Jeffrey Epstein Biography

Jeffrey Edward Epstein (born January 20, 1953) is an American financier and science and education philanthropist. He is responsible for founding The Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard University, one of the first academic departments to study the mathematics of evolution. He is also known for funding Nobel and eminent scientists around the world.

Life

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Epstein attended Lafayette High School. He attended classes at Cooper Union from 1969 to 1971 and then at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, leaving without a degree. From 1973 to 1975 he taught calculus and physics at the Dalton School, before becoming an options trader at Bear Stearns.

Financial career

Epstein began his financial career in 1976 as an options trader at Bear Stearns. He specialized in mathematical models such as the Black-Scholes option-pricing model and later worked in the special products division, advising high net worth clients on tax strategies. In 1980, Epstein became a partner at Bear Stearns. In 1982, Epstein founded his own financial management firm, J. Epstein & Co., managing the assets of clients with more than a billion in net worth. In 1987, Leslie Wexner, founder and chairman of the Columbus, Ohio"based Limited chain of women's-clothing stores became a well-known client. In 1996, Epstein changed the name of his firm to The Financial Trust Company and based it on the island of St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands.

In 2003, Epstein publicly bid for New York Magazine, along with advertising executive, Donny Deutsch, investor Nelson Peltz, publishing mogul and owner of The Daily News, Mortimer Zuckerman and film producer Harvey Weinstein. They were ultimately out bid by longtime wall street investor Bruce Wasserstein for $55 million. In 2004, Epstein and Mortimer Zuckerman, committed to finance up to $25 million to back Radar, a celebrity and pop culture magazine and Maer Roshan, its editor in chief and founder. Epstein and Zuckerman were equal partners in the venture, and Mr. Roshan retained a small ownership stake.

Since all but one of his financial clients are anonymous, it has been speculated that much of Epstein's lavish lifestyle was once financed by Wexner. In September 2002 he flew Bill Clinton, Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker to Africa in his private Boeing 727, to promote the former president's anti-AIDS efforts. He was also friends with Prince Andrew, Duke of York, whom he hosted in his New York mansion in December 2010.

In addition to his private island called Little St. James Island off of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Epstein owns a townhouse in Manhattan that was formerly owned by Les Wexner. The townhouse is reported to be the largest private residence in Manhattan. He also owns a villa in Palm Beach, Florida, an apartment in Paris, France and a 10,000-acre ranch including a 26,700-square-foot hilltop mansion in Stanley, New Mexico, south of Santa Fe.

Science funding

Epstein is a financial supporter of the sciences and the founder of the Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation, which funds science research and education around the world. The Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation was established in 2000. In 2003, Epstein donated $30 million to Harvard University to set up the university's Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, which studies evolution and the evolution of micro biology from a purely mathematical point of view. Under the direction of Martin Nowak, Epstein was solely responsible for financing new research such as the first mathematical model of cancer cell evolution and one of the first models of virus growth, including HIV. Such models led to approaches to treating genetic resistance to inhibitor drugs. Epstein also funded Nowak's original research on the origin of life, RNA replication on Earth and the evolution of language. Prior to 2003, Epstein's foundation funded Nowak's research at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University. Epstein currently sits on the Mind, Brain and Behavior Committee at Harvard University.

The Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation has also funded genetic research leading towards advances in such fields as Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, ovarian cancer, breast cancer and Crohn's and Colitis Disease. Epstein has given substantial funds to the American Cancer Society, notably to CTC technology, a blood test to identify genetic mutations to anti-inhibitor cancer drugs

According to New York Magazine, Epstein has provided more than $20 million a year to scientists. Epstein has provided funding to scientists such as Gerald Edelman, Murray Gell-Mann, Stephen Hawking, Kip Thorne, Marvin Minsky, Lawrence Krauss, Lee Smolin and Gregory Benford. Epstein's foundations sponsored a conference on St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands with such scientists as nobel laureates, Gerard 't Hooft, David Gross and Frank Wilczek, theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking and Lawrence Krauss, covering such topics as unified gravity theory, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, the origins of language and global threats to the Earth.

Solicitation of prostitution

In March 2005, a woman contacted Palm Beach police, concerned that her 14 year old daughter had been taken to Epstein's mansion by an older girl and paid $300 after stripping and massaging him. She had told him that she was 18 years old. She undressed but had left on her underwear. By 2011 at least 40 girls had come forward with similar stories, some saying Epstein sexually assaulted them during the massage.

Police started an 11-month undercover investigation of Epstein, followed by a search of his home. Subsequently, they alleged that Epstein had paid several escorts to perform sexual acts on him. Interviews with five alleged victims and 17 witnesses under oath, phone messages, a high school transcript and other items they found in Mr. Epstein's trash and home allegedly show that some girls were under 18, although some maintained to him at the time that they were of proper age. A search of Epstein's home found numerous photos of girls throughout the house, some of whom had been interviewed earlier by the police. He had set up a system of young women recruiting other women for his massage services. Two housekeepers stated to the police that Epstein would receive massages every day whenever he stayed in Palm Beach. In May 2006, Palm Beach police filed a probable cause affidavit saying that Epstein should be charged with four counts of unlawful sex with minors and one molestation count. His team of lawyers included Gerald B. Lefcourt, Alan Dershowitz and later also Kenneth Starr. Epstein passed a lie detector test in which he was asked whether he knew of the under-age status of the girls. They also questioned the credibility of the teenage accusers, based in part on their MySpace postings and information obtained by private investigators.

Instead of following the recommendation of the police, the prosecutors considered the evidence weak and presented it to a grand jury, an uncommon procedure in non-capital cases. The grand jury returned only a single charge of felony solicitation of prostitution, to which Epstein pleaded not guilty in August 2006.

In June, 2008, after pleading to a single state charge of soliciting prostitution, Epstein began serving an 18-month sentence. He served 13 months in jail of his 18-month sentence as a convicted sex offender in the state of Florida for soliciting an underage girl for prostitution. He is a registered sex offender.

After the accusations became public, several parties returned donations they had received from Epstein, including Eliot L. Spitzer, Mark A. Green, Bill Richardson, and the Palm Beach Police Department. Harvard announced that it would not return any money.

On June 18, 2010, Epstein's former butler, Alfredo Rodriguez, was sentenced to 18 months in jail for trying to sell a journal that he said recorded Epstein's activities. Special Agent Christina Pryor reviewed the material and agreed it was information "that would have been extremely useful in investigating and prosecuting the case, including names and contact information of material witnesses and additional victims."

Civil lawsuits

On February 6, 2008, an anonymous Virginia woman filed a $50 million civil lawsuit in federal court against Epstein, alleging that when she was a 16-year-old minor in 2004-2005, she was "recruited to give Epstein a massage." After being brought to his Palm Beach mansion, she claims that he exposed himself and had sexual intercourse with her, and paid her $200 immediately afterward. A similar $50 million suit was filed by a different woman in March 2008 who was represented by the same lawyer. Several of these lawsuits were dismissed and all other lawsuits were settled out of court. He has so far made 17 out-of-court settlements, and some cases are ongoing.