Jeffrey Epstein Burrowed Into the Lives of the Rich and Made a Fortune

[mfcorey1]

Jeffrey Epstein built a fortune of more than half a billion dollars leveraging unusually close relationships with a small group of rich and powerful individuals over four decades.
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He became deeply entwined in the financial lives of his clients, who put him in charge of their charities, placed his name on deeds for their properties and let him control their savings.

Mr. Epstein profited from associations with retail magnate Leslie Wexner, financier Leon Black, Johnson & Johnson heiress Elizabeth Johnson and hedge-fund billionaire Glenn Dubin, among others. He pitched clients tax-saving strategies, handled prenuptial agreements, estate planning and other personal matters, and inserted himself into one of the largest hedge-fund deals on record, increasing his wealth each step along the way.

Mr. Epstein earned more than $200 million from Mr. Wexner alone, according to estimates by people familiar with the relationship. For more than 15 years, a power-of-attorney document allowed Mr. Epstein to act on Mr. Wexner’s behalf in legal or financial dealings.

A detailed account of his professional life, based on legal documents and interviews with a wide range of his associates, shows how Mr. Epstein, a college dropout from Coney Island in Brooklyn, also benefited from good timing and a knack for self-promotion, latching onto deep-pocketed clients as their wealth soared and markets surged.

People sought out Mr. Epstein because they were convinced he “was the only person capable of turning their money into exponentially more,” said a person who worked with him in the 1980s and 1990s. “He was charming, smart, a very likable guy.”

Earlier this month, Mr. Epstein pleaded not guilty to sex-trafficking counts stemming from what federal prosecutors alleged was a yearslong scheme to procure and sexually abuse dozens of girls. He faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted. Mr. Epstein has been denied bail and is in federal custody.

On Tuesday, Mr. Epstein was moved to a suicide-watch unit at the detention center where he is being held, after officers found him unconscious in his cell with marks on his neck, according to people familiar with the matter.

His July 6 arrest came amid criticism of a 2007 nonprosecution agreement with federal prosecutors in Florida, which he signed to resolve an investigation into similar allegations. As part of that deal, Mr. Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to state prostitution counts and spent much of his 13-month sentence outside prison due to work-release privileges.

In a court filing after his arrest this month, Mr. Epstein listed assets worth more than $550 million, an accounting a federal prosecutor said in court “is more significant for what it does not include than what it does.” Mr. Epstein listed no debts, and no art; he gave no indication of foreign accounts.

People who have known or worked with Mr. Epstein over the past four decades say the figure likely doesn’t represent the full picture of his fortune. While he may have made money from overseas investments or other endeavors, the bulk of his wealth appears to have come from a small number of very wealthy clients.

Lawyers for Mr. Epstein didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Early in his career, Mr. Epstein forged profitable relationships, often by charming powerful people. As a math teacher at Manhattan’s elite Dalton School, he so impressed the father of one student that the father urged a friend—Bear Stearns Cos. Chief Executive Alan “Ace” Greenberg—to hire Mr. Epstein. Mr. Greenberg did so in 1976.

At Bear Stearns, Mr. Epstein worked for Michael Tennenbaum, a senior executive, selling the firm’s analyses of stock options to clients. Soon, Mr. Tennenbaum learned that Mr. Epstein had padded his resumé, falsely claiming to have graduated from Stanford University, Mr. Tennenbaum said in an interview and in a forthcoming memoir.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/jeffrey-epstein-burrowed-into-the-lives-of-the-rich-and-made-a-fortune/ar-AAEScCg?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout

[guillaumeb]

1. Was Epstein blackmailing his fellow pedophiles with those sex tapes that were seized?

That, in my opinion, is the key question that should be asked.

Second, is there a tape of that other fellow who likes his females very young? Donald Trump?

[uponit7771]

3. +1, P-Tape means pedophile tape

[guillaumeb]

4. That is quite possible. eom

[Cartaphelius]

11. A Human Tick. Like Trump!

Bugs of a Sort Tend to Cohort.

[guillaumeb]

13. True. They have much in common. eom

[brewens]

12. I was waiting to see if we hear some experts saying the pics he saved were trophies.

I think I've heard that's a trait with these guys, some serial killers and other freaks too.

If that's the case, there is no telling what he saved and of who. I wouldn't be surprised to see some prominent people fleeing the country if they think they might be burned.

[guillaumeb]

14. True, and these pictures might have been used for blackmail.

Putin might have similar pictures of Trump and young females.

[Frustratedlady]

2. Wasn't the "student" whose father recommended Epstein to Bear Stearns named Barr?

I wonder why the author left that out of the paragraph(s)? Particularly since it was Wm. Barr's father.

Perhaps I'm wrong.

[magicarpet]

6. Omissions designed to protect the guilty ?

[SharonAnn]

15. No, Barr was Epstein's boss. He hired Epstein. Not a student of his.

[WhiteTara]

5. sounds like extortion and money laundering

with sex trafficking thrown in for good measure.

[irisblue]

7. Just saw this on twitter

Andy Lewis (@andyblewis) Tweeted:
Meet Cosmo's "Bachelor of the Month" for July 1980. https://t.co/Lbpd6F5ThM https://t.co/9lTivfYozR

Link to tweet

[Me.]

8. This Article Hardly Covers The Money

he burns through it at lightning speed, just the taxes on his east side townhouse alone is about $400,000+ a year. That doesn't include upkeep or anything on that single property alone.

[lunatica]

9. Color me jaded

I’m having trouble believing Epstein was such a genius in investments and all he made was a few hundred million.

Les Wexner owns the retail clothing store that caters to teens and young adult women called The Limited. I used to work there. Small world. He owned the sweat factories that made the clothes too.

[empedocles]

10. 'Mr. Epstein EARNED [emphasis added by edit]more than 200 million from Mr. Wexner alone'

Found the word 'earned' amusing in the context here with Mr. Epstein

Also tend to find journalistic use of the word 'worth' x millions or billions, in connection with many somewhat dubious individuals.

[bucolic_frolic]

16. They don't teach you how to make money like that, not even in business school

The great mutual funds and ETFs make money from masses of people by charging up to 2% or so for the lifetimes of their clients. By the time you're 80, they've skimmed a third of your take for annual fees.

This is different. Even given their wealth, these clients would all have to be bozos (that's bozos, not Bezos) to pay anyone more than 5 or 8% a year, even if the returns were as good as Bernie Madoff claimed.

So something else was going on. I agree with all the posts here on the pedo aspects of the case, but also money laundering and tax evasion comes to mind. You would need an account in a tax haven with heavy options bets and experience to make that kind of return. And you get that experience with business degrees and decades of experience, not with serendipity social contacts.

[Fiendish Thingy]

17. You are incorrect

Most ETF's charge minimal fees, certainly not 2%, that's why they are preferable to Mutual funds.

[bucolic_frolic]

18. You don't read well

My post said "up to 2%" and the general figure was meant as an all-inclusive for all types of funds.

Beware ETF redemptions in the next crash.