Jeffrey Epstein found dead: US financier had been accused of trafficking underage girls for sex
US Attorney-General ‘livid’ over jailhouse death of disgraced financier awaiting trial for child sex trafficking, after he was taken off suicide watch.
Disgraced former financier Jeffrey Epstein died Saturday morning in an apparent suicide in his Manhattan jail cell as he was awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, law-enforcement officials say.
Mr. Epstein, 66 years old, was found unresponsive in his cell at approximately 6:30am on Saturday, local time, according to prison officials. He was then transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department’s inspector general have opened separate investigations into the circumstances of Mr. Epstein’s death, officials said.
Attorney General William Barr said in a statement he was appalled to learn of the apparent suicide.
“Mr. Epstein’s death raises serious questions that must be answered,” Mr. Barr said.
Mr. Barr was “livid” to learn about Mr. Epstein’s death, telling staffers he is determined to get to the bottom of what happened, a person familiar with the matter said.
About two weeks ago, officials moved Mr. Epstein to a suicide-watch unit after he was found unconscious in his cell with marks on his neck. Mr. Epstein at the end of July was taken off suicide watch, where he had received daily psychiatric evaluations, a person familiar with the matter said.
Lisa Boesky, a San Diego-based psychologist and expert on suicide in correctional facilities, said jails are required to have a qualified mental-health professional conduct suicide-risk assessments when a prisoner is suspected of being at risk. Off suicide watch, Mr. Epstein would likely have had access to items that he could have used to asphyxiate himself, such as bedding, pants or socks, as well as structures to tie them to.
Sen. Ben Sasse (R., Neb.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Oversight Committee who originally asked the Justice Department to investigate the handling of the Epstein case, said in a letter to Mr. Barr: “Every single person in the Justice Department—from your Main Justice headquarters staff all the way to the night-shift jailer—knew that this man was a suicide risk, and that his dark secrets couldn’t be allowed to die with him.” He added, “Obviously, heads must roll.”
Mr. Epstein was arrested July 6 at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey as he was returning from Paris on his private jet. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan indicted him on two counts related to sex trafficking of minors, which together carry a maximum sentence of 45 years in prison.
The investigation will continue even after Mr. Epstein’s death. “To those brave young women who have already come forward and to the many others who have yet to do so, let me reiterate that we remain committed to standing for you, and our investigation of the conduct charged in the indictment—which included a conspiracy count—remains ongoing,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said.
One of the two charges against Mr. Epstein was sex-trafficking conspiracy, meaning individuals who conspired with him in the alleged scheme could still face criminal charges.
“We are enormously sorry to learn of today’s news,” Mr. Epstein’s lawyers said in a statement Saturday morning. “No one should die in jail. We cannot confirm rumors as to his cause of death, and we trust that the United States Attorney’s Office and the United States Marshals will thoroughly investigate the circumstances of today’s tragedy.”
.
A Fire Department of New York official said FDNY received a phone call at 6:39 a.m. Saturday for a patient under cardiac arrest at the correctional center where Mr. Epstein was being held. Upon arrival, first responders attempted to administer CPR to Mr. Epstein, an FDNY official said. Mr. Epstein then was transported to New York Presbyterian Lower Manhattan hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the official said.
Prosecutors accused Mr. Epstein of orchestrating a yearslong sex-trafficking operation in which he and his associates lured dozens of girls—some as young as 14 years old—to his homes in New York and Florida. He recruited them to perform massages in the nude that steadily progressed to masturbation and sex acts, prosecutors said.
Mr. Epstein had pleaded not guilty and was awaiting trial. At a recent hearing, U.S. District Judge Richard Berman discussed June 2020 as a tentative trial date.
Mr. Epstein’s arrest brought heightened attention to his personal life and business dealings. On Wednesday, retail magnate Les Wexner, founder and chief executive of L Brands Inc., accused Mr. Epstein of stealing more than $46 million from him during their decades-long relationship, during which Mr. Epstein had near-complete control over Mr. Wexner’s fortune.
On Friday, a cache of legal documents made public by a federal appeals court provided details about his life and how he and his associates allegedly recruited young women and girls. The documents, filed as part of a defamation lawsuit brought against a longtime companion of Mr. Epstein, included sworn testimony by Mr. Epstein’s employees and the plaintiff, Virginia Giuffre.
Mr. Epstein had sought to be released from jail and put under house arrest in his Manhattan apartment pending trial. Judge Berman denied his request for bail, saying Mr. Epstein posed too great a danger to the community. Mr. Epstein’s lawyers appealed the decision.
Mr. Epstein had been held at a Manhattan jail, the Metropolitan Correctional Center, that has housed high-profile inmates such as Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
The facility has drawn criticism from staffers, union officials, inmates and attorneys for substandard conditions and a lack of basic amenities, such as books, for inmates.
The death calls fresh attention to the federal Bureau of Prisons, which is already under investigation by the Justice Department’s inspector general after another high-profile inmate, gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, was killed by fellow inmates in October. The watchdog is looking at conditions in the West Virginia prison where he had recently been transferred.
The recent charges against Mr. Epstein came more than a decade after Mr. Epstein signed a nonprosecution agreement with federal prosecutors in Miami, following an investigation into similar alleged conduct in Florida.
That deal, which had been criticized by victims and some lawmakers as too lenient, guaranteed Mr. Epstein wouldn’t be federally charged and allowed him to plead guilty to two state felonies related to prostitution. He registered as a sex offender and served a 13-month sentence with work-release privileges that let him spend much of his time outside prison.
Renewed scrutiny of the deal, spurred by a series of articles late last year by the Miami Herald, led to the resignation last month of President Trump’s labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, who had been the U.S. attorney in Miami overseeing the agreement.
Mr. Epstein’s legal team planned to argue the Manhattan case is an improper redo of the Florida case and that the agreement was intended to apply to federal jurisdictions nationally.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said the 2007 deal is only binding in Miami’s federal district and doesn’t stop them from initiating their own case. The Manhattan indictment also covered new alleged conduct that occurred in New York, which wasn’t part of the Florida case, prosecutors said.
“The many victims of Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplices should not lose hope,” said Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer for one of the unnamed victims in the Manhattan indictment. Ms. Kaplan pledged to seek justice “but also to ensure that all the facts of his monstrous crimes become known to the world.”
Mr. Epstein grew up in a working-class community in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, N.Y. He never graduated from college. Instead, he benefited from good timing, self-promotion and what former associates described as charming intelligence.
Mr. Epstein’s younger brother, Mark, didn’t return an email requesting comment about his brother’s death.
Over four decades, Mr. Epstein built a fortune of more than a half-billion dollars through close relationships with a small number of rich and powerful people, such as retail magnate Leslie Wexner, Johnson & Johnson heiress Elizabeth Johnson and hedge-fund billionaire Glenn Dubin.
Mr. Epstein became deeply entwined in their lives, records and interviews show. He served as a private wealth manager, pitching tax-saving strategies, handling prenuptial agreements, estate planning and other personal matters. In a court filing after his arrest last month, Mr. Epstein listed more than $550 million in assets, including houses and investment accounts. Mr. Epstein earned at least $200 million through his yearslong relationship with Mr. Wexner.
In the early 2000s, Mr. Epstein was known for his reported ties to public figures such as former President Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew, both of whom flew on Mr. Epstein’s private jets. At the same time, the financier was dogged by allegations of sexual misconduct involving underage girls.
• Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467.
With Rebecca Davis O’Brien and Sadie Gurman
The Wall Street Journal
More Coverage
A weakened Iran still has a major deterrent: the nuclear option
With Hezbollah reeling and its missiles failing to do much damage, attention turns to the threat posed by Tehran’s nuclear program. How close is it to a bomb and what can Israel and the US do in response?
Hurricane Milton: Biden says evacuations are ‘a matter of life and death’
As the second huge hurricane in as many weeks rumbled toward Florida’s west coast, a sense of looming catastrophe spread as people raced to board up homes and flee.