As a businessman and criminal, Epstein has a long documented history. He owned homes around the world, including an entire private island in the Caribbean. And he was connected to dozens of rich and powerful people, including presidents, CEOs, and billionaires.
Here is a look at Epstein's life, career, criminal charges, and famous connections.
Epstein was born on January 20, 1953, and raised in Brooklyn, New York. In his early 20s, he taught physics and math at Manhattan's elite K-12 Dalton School.
Jeffrey Epstein in Cambridge, Massachusetts in September 2004.
Rick Friedman/Rick Friedman Photography/Corbis via Getty Images
After attending Lafayette High School in Brooklyn, Epstein dropped out of Manhattan's Cooper Union in 1971. He then enrolled in New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences but left without a degree.
While at Dalton, Epstein's prospects for a high-flying finance career began to bloom.
(L-R) Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein, and musician Michael Bolton pose for a portrait during a party at the Mar-a-Lago club, Palm Beach, Florida, February 12, 2000.
Davidoff Studios/Getty Images
When he was a teacher, Epstein tutored Bear Stearns chairman Ace Greenberg's son and "was friendly" with his daughter, and left the school in 1976 to work at the firm, Vanity Fair reported.
Epstein did well at the firm and was made a limited partner before he decided to leave in 1981 to start his own firm.
Once he set up J. Epstein and Co. in 1982, Epstein's wealth and career got increasingly murky.
Les Wexner and Ed Razek pose backstage at the 2016 Fragrance Foundation Awards in New York City.
Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for Fragrance Foundation
New York Magazine credited "those who know Epstein" and "lore" for the only existing and still vague details of the firm's business, which for tax purposes, was run from the island of St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands.
The firm only accepted clients with $1 billion or more of assets and has been shrouded in secrecy since its founding. Les Wexner, the founder of the clothing brand The Limited and a high-flyer in the fashion industry, has been the only identified client of the firm.
"My belief is that Jeff maintains some sort of money-management firm, though you won't get a straight answer from him," one well-known investor told New York Magazine of Epstein in 2002. "He once told me he had 300 people working for him, and I've also heard that he manages Rockefeller money. But one never knows. It's like looking at the Wizard of Oz – there may be less there than meets the eye."
Though it remains unclear how exactly Epstein made his money, his wealth began to play out on an international scale as he snapped up properties across the world.
Epstein bought the 72-acre Little St. James Island in 1998 for $7.95 million, and bought the 165-acre Great St. James Island in 2016 for nearly $20 million.
Jeffrey Epstein's former home on the island of Little St. James in the US Virgin Islands.
Emily Michot/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Epstein gained public recognition through the Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation, which put his high-profile connections on display with a $30 million donation to Harvard University.
Jeffrey Epstein with then-Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz
Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty Images
Epstein's philanthropic efforts culminated in the Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation, which made headlines for a 2003 donation of $30 million to Harvard University to establish a mathematical biology and evolutionary dynamics program.
The donation showed off some of Epstein's most elite connections, as he was publicly lauded as "brilliant" by then-Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz, who would later help represent him when Epstein was accused of sex crimes in 2007.
The donation joined the ranks of what some saw as Epstein's carefully calculated efforts to curate an image of himself as an elite figure.
"He is this mysterious, Gatsbyesque figure," someone familiar with Epstein told NYMag in 2002. "He likes people to think that he is very rich, and he cultivates this air of aloofness. The whole thing is weird."
Epstein emerged as a "collector" of famous and powerful friends and became well-known for footing travel for a trip to Africa with President Bill Clinton and actor Kevin Spacey.
Former US President Bill Clinton greets a crowd while touring an outdoor market on August 3, 2008, in Monrovia, Liberia.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images For The Clinton Foundation
Epstein's private plane took Clinton, Spacey, and comedian Chris Tucker to Africa to tour AIDS project sites.
This was one instance of Epstein getting friendly with Clinton, as the former president would reportedly take several flights on Epstein's private plane in 2002 and 2003, according to logs Gawker obtained in 2015.
"I invest in people, be it politics or science," Epstein said in 2002. "It's what I do."
Clinton isn't the only president who was once friendly with Epstein. Donald Trump ran in the same circles as Epstein and seemed to be privy early on to the open secret that the financier was often surrounded by young women.
American financier Jeffrey Epstein and real estate developer Donald Trump as they pose together at the Mar-a-Lago estate, Palm Beach, Florida, 1997.
Davidoff Studios/Getty Images
Then a real-estate mogul, Trump described Epstein in 2002 to New York Magazine as someone who "enjoys his social life" and likes women "on the younger side."
"I've known Jeff for 15 years," Trump told the magazine at the time. "Terrific guy. He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on July 9, 2019, Trump said he knew Epstein "like everybody in Palm Beach knew him."
Trump continued: "I had a falling out with him a long time ago. I don't think I have spoken with him for 15 years. I was not a fan. A long time ago. I'd say maybe 15 years. I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you. I was not a fan of his."
Epstein's connections proved valuable after Miami authorities began to investigate him for sexual abuse in 2005. The financier was protected from prosecution by Alex Acosta.
Then-labor secretary-designate Alex Acosta testifies on Capitol Hill on March 22, 2017.
AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
After years of fielding allegations of sexually abusing young girls, detectives in Palm Beach, Florida, acted on a tip in 2005 from a woman who said a wealthy man named "Jeff" had molested her step-daughter.
But in 2008, Epstein cut a secret deal with Acosta, who was then US attorney of Florida's Southern District. (Acosta served as Trump's labor secretary from 2017 to 2019.)
The deal granted Epstein immunity from federal prosecution, and he pleaded guilty only to solicitation of prostitution and procurement of minors for prostitution.
Epstein only ended up serving a 13-month jail sentence, during which he was allowed to leave jail six days a week to work out of his Palm Beach office.
Epstein's mysterious public image began to crack over the course of his legal proceedings, as he became a registered sex offender in 2008.
Screenshot via New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services
In November 2018, the Miami Herald reported that dozens of victims alleged Epstein routinely abused underage girls in his Palm Beach mansion.
Epstein's home in Palm Beach, Florida, where much of the abuse is alleged to have taken place.
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The Herald's Julie Brown reported that court documents detailed Epstein paying underage girls to give him massages, during which he would often subject them to further abuse and later offer them money to recruit other young girls.
Joseph Recarey, the lead Palm Beach detective on the case, said Epstein was essentially operating a "sexual pyramid scheme." Brown and the Herald identified about 80 women who said Epstein molested or sexually abused them.
A team of prosecutors, including Dershowitz, fought the charges, and Epstein responded to the suits by saying the girls consented to "the acts alleged" and that he believed they were 18, the Daily Beast reported.
In July 2019, Epstein was arrested on suspicion of sex trafficking minors.
Jeffrey Epstein was arrested in 2019 on charges of sex trafficking of minors.
Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty Images
The Southern District of New York alleged Epstein's abuse of underage girls took place in his Manhattan and Florida homes.
Epstein was charged on July 8, 2019, with sex trafficking and conspiracy. In the indictment, prosecutors alleged that Epstein molested girls as young as 14 in a sex trafficking operation that ran from at least 2002 to 2005. Epstein pleaded not guilty.
Over the course of the investigation, unsealed documents and evidence revealed Epstein's high-profile network facilitated sexual abuse and trafficking.
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US District Judge Richard Berman announced in court in July 2019 that he had decided against Epstein's bail request, saying he posed a flight risk as well as a public safety risk, and that there was a potential risk of obstruction of justice.
In his decision, Berman said Epstein was a danger to himself and others and therefore shouldn't be released.
"I find that the government has established danger to others and to the community by clear and convincing evidence," he said, noting that "I doubt that any bail package can overcome danger to the community."
Epstein died by suicide in the early hours of August 10, 2019.
Jeffrey Epstein appears in a photo taken for the NY Division of Criminal Justice Services' sex offender registry
Reuters
Epstein died while he was being held at Manhattan's Metropolitan Correctional Center.
The death came shortly after he was first hospitalized a month earlier by authorities who found him after a possible suicide attempt. Epstein was placed on suicide watch after the initial attempt.
Court documents naming more than 170 of Epstein's associates were released to the public court docket on a rolling basis beginning on January 3, 2024.
American financier Jeffrey Epstein and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell attend a birthday party for Michael Caine at The Canteen restaurant in Chelsea, London, 17th June 1997.
Dave Benett/Getty Images
Many on social media have speculated that the unsealed documents might contain a secret cache of Epstein's friends.
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