At a bail hearing in July 2019, the legal team for ex-financier Jeffrey Epstein declared their client had more than $550 million in assets.
The 66-year-old was facing a series of serious sex trafficking charges in a case that gripped the world’s attention due to the potential ramifications for some very high-profile public figures.
Among several important questions about his behaviour, his friends, and his fate was one that was central to Epstein’s bizarre life: where did all that money come from?
Contrary to what some might think, we do know the answer. But one monumental mystery in the story of his fortune remains unsolved to this day.
How did Epstein make his money?
After dropping out of college, Epstein found a job teaching maths at the city’s Dalton School before pivoting and working on Wall Street.
In 1976, Epstein started at Bear Stearns. He rose through the ranks rapidly – with his mathematical skill reportedly serving him well – and within four years, he was a limited partner.
But the following year, he was fired. Epstein did soon end up starting his own wealth management business, though: J. Epstein and Co. (later renamed Financial Trust Co.), which began trading in 1982.
This is where the mystery comes in. Almost immediately, this relatively mid-level financier was successfully running his own company with an extraordinarily audacious central tenet – it would not accept a client worth less than $1 billion.
According to a 2002 story in New York Magazine, Epstein began collecting clients straight away. One in particular, who came his way in the mid-to-late eighties, would change his life.
Les Wexner is the business giant behind L Brands, which once ran retailers including Victoria’s Secret and Abercrombie & Fitch. He took on Epstein as a wealth manager when his own fortune was rocketing up.
The Wall Street Journal found that Epstein made around $200 million from his work for Wexner over a period of around 20 years.
In the 1990s and 2000s, he reportedly made millions more by inserting himself into various major deals for some of the world’s wealthiest people and biggest financial institutions.
It all started to disintegrate around 2007, when he reached a deal with federal prosecutors and pleaded guilty to soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution, ultimately serving 13 months in a work-release program.
Wexner cut him off, as did the bank JP Morgan, with which he had been heavily involved for several years.
What was Jeffrey Epstein’s net worth before his death?
Epstein was still doing well enough 12 years later that his lawyers could declare more than half a billion dollars in assets, including four homes and two islands.
The month after they made that disclosure, Epstein was dead – and the questions about his life would only get more intense.
Since his death, those who worked with him in any capacity have been scrutinised by the media.
After yesterday’s vote in the US House to release all the Epstein files, some believe the sources behind his massive amount of cash could be revealed in the documents.
What are the Epstein files, and what could be in them?
The Epstein files refer to all of the evidence gathered by investigators working on the criminal cases against Epstein and his associates.
Many of those court documents – including flight logs for Epstein’s private jet – have already been made public, but many more remain sealed, raising speculation over who else could be implicated.
When Trump returned to the White House, he released some of Epstein’s files and promised more would follow, saying he had ‘no problem’ making the documents public.
The FBI said it was reviewing ‘tens of thousands’ of documents relating to Epstein, and these are being redacted to protect the identity of victims and any other ongoing investigations.
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