Federal prosecutors said they believe Jeffrey Epstein, the wealthy global jet-setter and accused child sex trafficker, attempted to influence possible witnesses against him with hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments as things began to heat up for him in late 2018 following renewed media scrutiny.
Epstein has been in jail since he was arrested by authorities at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey on his way home from Paris last weekend. He allegedly “sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida, among other locations” between 2002 and 2005, according to a 14-page federal indictment. Epstein, a registered sex offender, pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors made it clear in Friday’s filings that they believe Epstein, whose vast fortune they valued at $500 million or more, poses a significant danger to the community and a flight risk.
The government’s lawyers, in opposing Epstein’s request to be released from jail on bail, wrote that Epstein’s possible hush money payments occurred just days after the Miami Herald “began publishing a series of articles relating to the defendant, his conduct, and the circumstances of his prior conviction and the non-prosecution agreement” around Nov. 28, 2018. That sweetheart deal included criminal immunity for “any potential co-conspirators of Epstein, including but not limited to Sarah Kellen, Adriana Ross, Lesley Groff, or Nadia Marcinkova.”
Prosecutors say that on Nov. 30, 2018, just two days after the first Miami Herald article, “the defendant wired $100,000 from a trust account he controlled to an individual named as a possible co-conspirator in the [non-prosecution agreement]” according to records obtained from one of Epstein’s banks. And prosecutors say the records also revealed that on Dec. 3, 2018, just three days after that, “the defendant wired $250,000 from the same trust account to another individual named as a possible co-conspirator in the [non-prosecution agreement] and also identified as one of the defendant’s employees in the indictment.”
The indictment, unsealed on Monday, states that an unnamed “New York-based employee” and two unnamed assistants in Palm Beach would help with scheduling some of Epstein’s illicit encounters with underage girls and that Epstein would also contact some of the victims directly. Investigators allege Epstein conspired with others to traffic minors for sex.
Alex Acosta, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, reached an agreement in 2008 with Epstein’s attorneys where their client was allowed to plead guilty to two state-level prostitution solicitation charges related to a 17-year-old girl. Epstein served just 13 months in a Palm Beach County jail, paid restitution to certain victims, and registered as a sex offender. The secret agreement was reportedly struck before investigators had even finished interviewing all the alleged victims, and it included protections for some of Epstein’s alleged co-conspirators.
Facing intense pressure over his handling of the 2008 prosecution of Epstein, Acosta resigned on Friday as U.S. labor secretary. He will leave office in one week’s time, to be replaced in an acting capacity by his deputy Patrick Pizzella.
The government’s lawyers said Friday that these massive payments in 2018 from Epstein to his possible co-conspirators caught their eye mainly because neither of the payments were recurring or repeating during the five years of bank records to which prosecutors have access.
“This course of action, and in particular its timing, suggests the defendant was attempting to further influence co-conspirators who might provide information against him in light of the recently re-emerging allegations,” prosecutors wrote Friday evening.
This would not be the first time that Epstein has been connected to allegations of witness tampering or obstruction of justice. Prosecutors pointed out that a police report from more than a decade ago shows that “pressure tactics were at the very least coordinated closely with individuals in the defendant’s orbit” including the parent of one of the defendant’s victims being driven off the road by a private investigator. The police report also detailed “victim and witness threats and intimidation reported against an individual who was directly in contact with an assistant of the defendant” which were “followed ‘immediately’ by a call to that same individual from a phone number associated with the defendant’s businesses and associates.”
Another police report also suggests that “an associate of Epstein’s was offering to buy victims’ silence during the course of the prior investigation” and there are other “extensive allegations of obstruction and tampering” stemming from a civil lawsuit brought against Epstein after his conviction in 2008.
Prosecutors concluded by saying that “Pretrial Services, victims, and the government all recommend pretrial detention due to the unusual and concerning confluence of factors in this case, including the defendant’s extraordinary wealth, demonstrated willingness to interfere with victims and witnesses, continued possession of lewd photographs of young females, and both the incentive and means to flee prosecution.”
