Everything you didn't know about Jeffrey Epstein: Sexual deviance, hidden wealth and celebrity friends
Financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has been in the news after his arrest from the Teterboro airport tarmac on Saturday, July 6.
The man, who calls some of the most powerful people in America his pals, including a former president, was revealed to be part of a sex ring that involved girls as young as 14 years of age.
Federal prosecutors have claimed that Epstein lured underage girls under the pretext of massage to his luxurious mansions in Manhattan and Palm Beach where he raped or molested them. He would pay them cash for it and would give them extra pay if they found him other young girls.
Here's all you may not have known about this wealthy, globetrotting sex offender who was once called a 'Gatsbyeque' figure.
He is not a billionaire
While many headlines termed him a billionaire, Forbes never had him on their list as the 66-year-old he had no proof of his wealth.
In a 2010 article, the publication had written, "The source of his wealth — a money management firm in the U.S. Virgin Islands — generates no public records, nor has his client list ever been released." The article further said: "More likely, he is worth a fraction of that".
He has also never been included on The Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans.
One of his most famous clients, founder of Victoria's Secret Leslie Wexner, dropped Epstein when he was charged initially with the sex offenses.
The case has been going on for almost a decade. The confusion, the article says, stems from something his lawyers said.
In May 2010, when he had to declare his finances to the Florida court, Epstein’s lawyers are said to have "agreed to a confidential stipulation that his net worth is in excess of nine figures" and because of that he was wrongly assumed to be a billionaire.
In one New York Magazine article from 2002, one well-known investor was quoted saying that he is a mystery. "My belief is that Jeff maintains some sort of money-management firm, though you won’t get a straight answer from him,” the person said, adding, "he once told me he had 300 people working for him, and I’ve also heard that he manages Rockefeller money. But one never knows. It’s like looking at the Wizard of Oz – there may be less there than meets the eye.”
Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, and Trump
Money brings powerful friends but it also brings responsibility.
Epstein is known to be friends with current US President Donald Trump, former president Bill Clinton as well as Prince Andrew, the Duke of York.
His arrest has also put Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta under the scanner once again. Acosta was a U.S. attorney for the Southern district of Florida when Epstein was tussling with the law in Florida. Acosta was involved in a 2008 secret plea deal that allowed Epstein to avoid federal charges and it was struck without consulting the victims.
Israel's former prime minister Ehud Barak is also known to be on good terms with him.
He is said to have conspired with others in this crime with 'employees and associates' but it's unclear who they specifically are. They are said to have allegedly helped him conduct these meetings. It is still unclear if they will be facing charges as well.
Clinton, in a statement, said he had nothing to do with it. "Staff, supporters of the foundation, and his secret service detail traveled on every leg of every trip," he said in a statement. "He had one meeting with Epstein in his Harlem office in 2002, and around the same time made one brief visit to Epstein's New York apartment with a staff member and his security detail. He has not spoken to Epstein in well over a decade, and he has never been to Little St. James Island, Epstein's ranch in New Mexico, or his residence in Florida."
Trump, in a 2002 New York magazine profile, called him a 'fun' guy who 'likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.'
Loans to Sarah Ferguson
Prince Andrew, who was serving as Britain’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment at the time of the initial allegations, told The Daily Telegraph that he deeply regretted that "Jeffrey Epstein became involved in any way with me" and that it "was a gigantic error of judgment on my behalf".
His former wife Sarah Ferguson had borrowed $18,000 from Epstein to pay an assistant.
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Epstein is also known to be friendly with Katie Couric, Woody Allen, Kevin Spacey, and Chris Tucker.
Teacher to financier
Epstein began his financial career at the investment bank Bear Stearns, before forming his own firm J. Epstein & Co.
He lives in the United States Virgin Islands.
He was born in 1953 in Brooklyn, New York, to a Jewish family and grew up in Coney Island. His father worked for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
He has also taught mathematics and physics at Manhattan's private Dalton School before 1976.
He is known to be secretive about his client list.
He was a donor at Harvard University and was on the board of the Rockefeller Foundation and Trilateral Commission.
Grooming of a 16-year-old
Epstein has dated publishing heir Ghislaine Maxwell, theatrical producer Paula Heil Fisher, and former Miss Sweden Eva Andersson Dubin.
Maxwell, who is the youngest child of publisher Robert Maxwell, was also named in Epstein's allegations.
A 2018 report in the Miami Herald revealed that Maxwell had groomed Virginia Roberts, who was one of the accusers in the initial case against Epstein.
She was 16 years old at the time and met Maxwell at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach as a spa attendant.
She was made to sexually pleasure him as well as other people, the report says. "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 asserte∂d that she was introduced by Maxwell to Epstein and then 'groomed by the two for his pleasure, including lessons in Epstein's preferences during oral sex.'