Six years after his death, conspiracy theories still swirl around the sex trafficker. Why?
What explains the fascination with Epstein?
It’s a combination of factors. There’s the horrific nature of his crimes, his collection of famous friends, and the unanswered questions about how his abuse went unpunished for so long. The financier, who died by suicide in a jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, left a $578 million estate that included a palatial Manhattan townhouse; a mansion in Palm Beach, Fla.; and a private Caribbean island. Court documents detail how he trafficked girls as young as 11 to those properties and held them there in sexual servitude. Since Epstein’s social circle included Britain’s Prince Andrew, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, former President Bill Clinton, and now-President Trump—all of whom deny any wrongdoing—the case remains catnip for conspiracy theorists, many of whom believe the government is hiding a list of Epstein’s pedophile clients. But it isn’t only cranks who think the public hasn’t been told the full story. “This was a man that was allowed to abuse girls and women for two decades,” said Miami Herald journalist Julie K. Brown, whose reporting led the Epstein case to be reopened in 2018. “The victims deserve to know whether our government did the job that they were supposed to do.”
How did he get so wealthy?
It’s not completely clear. Born to working-class parents in Brooklyn, Epstein never graduated from college but was hired by New York’s prestigious Dalton prep school, where he taught math and physics from 1974 to ’76. He was fired for “poor performance,” but not before impressing Dalton parent and Bear Stearns CEO Ace Greenberg, who hired him at the investment bank. Epstein founded his own money management firm in 1981, but it was never a major Wall Street player. Various theories have circulated about the source of his riches, including that Epstein might have blackmailed influential people by collecting footage of them having sex with underage girls. What is known is that most of Epstein’s money came from two clients, Victoria’s Secret owner Leslie Wexner and private equity mega-investor Leon Black, who together paid him a hefty $370 million in fees. Both Wexner and Black say they regret their ties with Epstein and deny any wrongdoing.
Who else did he associate with?
Epstein cultivated friendships with politicians, business leaders, and celebrities. Many of them, including Clinton, Trump, and Gates, flew on Epstein’s private plane, later nicknamed the “Lolita Express.” Woody Allen, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and magician David Copperfield met repeatedly with Epstein. Trump and Epstein socialized frequently from the 1980s to early 2000s, and in 2002, Trump told New York magazine that the “terrific” Epstein “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” Their friendship ended in 2004 amid a bidding war over a Palm Beach mansion. Trump recently claimed the two fell out after Epstein “stole” young women who worked at his Mar-a-Lago club. One employee was Virginia Giuffre, who said she was groomed in 2000 at age 16 by Epstein’s partner Ghislaine Maxwell.
When did the abuse start?
At Maxwell’s 2021 sex-trafficking trial, a woman identified only as Kate testified that Maxwell befriended her at 17 in 1994, promising to help her musical career. Maxwell pushed Kate to give Epstein massages that soon turned sexual, and told her to recruit other “cute” girls. The Justice Department’s sex-trafficking case, which focused on the early 2000s, detailed how Epstein entrapped scores of underage victims—many from broken homes—with the promise of modeling careers or other work. Courtney Wild, groomed by Epstein at 14, said she recruited “70 to 80 girls who were all 14 and 15 years old” for the financier. Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, said she was “passed around like a platter of fruit” and forced to have sex with Epstein associates such as Prince Andrew; he denies the accusation. Much of the predation took place at Epstein’s island. According to one lawsuit, a 15-year-old victim tried to swim away from the island; she was caught by his crew and had her passport confiscated.
When did law enforcement get involved?
In 2005, the stepmother of a 14-year-old told Palm Beach police that the financier had sexually assaulted the teen. An investigation uncovered many more victims but produced an infamous 2008 sweetheart deal. Epstein received an 18-month sentence for soliciting prostitution in exchange for the shuttering of an FBI probe and immunity for “any potential co-conspirators.” He had a prison wing to himself and was chauffeured six days a week to his West Palm Beach office before being released five months early; he abused more girls during and after his sentence, according to lawsuits. It took a 2018 Miami Herald exposé to stir a national outcry. Then–Trump Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta—who had helped broker the 2008 deal as a federal prosecutor—resigned, and Epstein was arrested on federal sex-trafficking charges in July 2019. Weeks later, Epstein, 66, was found dead in a Manhattan jail cell with a bedsheet around his neck.
Is there much we still don’t know about Epstein?
The full scope of his abuse, and who else sexually exploited the girls, is still a mystery. On the campaign trail last year, Trump pledged to release all the DOJ’s investigative files on Epstein, and in February, Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed to have Epstein’s client list on her desk. But in July, the Justice Department stated that the list didn’t exist, that Epstein was not—as conspiracy theorists claimed—assassinated, and that it wouldn’t publicly release the Epstein files. Trump’s name, The Wall Street Journal later reported, appears multiple times in the documents; the president has urged his supporters to move on from the “pretty boring” case. Many of Epstein’s victims say they feel re-traumatized by the administration’s promotion and then dismissal of the scandal. “All the work that we did to tell the world what happened to us,” said Danielle Bensky, who was recruited by Epstein at 17, “it’s all being erased.”
A twisted partnership
In late 1991, Ghislaine Maxwell was in a jam. Her father, British media baron Robert Maxwell, had drowned in a yachting accident—and authorities had discovered he’d embezzled some $580 million from his companies’ pension funds. Ghislaine, recently arrived in Manhattan, was forced to downsize from a large apartment to a cramped studio. Epstein, whom she’d met that summer, came to her rescue. He lavished her with more than $30 million over the years, and she became his devoted girlfriend. She was also there to recruit, molest, and pressure Epstein’s underage victims to do his bidding. “This was very much a joint effort,” said Epstein victim Sarah Ransome. Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking in 2022; she is now seeking a pardon from Trump. The girls she groomed, said prosecutor Lara Pomerantz, “were just a means to support her lifestyle.”
