DURBAN - Jeffrey Epstein is an American financier who has connections with Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and has recently been arrested for child sex trafficking.
According to Forbes, the source of Epstein's wealth is a money management firm in the US Virgin Islands. The form does not generate any public records and no client list has ever been released.
According to Business Insider, Epstein dropped out of Cooper Union in Manhattan in 1971. He then enrolled in New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences but left the school without completing his degree.
He then taught calculus and physics at The Dalton School between 1973 and 1975. It was during this time that he tutored the son of Bears Stearns chairman Ace Greenberg.
He then became employed at Stearns.
Bear Stearns was a global investment bank, securities trading and brokerage firm that went defunct in 2008.
In 1981 he left the firm and started his own company. His firm only accepts clients with assets that are worth $1 billion or more.
CRIMINAL PROBLEMS
Epstein's criminal problems started over a decade ago in 2005 when detectives from Palm Beach Florida acted on a tip in 2005 from a woman said a wealthy woman named Jeff who had molested her step-daughter.
Two years later Epstein cut a secret deal with the US-Attorney Acosta who granted the financier immunity from federal prosecution. Epstein pleaded guilty only to solicitation of prostitution and procurement of minors for prostitution.
In June 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to a single state charge soliciting prostitution from girls as young as 14. The financier was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Epstein only served 13 months of the sentence and was released for a year of probation.
At his release Epstein was registered in New York State as a level three sex offender which will stick with him for his entire lifetime. He has been a registered sex offender since 2008.
Connections
According to Business Insider, in 2002, Donald Trump claimed that he had a long friendship with Epstein. Trump said that he had known Epstein for 15 years.
According to counselor to the US President, Kellyanne Conway, Trump said the crimes that Epstein was charged with are completely unconscionable and obviously criminal.
Some of Epstein's former clients include Leslie Wexner who is the founder of Victoria Secret and it should be noted that Epstein was a trustee of The Wexner Foundation, however a spokesperson for the retailer said that Wexner severed ties with Epstein over a decade ago.
Ghislaine Maxwell, is a British socialite and the daughter of media tycoon Robert Maxwell dated Epstein in 1991.
Court documents allege that after the couple broke up, Maxwell started recruiting young girls for the financier.