Real Hedge-Fund Managers Have Some Thoughts on What Epstein Was Actually Doing
6:12 P.M.
By Michelle Celarier
Long before Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to prostitution charges in Florida more than a decade ago, his fellow Palm Beach resident and hedge-fund manager Douglas Kass was intrigued by the local gossip about his neighbor.
Im hearing about the parties, hearing about a guy whos throwing money around, says Kass, president of Seabreeze Partners Management. While stories about young girls swarming Epsteins waterfront mansion and the sex parties he hosted for the rich and powerful were the talk of the town, Kass was more focused on how this obscure person, rumored to be managing billions of dollars, had become so wealthy without much of a track record.
Kass was well-connected on Wall Street, where hed worked for decades, so he began to ask around. I went to my institutional brokers, to their trading desks and asked if they ever traded with him. I did it a few times until the date when he was arrested, he recalls. Not one institutional trading desk, primary or secondary, had ever traded with Epsteins firm.
When a reporter came to interview Kass about Bernie Madoff shortly before that firm blew up in the biggest Ponzi scheme ever, Kass told her, Theres another guy who reminds me of Madoff that no one trades with. That man was Jeffrey Epstein.
More:
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/07/hedge-funders-have-some-thoughts-on-what-epstein-was-doing.html
leftieNanner
(14,997 posts)Is the suggestion that he was a sophisticated high level blackmailer.
RandySF
(57,618 posts)I dont think his sex trafficking operation was big enough to amass that kind of money, unless he lied about his wealth.
tanyev
(42,357 posts)You could make millions of dollars procuring and blackmailing, but not the billions that Epstein supposedly had. Plus, if the extortion got too onerous, billionaires and multi-millionaires could easily go elsewhere or even retaliate.
dlk
(11,432 posts)lapfog_1
(29,166 posts)obtain some wealth (a few million).
recruit underage girls
throw lavish parties with drugs and sex with underage girls for millionaire and billionaires
video tape everything.
Tell said millionaires and billionaires "invest money in my fund or else"
Investments pour in... but no trading actually takes place
Charge the usual "management fees" for the investments, pay taxes.
When the victim has paid enough of the blackmail money, return the remainder of the investment.
repeat until you have made millions to 100s of millions.
your blackmail victims will never expose you
the IRS is fine so long as you declare your fees and pay taxes
all you have to worry about are those girls... but as long as you pay them something (and contribute to the local DAs election fund or whatever) plus the hook the girls on booze and drugs so they can be discredited later...
No one will ever come for you.
Almost worked out that way.
bad luck the DA was appointed to a corrupt President's cabinet and people started looking into his background including the case against you.
nilram
(2,879 posts)Then the investors can get a tax loss while he keeps more cash.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)That is evil genius.