RICK FRIEDMAN/GETTY IMAGES Jeffrey Epstein is dead, reports say.
Jeffrey Epstein is an American financier and registered sex offender who recently was arrested for allegedly sex trafficking dozens of minors between 2002 and 2005. He’s worth an estimated $1 billion according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Jeffrey Epstein started his career as a mathematician and teacher, attending the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences before leaving without a degree to teach calculus and physics at the Dalton School.
Epstein got his start in the financial world in 1975 as an options trader at Bear Stearns and became a partner in the firm in 1980. He leveraged his mathematics knowledge to his advantage, utilizing models such as the Black-Scholes option-pricing model to climb the ranks quickly. He left Bear Stearns in 1982 to start his own firm, J. Epstein & Co. which specializes in managing the assets of clients with a net worth of $1 billion or more. He would turn down clients wanting to invest $500 million because according to him they were “too small”.
He changed the name of his company to The Financial Trust Company in 1996 and based his company on the island of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands for tax purposes. Most of his clients are unknown due to his firm’s notorious secrecy.
The billionaire plead guilty to a state charge of soliciting prostitution from girls as young as 14 in 2008 and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, ultimately serving 13 months of his sentence. During his sentence, was allowed to leave jail for up to 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, on a work release program to work at The Financial Trust Company.
He was arrested on July 6 at New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport on a flight from Paris by agents from the joint FBI-NYPD Crimes Against Children Task Force. He is currently charged with one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of minors and faces a maximum sentence of 45 years in prison.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. At the Height of His Success, He Was Making $100 Million per Year
Jeffrey Epstein sexually abused underage girls at his waterfront estate in Palm Beach from 1997 to 2006. Now thousands of court documents related to the case are being unsealed. From our news partners the @MiamiHerald.
At its peak, The Financial Trust Company managed $1.5 billion according to Celebrity Net Worth. Epstein demanded much more authority over his clients’ assets than most other firms, requiring investors to give him full control of their money and how it was invested. Clients had no say in how their money was managed from investments to philanthropy.
Epstein charged a flat fee instead of taking a percentage of the gains. At the height of his success, Jeffrey was reportedly making over $100 million a year.
2. One of His Clients Is Leslie Wexner, Founder and Owner of the Limited
Jeffrey Epstein’s firm is known for their privacy and never revealing the names of their clients. One of their largest and only publicly known clients is Leslie Wexner, founder and chairman of The Limited, a nationwide chain of women’s clothing stores, and founder of the Wexner Arts Center in Columbus, Ohio.
The Limited is now known as L Brands and owns several brands including Victoria’s Secret, Bath & Body Works, Structure, and Express. The company made $12.63 billion in revenue in 2017 and was listed as 231 on the 2018 Fortune 500 list of America’s largest companies.
3. He Has an Extensive Luxury Real Estate Portfolio
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Epstein has utilized his significant wealth to buy up luxury properties around the world. His portfolio includes a massive villa in Palm Springs, Florida valued at $6.8 million, a 26,700-square-foot hilltop mansion in Stanley, New Mexico which includes a 10,000-acre ranch that was appraised in 2013 for $18,186,406, and a Carribean home that at one point employed 70 full-time staff members.
He also owns one of the largest private residences in Manhattan, New York. His property stretches along East 71st Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues and is known as one of the largest townhouses in Manhattan. It contains at least seven floors and covers 21,000 square feet.
4. He Owned a Boeing 727 That Was Used by Bill Clinton
John Coates, airport-data.com
At one point, Epstein owned a private Boeing 727 for his personal travel purposes. The lavish jet was known as the “Lolita Express” due to Epstein allegedly transporting underage girls on it. According to flight logs obtained by Fox News, Bill Clinton used the jet several times to travel to Africa to promote anti-AIDS efforts. Celebrities Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker were also present on the charity mission.
5. He Owns One of the U.S. Virgin Islandss
Google Maps
Jeffrey Epstein owns Little Saint James, an island that is part of the U.S. Virgin Islands. According to Curbed.com, the island includes a “colonnaded villa-style compound designed by luxury resort and hotel designer Edward Tuttle” that includes a large library, a cinema, surrounding cabanas, and a detached Japanese bathhouse.
According to Wikipedia, he hosts conferences there for Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation which raises money for cutting-edge science and medical research. Recent conferences have covered topics including gravity, language evolution and global threats to the Earth.
At one point, you could rent the island for $6,000 per night.