Jeffrey Epstein

**Jeffrey Edward Epstein** (January 20th, 1953 &ndash; August 10, 2019) was an American financer 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.* Epstein was arrested again on July 6, 2019 for sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York. 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 
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Jeffrey Epstein was born on January 20, 1953, in Brooklyn. His birth name is Jeffrey Edward Epstein. Seymour worked for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation as a groundskeeper and gardener. Within the family, Epstein was nicknamed Bear, while Mark was called Puggie. The neighbors remembered the parents of Epstein as being quiet and humble. He began playing the piano when he was five. He graduated in 1969 from Lafayette High School at age 16. Later in 1969, he attended advanced math classes at Cooper Union until he changed colleges in 1971.

Epstein founded his investment bank, *J. Epstein & Co.*, in 1982. 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. 

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. However, the court disagreed. 

Epstein's team of defense lawyers included Roy Black, Russell Crowe, 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.

### 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. 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).

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. However, he still had to register as a sex offender.

#### 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)
 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. Tucker Carlson thinks that Epstein was an intelligence asset, and Megyn Kelly thinks that he worked for Mossad.

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&nbsp;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. Later in the evening, Epstein had not been checked every 30&nbsp;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. 

### Hanging 
Epstein killed himself by hanging on August 10, 2019, He had been dead for a few hours at 6:30 a.m. 

### 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. 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.  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". 

Many politicians want the Trump Administration to release the relevant files in public interest. 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