Jeffrey Epstein pleaded not guilty in New York federal court to the charges of conspiracy and sex trafficking of underage girls, which prosecutors had unsealed earlier on Monday.
If convicted, Epstein, 66, would face a maximum of 45 years in prison, which prosecutors say essentially amounts to a potential life sentence. Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, filed a detention memo with the court asking that Epstein be held in jail while awaiting his trial, alleging that Epstein’s age, wealth, foreign connections, and access to private airplanes all give him “the motive and means to become a successful fugitive” and make him a substantial flight risk.
The judge ordered that Epstein be held without bail until at least Thursday, when there will be a detention hearing to decide the terms of Epstein’s bail or whether he is held in confinement for the length of his impending trial, as prosecutors have requested.
Today’s 14-page indictment alleges that Epstein “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 and perhaps beyond.
And prosecutors from the Southern District of New York claim that Epstein “enticed and recruited, and caused to be enticed and recruited, minor girls … to engage in sex acts with him” and that he would then “give the victims hundreds of dollars in cash.” Some of the victims were as young as 14 at the time the alleged crimes occurred.
Prosecutors told the court they have “real concerns — grounded in past experience with this defendant — that if allowed to remain out on bail, the defendant could attempt to pressure and intimidate witnesses and potential witnesses in this case, including victims and their families, and otherwise attempt to obstruct justice.”
Prosecutors also allege Epstein paid some of his victims to recruit other underage girls to be abused, alleging that Epstein “created a vast network of underage victims for him to sexually exploit in locations including New York and Palm Beach” and that he “maintained a steady supply of new victims to exploit.”
The indictment says Epstein would offer to pay these “victim-recruiters” hundreds of dollars for every new girl they brought to him.
The wealthy financier, already a convicted sex offender, was arrested by the FBI-NYPD Crimes Against Children Task Force on Saturday at the airport in Teterboro, New Jersey, after returning from an overseas trip to Paris. Epstein’s home in New York City was raided by law enforcement as well, where they found a “vast trove of lewd photographs of young-looking women or girls in his Manhattan mansion” including at least some photos of underage girls.
Epstein is a politically well-connected hedge fund manager who has long faced allegations of luring underage girls, hiring them to provide massages, and then sexually abusing them, with some of the alleged crimes dating back to 1999. His accusers, some who were as young as 14 at the time of the alleged crimes, have said Epstein used his private jet to take them to his mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, a residence in Manhattan, and his private 72-acre home in the Virgin Islands, sometimes referred to as “Orgy Island.”
“The defendant, a registered sex offender, is not reformed, he is not chastened, he is not repentant,” the Justice Department said Monday. “Rather, he is a continuing danger to the community and an individual who faces devastating evidence supporting deeply serious charges.”
