2003 to 2006 she handled all the finances and payroll for the agency, including a bank transaction involving Epstein. She said Epstein invested $1 million in Mc2.
The models were often very young — 13, 14 and 15 — and some of them were housed in apartments at 301 E. 66th St. in New York, a building purportedly owned by Epstein, the deposition said.
Epstein didn’t charge the girls rent, Vasquez said, but Brunel charged them $1,000 a month, with four of them at a time sharing one apartment. The girls who were the youngest and most beautiful stayed at the 66th Street apartments, which were more luxurious than the other apartments that were used to house models who were not as young and desirable, she said.
Vasquez once let one of the models, who was 14, stay overnight with her after the girl ran into trouble with police for trying to get into a Manhattan nightclub. Vasquez also testified that she helped a lawyer obtain visas for the foreign models, and assisted with their transportation to and from modeling assignments and parties.
Vasquez said that even though the agency employed 200 to 300 models, the company didn’t make any money and Brunel was always broke. Brunel would later sue Epstein, alleging that the financier’s sex scandal had caused his business to fail, but the suit was eventually dropped.
Vasquez testified it wasn’t unusual for the agency to send girls to an assignment with a wealthy client for $100,000 or more, but the girl wouldn’t be paid the full amount — or anything at all — if she refused to be “molested.’’
Vasquez considered herself a mother figure and often coached the youngest girls to stick to the 9-to-5 modeling assignments because she didn’t think it was appropriate for them to be having sex.
She said she met Epstein only once, but she often helped arrange for girls — many of them underage — to be sent to his homes in New York, Palm Beach and his island in the Caribbean for parties. She heard salacious rumors about Epstein’s parties, but testified she had no firsthand knowledge about whether they involved sex.
Vasquez said that she was questioned by the FBI and she tried to tell agents where to look for evidence.
Vasquez was eventually let go from the agency after she was accused of stealing money — money she claims was given to her by Brunel. Vasquez said she was placed on probation for the theft. She never heard from the FBI about Epstein again.
The Herald was unsuccessful in reaching Brunel through his former attorney.
In a written statement released in 2015, Brunel denied any involvement in trafficking underage models.
“I strongly deny having participated, neither directly nor indirectly, in the actions Mr. Jeffrey Epstein is being accused of,” he said. “I strongly deny having committed any illicit act or any wrongdoing in the course of my work as a scouter or model agencies manager.”
Too old at 19
In 2003, when Roberts turned 19, it was clear that Epstein had lost interest because she was too old for him, she said. She convinced him to pay for her to get training to become a real professional masseuse so that she could move on.
In an interview, she explained that Epstein arranged for her to take a class in Thailand, but it came with a hitch: She said she was instructed to pick up a Thai girl he had arranged to come to the States.
Roberts, who showed the Herald the written instructions for the rendezvous, never picked up the girl because Roberts met a man on the trip who would become her husband. The couple married and moved to Australia, where they currently live.
In 2007 — at the same time the FBI was investigating Epstein — Roberts, pregnant with her second child, said she unexpectedly received phone calls from Maxwell and Epstein. She said they were worried that she had told police about them. She assured them she had not spoken to anyone, she said.
Shortly afterward, Roberts said, she was contacted by someone who claimed to be with the FBI. But she was afraid to tell that person details, fearing it was really an Epstein associate posing as an FBI agent.
That agent, identified in court papers as Timothy Slater, confirmed that he and the other agent on the case, Nesbitt Kuyrkendall, called Roberts in January or February 2007. In a sworn statement, Slater said he informed Roberts that they suspected she was a victim of Epstein’s.
The agent said Roberts answered basic questions, but became uncomfortable and “asked that I not bother her again.’’
Roberts said the agent didn’t try too hard to convince her to talk, and she was surprised when he hung up after asking her a few graphic questions about her sex life. She said she was suspicious, but would have cooperated had the FBI talked to her in person and explained why they were asking about Epstein.
“I was still scared to death,’’ Roberts said. “Jeffrey used to tell me that he owned the entire Palm Beach Police Department. I just didn’t want my family harmed.’’
She nevertheless was listed by federal prosecutors as one of Epstein’s Palm Beach victims.
As the years went by and Roberts had a daughter, she would be haunted by a fear that Epstein was still taking advantage of young girls. In 2011, she went public in a paid interview with a British tabloid, the Daily Mail, asserting that she had had sex with Prince Andrew, one of Epstein’s friends, several times when she was a teen.
In her 2015 affidavit, she discussed in detail some of her alleged sex encounters with the prince and Epstein’s other friends, including lawyer Alan Dershowitz. Edwards included the affidavit in the court file as part of the Jane Does’ Crime Victims’ Rights Act case, at which time it became public.
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Virginia Roberts says she was loaned out by Jeffrey Epstein to his friend Prince Andrew, shown here. He denies they had sex. Courtesy of Virginia Roberts
In the affidavit, Roberts claimed that Epstein and Maxwell directed her to have sex with Andrew and Dershowitz and others. She had sex with Andrew three times, she alleged — once in London, when she was 17, again in New York, when she was 17, and a third time, as part of an orgy on Epstein’s island, when she was 18. By law, at 17, she would have been above the age of consent in New York and England, but not in Florida, where the age of consent is 18.
As part of the affidavit, Roberts furnished a photograph of her with the prince and Maxwell, which she said was taken in London.
Dershowitz, who was part of Epstein’s criminal defense team, was often a guest at Epstein’s homes, she said.
“I had sexual intercourse with Dershowitz at least six times,’’ Roberts wrote in the 2015 court affidavit. “The first time was when I was about 16, early on in my servitude to Epstein and it continued until I was 19.’’ She detailed some of those alleged trysts, which she said happened at Epstein’s homes in Palm Beach, New Mexico and on Epstein’s island.
One of Epstein’s housemen, Juan Alessi, testified in a 2009 sworn deposition that Dershowitz visited Epstein’s Palm Beach home four or five times a year. He said that Roberts was a frequent visitor as well, but he never placed Dershowitz and Roberts at the house at the same time.
Alessi, who testified he worked for Epstein from 1999 to 2002, said there were often young girls who gave massages at the house, even in the middle of the night. But he said he never checked their ages, and only knew one girl for certain who was underage, because he had picked her up from high school. That girl, who is now an actress, was not one of Epstein’s masseuses, Alessi said.
He also said he was Maxwell’s driver, and he recalls waiting outside of Mar-a-Lago the day Maxwell met Roberts. He testified he saw Maxwell talking to Roberts and recalls Roberts coming to Epstein’s mansion later that day. One of Alessi’s jobs was to drive Maxwell to various spas in Palm Beach where she left business cards in order to “recruit’’ more masseuses, he said in the sworn deposition.
Dershowitz, Prince Andrew and Maxwell have long denied Roberts’ allegations.
In an interview with the Herald, Dershowitz reiterated that he had never met Roberts, and never saw Epstein with any underage girls.
“The story was 100 percent flatly categorically made-up,’’ he said, adding that Roberts and her attorneys fabricated the assertion in order to get money from other powerful, wealthy people she alleges she had sex with.
“The only possible reason to accuse me in public and [them] in private is so she could get money,’’ Dershowitz said.
Edwards and his co-counsel in the Crime Victims’ lawsuit, University of Utah law professor Paul Cassell, sued Dershowitz for defamation and Dershowitz countersued in 2015. The case was settled out of court, with Dershowitz saying he had been vindicated.
Dershowitz said he received a massage at Epstein’s Palm Beach home only once — but that it was just a regular, therapeutic massage by a masseuse — not by Roberts or anyone underage. Dershowitz’s wife was there at Epstein’s house at the time, Dershowitz said in the deposition taken for the case in 2015.
“I never had any knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein having any contact with any underage women — ever,’’ Dershowitz told the Herald.
Edwards and Cassell admitted making a “tactical mistake” in filing the accusations against Dershowitz as part of a lawsuit not involving him. But they emphasized that the settlement had no bearing on the veracity of Roberts’ allegations.
The judge for the Crime Victims’ Rights Act lawsuit agreed that the affidavit was misplaced in that case, and it was dropped.
Prince Andrew’s spokesman at Buckingham Palace did not respond to an email requesting comment.
Roberts, now 35, said it has taken her a long time to stand up to Epstein. She and 20 other victims received settlements from Epstein, ranging from $50,000 to more than $1 million. The exact amounts have been kept confidential.
“It takes so long until you are able to speak about it. It took me having a daughter and looking at this young, beautiful innocent baby to say I want to speak out about it now. I’m hoping that this will bring out more girls so that they say, Me Too.’’
The state court hearing
The judge at Epstein’s sentencing hearing at the Palm Beach County Courthouse knew very little about Epstein’s crimes. The sentencing paperwork was restricted to Epstein’s specific charges: one count of solicitation of prostitution and one count of procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution.
“Are there more than one victim?’’ Circuit Court Judge Deborah Dale Pucillo asked the prosecutor at Epstein’s sentencing on June 30, 2008.
“There’s several,’’ replied assistant state prosecutor Lanna Belohlavek.
“Are all the victims in both of these cases in agreement with the terms of this plea?’‘ Pucillo later asked.
“Yes,’‘ Belohlavek replied, telling the judge that she had spoken to “several” of Epstein’s victims.
Emails show that federal prosecutors didn’t want the judge to know how many victims and accomplices there were.
Federal prosecutor A. Marie Villafaña — in a September 2007 email to Epstein lawyer Jay Lefkowitz — said: “I will mention co-conspirators but I would prefer not to highlight for the judge all the other crimes and all the other persons that we could charge.’’
Attorney Spencer Kuvin happened to be in court that day because he’d heard Epstein was to appear, but Kuvin didn’t know why. He figured he’d use it as an opportunity to serve Epstein with civil court papers involving one of several victims he represented. Instead, he listened to what was happening and couldn’t believe that no one had contacted him or his clients.
“I was shocked to learn that the proceeding involved my client’s case and there was nothing I could do except watch as they disposed of her case without ever telling her,’’ Kuvin said.
At the hearing, Belohlavek and Epstein’s attorney, Goldberger, were in sync, the court transcript shows. Epstein would be required to register as a sex offender, but his probation would not be served under the strict requirements of sex offender probation.
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Jeffrey Epstein is a registered sex offender in New York State and Florida. Emily Michot emichot@miamiherald.com
The judge didn’t question those provisions, but she did ask why Epstein was going to serve his sentence in the Palm Beach County stockade instead of in a Florida state prison, like most sex offenders.
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After he pleaded guilty in state court, Jeffrey Epstein was assigned to a private section of the Palm Beach County stockade. Soon, however, he was allowed to leave the compound six days a week, 12 hours a day, for what was termed work release. Emily Michot emichot@miamiherald.com
“We just decided that was the best way to accomplish what needed to be done here and the parties agreed that that sentence satisfied everyone’s requirements,’’ Goldberger replied.
Said Judge Pucillo: “The taxpayers of Palm Beach County are going to pay 18 months to house this guy instead of DOC [the Department of Corrections]?”
Belohlavek: “Right.’’
Pucillo did not respond to a request for comment on the case.
Villafaña, the lead federal prosecutor in Epstein’s case, was in the courtroom, but there’s no indication she objected to Epstein’s cozier jail accommodations.
When he entered jail in July 2008, Epstein was arguably the most well-known inmate there. Records also show that Epstein hired Palm Beach sheriff’s deputies for his security details, paying them for the hours they spent monitoring him on work release at his West Palm Beach office, where he often stayed until 10 p.m., jail logs show.
The Herald reviewed their time sheets, showing that the deputies logged visitors coming and going to and from his office throughout the day. A record log of his visitors was kept in a safe, but the log no longer exists, according to a spokeswoman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
One deputy who often worked Epstein’s detail said that his assignment was to stay in a front reception room of Epstein’s office. Epstein was in a separate office — with the door closed — most of the day as he accepted visitors, both male and female, the deputies’ logs show.
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While officially confined to the Palm Beach County stockade, serving time for his sex offenses, Jeffrey Epstein was allowed to spend half his day at this West Palm Beach office building. It was called work release, although Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office rules prohibit work-release status for sexual offenders. Emily Michot emichot@miamiherald.com
“It was not our job to monitor what he was doing in that office,’’ the deputy, now retired, told the Herald.
In their early reports in July 2008, the deputies referred to Epstein as “inmate’’ but within a few weeks the language had changed and he was called a “client.” He was occasionally allowed to take a break for lunch by sitting outside in a park, the records show, and they also gave him permission to scout for a new office. While on work release, he was required to wear an ankle bracelet to monitor his whereabouts.
The work release was approved by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, said spokeswoman Therese Barbera.
“Jeffrey Epstein, while in custody, met the criteria for the Work Release Program,’’ Barbera wrote in an email. “There was no factual basis to deny Mr. Epstein the same availability of this program that is offered to other inmates under similar circumstances. Mr. Epstein was closely monitored and there were no problems encountered during his time in the program.”
But the sheriff’s own work release policy — a copy of which Barbera provided to the Herald — specifically notes that sex offenders aren’t eligible for work release.
At first, Barbera questioned whether Epstein was a sex offender at all, noting that he didn’t have to register officially until after his release from the jail in 2009. But his court papers clearly listed him as a sex offender. In fact, the papers Epstein signed — obtained by the Herald — included all the laws governing registered sex offenders in Florida.
Barbera refused to explain why Epstein was seemingly allowed to deviate from the agency’s policies. She also would not respond to requests for an accounting of the amount of money that Epstein paid the sheriff’s office for his private details.
Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, who has been in office since 2004 — and is widely considered to be one of the most powerful people in the county — did not respond to requests for comment.
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A spokeswoman for Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw declined to say why Jeffrey Epstein was allowed work-release status despite rules prohibiting work release for sex offenders. Taylor Jones Palm Beach Post
Epstein’s registration requirements are somewhat confusing, even to those who are responsible for keeping his registration. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which keeps the online registry, and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, where Epstein has to register in person twice a year, gave conflicting explanations over the past six months about who is responsible for ensuring that he is complying with the law.
On Nov. 14, the Herald asked the sheriff’s office for a full accounting of Epstein’s check-ins for 2018. The record the office supplied two days later showed he registered in January and in July — as required. But PBSO also inexplicably had him registering on Nov. 14 — the very same day that the Herald asked for the records from the sheriff’s office.
When asked about this sudden registration, Barbera replied: “The information we provided you was a snapshot from the FDLE website. Perhaps, someone from FDLE can provide a reason for you.’’
Said FDLE spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger in an email: “The screenshot is not on the public registry. This is information inputted by the local agency when the offender comes into the local sheriff’s office to register.’’
Plessinger said Epstein is not covered by the state’s new three-day rule, which requires sex offenders to re-register when they come to stay in Florida for three days or more. His town of Palm Beach home is already on file, as a temporary residence, she said.
So it’s not clear why he would have suddenly registered a third time on Nov. 14.
State Sen. Lauren Book, a child sex abuse survivor and vocal advocate for tough sex offender monitoring, called the case an appalling example of how those in the justice system allow wealthy people to skirt the law and bend the rules.
“These prosecutors, and judges and sheriffs who are making these decisions and allowing things to fly — we have to hold these people accountable. They are supposed to uphold the law — regardless of who a person is and how much money they have in the bank or who they had on their airplane.’’
Piece by piece
Over the years, Courtney Wild, Virginia Roberts and more than a dozen other women who say they were victims of Epstein have been quietly challenging the traditional legal norms that have failed to punish Epstein and other men in positions of power for sexual abuse.
Epstein has paid millions of dollars in civil compensation that, for the most part, has kept the details about his operation out of the public eye. As a result, much — but not all — of the testimony and evidence collected as part of the vast litigation has been sealed or redacted from public court records.
The girls who were abused by Jeffrey Epstein and the cops who championed their cause remain angry over what they regard as a gross injustice, while Epstein's employees and those who engineered his non-prosecution agreement have prospered.
Taking a page from Epstein’s legal team, lawyers representing Epstein’s victims hired private investigators and former police detectives to dig into Epstein’s life. Over the past decade, they’ve tracked down hundreds of people, including dozens of other potential victims; they’ve interviewed Epstein’s recruiters, bookkeepers, housekeepers, butlers, pilots and drivers. They’ve traveled around the country and the world, taking statements and sworn depositions, coaxing people to talk who had previously been too reticent to come forward.
In short, they did what criminal prosecutors didn’t do.
Some of the information they’ve learned was given to federal authorities in New York. Edwards said those authorities have shown no interest in opening a new investigation focused on crimes he is alleged to have committed in that state, where he is listed as a level 3 sex offender, the most dangerous category, considered at risk to re-offend, records show. In New York, he has to register every 90 days.
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Virginia Roberts holds a photo of herself at age 16, when she says Palm Beach multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein began abusing her sexually. Emily Michot emichot@miamiherald.com
Holding abusers accountable
In 2015, Roberts sued Maxwell for defamation in New York after Maxwell called her a liar in a news interview. The civil lawsuit was an effort by Roberts not just to clear her name, but an attempt to prove that Epstein and Maxwell operated an international underage sex trafficking operation. The lawsuit was settled out of court in 2017 and nearly all the evidence presented in the case has been sealed.
Roberts’ attorney, Sigrid McCawley, claims that Roberts received a sizable settlement, although the amount is confidential.
“She wanted to hold her abusers accountable and we were able to do that by bringing this case … which we ultimately settled very successfully for her,’’ said McCawley, an associate of noted Bush-Gore recount lawyer David Boies, who has also pursued cases against Epstein in federal court in New York.
Maxwell’s lawyer, Laura Menninger, declined to comment, referring the Herald to the court history.
“[Roberts] fabricated a story of abuse at the hands of Ms. Maxwell in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars from British tabloids with a motive for selling papers and advertisements and without regard for truth, veracity or substantiation,’’ Menninger noted in a 2016 response filed in the case.
In February, the Miami Herald filed a federal court motion in the Southern District of New York, seeking access to documents that were sealed in the Maxwell case. The motion, which was not opposed by Roberts, could have cast light on the full scope of Epstein’s possible sex trafficking operation, who was involved and whether it was covered up. Maxwell has opposed the Herald’s motion, which was denied in August.
The Herald is appealing.
Today, Epstein has a new private jet, which takes him around the world. Flight records show that he spends most of his time on his private island, Little St. James in the U.S. Virgin Islands, which he now lists as his permanent residence. He is registered in New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands as a sex offender. New Mexico, where he owns a sprawling ranch, does not list him as a convicted sex offender.
As part of its investigation, the Herald learned that in 2013, the federal government conceded that it had given Epstein what it called “valuable consideration” for information he provided to the FBI as part of his plea deal. The documents do not elaborate, but Epstein — a hedge fund manager who once worked for the investment firm Bear Stearns — was listed as a key investor who lost money in the financial crash of 2008.
Francey Hakes, a former federal child sex crimes prosecutor, said any consideration the government gave to Epstein should be made public.
“The public has a right to know why he got a slap on the wrist, and what was the interest that was so great that allowed him to not get prosecuted?”
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Nadia Marcinkova, now a professional pilot, worked for Jeffrey Epstein when he was molesting young women. Victims told police Marcinkova would participate in sex acts, often as Epstein choreographed every move. Jerod Harris
In recent years, Epstein has been traveling the world in his new Gulfstream V jet. He has been active in various charitable causes and scientific research projects. The Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation, based in the U.S. Virgin Islands, has helped fund NeuroTV, an online network that features interviews with academics and scientists.
Then and now
Both Nadia Marcinkova and Sarah Kellen changed their names after the scandal.
Marcinkova, 32, briefly became Marcinko. She visited Epstein more than 70 times when he was in Palm Beach custody. She went on to a career in real estate. And she is now an FAA-certified commercial pilot and flight instructor who goes by the name “Global Girl’’ on social media. (http://www.facebook.com/GlobalGirlAviation/)
Sarah Kellen, who used the name Kensington for a while, is now married to NASCAR driver Brian Vickers. The couple divides their time between homes in North Carolina, New York and Miami Beach.
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NASCAR driver Brian Vickers and his wife, Sarah, take part in pre-race ceremonies in Sparta, Ky., on June 28, 2014. She was known as Sarah Kellen when she was an aide to Jeffrey Epstein. According to police, she scheduled visits of underage girls to Epstein’s Palm Beach estate for massages that turned sexual. She was not charged with a crime. Will Schneekloth Getty Images
Maxwell, 56, transformed herself into an internationally known environmentalist. In 2012, she founded the TerraMar Project, a nonprofit environmental group that works to protect the world’s oceans. In 2013, she gave a TED Talk on ocean conservation, discussing her diving expeditions around the world.
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Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of a British press magnate and Jeffrey Epstein’s close associate when he was inviting underage girls into his bedroom, leads a TED Talk on environmental issues.
Dershowitz, 80, continues to lecture around the country. A professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, Dershowitz has been a frequent commenter on cable TV programs, often defending President Trump.
Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, 58, remained friends with Epstein, and in 2010, a photograph was taken of the two of them strolling in Manhattan. It was later revealed that Epstein had loaned the prince’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, $24,000 to pay off some debts. Ferguson later called the loan a “gigantic error of judgment.”
Plain human beings
Crime victims’ rights advocates have used the Epstein case to strengthen the federal law in recent years, adding more precise language mandating that prosecutors notify victims about plea bargains and allow victims to be heard at sentencing.
Because some statute-of-limitation laws set deadlines for filing civil and criminal sex crime cases, it’s difficult to bring them years later, said Marci Hamilton, a University of Pennsylvania professor who is working to ease those restrictions across the country.
But she points out that there has been no statute of limitations for federal sex crimes involving children since 2002.
Children who are sexually abused often take decades to reveal what happened to them, in part because their brains aren’t wired at a young age to understand the trauma they’ve experienced, said Kenneth V. Lanning, a retired FBI agent who investigated and studied child sex crimes for 40 years.
“We want to hold children to some superhuman standard because they behave this way. In reality, police, prosecutors and judges have to understand that children are not all angels from heaven. They are just plain human beings who are emotionally immature so we have to protect them from their own decisions.’’
Wild, who continues to fight her federal case on behalf of all of Epstein’s victims, said she hopes that the federal judge hearing the Crime Victims’ Rights case will make a ruling soon, one that will send a message to prosecutors who fail to consider the rights of crime victims.
“Really if you think about this too hard, it’s scary because this is our government that is supposed to protect us but has done everything to protect a pedophile,’’ she said.
Support investigative journalism
The Miami Herald obtained thousands of FBI and court records, lawsuits, and witness depositions, and went to federal court in New York to access sealed documents in the reporting of "Perversion of Justice." The Herald also tracked down more than 60 women who said they were victims, some of whom had never spoken of the abuse before.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/ ... 94920.html
New Video of Trump and Epstein Partying and Leering at Women Emerges
“She’s hot,” Trump is seen telling Epstein at one point in the 1992 clip.
It was only last week that President Donald Trump, before unleashing a racist tirade against four Democratic congresswomen of color on Sunday, was engulfed in the scandal stemming from disgraced billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s arrest for alleged sexual abuse of underage girls, charges that prompted two new headaches for the president.
One was over the future of Labor Secretary Alex Acosta amid renewed scrutiny over his role in allowing Epstein to escape a federal investigation for similar sex trafficking charges more than a decade ago (Acosta eventually decided to resign.) The second saw Trump attempting to brush off his once-friendly relationship with Epstein, a man he once praised as “terrific.”
“I had a falling out with him a long time ago, I don’t think I’ve spoken to him for 15 years,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office last week. “I wasn’t a fan.”
A new video uncovered in the NBC archives is once again questioning those claims.
The November 1992 clip shows Trump relishing in Epstein’s arrival at his Mar-a-Lago estate, as the two men leer at the women dancing around them. “She’s hot,” Trump tells Epstein at one point. At different moments, Trump is seen dancing with cheerleaders for the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins.
Embedded video
Colin Jones
@colinjones
Here's video from the @NBCNews archives showing Trump partying with Epstein at Mar-a-Lago in 1992. Last week, Trump said he "was not a fan.”
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7:55 AM - Jul 17, 2019
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As Mother Jones noted during the 2016 presidential election, Trump was known to pay particular attention to Epstein during his Florida pool parties. “He threw a party one night just because of Epstein,” former beauty pageant promoter George Houraney said of Trump. “He said, ‘The other guys aren’t coming, but I don’t care because Jeff’s coming.’”
The video’s emergence comes as more women come forward to allege that Epstein sexually abused them. In recent days, prosecutors have also revealed that several suspicious items, including a fake passport with a Saudi address and Epstein’s photo and “piles of cash,” were uncovered in Epstein’s Manhattan home.
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