August 12, 2019
Andrew Campbell
The financier Jeffrey Epstein died in his prison cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan on August 10. He was best known for his wealth and high-profile connections with the rich and powerful. He was arrested on July 6 at Teterboro Airport in Bergen County of New Jersey, charged by federal prosecutors with sex trafficking of girls as young as 14.
Epstein set up J. Epstein & Co. in New York in 1982 as a money management firm where he managed assets of clients with worth more than $1 billion or more. Soon his business was successful and he began spending his fortune in buying a mansion in Florida, a ranch in New Mexico, and his Manhattan residence, a 45,000-square-foot eight-story mansion on East 71st Street, and social gathering with artists, celebrities, and politicians, including US President Donald Trump, the former president Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew of the British royal family.
Epstein’s suicide came a day after a federal appeals court released new documents and details about the crimes of his extensive network of underage girls for sex. According to the unsealed court documents, the collection revealed allegations of sexual abuse by numerous prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, and world leaders. Federal prosecutors were looking beyond sex-trafficking and conspiracy indictments against him and investigating those who had committed with him since they were held accountable.
In 2005, the parents of a 14-year-old girl informed local Florida police that Epstein had molested their daughter at his Palm Beach mansion. Later, Florida investigators searched the property and found many photos of nude underage girl victims and had brought a case against Epstein in 2008 on allegations that teenage girls were recruited to give him massages that led to sexual assaults. The federal prosecutor Alexander Acosta, also secretary of Labour in the Trump administration, somehow allowed him to plead guilty in soliciting a minor for prostitution to avoid federal charges of life in prison. Although Epstein received an 18-month prison sentence, he was able to continue work at his office for 12 hours a day, six days a week and was released on probation after 13 months. In fact, Epstein had been registered a level three, a lifelong designation for high-risk reoffending, on the New York sex offenders list since 2008.
Being held without bail, Epstein reportedly had been placed on suicide watch after he had injuries to his neck and was taken to the hospital briefly on July 23. Meanwhile, Epstein’s suicide attracted conspiracy theories across social media; for example, a fake 1993 photo was posted on Twitter and Facebook falsely showing Epstein with President Trump kissing the head of his daughter, Ivanka. The US Attorney General, William Pelham Barr said the Department of Justice and the FBI would investigate the scandal and the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death.
Photo:Webshot.