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"How the Epstein fortune may be up for grabs"

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It’s not just his freedom that’s at stake. It’s his fortune.

The criminal prosecution of New York moneyman Jeffrey Epstein on charges of sex trafficking, announced last week, and the lawsuits stemming from it could dwindle his financial empire to nothing, attorneys with knowledge of the case said.

While much of the early legal sparring has focused on questions of Epstein’s freedom, a secondary struggle may determine how much money Epstein has — and what he will owe and to whom when it’s all over.

Whether Epstein is a billionaire, as he has been routinely described, is difficult to know. None of the known paper trail establishes a fortune of that magnitude. But by most accounts he has substantial wealth, and the legal assault upon it has begun.

Epstein resolved an investigation in the early 2000s by pleading guilty to two state charges. In a deal widely criticized as too lenient, he spent 13 months in jail, with work-release privileges.

Last week, federal prosecutors in New York announced new sex trafficking and conspiracy charges against Epstein, and on Friday the prosecutor who approved the earlier deal, Alexander Acosta, announced he was stepping down from his current position as U.S. labor secretary.

A hearing Monday in a New York federal courtroom is expected to determine whether Epstein will be released pending trial and, if so, what the conditions of release will be. Epstein’s attorneys told U.S. District Court Judge Richard M. Berman that Epstein was willing to put up his Manhattan mansion and a private jet for collateral and agree to home confinement and GPS monitoring. Prosecutors are seeking a do-over of the Florida charges, they said in a bail memo.

Prosecutors argued Epstein should remain jailed because his extreme wealth gives him “practically limitless” means to escape justice.

On Friday, prosecutors also argued Epstein had a history of trying to obstruct inquiries into his misdeeds.

[Epstein paid suspected co-conspirators, which prosecutors suggest may have been to influence them]

Financial records showed that in November 2018, two days after the Miami Herald reported on his earlier favorable plea arrangement, Epstein wired $100,000 to someone identified as a possible co-conspirator in the case, prosecutors said. Three days after that, he wired $250,000 to another person identified as a possible co-conspirator, prosecutors wrote.

Epstein was using the payments to try to buy the silence of potential witnesses against him, prosecutors argued in a bail memo.

In addition to seeking prison time for Epstein, federal prosecutors have signaled they will aim for the seizure of his $60 million New York home. Under federal law, properties such as his $13 million Palm Beach home, his properties in the Virgin Islands, his jets and a $12 million New Mexico ranch may be vulnerable to similar claims.

His defense attorneys and related expenses are likely to cost him tens of millions more.

And finally, lawsuits from the alleged victims — of which there are scores — could run over a billion, experts said.

“With aggressive lawyering for the victims, Mr. Epstein’s realistic financial exposure for criminal restitution in federal court is likely to exceed $500 million, and the exposure in state court to exceed a billion,” said Paul Cassell, a University of Utah law professor, a former federal judge and a lawyer for one of Epstein’s alleged victims. “It’s easy to foresee 160 victims in this case and possibly more.”

Prosecutors in New York reportedly have said there could be hundreds of victims around the country, and the Miami Herald says it has identified as many as 80 alleged victims. Some already have sued and entered legal settlements with Epstein.

Epstein created “a vast network of underage victims” for sexual exploitation, the Justice Department said in announcing the recent indictment.

State laws vary, but those victims may be entitled to collect money from Epstein for their economic losses, such as the expense of therapy and their pain and suffering, as well as punitive damages.

But the pieces of the Epstein fortune likely to be lost first in his legal war is his collection of real estate. Under federal statutes, prosecutors can seek the forfeiture of any properties where the sex trafficking may have taken place.

In order for the government to take a property in such cases, there has to be “some nexus between the property and the offense,” said Stefan Cassella a former federal prosecutor and expert on asset forfeiture and money-laundering law.

The indictment unsealed last week charges that the offenses occurred at Epstein’s New York and Palm Beach homes, suggesting that only those properties would be subject to forfeiture. However, if evidence shows that his jets or other residences were also involved, those also could be lost, Cassella said.

The Santa Fe New Mexican reported last week that the New Mexico attorney general, Hector Balderas, is investigating whether Epstein committed any crimes in that state, where he owns a place called the Zorro Ranch.

Finally, beyond the financial penalties that could be exacted by federal prosecutors and the scores of alleged victims are the substantial bills run up by his own legal team.

The team already is rich in celebrity. It has included Alan Dershowitz, the noted constitutional law professor, and Kenneth W. Starr, who investigated president Bill Clinton’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

“In a big time criminal prosecution, a defendant can easily spend millions and in some cases tens of millions of dollars through trial,” said Matthew L. Schwartz, a white collar defense attorney and a former federal prosecutor who worked on the Bernard Madoff case.

Against all those potential legal liabilities stands Epstein’s mysterious fortune, the magnitude of which is difficult to discern.

In fact, little is known about how Epstein, 66, the son of a Coney Island parks department worker, acquired his riches. While he is often described as a billionaire in media profiles, there is little in the public record, aside from his real estate, to substantiate the claim.

In a 2013 civil court filing in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, Epstein responded to a question about his net worth without giving an exact figure. “I have already indicated my willingness to stipulate to a net worth in excess of one hundred million dollars,” he wrote.

In the same court filing, he described himself as “self-employed and philanthropist,” but said he could not provide answers “to questions relating to my financial history and condition” without waiving his constitutional rights.

Other court filings have suggested his holdings do not measure up to the billionaire claims, either.

One of the central questions around Epstein’s financial operation concerned who, exactly, was investing with him. It was widely reported that his firm refused to take on clients with less than $1 billion to invest. But who were these billionaire clients? Only one was known: Les Wexner, the founder of L Brands, a retail empire that includes Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works.

Yet in June 2002, Epstein’s investment firm, Financial Trust Company, reported having only $88 million in paid-in capital from shareholders, according to a recently unearthed court filing.

It’s possible, of course, that his money sits in some other company. Epstein is linked to other companies whose assets are unknown. Another company, known as Southern Trust, shares the same address as Financial Trust Company, in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. (The financial advantage of the Caribbean location may be substantial: Companies there can reap tax breaks of as much as 90 percent on corporate and personal income taxes.)

But while seeking tax breaks on a Caribbean island may be the hallmark of a high-living plutocrat, many who have searched his record for clues to his wealth harbor doubts about the billionaire claims. Among them is Thomas Volscho, a sociology professor at the College of Staten Island — CUNY, who has been researching a book about Epstein. He unearthed the 2002 financial statement from Epstein’s investment firm.

“I don’t think he’s a billionaire,” Volscho said last week. “His wealth is possibly above $200 million.”

Whatever the outcomes of these investigations, the long-standing riddles posed by Epstein’s fortune could be answered in the near future, as various parties who believe Epstein is in their debt — the federal government, alleged victims and defense attorneys — seek to collect.

“Hiding money is difficult,” said Stephen Harbeck, former president and chief executive of Securities Investor Protection, a federally chartered agency in Washington that safeguards brokerage accounts. “You can trace where the money came in and where it went out. Money goes through banks, and banks are required to make extraordinarily careful records.”

 

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Is it even legal to have more than one passport? And how can it be legal to have one that isn't even in your own name but does feature your photo?

 

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1 minute ago, fraurosena said:

Is it even legal to have more than one passport? And how can it be legal to have one that isn't even in your own name but does feature your photo?

 

If you're a dual (or more) national then it is quite legal to have more than one passport, one from each country in which you're a citizen. The only time I'm aware of that it's legal to have two passports in your name from the same country is when you are in the diplomatic service and have a diplomatic passport and your normal passport (for non-diplomatic travel). 

I'm pretty sure that having two passports from the same country or passports in different names is usually regarded as dodgy as hell unless you are a spy.

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Totally normal, right?

Jeffrey Epstein paid Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office $128,000 during incarceration for prostitution charges

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A recently released financial record shows a money trail between convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s office.

The record, released to Contact 5 through a records request, shows Epstein’s company, Florida Science Foundation paid PBSO $128,136 during his incarceration between 2008 and 2009.

Epstein pleaded guilty to lesser state charges in 2008, including solicitation of a minor. The guilty plea was part of the secret non-prosecution agreement which kept Epstein out of federal prison on numerous accusations that the part-time Palm Beacher allegedly ran a sex-trafficking ring out of his Palm Beach mansion.

The agreement also kept Epstein out of prison, and instead, allowed him to serve his sentence out at the local county jail, run by PBSO Sheriff Ric Bradshaw.

While there, the convicted sex offender was granted work-release benefits, and allowed to leave his cell six days a week, 12 hours a day to work at his Florida Science Foundation, located in a high-rise off Australian Ave. in West Palm Beach.

That foundation appears to be the same Epstein foundation which paid PBSO nearly $130,000 between October 2008 and May 2009. It’s unclear if Epstein wrote off the payments, as financial records for the so-called non-profit were not immediately available.

However, the Florida Science Foundation played another role in the Epstein saga. Once Epstein received probation, a Palm Beach County judge allowed him to serve out his community service requirements “at his own non-profit, the Florida Science Foundation,” according to former WPTV reports.

Records which show exactly how PBSO spent the nearly $130,000 or why Epstein paid them in the first place were not immediately available.

Contact 5 has requested receipts from PBSO and are waiting on a response.

Meanwhile, a Fort Lauderdale attorney claims “more than one woman” was propositioned by Epstein at his Florida Science Foundation office, while visiting him during work release hours.

“He was not sitting there conducting some scientific research for the betterment of the community,” attorney Brad Edwards told reporters at a press conference in New York City on Tuesday. “[The women] believed that they were going there for something other than a sexual purpose, and while there, surprisingly to them, the situation turned sexual.”

Edwards says the women were between the ages of 18 and 20 at the time. He currently represents other victims involved in the South Florida investigation which resulted in the secret, non-prosecution agreement.

Contact 5 asked PBSO why a convicted sex offender like Epstein was given work release benefits. Spokeswoman Teri Barbera wrote in an email, “Sex offenders are not allowed to go on work release. Epstein registered as a sex offender after he was released from jail.”

While Epstein did not register as a sex offender until 2009, he was a convicted sex-offender at the time of his sentencing. Barbera did not respond to follow-up questions about the matter.

Contact 5 put in follow-up record requests for the total number of convicted sex offenders who also received work release benefits. We are waiting for a response from PBSO.

Contact 5 also asked PBSO for a comment regarding the allegations made by Edwards. Barbera's response, as written to WPTV in an email, is below.

"In response to your request:

Epstein was carefully guarded.

Please review the YouTube video below  . 10 minutes in you will hear Chief Gauger say, he was picked up by a driver, met by a PBSO deputy at his place of employment which stayed with him the entire time he was at his office, he was allowed NO family, friends or guests. His attorney or business partner ONLY. Over 464 reports were filed by deputies stating things like, he had no visitors, his attorney visited, he had a doctors apt today, etc. NO VISITS FROM FAMILY … FRIENDS … OR GUESTS!

If he violated any conditions of his release he would have been brought back to the Stockade and work release would have been terminated."

[the video is no longer available on YouTube]

 

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5 hours ago, Ozlsn said:

I'm pretty sure that having two passports from the same country or passports in different names is usually regarded as dodgy as hell unless you are a spy.

I've seen a few references to the possibility that Epstein was spying for someone, but for whom was never clear.  I have no doubt that he has been/is currently connected to some extremely dodgy deals with very bad actors on a global scale, because when you're dealing with that much money...plus trafficking young girls. 

His bail hearing will continue tomorrow.  I can't imagine a planet where he would be considered for bail.  His lawyers are saying what a blameless life he's lead since his conviction in Florida, but as pointed out elsewhere, he's a "registered" sex offender, in possession of nude photos of underage women, which should be enough to keep him in jail.   Registered is in quotes because he never bothered to register when he moved to New York. 

Pondering:  might information about what was found in the raid on his Manhattan mansion have been made public by the FBI to protect against Barr trying to stymie the investigation?

4 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Gobsmacked. 

Edited by Howl
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Well, well, well... 

 

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1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

Well, well, well... 

Hmmmmm, that's interesting. 

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6 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

image.png.396a74b20f93f5fb027d9aafda574fac.png

For some reason "Trump looks happier with Epstein than all three of his wives" cracked me up. Then I thought about it, and of course he does. Jeff's his bro, the dodgy guy who has the chicks, the drugs, the parties. He wants so little in return, just a bro friend who knows how to keep schtum. Unlike his wives who were supposed to be escorts that he didn't have to pay as much to keep on tap, but who keep wanting things from him that he can't provide. Like emotional engagement and support.

And there are tapes. Now waiting to the justification spin/distraction to start in 5, 4, 3,..

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4 hours ago, Ozlsn said:

keep schtum

Fascinating!  Apparently this is a relatively recent phrase of UK origin, rather than Yiddish.

I saw a tweet today claiming that Epstein's lawyers have offered a deal where Epstein will rat out everybody in return for an 8-year sentence, but I can find zip confirmation online, so I think it was an unfounded rumor. 

However, I can see Epstein bluffing and threatening to name names, so Barr will freak out and give him another sweetheart deal, or he gets convicted and depends on a Trump pardon in a few years to keep from spilling the beans about Trump. 

Epstein's bail hearing continues tomorrow. 

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1 hour ago, Howl said:

Fascinating!  Apparently this is a relatively recent phrase of UK origin, rather than Yiddish.

How bizarre! I obviously picked it up from TV/books, but I always thought it was a Yiddish phrase that had gone mainstream, probably via East End or New York cultural interactions. 

1 hour ago, Howl said:

However, I can see Epstein bluffing and threatening to name names, so Barr will freak out and give him another sweetheart deal, or he gets convicted and depends on a Trump pardon in a few years to keep from spilling the beans about Trump. 

I don't know if Barr would have the guts for another deal - this is way past a one state, can probably be hushed up thing. I'm betting on the pardon - might have to impeach Trump to prevent it!

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He wants so little in return, just a bro friend who knows how to keep schtum.


I think the word schtum derivates from the German word "stumm", meaning silent or voiceless.
I live in an area with the biggest orthodox Jewish population of my country. I always find it surprising how much I understand when they talk Yiddish [emoji4]
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This is why Trump is going full on racist right now. Rather a racist than a child rapist...

"It's Going To Be Staggering, The Amount Of Names"

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The Jeffrey Epstein case is an asteroid poised to strike the elite world in which he moved. No one can yet say precisely how large it is. But as the number of women who’ve accused the financier (at least, that’s what he claimed to be) of sexual assault grows to grotesque levels—there are said to be more than 50 women who are potential victims—a wave of panic is rippling through Manhattan, DC, and Palm Beach, as Epstein’s former friends and associates rush to distance themselves, while gossiping about who might be ensnared. Donald Trump’s labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, architect of the original 2007 non-prosecution agreement that let Epstein off with a wrist slap, has already been forced to resign.

The questions about Epstein are metastasizing much faster than they can be answered: Who knew what about Epstein’s alleged abuse? How, and from whom, did Epstein get his supposed $500 million fortune? Why did Acosta grant Epstein an outrageously lenient non-prosecution agreement? (And what does it mean that Acosta was reportedly told Epstein “belonged to intelligence”?) But among the most pressing queries is which other famous people might be exposed for committing sex crimes. “There were other business associates of Mr. Epstein’s who engaged in improper sexual misconduct at one or more of his homes. We do know that,” said Brad Edwards, a lawyer for Courtney Wild, one of the Epstein accusers who gave emotional testimony at Epstein’s bail hearing. “In due time the names are going to start coming out.” (Attorneys for Epstein did not respond to a request for comment.)

Likely within days, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit will release almost 2,000 pages of documents that could reveal sexual abuse by “numerous prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known prime minister, and other world leaders,” according to the three-judge panel's ruling. The documents were filed during a civil defamation lawsuit brought by Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a former Mar-a-Lago locker-room attendant, against Epstein’s former girlfriend and alleged madam, Ghislaine Maxwell. “Nobody who was around Epstein a lot is going to have an easy time now. It’s all going to come out,” said Giuffre’s lawyer David Boies. Another person involved with litigation against Epstein told me: “It’s going to be staggering, the amount of names. It’s going to be contagion numbers.”

Epstein remained a fixture in elite circles even after he was a registered sex offender. A few years ago, for example, he was a guest at a dinner in Palo Alto hosted by LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman for the MIT neuroscientist Ed Boyden. At the dinner, Elon Musk introduced Epstein to Mark Zuckerberg. (“Mark met Epstein in passing one time at a dinner honoring scientists that was not organized by Epstein,” Zuckerberg spokesman Ben LaBolt told me. “Mark did not communicate with Epstein again following the dinner.”)

In an email, Elon Musk responded: “I don’t recall introducing Epstein to anyone, as I don’t know the guy well enough to do so, Epstein is obviously a creep and Zuckerberg is not a friend of mine. Several years ago, I was at his house in Manhattan for about 30 minutes in the middle of the afternoon with Talulah [Riley], as she was curious about meeting this strange person for a novel she was writing. We did not see anything inappropriate at all, apart from weird art. He tried repeatedly to get me to visit his island. I declined.”

One source who’s done business with Epstein told me that Epstein’s 21,000-square-foot townhouse on East 71st Street welcomed a steady stream of the Davos crowd in the past decade. The source said Bill Gates, Larry Summers, and Steve Bannon visited the house, which has been called one of the largest private residences in Manhattan. “Jeffrey collected people. That’s what he did,” the source said. Gates and Summers did not respond to requests for comment.

Thus far, the name most publicly associated with Epstein’s alleged crimes is famed lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who’s been waging a public battle with David Boies for years. In April, Boies’s client Giuffre sued Dershowitz for defamation after Dershowitz called her a liar (a strategy similar to that of seven of Bill Cosby’s accusers). In the days since the FBI arrested Epstein at Teterboro Airport a week and a half ago, Dershowitz has been going on television and dialing up friends and reporters to profess his innocence and label Giuffre and Boies liars. “I want everything to come out! I’m not afraid of anything because I did nothing wrong,” Dershowitz told me on the afternoon of July 15.

He called me a minute after I had emailed him for comment. He said he’d been friends with Epstein since 1996, when they were introduced at a party on Martha’s Vineyard by Lynn Forester de Rothschild. “She begged me to meet him. She told me, ‘here’s this smart academic.’” A few days later, Epstein invited Dershowitz to Les Wexner’s 59th birthday party at Wexner’s mansion in New Albany, Ohio. “It’s a tradition that Jeff invited the smartest person he met that year. He told them I was the smartest.” They remained close for years. Dershowitz strenuously denied ever participating in Epstein’s underage sex ring and said he’d only been in Epstein’s presence with his wife. “I got one massage!” he told me. “It was from a 50-year-old Russian woman named Olga. And I kept my shorts on. I didn’t even like it. I’m not a massage guy.”

Dershowitz said he secretly (and legally) tape-recorded settlement conversations with Boies and that the phone calls capture Boies admitting that Giuffre’s allegations aren’t true. “Boies is a bad person,” he told me.

“I never said that,” Boies responded when I asked about Dershowitz’s version of the phone calls. “What Alan does is he plays a second or two out of context; he never lets anybody listen to the whole thing.” Boies also dismissed Dershowitz’s claim that he never met Giuffre at Epstein’s house. According to Boies, Epstein’s former employees said in sworn depositions that they saw Dershowitz at the house multiple times without his wife. “This Olga woman doesn’t exist. Epstein’s barely kept women around who were over 25. It’s a figment of Alan’s imagination,” Boies said.

On Wall Street, Epstein is a subject of mystery—and fear. “I knew Jeff. He came across as very smart, very sophisticated,” one hedge fund manager told me. “He always had a good read on people. But manipulative people are good at that.” Another person who’s been in meetings with Epstein told me: “He’s very clever.”

How Epstein obtained his fortune is a matter of feverish speculation. His claim to a billionaire-only client list now seems laughable to the bankers I spoke with. One Wall Street source with direct knowledge of Epstein’s business said one source of Epstein’s income was providing “tax advice and estate planning” to rich clients, like Apollo Global Management founder Leon Black, presumably because Epstein had experience with offshore funds after basing his office in the Virgin Islands. In 2015 Black made a $10 million donation to Epstein’s foundation. (Black declined to comment.)

In the absence of much other information, the reigning theory on Wall Street currently is that Epstein’s activities with women and girls were central to the building of his fortune, and his relations with some of his investors essentially amounted to blackmail.

Similarly, DC is on edge. “Epstein bragged about his contacts in Washington,” Boies said. Reporters are likely to dig into why the Justice Department decided not to prosecute Epstein and kept the deal secret from his victims. One theory circulating among prominent Republicans is that Epstein was a Mossad agent. Another is that the George W. Bush White House directed Acosta not to prosecute Epstein to protect Prince Andrew on behalf of the British government, then the U.S.’s closest ally in the Iraq war. “The royal family did everything they could to try and discredit the Prince Andrew stuff,” Boies told me. “When we tried to follow up with anything, we were stonewalled. We wanted to interview him, they were unwilling to do anything.” (Prince Andrew could not be reached for comment).

Of course, the two Epstein friends that people are most curious about are Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, both of whom have denied anything untoward. During the 2016 presidential race, Hillary Clinton’s campaign consulted Bill’s post–White House Secret Service logs because they were worried Trump would bring up Bill’s close association with Epstein and wanted to get ahead of the story, a source told me.

For those in Epstein’s orbit, the stakes of exposure are bound to get higher as more and more women come forward. Every day seems to bring new horrors about Epstein’s alleged depravity. At a press conference on Tuesday, Courtney Wild’s lawyer Brad Edwards said that after interviewing dozens of Epstein’s accusers, it appeared Epstein spent almost all of his time abusing underage girls. “It was his full-time job,” Edwards said. “We have not found anyone who has provided information about a legitimate business he was engaged [in].”

 

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The New Mexico AG is referring evidence to New York prosecutors. Could he not indict Epstein himself on the grounds that these crimes were perpetrated in New Mexico?

 

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The passport wasn't used, I tell you! Those stamps were already on it when I got it! Believe me. I'm telling the truth!

 

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No bail for Epstein. I hope he gets sent to a prison for the worst criminals and that he gets put in with the main population instead of getting a VIP cell like Manafort.

 

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On 17 July 2019 at 12:59 PM, Howl said:

I've seen a few references to the possibility that Epstein was spying for someone, but for whom was never clear.  I have no doubt that he has been/is currently connected to some extremely dodgy deals with very bad actors on a global scale, because when you're dealing with that much money...plus trafficking young girls. 

His bail hearing will continue tomorrow.  I can't imagine a planet where he would be considered for bail.  His lawyers are saying what a blameless life he's lead since his conviction in Florida, but as pointed out elsewhere, he's a "registered" sex offender, in possession of nude photos of underage women, which should be enough to keep him in jail.   Registered is in quotes because he never bothered to register when he moved to New York. 

Pondering:  might information about what was found in the raid on his Manhattan mansion have been made public by the FBI to protect against Barr trying to stymie the investigation?

Gobsmacked. 

Under Deer Rufus's eye FJ sis. 

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Mansion Off-Limits to Jeffrey Epstein Ahead of Trial

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Between the decoy passport, his status as a convicted sex offender and untold assets of over half a billion dollars, Jeffrey had been an unlikely candidate for bail pending trial on sex-trafficking charges.

U.S. District Judge Richard Berman made that denial official Thursday, easing the fears of victims who protested Epstein’s bid to hole up at the $77 million New York mansion prosecutors have marked as a crime scene.

“I find that the government has established danger to others and to the community by clear and convincing evidence,” Berman said, reciting his ruling this morning at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse.

Citing remarks to the court by two new accusers – Alison Farmer and Courtney Wild – Berman said during the brief hearing that one consideration stood out above all others.

“I think it is fair to say, that it is the heart of this decision, that is to say, dealing with danger to others and to the community,” Berman added.

Finding a risk of flight by “preponderance of the evidence,” Berman noted that the sex offender’s safe contained an Austrian passport bearing Epstein’s image but another name as well as a Saudi residence. Epstein self-reported more than $500 million in assets to a still-unidentified financial institute, but he would not provide a forensic accounting of his untold wealth unless granted bail.

Bail refusal hardly came as a surprise: Berman rejected a similar package three years ago in the case of gold trader Reza Zarrab, who wanted to await his trial for the biggest money-laundering scheme in U.S. history in a Manhattan high rise.

In the Zarrab case, Berman found that such pretrial accommodations would “foster inequity and unequal treatment” in the criminal-justice system, and those concerns had been amplified with Epstein.

The Miami Herald’s investigative series “Perversion of Justice” reignited interest in a secret plea deal Epstein struck with the government a decade ago, allowing him to plead guilty to state-level prostitution charges instead of a federal indictment accusing him of the serial sex-abuse of underage girls. The paper likened the abuse to a “Sex Pyramid Scheme,” in which recruiters lured vulnerable girls with money to give Epstein massages that turned into assaults, and then deployed the girls to find others.

Florida’s work-release program allowed Epstein to serve out most days of his 13-month sentence outside his county jail cell, and an attorney for one of the financier’s new accusers alleged he had sexual relations during that release with young women over the age of consent.

This story is developing…

 

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1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

Mansion Off-Limits to Jeffrey Epstein Ahead of Trial

Well that makes sense.  It's one of the largest (perhaps the largest?) residences in Manhattan so plenty of space to cleverly hide stuff. 

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If there was any justice, he'd be put in general population at Rikers.

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Epstein's in a bind right now.  Were he out on bail, his lawyers would be stringing out the process for years.   However, it'll be quite awhile before his case goes to trial (unless there is a plea) and he'll just be languishing in jail during that time.  For Cohen, Manafort and Epstein, life isn't what it used to be. 

 

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7 hours ago, Howl said:

 However, it'll be quite awhile before his case goes to trial (unless there is a plea) and he'll just be languishing in jail during that time.  For Cohen, Manafort and Epstein, life isn't what it used to be. 

Which very well might inspire him to start naming names. 

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13 hours ago, formergothardite said:

Which very well might inspire him to start naming names. 

Yup, but that might also goose Barr into making sure Trump is protected.  Remember that for Trump and his fellow travelers, no low is too low, no corruption too brazen. 

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