Jeffrey Epstein

Jeffrey Edward Epstein (January 20, 1953 – August 10, 2019) was an American financier and sex offender. He started his career in an investment bank called Bear Stearns. A few years later, made his own investment bank, J. Epstein & Co. He was born in New York City to Jewish parents.

In 2008, he was arrested for paying an underage girl for prostitution. He spent 13 months in "custody with work release", which means that he was allowed to be outside of prison for up to 16 hours per day. Epstein was arrested again on July 6, 2019Jeffrey Epstein, a Billionaire Friend of Presidents Trump & Clinton, Arrested for Sex Trafficking | Democracy Now! for sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York. Epstein was a registered sex offender from 2008 until his death.

On August 10, 2019, he killed himself by hanging. The medical examiner told the court that Epstein died by suicide, but Epstein's lawyers disagreed. On August 29, 2019, the judge decided to end the criminal investigation of Epstein.

Epstein had a complex relationship with a lot of notable people. He interacted with businesspeople, royalty, politicians, and academics. Notable people include Donald Trump, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (formerly known as Prince Andrew), Bill Clinton, and Mette-Marit, Crown Princess of Norway. The Epstein files are a collection of papers that have criminal evidence of Jeffery Epstein and his relationships with other people and groups. On November 2025, the Epstein files were publicly released  as part of the Epstein Files Transparency Act (which the U.S. Senate unanimously approved it), revealing that he maintained a lot of relationships with notable people.

 Early life 
Jeffrey Epstein was born on January 20, 1953, in Brooklyn. His birth name is Jeffrey Edward Epstein. Both of his parents, Pauline "Paula" Stolofsky (1918–2004) and Seymour George Epstein (1916–1991), were Jewish. His parents married in 1952 shortly before he was born. Pauline worked as a school aide and was a homemaker. Seymour worked for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation as a groundskeeper and gardener.

Jeffrey Epstein was the older of two siblings, being older than his brother Mark Epstein. Both grew up in the neighborhood of Sea Gate. Within the family, Epstein was nicknamed Bear, while Mark was called Puggie. A childhood friend described Paula as "a wonderful mother and homemaker." The neighbors remembered the parents of Epstein as being quiet and humble.

Epstein attended local public schools. The first school he attended was Public School 188. Then, he attended Mark Twain Junior High School nearby, and usually earned money by tutoring classmates. Friends of Epstein considered him as "sweet and generous" although "quiet and nerdy,” and nicknamed him "Eppy". "He was just an average boy, very smart in math, slightly overweight, freckles, always smiling," a female friend later described.

In 1967, Epstein attended the National Music Camp at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. He began playing the piano when he was five. During this time, he was considered a talented musician by friends. He graduated in 1969 from Lafayette High School at age 16. While at Lafayette High School, he skipped two grades. Later in 1969, he attended advanced math classes at Cooper Union until he changed colleges in 1971. From September 1971, he attended the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University, where he studied mathematical physiology. However, on June 1974, he left New York University without receiving a degree.

Career
Epstein taught physics at the Dalton School in Manhattan between 1973 and 1975. In 1976, Epstein started work at Bear Stearns as an options trader (a job where stock brokers sell instruments giving customers the option to buy or sell stocks at a set price at a future date). There, he advised very rich people on financial strategies relating to taxes. He was shown to be a successful worker during his financial career, and Epstein was promoted to a limited partner (a job that manages money within a company) at Bear Stearns in 1980.

Epstein founded his investment bank, J. Epstein & Co., in 1982. His investment bank managed the assets of every person who had invested at his investments bank. As of 2002, his investment bank was worth more than US $1 billion.

 Criminal history 
First signs of criminal activity (2005–06)

 Palm Beach report 
In March 2005, a woman told Florida's Palm Beach Police Department that her 12-year-old stepdaughter had been taken to Epstein's mansion by an older girl. The woman claimed that in the mansion, her stepdaughter was paid $300 to strip and massage Epstein. The stepdaughter was claimed to be undressed. When she left Epstein's mansion, she was still wearing her underwear.

 Investigation 
Police spent 11 months investigating Epstein and his home. At the time, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was also investigating Epstein and his home. They discovered confirmation that Epstein had paid girls under 18 years old to perform sexual acts on him. 

Both the police and the FBI interviewed five claimed victims and 17 witnesses about this incident. The interviews revealed that photos of abused underaged girls were found in Epstein's trash. In fact, some of the trashed photos were confirmed to match the interviewed victims.

 Cameras & blackmail 
In 2006, it was discovered that Epstein often secretly installed cameras everywhere around his property. He used these cameras to record sexual activity between underage girls and famous people. It was also discovered that Epstein used secret recordings and underage spies to blackmail those famous people. These criminal claims were obtained from information relating to a previous lawsuit made by those famous people in 2006. 

In 2015, it was revealed that then Prince Andrew, Duke of York had been blackmailed by Epstein. One of Epstein's former employees stated that Epstein would receive three massages per day from underaged girls. Eventually the FBI received proof that indeed Epstein was blackmailing famous people by spying on them.

 Defense 
In May 2006, the Palm Beach police had concluded that Jeffrey Epstein would be charged with four counts of unlawful sex with minors and one count of molestation (forcing sexual abuse). However, the court disagreed. 

Epstein's team of defense lawyers included Roy Black, Russell Crowe,U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York v. Jeffrey Stein, et al, Wall Street Journal, June 27, 2006. Retrieved July 12, 2019. Gerald Lefcourt, and Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz. In 2007, Ken Starr, the Special Prosecutor of Bill Clinton, joined in to protect Epstein. 

The police chief of Palm Beach, Michael Reiter, blamed the court for being too flexible when it came to Epstein's criminal case. Additionally, the police chief was not satisfied that court did not pass on the information clearly enough to the FBI.

In the end, the grand jury ruled that Epstein should face only a single charge of unfair payment of prostitution. In 2006, they concluded that Epstein had pleaded not guilty.

Non-prosecution agreement (NPA) (2006–2008)

On February 6, 2008, an anonymous woman from Virginia filed a lawsuit worth $50 million against Epstein. She claimed that Epstein sexually assaulted her when she was 16 years old, between 2004 and 2005. According to the lawsuit, the woman was originally "recruited to give Epstein a massage", but later on Epstein went naked and had sexual intercourse with her. He paid her $200 immediately afterwards. In March 2008, a similar $50 million lawsuit was filed by another woman who stated Epstein had sexually abused her. 

However, these lawsuits, alongside similar lawsuits, were dismissed (cancelled and ignored). Epstein dealt with these types of lawsuits outside of court by paying the victims with compensation money.

In 2008, he had a secret non-prosecution agreement with court that allowed him to have a lower court penalty while at the same time still keeping his luxury private locations. Instead of receiving a life sentence, he was jailed for just 18 months (though he served only 13 months) and only had to settle the victims with payments of money.When Jeffrey Epstein Joked About Sex Abuse - The Atlantic However, he still had to register as a sex offender.

Arrest and registration as a sex offender (2008–2011)

 Secret court agreement 
In 2008, Epstein had a secret agreement with court that he would receive a lower court penalty. Along with a shorter jail sentence, he was allowed "custody with work release", which means that he was allowed to be outside of prison for up to 16 hours per day. 

Epstein spent 13months in jail. After he was released, he served one year of house arrest with probation, until August 2010. While he was on probation, he was allowed to travel in his plane to his private homes in Manhattan and his private island on Little Saint James, U.S. Virgin Islands. He was also allowed long shopping trips and to walk around Palm Beach "for exercise".

 Registration 
At a court hearing in January 2011, a judge ruled that Epstein had to remain registered in New York State as a "level three" (high risk of repeat offense) sex offender for the rest of his life. At that court hearing, the Manhattan District Attorney tried to argue that Epstein should be reduced to a low-risk "level one", but he was refused by the judge. 

Epstein told the judge that his "main" home was in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Still, the judge ordered him to check in with the New York Police Department every 90days. Even though Epstein had been a level-three registered sex offender in New York since 2010, the New York Police Department never enforced the 90-day regulation, despite the fact that not following these rules is considered against the law.

Trafficking of young girls (2019)

On July 6, 2019, Epstein was arrested at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey for sex trafficking. According to witnesses and sources, the FBI broke into Epstein's Manhattan townhouse, the Herbert N. Straus House, to investigate Epstein's criminal behavior further. Two days later, the Public Corruption Unit of the Southern District of New York charged Epstein for attempted sex trafficking of minors. Court documents show that Epstein was attempting to bring at least 40 underaged girls to his mansion to sexually abuse them.

It was discovered that Epstein owned a private Boeing 727 jet that he had used to invite underaged guests to his mansion. He traveled in his private jet frequently, logging "600 flying hours a year (...) usually with guests on board." A fraudulent Austrian passport, expired in 1987 and displaying Epstein’s photo under another name, was discovered in his safe. His attorneys claimed he was advised to get it due to kidnapping as a risk as he is "an affluent member of the Jewish faith."

Personal life

As a successful businessman, Jeffrey Epstein met many famous people. He was friends with then Prince Andrew and Tom Barrack, and met with Bill Clinton, George Stephanopoulos, Donald Trump, Katie Couric, and Woody Allen. 

The friendship between Epstein and Trump ended in the 2000s, though journalists are not sure why.Jeffrey Epstein Tapes: ‘I Was Donald Trump’s Closest Friend’ Hugh Dougherty. Feb 27, 2025How did the Trump-Epstein friendship *really* end? Chris Cillizza. July 30, 2025 Tucker Carlson thinks that Epstein was an intelligence asset, and Megyn Kelly thinks that he worked for Mossad.Jeffrey Epstein conspiracies: Was he an intelligence agent? Diana Falzone. July 23, 2025 

Epstein was a supporter of the Democratic Party. In 2000, he established the Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation, which funds science research and education. Before 2003, the foundation funded Martin Nowak's research at the Institute for Advanced Study in the city of Princeton, New Jersey. In May 2003, Epstein created the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard University, a program aimed to research evolution, with a $30 million gift.

Death

 Injury & suicide watch 
On July 23, 2019, Epstein was found unconscious in his jail cell with injuries to his neck. His cellmate, former police officer Nicholas Tartaglione, denied hurting Epstein. When police asked Epstein about the incident, Epstein refused to reply to them. After that incident, he was placed on suicide watch.

 Special housing unit 
Six days later on July 29, Epstein was taken off suicide watch. He was moved into a special housing unit with another inmate. 

The jail told the Justice Department to regularly check Epstein's jail cell. They made sure that Epstein always had a cellmate nearby. Additionally, a guard would check his cell every 30 minutes for any suspicious activity. The Justice Department followed these rules everyday until the night before Epstein's death. 

On August 9, Epstein's former cellmate was transferred out of Epstein's cell, but no replacement cellmate was brought in. Later in the evening, Epstein had not been checked every 30 minutes. The two guards that were supposed to supervise Epstein fell asleep for three hours and made false records of Epstein's activity. Two cameras in front of Epstein's cell also stopped working that night.

Epstein's close friends believed that he was still happy while in jail. 

 Hanging 
Epstein killed himself by hanging on August 10, 2019, while at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City. His body was found in his cell at 6:30 a.m. He had been dead for a few hours at 6:30 a.m.Pathologist hired by Epstein’s family says autopsy may point to murder. CBS. January 6, 2020 

 Investigation 
U.S Attorney General William Barr ordered an investigation by the Department of Justice Inspector General in addition to the FBI investigation.

On August 29, 2019, the judge decided to end the criminal investigation of Epstein, because his death made it impossible to investigate further.

 Controversy & response 
Ever since Epstein's death, Internet memes have appeared in many forms, stating that "Epstein didn't kill himself". Many of these memes come from the dispute over whether Epstein actually committed suicide or was murdered. 

In July 2025, the Trump Administration provided a lengthy video of the area outside Epstein's room around the time of his death. The video shows that nobody entered the room. Pam Bondi was asked about the "missing minute". She explained that the CCTV system resets every night. Therefore, she stated, there is nothing to worry about concerning the missing video.Bondi explains missing minute in Epstein video. July 8, 2025 Pam Bondi Reacts to Missing Minute in Jeffrey Epstein Video. July 8, 2025 However, the metadata of the video shows that the video was edited (they did not provide the original complete video(s) to the public) by a software called "Adobe Premiere Pro".Was Jeffrey Epstein's Prison Video Released By Trump Administration Manipulated? July 14, 2025Jeffrey Epstein prison video had nearly 3 minutes cut from it. Austin Williams, LiveNOW from FOX. July 16, 2025 

Many politicians want the Trump Administration to release the relevant files in public interest.Booker Won’t Back Down: Demands Epstein Files Over GOP Objections. Senator Cory Booker. July 26, 2025 On November 12, 2025, a congressional committee made available 20,000 pages of Epstein's emails. These have been released as the Epstein files.

Epstein files

The Epstein files are a set of documents that recorded Jeffrey Epstein and his activities throughout and after his life. These were publicly released in November 2025. Before the public release of the Epstein files, people believed that there is a secret document containing a list of people who are associated with him.

Related pages
Jean-Luc Brunel

References

Other websites


Category:1953 births
Category:2019 deaths
Category:Philanthropists from New York (state)
Category:American sex offenders
Category:Businesspeople from New York City
Category:Child sexual abusers
Category:Criminals from New York City
Category:Criminals who committed suicide
Category:Jewish American criminals
Category:Jewish businesspeople
Category:Jewish philanthropists
Category:People who died in prison custody
Category:Suicides by hanging in the United States
Category:Democrats (United States)