Jeffrey Epstein charged: Multi-millionaire ‘trafficked’ young girls for sex
Multi-millionaire Jeffrey Epstein operated a vast sex-trafficking ring of under-age girls, prosecutors say.
A multi-millionaire with connections throughout America’s establishment appeared in court yesterday charged with sex trafficking girls as young as 14.
Jeffrey Epstein, a US hedge fund manager once close to the Duke of York, Bill Clinton and President Trump, is accused of trafficking “a vast network of under-age victims” for abuse in two states, according to an indictment unsealed in New York.
The new charges against Epstein, for crimes alleged to have taken place over a decade ago, have raised questions over how he avoided earlier prosecution and could lead to the exposure of rich and powerful co-conspirators.
Christine Pelosi, a Democratic Party official and daughter of the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, said that it was “quite likely that some of our faves are implicated” in the “horrific” Epstein case, given the financier’s contacts. “We must follow the facts and let the chips fall where they may,” she tweeted.
Epstein, 66, denied one charge of conspiracy to traffic and one of sex trafficking, which carry a maximum sentence of 45 years. He has maintained that he thought the girls were at least 18. He was remanded in custody until a bail hearing on Thursday.
The alleged abuses took place at Epstein’s properties in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida, between 2002 and 2005. Geoffrey Berman, the southern district US lawyer, said: “Many of the under-age girls that Epstein allegedly victimised were particularly vulnerable to exploitation. The alleged behaviour shocks the conscience and … is still profoundly important to the many alleged victims, now young women.”
At the peak of his finance career in the 1980s and 1990s, Epstein’s firm managed more than $US1 billion in assets for wealthy New York clients and he was a well-known philanthropist with ties to the Clintons.
He was previously accused of sexually abusing dozens of teenage girls between 1999 and 2007, but in 2008 reached a plea deal to avoid federal sex trafficking charges. He instead pleaded guilty in Florida to the lesser state charges of soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution, serving 13 months in prison and registering as a sex offender.
Alexander Acosta, the Florida state prosecutor who granted him the deal, is now Mr Trump’s Labour secretary.
Trump ban
According to legal documents, Mr Trump was said to have banned Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago estate, where he was once a member, after he allegedly assaulted an under-age girl at the club.
Documents related to a separate lawsuit, brought by one of Epstein’s victims against his former associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, 57, a British socialite and daughter of the late media magnate Robert Maxwell accused of recruiting under-age girls, are due to be unsealed in the coming weeks. They are said to contain allegations of sexual abuse by “numerous prominent US politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known prime minister and other world leaders”.
The Times
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