Jeffrey Epstein was arrested twice, the first in 2005 and the second in 2019, during which he committed suicide.
Afrasianet - A case named after American billionaire and businessman Jeffrey Epstein, who is accused of running a prostitution ring, using his homes and an island he owned to commit sexual crimes against underage girls (13-17) and recruiting others to expand his network.
The case came to public in 2005 when Epstein was tried for prostitution with a minor, and documents proving his involvement with U.S. and international political and artistic figures in a prostitution and minor exploitation network were revealed.
Although he committed suicide following his second arrest in 2019, the case remained reactive after him, causing a stir in American society.
Jeffrey Epstein
Born in New York in 1953, American billionaire and businessman Jeffrey Epstein has worked in several professions, including teaching and investment banking, and was known for his proximity to many stars and politicians.
He is a well-connected figure with the elite of American society and was known for his closeness to former President Donald Trump, who once described Epstein as a "wonderful man."
From his home, which he bought in 1990 in Palm Beach, Florida, local police began investigating Epstein after receiving complaints from neighbors who noticed that young girls constantly flocked to his home.
The police immediately noticed the power of his influence and the fear that made many girls refuse to testify, so they worked secretly for years trying to choose the most appropriate time to search his home and then arrest him. Investigators felt they were being monitored around the clock, and found that their garbage was also searched, forcing the investigation team to change its strategy and how to save its data to trap it.
US authorities suspended Epstein in 2005 on charges of sexually exploiting a minor as young as 14 and using the illegal services of dozens of minors at his Florida home.
Although several girls testified about Epstein and his friends' assault on them, the court confirmed only one assault in 2008, charged only with "inciting prostitution", and sentenced him to 13 months after reaching an agreement with prosecutors that protected him from further investigations.
Under the deal, Epstein admitted that he had arranged meetings for clients with underage girls for the purpose of sex, and was given relaxed conditions inside the prison during his detention, even allowing him to go to his home in Palm Beach several hours a day.
Alexander Costa approved the deal as Florida's attorney general at the time, resigned as Trump's secretary of labor after new charges against Epstein surfaced, and was reproached for his leniency at a time when Epstein could have been arrested and his series of crimes stopped.
Epstein's case returned to circulation after an article published in the American newspaper "Miami Herald" in which it referred to Epstein's victims, and to those involved in the reduction of sentence against him such as Costa, so federal prosecutors re-monitored him and investigated the case, and discovered that he runs a prostitution ring, and he was arrested from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey on July 6, 2019.
Two days later, he was charged with sexual exploitation of minors and conspiracy to sexually traffic minors, charges punishable by up to 45 years in prison, and prosecution documents say he trafficked minors, subjected them to sexual slavery, and presented them to rich world celebrities.
After hearing his statements, a court in Manhattan sentenced him to "detention without bail", and on August 10, 2019, Epstein was found dead in his cell with a neck injury, and due to the expansion of the prostitution network and its access to prominent individuals, some saw that he had been killed to cover up those involved with him, but the police later announced that he had committed suicide.
Galine Maxwell. Partner in the case
Gillyn Maxwell, the daughter of the Jewish Robert Maxwell, a British journalist and founder of Pergamon Publishing, holds British, American and French citizenship, and is a celebrity of American society, was linked to the case as Epstein's girlfriend, and was accused of being his partner in the prostitution network after Virginia Giuffre (victim and the main plaintiff against Epstein) filed a defamation lawsuit against her.
Maxwell was involved in the case through several activities in which she contributed to the expansion of the prostitution network, recruiting girls into sexual slavery, and giving money to girls who brought others to "massage services" who later discovered that it was with another intent. She was offering money to friends of the victim, Virginia Giuffrey, to refute and deny her and other victims' statements to exonerate those involved.
Maxwell was arrested in July 2021, sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined $750,000 in 2022, and convicted on five charges, including securing underage girls for prostitution for Epstein and his friends.
Julie Brown – author of the book "The Deviation of Justice: The Story of Jeffrey Epstein" – says that the relationship between Epstein and the Maxwell family began since the eighties of the last century, while Maxwell's father was on the verge of bankruptcy, Epstein helped him hide his money in offshore bank accounts, and since then began his relationship with the British Jewish family, and thus got to know their ninth daughter, "Gilline".
Victim Virginia Joffrey
Among the many victims, and despite the refusal of many, one girl dared to file a lawsuit against Epstein and his partner Maxwell in 2015, accusing them of assaulting and sexually exploiting her — since she was 17 — and of orchestrating sexual encounters with "kings, politicians, academics, prominent businessmen and other wealthy people" – all of whom denied involvement, including Britain's Prince Andrew and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz (Israel's defender at the International Court of Justice against charges of genocide in Gaza)..
Virginia Giuffre says Maxwell arranged for the girls, including Virginia, to provide "massage services" in a health product for $200 and took them to Epstein's home, but she and other girls did not expect massage services to turn into sexual exploitation, and accused the FBI of covering up the practice.
Virginia wasn't the only one suing Epstein and his partner, but many girls followed suit under pseudonyms, ultimately leading to Maxwell's 2022 conviction of trafficking girls for sex.
Besides Virginia Giuffrey, Joanna Seoberg provided much evidence of involvement with Epstein by a number of prominent figures, accusing Prince Andrew of assaulting her three times in 2001 at Epstein's home in London, New York and Little St. James. The prince was stripped of his titles following this case, which he settled with the victim and was not prosecuted, paying her $13 million.
On the other hand, the prince also settled the case filed by Virginia Giuffre against him in 2022, in which she accused him of abusing her when she was a teenager, but he denied meeting the girl, despite the spread of a photo documenting their meeting, and denied any other accusations, and in return did not deny his relationship with Epstein, and said through his lawyer, "Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and praises the courage of Mrs. Virginia Giuffre and the other survivors in defending themselves and others."
Epstein Island. One of the places
Epstein Island is located in the Caribbean Sea within a number of US Virgin Islands off the coast of St. Thomas, and its original name is "Little St. James", and for American society, it is the home of conspiracy theories circulating locally, so they called it several famous names, including "Pedophilia Island" (child prostitution), "Island" and "Pleasure Island".
It covers an area of 75 acres, including reserves and orchards, andduring World War I, the United States bought it from Denmark to prevent it from being used as a base for German submarines, and the matter developed into private property, and a haven for tax escapees.
The island has been owned by billionaire Epstein for 20 years, and he has lived there most of the time, trying to build a reputation in the Virgin Islands through his generous donations to government officials and educational institutions and his stakes in companies there, but he did not succeed in doing so, as his bad reputation was widespread locally.
Epstein Island was mentioned in the criminal case against him as "the perfect hideout and haven for the sexual trafficking of underage girls, sexual slavery and child abuse."
The lawsuit documents also stated that Epstein and his companions sought to avoid detection of their activity in the Virgin Islands, hide from federal law enforcement, and prevent their young victims and underage girls from leaving freely and escaping abuse, which was confirmed by several young women who tried to flee while being transported to the island.
CBS News quoted girls and children who could not escape, saying that the only way out was by helicopter or boat, and authorities were not even allowed to enter the island when they tried to do so when Epstein was alive, because the entire island was privately owned.
"Pedophilia Island" was not the only property owned by Epstein, and it was not the only place pointed by the fingers, he owned another island and luxurious houses and palaces, which were among the places referred to in the prostitution network, but what made the island take the largest part of the attention is its privacy and the difficulty of accessing and exiting it, in addition to documenting the visit of politicians and international celebrities to it, with several closed buildings, one of which is in the form of a "temple" around which many rumors have been raised accusing Epstein and his partners by exploiting him in "rituals and parties of sexual assault."
Attorney General Dennis George, who handled the lawsuit over Epstein's property after his death, said the island was "a place to hide his criminal activity" and that his power and wealth gave him the ability to cover up his criminal activities, and noted that he was transporting girls by helicopter from St. Thomas Island to his island.
Two days after Epstein's suicide, FBI agents raided the island in search of any evidence related to the case, and then sold the island for half its price in May 2023 to an investor to turn it into a luxury resort.
Documents reveal many
Among the more than 190 pieces of evidence and more than 3,000 papers, the names of those involved and contributors to this network lie, thanks to the defamation lawsuit filed by victim Virginia Giuffrey in 2015, but it was not fully disclosed to the public, but was revealed in stages, according to court orders.
In 2019, the first 2,000 pages of the case files were revealed, followed by the announcement of the rest of the parts in 2020, 2021, 2022, and early 2024, which activists rumored were published at this particular time to divert American public opinion from attention to the humanitarian situation inside the Gaza Strip, due to the Israeli aggression that began in October 2023.
The documents not only identified those involved, but also included the names of individuals whom Epstein and his partner may have hired to serve them, but who were not charged by the court, including former US President Bill Clinton, who the documents say used Epstein's personal plane four times.
In late 2023, the judge overseeing the case ordered the publication of the third batch of documents related to the lawsuit, which included the names of prominent politicians and others, pending new statements and evidence supporting the allegations mentioned in the documents.
Not all the names were mentioned in the context of the accusation, but documented a relationship between Epstein and the aforementioned figures, such as US President Donald Trump and the late American singer Michael Jackson, as the documents confirmed their visit to Epstein's home, but without making clear accusations linking them to the prostitution network.
The documents consisted of interviews by investigators with defendants in the case, such as Maxwell and other figures accused of being part of the prostitution network team, as well as video testimonies, some of which were recorded by Tijuan Alessi, Epstein's Florida housekeeper, and others who lived in his home.
Alessi said she saw Britain's Prince Andrew and his wife Sarah Ferguson, that he stayed weeks at home and had a daily "massage service," and Alfredo Rodriguez, Epstein's bodyguard, said he had repeatedly delivered money from Epstein to "high school students, those who help recruit girls."
The documents that were disclosed included 150 pages of phone messages written by an Epstein employee, which included the names of people who denied their connection to Epstein's business, stressing that the relationship between them was within the framework of managing their own funds and receiving advice in this regard.
Names revealed in the documents
Jean-Luc Brunel, a close friend of Epstein's who was found dead in a French prison in 2022 while being investigated by French authorities, was accused of helping to recruit underage women and girls for Epstein, and also alleged that he raped and assaulted women.
Bill Richardson, the former governor of New Mexico, said he visited Epstein's farm in New Mexico, and victim Virginia Giuffre said she had been directed to provide him with a "massage service" previously, but he called the accusation "completely false" and denied meeting her.
Victim Seoberg stated that she had dinner with magician David Copperfield at Epstein's home, and said he asked her "if she knew that girls were getting paid to find other girls," but that he had no charges.
Seoberg said she met Michael Jackson at Epstein's home in Palm Beach. But she did not provide him with any "massage services" and no charges were brought against him.
The name of the late physicist Steve Hawking was mentioned in an email Epstein sent to Maxwell in 2015, and the email said Hawking participated in group sex parties for underage girls.
Seoberg said she had not met Bill Clinton, but testified that Epstein told her that "Clinton loves them young," an apparent reference to the girls. While Joffrey had previously said Clinton and Epstein had a close relationship, she did not accuse him of any illegal act.
But according to prosecution documents, Clinton had threatened Vanity magazine if it published an article alleging that Epstein founded a prostitution ring. In the same documents, Joffrey also claimed that Clinton was fully aware of the prostitution network Epstein was running.
Epstein and the Mossad
Case documents also linked Epstein to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, as they had commercial cooperation, as Epstein contributed financially to Barak's projects, making him accused of involvement in the case.
Ehud Barak did not deny his connection to Epstein, but he denied knowledge of the prostitution network or Epstein's practices in general, but Benjamin Netanyahu, Barak's rival, took advantage of this case immediately after Epstein's arrest and demanded that Barak be investigated, especially after the latter formed a party for the purpose of running for elections.
Netanyahu demanded a criminal investigation into Barak's personal and business ties to those involved in the prostitution network, and his companies were immediately scrutinized amid questions about the source of his wealth.
Barak denied all rumors about his involvement in the prostitution network led by Epstein, and defended his business relationship with him, stressing that the limits of their relationship did not exceed that, and stated that he was not the only one who maintained his relationship with him after his arrest, and confirmed the existence of a partnership between Epstein and prominent American politicians, saying, "If the American regime itself did not classify him persona non grata, how can he expect me to notice his actions."
This reinforced Epstein's association with the Maxwell Jewish family, first with father Robert and later daughter Gillin, as Epstein had previously supported Robert when he was on the brink of bankruptcy. "It is not unlikely that Epstein had an affair with the Mossad," she said, pointing to the similarities in the circumstances of the death of Epstein and Robert in 1991, as their assassination by the Mossad is locally rumored, although the suicide of the former and the death of the latter by drowning due to a mistaken fall are confirmed.
On the other hand, former Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe claimed in an interview with Russia Today that Epstein and Maxwell's father were Israeli agents, and that everything that was rumored and said was aimed at gathering intelligence from prominent figures for the Mossad and blackmailing them.
Menashe said Britain's Prince Andrew was also used as an intermediary to bring in prominent figures for Epstein, and that Barack knew everything that was happening. Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta also confirmed that Epstein was working for Israeli intelligence.