Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York revealed that Jeffrey Epstein, the alleged child sex trafficker and global jet-setter of mysterious wealth, is likely worth over $500 million.
Calling him a significant flight risk due to his massive fortune, prosecutors slammed the request from Epstein’s attorneys to allow their client to stay in his $77 million mansion while awaiting trial. Investigators want him to remain behind bars.
The attorneys for Epstein had also told the court Thursday that they wanted to keep Epstein’s mysterious finances under seal and secret from the public, and prosecutors revealed on Friday that Epstein still has not fully disclosed his financial information to them. Instead, they’d obtained the $500 million figure from one of financial institutions Epstein uses.
Epstein has been in jail since he was arrested by authorities at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey on his way home from Paris over the weekend. His indictment, unsealed Monday, alleges he “sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida, among other locations” between 2002 and 2005, according to a 14-page federal indictment. Epstein, a registered sex offender, pleaded not guilty.
During a lengthy court filing Thursday, Epstein’s attorneys requested the court allow Epstein’s finances be provided as “sealed supplemental disclosure” and be kept secret from the public. Epstein’s attorneys also said that they would provide a “sealed list of his philanthropic donations.”
The lawyers for Epstein also argued that Epstein should be allowed to stay in his Manhattan mansion while awaiting trial instead of spending it behind bars as prosecutors have requested. Epstein’s attorneys suggested using the $77 million home as collateral for his bond.
Prosecutors said they examined bank records which suggest Epstein “already earns at least $10,000,000 per year … while living in the U.S. Virgin Islands, traveling extensively abroad, and residing in part in Paris, France.” They suggested that, even though Epstein’s source of wealth remains a mystery to them, “there would be little to stop the defendant from fleeing, transferring his unknown assets abroad, and then continuing to do whatever it is he does to earn his vast wealth from a computer terminal beyond the reach of extradition.”
Epstein’s attorneys previously proposed what they called “stringent” conditions for his release, including home detention in his palatial Manhattan abode, electronic GPS monitoring, no seeking a new passport during the case, consent to U.S. extradition from any country, a substantial bond secured against the $77 mortgage on Epstein’s home, an agreement to ground his infamous jet and to deregister his vehicles in New York, giving the government random access to his residence, only allowing Epstein and his attorneys into his residence with permission from the government, daily phone check-ins, and a live-in trustee to make sure he’s following the rules.
The government shot down these arguments one by one at great length in Friday’s filing, and prosecutors were often unsparing in their response to this proposal by the defense.
“Electronic monitoring would merely give the defendant less of a head start in fleeing — and does not guard against the risk of him endangering victims in the very home where he has continued to hoard nude images of young women and girls,” prosecutors said on Friday. “And the private security force he proposes to guard his gilded cage, a proposal already rejected by this Court in similar circumstances, simply reinforces the obvious fact that the defendant should be housed where he can be secured at all times: a federal correctional center.”
Some of the criminal accusations leveled against Epstein are alleged to have occurred inside that New York City residence.
Beyond being a flight risk, prosecutors also claimed that Epstein posed an “ongoing and forward-looking danger” and put a particular emphasis on his “maintenance of a substantial collection of photographic trophies of his victims and other young females in his mansion,” which investigators uncovered while executing their search of Epstein’s New York City home over the weekend.
Prosecutors reiterated that they had recovered discs from Epstein’s abode which included hand-written labels, including “Young [Name] + [Name],” “Misc nudes 1,” and “Girl pics nude.” Prosecutors said, “not surprisingly, the government has found that such discs contain photographs of sexually suggestive photographs of fully- or partially- nude females appearing to be underage.”
Epstein’s attorneys have provided scant details about his financial dealings and about how much money he has, saying that “through his business and the five residences he maintains in the United States, Mr. Epstein employs people, many of whom have been with him for more than a decade, and feels personally responsible for their livelihoods.” The lawyers said Epstein is “admittedly wealthy” and claimed that “all of his financial resources (other than his Paris residence)” were held inside the U.S., including the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Prosecutors countered that “even assuming the defendant’s assets are presently in the United States, nothing in the proposed package would prevent the defendant from transferring liquid assets out of the country quickly and in anticipation of flight or relocation.” The government’s lawyers described Epstein as “an incredibly sophisticated financial actor with decades of experience in the industry and significant ties to financial institutions and actors around the world” and claimed that “he could easily transfer funds and holdings on a moment’s to places where the government would never find them so as to ensure he could live comfortably while a fugitive.”
It remains to be seen how Judge Richard Berman will rule on all of this.
The sources of Epstein’s wealth and exactly how much money he is actually worth have long been shrouded in mystery, although he is worth enough to own a $77 million Manhattan mansion, a Palm Beach estate, a ranch in New Mexico, an apartment in Paris, and a private island in the Caribbean, often dubbed the “Island of Sin” or “Pedophile Island.”
Epstein also has a private jet, nicknamed the “Lolita Express,” which he used to travel all over the world on a regular basis with a variety of politicos, celebrities, and tycoons.
Former President Bill Clinton, who has praised Epstein in the past, released a statement on Monday evening claiming that he had taken four total trips on Epstein’s jet, but a review of flight records indicates Clinton actually took at least 27 flights totaling at least six trips.
President Trump said Tuesday he knew Epstein in Palm Beach, Florida, where they were neighbors, but the two had a falling out “a long time ago” and that he was “not a fan.”
Trump said in 2002 he had known Epstein for more than a decade and described him then as a “terrific guy.”
“He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” Trump said in 2002.
