插圖來源：Rick Friedman/Getty Images
說明：Jeffrey Epstein (1953-2019)
以下這宗醜聞，適合運用 Follow the money 原則進行調查，有助尋找真相。
案件的關鍵人物是已故的美國猶太裔金融業富商愛潑斯坦 (Jeffrey Epstein, 1953-2019)，他是國際級扯皮條（淫媒），操控女子賣淫，顧客是達官貴人。愛潑斯坦本人也曾經性侵未成年少女，被少女的母親提出控告，時間是 2005 年，結果他被判罪名成立。換言之，他是戀童癖（Pedophilia）。
如果你有留意國際新聞，應該知道愛潑斯坦的社交網路包括多位西方世界名人，例如：前美國總統柯林頓（Bill Clinton）和英國的安德魯王子（Prince Andrew）。說句公道話：某位名人跟愛潑斯坦有交往，並不代表某人曾經嫖妓又或者是戀童癖，但是有嫌疑，不容易洗脫，因為扯皮條（淫媒）已死。
現任美國總統特郎普（Donald Trump）也曾經是愛潑斯坦的朋友，根據英語傳媒的報導，特郎普否認曾經在手繪的裸女像上簽名送給愛潑斯坦（作為後者的五十歲生日禮物），原因？愛潑斯坦是國際級扯皮條（淫媒）。美國總統是嫖客？還是淫媒的朋友？ 這種故事吸引傳媒，對不對？是否特郎普的仇家發功？自己想。
愛潑斯坦在等待性交易案審訊期間在監獄中自殺身亡，被發現的日期是 2019 年 8 月 10 日上午，監獄官員稱他是自縊身亡。他的死留下不少謎團：
（一）表面上，愛潑斯坦是自殺，但他的律師認為他是被謀殺。BBC 的報導指出，愛潑斯坦在 2019 年 7 月曾企圖在獄中自殺，其後被安置在有自殺監視的囚室內，但在他死前，監視模式被解除了。在他死前幾日，與他同囚室的獄友也被調離。是否被滅口（被自殺）？自己想。詳情請參考《延伸閱讀》部分提供的參考資料。
（二）案件的焦點是愛潑斯坦有沒有留下客戶名單 (Client list)。美國的執法部門官員語焉不詳，答案前後矛盾，令英語傳媒無法下定論。但是英語傳媒找到跟愛潑斯坦有金錢往來的跨國金融機構，可以從愛潑斯坦跟賣淫女子的金錢往來記錄入手，再配合其他資料（例如：愛潑斯坦及多位名人的行程表或交往紀錄），嘗試重組嫖客名單。運用 Follow the Money 原則進行調查，有助尋找真相。但是重組嫖客名單的工程浩大而且複雜，並非單一新聞機構可以辦得到，具備相關經驗的跨國調查記者組織（例如：OCCRP, ICIJ）適合擔此重任。為什麼要重組嫖客名單？因為那些黑材料可以用來控制一群有財有勢的西方世界精英。如果你是某個「邪惡軸心」（英文：Axis of evil）國的領導人，間諜出身，應該知道怎麼做。
（三）對於被捲入性交易案的跨國金融機構來說，案件是內部合規 (Internal Compliance) 問題。跨國金融機構因為替客戶處理金錢往來而捲入犯罪行為（例如：教唆或操控未成年人士進行性交易，又或者牽涉跨國人口販賣），變成協助壞人洗黑錢 (Money laundering)，是常見的事。結果通常是：跨國金融機構被監管機構罰款或譴責，聲譽受損。要跨國金融機構交出跟某位已經死亡的名人客戶的金錢交易記錄，必須由監管機構以及執法部門出手。參考以往案例，事情牽涉法律問題，跨國金融機構也有自己的律師團隊，可以拖延數年。如果由職業特工隊出手，事情就牽涉間諜活動。那個國家有這樣的能力和動機？自己想。
（四）案件的另一個分析角度：愛潑斯坦為什麼要做扯皮條（淫媒）？為金融業生意儲備人脈還是投客戶所好（湊客）？结交同好？如果他不過是棋子，背後有幕後黑手，幕後黑手有什麼目的？英語傳媒提供的其中一個陰謀論：愛潑斯坦是猶太裔金融家，背後是以色列，試圖透過性交易控制西方世界的统治精英。如果是這樣，事件的本質就變成間諜活動，對不對？最後愛潑斯坦由棋子變棄子，自殺或被自殺，信不信由你。還是有人想利用英語傳媒抹黑以色列？以色列仇家多，對不對？
（五）閱讀愛潑斯坦的生平資料，你會發現很多謎團，令你滿頭問號，部份細節也令人頭皮發麻，甚至是毛骨悚然。例如：他的前女友馬克斯韋爾（Ghislaine Maxwell）因為協助男友誘騙未成年少女賣淫而入獄，她聲稱自己也是性罪行的受害者（想減刑？）。中年女人協助老男人傷害少女？她是什麼心態？討好有利用價值的老男人？還是為了錢？另外，愛潑斯坦加入金融業之前曾在私立學校教書，學生非富則貴。他讀過大學但是沒有拿到學位，居然可以教書，因為有人脈？他被學校開除了，原因據說跟性罪行無關，而是教學技巧的問題，信不信由你。之後愛潑斯坦轉投金融業再進化成國際級扯皮條（淫媒）。扯皮條是前教師？說明現實比小說更離奇 (Life is stranger than fiction)。如果你相信 Networking，愛潑斯坦絕對是高手，擁有一個國際級的人脈網絡，但是那個網絡也直接或間接地害死他，對不對？
結論：可以肯定的是，愛潑斯坦案反映西方世界上流社會的黑暗面。他死了，但是案件會持續發酵，會有各種勢力試圖把案件扭曲成對自己最有利的樣子，又或者在調查或審訊的過程中，有某種勢力試圖保護某人。他的故事很邪惡，牽涉金錢、權力和性交易，不適合弱小心靈和衛道之士。結案 N 年之後，也許會被改編成黑色電視劇或電影，又或者被從事調查報導 (Investigative Journalism) 的外國記者用來寫書。中間人利用別人，也被別人利用，最後死得不明不白，就是這樣。
相關的文章：
Follow the money (Part 1)
2025 年 9 月 17 日
https://xiaoshousha.blogspot.com/2025/09/follow-money-part-1.html
節錄：不是陶傑的口頭禪，而是反洗錢 (AML, Anti-Money Laundering) 法規的指導思想。意大利法官 Giovanni Falcone (1939-1992) 被黑手黨用炸彈暗殺，但是他的理念及開創的調查手法成為反洗錢 (AML) 法規的指導思想。肉身粉碎，精神長存，繼續跟惡勢力鬥爭。從事調查報導 (Investigative Journalism) 的外國記者會告訴你，壞人可以透過離岸公司和複雜的股權結構以及利用白手套隱藏身份，Follow the money 绝非易事。
延伸閱讀／參考資料：
JPMorgan and Jeffrey Epstein links
AMLintelligence.com
2025-09-17
From Paul O'Donoghue at AMLi
Excerpt: JPMORGAN: The U.S. Treasury
Department said it will hand over SARs (Suspicious
Activity Reports), on transactions between Jeffrey Epstein and various parties,
including JPMorgan, to the House Oversight Committee. Treasury officials said that the department “plans to fully cooperate
with the Committee.” The files detail Epstein
transactions totaling at least $1.5 billion, the committee said.
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https://www.amlintelligence.com/mission/
Welcome to AMLIntelligence (AMLi), the fastest growing business
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verification and trust.
The U.S. Treasury Department holds records
about financial transactions by Jeffrey Epstein, but has so far refused to hand
them to Congressional investigators.
Reported by Kevin G. Hall
OCCRP (September 10, 2025)
Excerpt: A U.S. senator unveiled legislation
today intended to force the Treasury Department to release financial documents
containing names of women and girls potentially trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein,
the late financier and convicted sex offender.
Ron
Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, is demanding the administration of President
Donald Trump release records involving more than $1.5 billion in wire
transfers.
"They
also reveal potential violations of federal anti-money laundering laws by J.P.
Morgan and other banks — compliance failures that helped Epstein continue
abusing and trafficking women and girls many years after law enforcement was
first alerted to his activities," according to a statement from Wyden’s
office.
The move comes after the U.S. Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform this week made public files that included a
sexually suggestive note bearing a signature that looks like Trump’s. The White
House has called the note a forgery, and Trump has denied the signature is his.
Wyden is now the top Democrat on the Senate
Finance Committee, which he headed during the previous presidency of Joe Biden.
Under Biden’s administration, the committee’s investigative staff reviewed a
significant portion of the files in person at the Treasury Department.
“The files detail Epstein transactions
totaling at least $1.5 billion dollars, and they include the names of women and
girls he may have trafficked, as well as the identities of individuals whose
involvement with Epstein may put them at risk of blackmail or other foreign
corruption,” Wyden’s office said.
The
proposed legislation follows a New York Times investigation published this
week, which showed how J.P. Morgan profited from its relationship with Epstein,
even setting up accounts for young women later revealed to be sex trafficking
victims.
J.P.
Morgan, through a spokesman, told the New York Times that its relationship with
Epstein “was a mistake and in hindsight we regret it, but we did not help him
commit his heinous crimes.” A J.P. Morgan spokesperson told OCCRP the bank had no comment on Wyden’s
draft legislation.
Deutsche
Bank was also caught up in the imbroglio around Epstein. In 2020, the New York
State Department of Financial Services imposed a $150-million fine against the
bank for failing to “detect or prevent millions of dollars of suspicious
transactions” related to Epstein, despite being aware of his “terrible criminal
history.”
Deutsche
Bank did not respond to a request for comment before publication.
The Wyden legislation would require Treasury
Secretary Scott Bessent to provide a list of all banks that filed Suspicious
Activity Reports on Epstein, and a list of the entities and individuals identified in the reports. It
would also require Bessent to provide information on what the Treasury
Department and its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network did with the reports it
received from banks.
Wyden said he was seeking information from
the Treasury Department on 72 entities and individuals that had done transactions
with Epstein. The list included a now-defunct trust in Jersey called La Hougue and
British solicitor Malcolm Grumbridge. They were the focus of a 2022
investigation by OCCRP and the Miami Herald about the family finances of Epstein’s
onetime girlfriend and fellow convict, Ghislaine Maxwell. Grumbridge
acknowledged at the time that he was an “external adviser” to the Maxwell
family, but said he had no relationship to La Hougue beyond following the
wishes of his clients in regard to the trust, which reporters found had engaged
in suspicious trading activities.
Wyden said the files held by the Treasury
Department could provide key evidence for a deeper investigation into Epstein. "From
the beginning, my view has been that following
the money is the key to identifying Epstein’s clients as well as the henchmen and
banks that enabled his sex trafficking network," he said in his statement.
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https://www.occrp.org/en/about-us
OCCRP is one of the largest investigative journalism organizations in the world, headquartered in Amsterdam and with staff across six continents. We are a mission-driven nonprofit newsroom that partners with other media outlets to publish stories that lead to real-world action. At the same time, our media development arm helps investigative outlets around the world succeed and serve the public.
Founded by investigative reporters Drew
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partners and has grown into a major force in collaborative investigative
journalism, upholding the highest standards for public interest reporting.
Richard Staynings 的貼文
Follow the money!
JPMorgan
executives knew that Jeffrey Epstein was bad news. As far back as 2006 — long
before his 2019 arrest — officials debated cutting their longtime client loose.
Employees raised concerns about the danger of doing business with the admitted
criminal, and officials confronted him about news reports that he had raped and
trafficked young women and girls.
But Epstein generated millions of dollars for JPMorgan. The giant bank lent him large sums and processed more than $1 billion of transactions for him (including payments to women who had been lured into his sex-trafficking network).
Read more
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/magazine/jeffrey-epstein-jp-morgan.html
How JPMorgan Enabled the Crimes of Jeffrey
Epstein
The New York Times Magazine
2025-09-08
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/magazine/jeffrey-epstein-jp-morgan.html
A Times investigation found that America’s
leading bank spent years supporting — and profiting from — the notorious sex
offender, ignoring red flags, suspicious activity and concerned executives. (For subscriber only)
Kenneth Rijock
Financial Crime Consultant
JEFFREY EPSTEIN AND COMPLIANCE MALPRACTICE AT
JP MORGAN
Excerpt: We have all read that horrific story; how America's biggest bank facilitated our country's biggest sex trafficker's operations, in large part because a senior executive, who was allegedly personally involved in Epstein's criminal activities, chose to keep him on as a client for the benefit of the private banking division's bottom line, when compliance reported that his accounts should be closed forthwith. When huge suspicious cash withdrawals and wires to Eastern Europe raised alarming red flags, and when accounts were opened for people associated with him with zero due diligence.
While I fully understand that those
compliance officers, guilty as sin for compliance malpractice, wanted to keep
their great high-saying jobs, they failed the system, as well as the underage
victims, as Epstein was able to continue his evil operation, due to the bank's
financial support.
Trump’s signature under new scrutiny thanks
to the Epstein case
Politics
PBS News (Sep 10, 2025)
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trumps-signature-under-new-scrutiny-thanks-to-the-epstein-case
Excerpt: Two documents in Jeffrey Epstein
‘s 50th-birthday album purportedly include Trump’s signature — one on a risque
line drawing of a female body and one on a picture of Epstein holding up a
novelty check bearing Trump’s name. A House committee released the 2003
book Monday, with some members insisting the multi-peaked black signatures are
authentically Trump’s, one of the best-known autographs in the world. The
White House says the president did not sign the letter or the check to Epstein,
who was later exposed as a sex offender and died by suicide in prison in 2019.
“It’s not my signature,” Trump told reporters
outside a restaurant in Washington on Tuesday night. “And it’s not the way I
speak.” Also Tuesday, the president declared the Epstein matter “a dead issue”
in a phone call with NBC News.
The “birthday book” signatures matter in part
because they are perceived as a measure of how close Trump was to Epstein
before the president says he ended the friendship two decades ago.
And they are part of a bipartisan push in
Congress for the release of the so-called Epstein
files after
years of speculation and conspiracy theories stoked by Trump and many of his
allies. The
Justice Department in August began turning over records from the Epstein sex
trafficking investigation to the House Oversight Committee.
If not proof, signatures point to stubborn
political pain for Trump
Even Trump can see from experience that he
can’t just command the sizable swaths of his own base demanding a full
accounting to let it go, especially after his allies stoked the call to release
the Epstein files. He’s tried repeatedly to deflect attention to other matters
and shame “weaklings” who persist in asking about Epstein. Trump has called
the scandal “a Democrat hoax that never ends” and vowed to sue The Wall Street
Journal, which first revealed the letter.
Who else appears in Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th
birthday book?
Nation
PBS News (Sep 10, 2025)
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/who-else-appears-in-jeffrey-epsteins-50th-birthday-book
Excerpt: Donald Trump isn’t the only U.S.
president to appear in a collection of birthday messages that were sent to
Jeffrey Epstein.
An entry attributed to former President Bill
Clinton is among some 50 greetings that appear in a 50th birthday book compiled
for Epstein in 2003, years before the disgraced New York financier faced
charges related to sexual exploitation of underage girls. Other notes appear to come from Epstein’s
relatives, including his father, and from business executives and scientists.
Trump, who has denied prior knowledge of
Epstein’s crimes and claimed he cut off their relationship long ago, says he
did not write a sexually suggestive letter to Epstein or create the drawing of
a curvaceous woman that surrounds the letter. The letter bears Trump’s name and
what appears to be his signature.
Here’s a look at some of the people who
purportedly wrote greetings for Epstein:
Bill
Clinton
A message attributed to Clinton, which
appears to match his handwriting and signature, praises Epstein’s “childlike
curiosity.”
“It’s reassuring isn’t it, to have lasted so
long, across all the years of learning and knowing, adventures and (illegible),
and still to have your childlike curiosity, the drive to make a difference and
the solace of friends,” Clinton wrote.
The message, which is difficult to read, is
written in cursive in black marker on a white sheet of paper.
Clinton’s office did not respond to a request
for comment. His office has previously said he knew nothing about Epstein’s
crimes and traveled with him for humanitarian trips.
What do we know about the Epstein files?
Tom Geoghegan and James FitzGerald
BBC News (20 August 2025)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20r07dg6kro
The words "Epstein
files" have been haunting the Trump administration for weeks as it grapples
with a growing crisis stemming from the sex crimes of late convicted paedophile
financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Pressure has been growing from President
Donald Trump's own supporters and from voices within his own Republican Party
for more transparency on what the investigations into Epstein uncovered.
The US Justice Department is planning to hand
over to Congress documents from its investigation into Epstein after the House
Oversight Committee subpoenaed the agency in August, Republican chairman James
Comer said this week.
The panel is expected to start receiving the
materials on Friday. As a part of its investigation, the committee has also
issued subpoenas to high-profile figures including eight former law enforcement
leaders as well as former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton.
Reports emerged that Trump himself was
told in May by his attorney general that his name appeared in files related to
the investigations. He was friends with Epstein in the 1990s and early
2000s, and being named is not evidence of any criminal activity, nor has Trump
ever been accused of wrongdoing in connection with the Epstein matter.
The president said while campaigning for the
2024 election that he would be open to making public more information. But he
changed his position earlier this month, saying the case was closed and even
criticising his own supporters who have continued to press him on it.
What
are the Epstein files?
In 2008, Epstein reached a plea deal with
prosecutors after the parents of a 14-year-old girl told police in Florida that
Epstein had molested their daughter at his Palm Beach home.
Photos of girls were found throughout the
house, and he was convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor, for which
he was registered as a sex offender and escaped a heavy jail sentence as a
result of the deal.
Eleven years later, he was charged with
running a network of underage girls for sex. He died in prison while awaiting
trial, and his death was ruled a suicide.
These two criminal investigations amassed a
vast trove of documents including transcripts of interviews with victims and
witnesses, and items confiscated from raids of his various properties.
There was also a separate investigation into
his British co-conspirator and ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 of conspiring with
Epstein to traffic girls for sex. Both Epstein and Maxwell were also the
subject of civil cases.
What
has already been released on Epstein?
At various stages over the years, some
materials have been put into the public domain relating to both Epstein and
Maxwell.
One batch, in January 2024, contained 1,400
pages of records, including depositions with both. A trove of documents in the
Maxwell case was also made public, in which several high-profile figures were
named. But they contained no new revelations about Epstein or his associates.
In February this year, weeks after Trump took
office, the Department of Justice and the FBI released what they described at
the time as the "first phase of the declassified Epstein files".
A group of right-wing influencers were
invited to the White House but they were left disappointed when they realised
that the 341 pages handed to them were mostly material that was already out
there.
It included flight logs from Epstein's plane
and a redacted version of his contacts book containing the names of famous
people he knew.
In July, the Department of Justice and FBI
said in a memo that no more material would be released.
Who is
named in the Epstein files?
According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump
himself is named in unreleased documents that relate to Epstein, and was told
as much by Attorney General Pam Bondi in May. The paper noted that being named
in the files was not evidence of wrongdoing.
The White House gave mixed messages in
response. Spokesman Steven Cheung pushed back, calling the story
"fake", although an unnamed official speaking to Reuters said the
administration did not dispute that Trump's name was included.
Although the contents of any unreleased
documents remain unknown, the existing materials in the public domain mention a
number of high-profile figures who were connected to Epstein.
Again, this does not imply any wrongdoing by
those individuals.
Dozens of names were mentioned in a release
of court documents in 2024. Prince Andrew,
former US President Bill Clinton and Michael Jackson were among the associates, friends and
alleged victims named in the 900 pages that were unsealed.
Both the former US president and the British
royal deny any knowledge of Epstein's crimes. Jackson died in 2009.
The release of documents related to the case
of Epstein's former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in prison
for child sex trafficking.
Is
there an Epstein client list?
It has been suggested that unreleased Epstein
files could contain a so-called client list that might implicate high-profile
associates besides Maxwell in his criminal operation.
In their memo in July, the DoJ and FBI stated
that no such list existed. However, conspiracy theories persist.
The purported list has sometimes been
conflated with the wider Epstein files, and remarks by Bondi have fuelled the
confusion.
The statement by Bondi's justice department
that there was no client list appeared to contradict her comments earlier in
the year. When asked by Fox News interviewer about the rumoured list in
February, she responded: "It's sitting on my desk right now to review."
Bondi's spokesman later clarified that she had been referring to overall files
in the Epstein issue.
What
do we know about Trump/Epstein relationship?
Trump and Epstein appear to have been friends
for a number of years, keeping a similar social circle.
Previously released files show that Trump's
details were in Epstein's so-called black book of contacts. Flight logs also
showed Trump flying on Epstein's plane on several occasions.
They were pictured together at elite events
in the 1990s, and photos recently published by CNN purport to show Epstein in
attendance at Trump's wedding to then-wife Marla Maples.
In 2002, Trump described Epstein as a
"terrific guy". Epstein would later remark: "I was Donald's
closest friend for 10 years."
According to Trump, they fell out in the
early 2000s, two years before Epstein was first arrested. By 2008, Trump was
saying that he had not been "a fan of his."
The White House has recently suggested that
their fallout was connected to Epstein's behaviour, and that "the
president kicked him out of his club for being a creep".
The Washington Post, meanwhile, has suggested
that the breakdown in their relationship was due to their rivalry over some
real estate in Florida.
Why
are people so interested in Epstein?
Die-hard members of Trump's MAGA movement
have long believed officials are hiding key truths about Epstein's life and
death.
Some of them have theorised that a
child-molesting cabal has been operating at the highest levels of US society,
protected by the state. The theory spread through cryptic messages posted by a pseudonymous
character called Q.
In one
of the conspiracy theories pushed by some MAGA influencers, Epstein was an
agent of the Israeli government.
Some Trump allies have tried to quell the
backlash. Last month, Republican House announced an early recess for the
chamber, stalling efforts to force the release of Epstein-related documents
within 30 days.
There are several unanswered questions about
Epstein shared by the wider population too - particularly why he was given such
a lenient sentence in Florida, whether he and Maxwell were really acting alone
and how he was allowed to take his own life in prison.
Trump and his team hyped up the theories when
they were running for office but now they are in power they have found
themselves unable to convince their supporter base that there are no more
questions to answer.
Damning New Emails Show Just How Much Ghislaine Maxwell Helped Epstein
Maxwell, who is seeking a pardon for her role
in Epstein’s sexually abusive empire, helped him strategize for his first
lawsuit.
Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling
The News Republic (September 13, 2025)
https://newrepublic.com/post/200424/ghislaine-maxwell-jeffrey-epstein-emails-relationship
Excerpt: Ghislaine Maxwell has spent years attempting to distance
herself from Jeffrey Epstein.
Although she’s currently serving 20 years in
the clink for recruiting and grooming women for Epstein’s sexual abuse, the
well-connected British socialite has insisted that she too was a victim. Framing herself as a onetime girlfriend of
the deceased child sex trafficker, Maxwell has tried to reposition her
public image as his clueless former property manager, insisting that their
relationship had corroded by 2008.
But 18,000 never-before-seen emails between
the pair via one of Epstein’s personal Yahoo accounts tell a different tale,
revealing that Maxwell was intimately intertwined in his vast sex-trafficking
network, according to a sprawling new Bloomberg investigation. In 2008 alone, the criminal accomplices were
sending at least two messages per day to one another.
The typo-ridden emails include a spreadsheet
cataloging gifts to Epstein’s associates and victims—organized by Maxwell—as
well as suggestions from the Oxford-educated media heiress on how Epstein could
nurture his ties with the rich and powerful. The emails also document the
couple debating consequential details relating to Epstein’s first brush with
the law in 2004, when he fielded Maxwell’s opinion regarding his potential
criminal charges.
All in all, the duo shared at least 650
messages, though there are indications that many emails in the larger
trove—either between Epstein and Maxwell, or Epstein and others—were deleted,
according to Bloomberg.
The breadth of their communications indicates
a much closer connection between Maxwell and Epstein than either had publicly
admitted. The emails show that after police raided Epstein’s home in 2005, Maxwell
wrote him detailed instructions for a shared fertility procedure: “You can
do the sample at home,” she wrote, noting that it “has to be within 90 mins of
my procedure” and that “all the ejaculate must be collected.”
Jeffrey Epstein and the Power of Networks
WIERD (Aug 27 2019)
https://www.wired.com/story/jeffrey-epstein-and-the-power-of-networks/
Before and after his year in prison, Jeffrey
Epstein lavished money and attention on scientists and other influential
thinkers, raising the question: What cultural ideas did he help shape? The
billionaire child rapist bought his way into an elite crowd of intellectuals
that defined the last three decades of science, tech, and culture.
美國愛潑斯坦性侵案：解密文件披露百多名政商名人
小伯恩德·德布斯曼（Bernd Debusmann Jr）
BBC 記者發自華盛頓
2024 年 1 月 5 日
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/world-67890505
節錄：美國已故富商愛潑斯坦（Jeffrey Epstein）生前涉及性侵少女和性交易案，紐約地區法院日前公開多達 900 頁的文件，披露多達 100 人的名字，包括前總統克林頓（Bill Clinton）和英國安德魯王子（Prince Andrew）。
解密文件源於受害者弗吉妮婭·尤弗裏（Virginia Giuffre，又譯朱弗裏）控告愛潑斯坦前女友馬克斯韋爾（Ghislaine Maxwell）的案件，後者因協助男友誘騙未成年少女賣淫而入獄。
安德魯王子曾被指控性侵一名女性，但他否認。至今，這些文件僅揭露了愛潑斯坦與眾多政商名人的關係，但未有新的重大指控，也沒有揭露其同伙。
文件中出現的名字還有歌手邁克爾-傑克遜（Michael Jackson）和魔術師大衛-科波菲爾（David Copperfield），但沒有指控他們從事不法行為。
愛潑斯坦之死：一宗足以撼動 2020 年美國大選的懸案
BBC (2019 年 8 月 16 日)
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/world-49365787
節錄：官方屍檢結果判定，愛潑斯坦（Jeffrey Epstein）在他的曼哈頓監獄中自殺身亡。儘管如此，圍繞愛潑斯坦之死的猜測還遠未煙消雲散。 66 歲的愛潑斯坦是一名美國金融家，本在獄中等待性交易案審訊，卻在 8 月 10 日上午突然被發現死亡。監獄官員稱，他是自縊身亡。愛潑斯坦在 7 月曾企圖在獄中自殺，其後被安置在有自殺監視的囚室內，但在他死前，監視模式被解除了。在他死前幾日，與他同囚室的獄友也被調離。據報，愛潑斯坦與上流社會的權貴及富豪交往甚密，密友名單包括美國總統特朗普、前總統克林頓夫婦以及英國王子安德魯。
愛潑斯坦性侵案：金融家之死留下的無盡疑問
BBC (2019 年 8 月 12 日)
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/world-49315711
節錄：正在獄中等待接受性交易案審訊的美國金融家傑弗裏·愛潑斯坦（Jeffrey Epstein）日前被發現死在囚室內，目前美國聯邦調查局（FBI）已經正式展開調查。他的屍體於周六（8月10日）在紐約一處拘留設施內被發現。上月，愛潑斯坦被指曾試圖自殺，他當時在其囚室內被發現處於半昏迷狀態。他的死訊傳出後，紐約市長白思豪（Bill de Blasio）表示，愛潑斯坦不能再對其他人犯罪了，這「實在過於簡便」。「我們很多人都想知道的是，他到底知道什麼。」白思豪在艾奧瓦州面見記者時說。他目前正在爭取成為民主黨總統候選人。
Britannica - Jeffrey Epstein
American financier and convicted sex offender
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jeffrey-Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein (born January 20, 1953,
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.—died August 10, 2019, Manhattan) was an American
financier and convicted sex offender who was accused of serial sex trafficking
of women and girls. Through his successful financial career, Epstein became a
multimillionaire and developed a social circle that included extremely wealthy
individuals, prominent politicians, and even royalty. While jailed and awaiting
a federal sex-trafficking trial, Epstein killed himself by hanging. Questions
about the existence of a “client list” allegedly kept by Epstein later roiled
Pres. Donald Trump’s second administration.
Early life
Epstein was the first of two children born to
Paula Epstein (née Stolofsky) and Seymour Epstein, who were themselves children
of Jewish immigrants. His mother was a homemaker, and his father worked as a
groundskeeper and gardener for the New York City Parks Department. The family
lived in a middle-class neighborhood of Brooklyn known as Sea Gate, situated on
the western shore of Coney Island. Epstein was a talented student who excelled
in mathematics. He was also a skilled pianist. He attended Lafayette High School
in Gravesend, Brooklyn, whose student body was mostly Italian American. It is
thought that Epstein may have faced some antisemitism during his time there. He
graduated in 1969, having skipped two grades. Later that year he enrolled at
the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, where he studied until
1971, when he transferred to the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at
New York University (NYU). He studied at NYU for three years but did not
graduate.
In 1974, despite not having received a
degree, Epstein began teaching physics and mathematics at the private Dalton
School in Manhattan, New York, many of whose students belonged to some of the
wealthiest families in the country. During his tenure at Dalton, Epstein behaved
inappropriately, according to some former students. For example, he
allegedly appeared at a party for high-school students, where he was
overattentive toward females—though he was not accused of sexual abuse at the
time. During a parent-teacher conference in 1976 Epstein so impressed a
student’s father with his intelligence that the parent referred Epstein to Alan
(“Ace”) Greenberg, then the CEO of the Wall Street investment firm Bear Stearns
and also a Dalton parent. Following the 1975–76 school year, Epstein was dismissed
from his position at Dalton after an evaluation found that his teaching skills
had not improved. He began working at Bear Stearns soon afterward.
Finance career
In 1980, four years after joining Bear
Stearns, Epstein was made a limited partner. In 1981, however, he left the
company in order to run his own business. About this time, Epstein’s personal
financial situation, as well as his business practices, became increasingly
murky. Some of
his associates during the 1980s stated that he referred to himself as a “bounty
hunter” who recovered stolen money for the ultra-wealthy. In 1987 Epstein began
working with Towers Financial Corporation executive Steven J. Hoffenberg. The
two attempted—but mostly failed—in their attempts at corporate takeovers. In
1988 Epstein founded J. Epstein & Company, a consulting firm that provided
money-management services to individuals with a net worth of more than $1
billion. His major client for some 20 years was the billionaire retail
magnate Leslie H. Wexner. Epstein came to manage much of Wexner’s holdings and
benefited enormously as a result.
In the 1990s Epstein began running his
business from the island of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands—a tax haven—where he owned the nearby small island of
Little St. James. (He later purchased another island in the same vicinity,
Great St. James.) He also owned what was then the largest private mansion in
Manhattan, as well as properties in Palm Beach, Florida; Paris; and New Mexico.
It was said that Epstein used hidden cameras at his Manhattan residence to
record sex acts performed by his wealthy associates, probably for blackmail
purposes. He also kept a log of those who traveled on his private jet,
which locals in the Virgin Islands referred to as the “Lolita Express” (in
reference to Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita [1955], whose antihero is a
middle-aged man who obsessively lusts after young girls). Among persons on
the log were former U.S. president Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, the prominent
attorney and Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz, and Prince
Andrew, duke of York, who was eventually accused of repeatedly having sex with
one of Epstein’s underage victims.
Conviction, sex-crime allegations, and death
Epstein
was first accused of sexually abusing girls in Palm Beach in 2005. Police were alerted by a woman who claimed
that her 14-year-old stepdaughter had been molested by a wealthy man named
Jeff. The
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was soon involved. Further accusations
began to surface, and, by the time the U.S. attorney for the southern district
of Florida (and later secretary of labor during the first term of President
Trump) Alexander Acosta began to put together a criminal case, the number of
alleged victims had reached about 40. In 2008 the federal government entered a
plea deal in which Epstein was not charged with federal crimes but pleaded
guilty to two counts of violating state laws against soliciting prostitution
and soliciting a minor for prostitution. He served 13 months in prison with a
provision that allowed him to spend six days a week in his Palm Beach office.
Acosta later stated that the deal was lenient because intelligence officials
had told him to “back off” Epstein at the time, signaling that the money
manager was of some importance to another federal case. A number of civil
claims against Epstein were filed in the years after the plea deal. In
2023 the banks JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank AG were accused in civil suits
of knowingly enabling Epstein to commit sex crimes.
In 2018 an investigative reporter at the
Miami Herald identified some 80 alleged survivors of sexual abuse by Epstein or
his associates. The report led to renewed examinations of sex-crime allegations
against Epstein, and in 2019 a new federal criminal case was brought against
him. He
was arrested in July in New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport on charges of sex
trafficking and held without bail. Later that month Epstein was found in his Manhattan
jail cell with injuries indicating that he had attempted to kill himself by
hanging. Less than a week later, however, he was taken off the jail’s suicide
watch. On August 9, the day before Epstein’s death, his cellmate was removed
but not replaced, and for approximately three hours that night Epstein was not
checked on by guards, in violation of the jail’s protocol. In addition, cameras
outside the cell malfunctioned. On the morning of August 10, Epstein’s body was
found hanging in his cell.
The
divisive effects of Epstein’s “client list”
Epstein’s lawyers later questioned the
state’s official autopsy, which found that Epstein had killed himself,
suggesting instead that he had been murdered. Their speculation drew public attention and
resulted in widespread conspiracy theories—especially among members of the
nativist Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, who were ardent supporters
of Pres. Donald Trump. MAGA members believed that Epstein’s death was
related to his connections with billionaires and elite public figures and that
Epstein had kept a secret “client list” of men for whom he had trafficked young
women and girls. Regarding the murder accusation, however, no credible
evidence was ever produced. To the contrary, later in August 2019 it was reported
that Epstein had signed a redrafted final will and testament two days before
his death. In June 2023, a report by the office of the inspector general (OIG)
of the U.S. Department of Justice agreed with the state’s autopsy and noted
that the OIG’s investigators “did not uncover evidence contradicting…the
absence of criminality in connection with how Epstein died.”
In February 2025, during Trump’s second term
(2025– ), Attorney General Pam Bondi sparked much anticipation among conspiracy
theorists by claiming in a press interview that Epstein’s client list was
“sitting on my desk right now to review.” The documents later released,
however, did not include a client list, which greatly angered a large portion
of the MAGA movement. (Bondi later claimed that in the interview she had been referring to
the entire body of Epstein files.) In July the FBI seemingly contradicted
Bondi in a memo stating that its “exhaustive” and “systematic” review of files
and documents related to the Epstein case did not find a client list or
“uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third
parties.” Soon afterward Trump further angered MAGA members in a post on Truth
Social, his own social media site, in which he criticized his supporters for
demanding the release of fake “Epstein files” that, he claimed, had actually
been created by his Democratic enemies—including “Obama, Crooked Hillary,…and
the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration.”
Two years after Epstein’s death, his
long-term partner Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of aiding Epstein in the
procurement and sexual abuse of young girls.
The Epstein Files: A Timeline
https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Epstein-Files-A-Timeline
The “Epstein files” is how the world has come
to know the thousands of pages of documents related to two criminal
investigations into sex trafficking by financier and friend to the rich,
famous, and powerful Jeffrey Epstein. What’s in those files, who is named and
in what context, and whether they should be released to the public became a
topic of obsessive conversation on both sides of the political aisle after
Epstein’s death in 2019. But in 2025 those questions and others roiled the second administration
of U.S. Pres. Donald Trump as even some of Trump’s most loyal supporters
expressed a sense of betrayal at his administration’s reluctance to release
information related to the Epstein case. This timeline explores a scandal
decades in the making.
Wikipedia - Jeffrey Epstein
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Epstein
Excerpt: Jeffrey Edward Epstein (January 20,
1953 – August 10, 2019) was an American financier and child sex offender. According
to lawyer Brad Edwards, Epstein victimized "hundreds" of teenage
girls. Born and raised in New York City, Epstein began his professional career
as a teacher at the Dalton School. After his dismissal from the school in 1976,
he entered the banking and finance sector, working at Bear Stearns in various
roles before starting his own firm. Epstein cultivated an elite social circle
and procured many women and children whom he and his associates sexually
abused.
In
2005, police in Palm Beach, Florida, began investigating Epstein after a parent
reported that he had sexually abused her 14-year-old daughter. Federal officials identified 36 girls, some
as young as 14 years old, whom Epstein had allegedly sexually abused. Epstein
pleaded guilty and was convicted in 2008 by a Florida state court of procuring
a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute. He was convicted
of only these two crimes as part of a controversial plea deal agreed by the US
Department of Justice's Alex Acosta, and served almost 13 months in custody
but with extensive work release.
Epstein
was arrested again on July 6, 2019, on federal charges for the sex trafficking
of minors in Florida and New York. He died in his jail cell on August 10, 2019. The medical examiner ruled that his death
was a suicide by hanging. Epstein's lawyers have disputed the ruling, and there
has been significant public skepticism about the true cause of his death,
resulting in numerous conspiracy theories. In July 2025, the Federal Bureau
of Investigation (FBI) released CCTV footage supporting the conclusion that
Epstein died by suicide in his jail cell. However, when the Department of
Justice released the footage, approximately 2 minutes and 53 seconds of it was
missing, and the video was found to have been modified despite the FBI's claim
that it was raw.
Since Epstein's death precluded the possibility of pursuing criminal charges against him, a judge dismissed all criminal charges on August 29, 2019. Epstein had a decades-long association with the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who recruited young girls for him, leading to her 2021 conviction on US federal charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy for helping him procure girls, including a 14-year-old, for child sexual abuse and prostitution. His friendship with public figures including Prince Andrew, Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, and Mette-Marit, Crown Princess of Norway, has attracted significant controversy.
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