Jeffrey Epstein has been arrested (again) on suspicion of sex trafficking underage girls in the early 2000s.

He’s set to appear in court this week, and this isn’t the first time that he’s been under the microscope for his behaviour towards young girls.

Epstein spent years in the early 2000s fending off rumours that he was engaged in inappropriate acts with minors.

Business Insider notes that his cover began to crack in 2005 when an anonymous tip from a woman, who said a wealthy man named “Jeff” had molested her step-daughter, sent detectives in Palm Beach, Florida after Epstein.

But in 2007, he cut a secret deal with then-US Attorney Acosta that granted Epstein immunity from federal prosecution, and Epstein 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 reportedly allowed to leave jail six days a week to work out of his Palm Beach office.

He was also registered as a sex offender in 2008.

Through all of this, he remained an odd, secretive figure who went from teaching maths and physics at Manhattan’s elite K-12 Dalton School, to a billionaire financier.

While he was a teacher, Epstein reportedly 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.

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, his career gets a little hazy.

“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.”

People are still not entirely sure how he made his money.

“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.

He’s also friends with Donald Trump. Note how all of these people have been involved in some kind of sexual harassment or abuse scandal.

Epstein is now facing charges of sex trafficking.

The newest charges are being prosecuted by the Southern District of New York, which alleges Epstein’s abuse of underage girls took place in his Manhattan and Florida homes from roughly 1999-2005, according to The Daily Beast.

Law-enforcement sources told The Daily Beast that Epstein’s employees and associates recruited the girls, and some victims even became recruiters themselves.

So while we might not be entirely sure how he made his money, we have some horrifying insight into how he allegedly spent it.

[source:businessinsider]