November 26, 2025 • 46 mins
"He stood out as this young guy in this weird coat."
In 1991, business magnate Leslie Wexner signed a general power of attorney that gave Jeffrey Epstein authority to act on his behalf in nearly all matters of business and finance. The document allowed Epstein, a young financial consultant that Wexner had just met a few years prior, to sign checks, open and close bank accounts, buy and sell property, transfer assets, and borrow money in Wexner's name. The scope of the arrangement was unparalleled.
The decades prior to this saw Epstein ascend through the financial world in remarkable fashion. The son of public servants, Epstein grew up in a middle-class household in Brooklyn. His early adulthood was rife with failure and a lack of any significant accomplishments. Yet, by his 40th birthday, Epstein was managing billions of dollars in wealth and property...
Part 1/7
Research & writing by Amelia White and Ira Rai
Hosting, production, and additional research & writing by Micheal Whelan
Learn more about this podcast at http://unresolved.me
If you would like to support this podcast, consider heading to https://www.patreon.com/unresolvedpod to become a Patron or Producer
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/unresolved--3266604/support.
In 1991, business magnate Leslie Wexner signed a general power of attorney that gave Jeffrey Epstein authority to act on his behalf in nearly all matters of business and finance. The document allowed Epstein, a young financial consultant that Wexner had just met a few years prior, to sign checks, open and close bank accounts, buy and sell property, transfer assets, and borrow money in Wexner's name. The scope of the arrangement was unparalleled.
The decades prior to this saw Epstein ascend through the financial world in remarkable fashion. The son of public servants, Epstein grew up in a middle-class household in Brooklyn. His early adulthood was rife with failure and a lack of any significant accomplishments. Yet, by his 40th birthday, Epstein was managing billions of dollars in wealth and property...
Part 1/7
Research & writing by Amelia White and Ira Rai
Hosting, production, and additional research & writing by Micheal Whelan
Learn more about this podcast at http://unresolved.me
If you would like to support this podcast, consider heading to https://www.patreon.com/unresolvedpod to become a Patron or Producer
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/unresolved--3266604/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
This episode contains graphic content that may not be suitable
for all ages. Listener discretion is advised. If you or
someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available,
call or text nine eight eight, or chat with someone
at nine eight eight lifeline dot Org. Those outside of
the US reach out to someone at your local crisis
(00:24):
center or hotline. Please do not suffer in silence. In
nineteen ninety one, in Columbus, Ohio, Leslie H. Wexner signed
(00:44):
a general power of attorney that gave Jeffrey Epstein authority
to act on his behalf in nearly all matters of
business and finance. The document allowed Epstein to sign checks,
open and close bank accounts, buy and sell property, and
borrow money in Wexner's name. It was filed quietly in
the state of Ohio, the home state of Wexner's retail empire,
(01:07):
the limited. For those familiar with corporate law, the scope
of this power of attorney was extraordinary. Powers of attorney
are common for narrow functions, but rarely do they extend
to the total management of a billionaire's fortune. The language
in this case made Epstein, at least on paper, a
legal extension of Leslie Wexner himself. Investigative journalists who examined
(01:30):
the document decades later described it as an unusual level
of control for a non family advisor. The agreement formalized
what had already been true in practice. By the late
nineteen eighties, Jeffrey Epstein had become Wexner's exclusive financial advisor,
overseeing personal and corporate investments through a network of private companies.
(01:50):
Wexner had met Epstein through mutual acquaintances and had grown
to regard him as unusually capable, a man who seemed
to grasp complex financial structures intios suitively. In interviews years later,
Wexner said that Jeffrey Epstein had extraordinary talent for managing money.
Associates within the limited's executive circle described the relationship as unique,
(02:12):
characterized by deference and secrecy. When the power of attorney
was executed, Jeffrey Epstein was not yet widely known outside
of New York's financial world. He had no public record
of managing portfolios of the scale that Wexner possessed, nor
did he have the conventional credentials of a licensed investment advisor.
Yet he now held legal authority over billions of dollars
(02:35):
in assets. That decision placed him in the orbit of
one of America's wealthiest business men and opened doors that
could never have been reached through traditional means. The legal
record of that single document would later require symbolic weight.
It represented the beginning of Epstein's assent, in the first
clear instance of a pattern that would follow him over
the next three decades. He moved quietly, accumulated power through proximity,
(03:01):
using private agreements to control resources that were not his own.
Wexner's signature gave Epstein legitimacy, and that legitimacy soon became leverage.
Within two years, Epstein occupied a mansion that had once
been Wexner's, established a trust company in the Virgin Islands,
and began describing himself as a manager of only billionaire's money.
(03:23):
When reporters later asked who those billionaires were, no names
beyond Wexner's were confirmed. The money had to come from somewhere,
as one acquaintance later remarked, but the mechanism remained invisible.
That invisibility became Jeffrey Epstein's business model. It would sustain
him long after this first transaction was forgotten, and it
(03:44):
began here with one document in an Ohio office that
turned a consultant into a man who could act as
another person's shadow. Juriser unt to two songs where on
your VOUTI yes, ma'am, would you please chate your.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Full name Jeffrey Edward Epstein and my residence addressed sixty
one hundred Red Hook Boulevard in Virgin Islandism. Have you
ever been convicted of a crime? Yes? What was the
crime of which you were convicted? Two cass one A
soliciting prostitution and preparing a minor for prostitution.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
This is the story of the Epstein Scandal, Part one.
The money had to come from somewhere. Jeffrey Edward Epstein
was born on January twentieth, nineteen fifty three, in Brooklyn,
New York. His parents, Seymour and Pauline Epstein, lived in
a narrow house inside the gated community of Seagate, a
(04:51):
quiet strip of Coney Island that faced the Atlantic. The
area was known for its small beaches and aging Victorian homes,
a middle class enclave surround the noise of amusement rides
in the shadow of Brooklyn's working dogs. Seymour worked for
the New York City Parks Department, maintaining equipment and park grounds.
Pauline was a school aid in the city's public school system.
(05:13):
The family's finances were steady but modest, and education was
their measure of success. Epstein's childhood was unremarkable in material terms,
but those who knew him described a boy marked by
two traits that would later define him, an intense focus
on mathematics and an unshakable confidence in his own intelligence.
At Lafayette High School, he excelled in math and science.
(05:35):
Teachers remembered him as unusually gifted, but impatient, more interested
in mastering a subject quickly than in following instructions. He
joined the math team, played piano at school assemblies, and
tutored classmates for extra money. He later skipped two grades
and graduated early, one of the youngest students in his class.
Jeffrey Epstein's early life offered little indication of the wealth
(05:57):
or infamy that would follow. He was a product of
the New York City public school system at a time
when that system still offered upward mobility to bright students
from working families. But those who later studied his trajectory
noticed that his path through institutions always followed the same pattern.
He entered, quickly, made himself indispensable through talent or charm,
and then left before anyone could define him. In the
(06:20):
early nineteen seventies, Jeffrey Epstein enrolled at Cooper Union, a
small college in Manhattan known for engineering and architecture. He
stayed briefly before transferring to the Qurant Institute of Mathematical
Sciences at New York University. The Qurant Institute was a
demanding program that required advanced calculus and proof based logic.
Epstein attended classes, but did not complete a degree. Professors
(06:44):
later said he was capable but uncommitted, the kind of
student who grasped complex concepts easily but lacked discipline for
formal study. During these years, Epstein earned money by tutoring
high school and college students and calculus and physics. Some
of his studenttudents were from elite private schools on the
Upper East Side, and the work brought him into homes
far removed from the modest world of Seagate. It was
(07:07):
his first contact with the wealthiest stratum of New York society.
He observed how influence operated, how private schools and family
connections formed an unbroken chain between privilege and opportunity. He
was ambitious enough to notice that the system relied as
much on confidence as on credentials. Friends from that period
described him as curious about status, but not intimidated by it.
(07:30):
He was comfortable speaking to anyone regardless of position. That
social ease, coupled with his intelligence, made him seem older
than his years. Even then, he preferred being the outsider
who could cross boundaries. Epstein's confidence and ambition were paired
with a belief that conventional rules could be manipulated if
he understood them better than the people enforcing them. That
(07:51):
conviction learned early in life would govern his later choices.
He learned that authority was rarely absolute, and that persuasion,
especially when combined with knowledge others did not have, could
shift almost any situation in his favor. By nineteen seventy four,
at the age of twenty one, Jeffrey Epstein had no
college degree, no formal credentials, and no clear career path.
(08:15):
What he had was a reputation among his tutoring clients
as being exceptionally bright and unusually persuasive. Through that network,
he was introduced to the Dalton School, an elite private
academy on Manhattan's Upper east Side. Dalton's headmaster, Donald Barr,
had a reputation for hiring unconventional teachers. Barr valued intellect
(08:36):
and independence more than formal qualifications, he claimed. He later
interviewed Epstein, liked his energy, and offered him a position
teaching mathematics and physics. For Jeffrey Epstein, this appointment represented
a leap from the periphery of the city's middle class
into its highest echelons. Dalton's students were the children of
Wall Street executives, lawyers, prominent families. The school's tuition was
(09:00):
higher than what many households in Seagate earned in a year.
It was a world of cultivated manners and inherited privilege,
and for the first time, Jeffrey Epstein occupied a place
inside it. Those who have examined Jeffrey Epstein's life often
noted that the Dalton job was his first training ground
for the skills that would later define him In the classroom.
Authority came not from title, but from performance. A teacher
(09:23):
succeeded by controlling perception. Epstein's combination of confidence, intellect, and
informal charm gave him a presence that commanded attention. It
also gave him access to his student's families, some of
whom would later become his professional contacts. The transition from
a civil servants son to a teacher in one of
Manhattan's most exclusive schools showed how Epstein's early years prepared
(09:45):
him to move between worlds. He had grown up watching
the city from its margins, learning how institutions worked from
the outside. When he entered Dalton, he carried with him
a conviction that rules existed to be studied and, when possible, repurposed.
In later accounts of his life, the details of his
childhood and his education often appear as a prologed scandal.
(10:06):
Yet those years explained how Jeffrey Epstein learned to shape
identity as strategy, the habits that later insulated him discretion, charm,
an instinct for finding authority figures, willing to overlook irregularities
they were already visible. He had learned to read institutions
and a sense which doors might open if he projected certainty.
(10:28):
By the time he accepted the job at Dalton, Epstein's
path was already diverging from that of his peers. He
had left behind the expectations of his family's world without
acquiring the credentials of the one he wanted to join.
What remained was his confidence, his intelligence, his ability to
convince others to give him a chance. Those traits would
carry him through the next decade, from the class rooms
(10:50):
of the Upper east Side into the heart of Wall
Street itself, where performance and persuasion were commodities as valuable
as money itself. When Jeffrey Epstein joined the Dalton School
in nineteen seventy four, he entered an institution that represented
the pinnacle of New York's private education system. Dalton's classrooms
(11:11):
overlooked the manicured streets of the Upper east Side, and
its students were the children of bankers, attorneys, and media executives.
School promoted itself as progressive, encouraging independence and intellectual exploration,
but beneath that idealism, it was a gateway to the
city's ruling class. The people who sent their children to
Dalton formed the same social networks that governed the city's
(11:35):
business and cultural life. Epstein arrived without a college degree
or teaching certification. His hiring was the decision of Donald Barr,
the headmaster, who believed that academic pedigree was less important
than curiosity and unconventional thinking. Barr had served as an
army officer and worked briefly in government intelligence during World
(11:55):
War II before turning to education. He was known for
his strict discipline, his literary interests, and his preference for
strong personalities. In Epstein, he reportedly saw potential, describing him
to colleagues as clever and engaging. The school offered Jeffrey
Epstein an annual salary, modest by private school standards, but
generous compared with his family's income. In Brooklyn, he was
(12:18):
assigned to teach mathematics and physics to students in the
upper grades. His pupils ranged in age from mid teens
to near adults, many of them bound for Ivy League universities.
For Epstein, it was an opportunity to establish himself among
families whose influence extended well beyond the classroom. Former students
later remembered him as a confident and informal instructor who
(12:39):
seemed eager to connect with his pupils as peers rather
than subordinates. He preferred conversation to lecture, and often discussed money, ambition,
and success. Topics that were uncommon in Dalton's humanity's oriented culture.
He wore open colored shirts and affected the casual demeanor
of someone who already considered himself successful. Several students told
(13:01):
journalists decades later that he seemed fascinated by wealth and
by those who possessed it. The boundaries between teacher and student,
between staff and the families who employed them were unusually porous.
At Dalton. Parents were frequent visitors, and social events often
blended the professional and the personal. Jeffrey Epstein took advantage
of this environment. He tutored outside of class and was
(13:24):
invited into students' homes, where he met parents who worked
in finance and law. It was through these contacts that
he encountered Allen or Ace Greenberg, the chief executive of
bear Stearns, one of Wall Street's most aggressive investment banks.
Greenberg's children attended Dalton, and he, like many others, appreciated
talent that operated outside of convention. Some former students described
(13:48):
Epstein's familiarity as excessive, and said that he blurred professional boundaries.
Nothing in the records suggest formal complaints or disciplinary action,
but his behavior made colleagues uneasy years after his hiring,
the school declined to renew his contract. The reason, according
to administrative notes later quoted by reporters, was poor performance.
(14:09):
The wording was diplomatic and left no paper trail of controversy.
When Jeffrey Epstein departed Dalton in nineteen seventy six, he
left no published research, no record of teaching awards, and
no alumni tributes. Yet he also left with something more
valuable than a letter of recommendation. Introductions Dalton's network connected
(14:30):
him to the families that ran the city's financial world.
He was remembered as an intelligent young teacher who might
be useful in other contexts. Within months, one of those
connections reached out to him. Alan Greenberg of bear Stearns
was known on Wall Street for his unconventional hiring practices.
He liked people who displayed nerve and imagination qualities. He
(14:51):
considered PSD poor, smart, and a deep desire to be rich.
Jeffrey Epstein fit that formula grown up without privilege, had
no traditional credentials, and projected absolute confidence. Alan Greenberg offered
him a position as a junior assistant at bear Stearn's.
The offer placed Epstein at the heart of the financial
(15:13):
industry during one of its most volatile and lucrative periods.
In later years, the Dalton period would take on an
outsized role in retrospective accounts of Epstein's life. It represented
the hinge between the ordinary and the extraordinary. From a
small house in Brooklyn, he had moved into the most
exclusive rooms of New York's elite. The job lasted only
(15:33):
two years, but the introductions it provided proved durable. After
leaving Dalton, Epstein told friends that he was finished with teaching.
Education had served its purpose. It had given him access.
He now turned toward a world where confidence, secrecy, and
performance mattered more than credentials. When Jeffrey Epstein joined bear
(16:01):
Stearns in nineteen seventy six, the firm was known for
two qualities that suited him, aggression and secrecy. It was
a place where bold risk taking was celebrated and where
success depended as much on self confidence as on technical knowledge.
Alan Greenberg, the firm's chief executive, had built his reputation
on finding unconventional talent, and he liked people who could
(16:22):
think quickly and persuade others to follow their lead. Epstein
entered the company at the lowest professional level, working as
a junior assistant to a floor trader. The position paid
little but provided an education that no university could offer.
Bear Stearns operated in a volatile period when the deregulation
of financial markets was creating new products and new forms
(16:43):
of speculation. Epstein showed an immediate aptitude for these innovations.
He specialized in the emerging field of options trading, which
required mathematical precision and an understanding of investor psychology. Colleagues
later said that he had an ability to calculate complex
probabilities in his head and to explain them in language
that clients could understand. His rise there was pretty quick.
(17:05):
By nineteen eighty, only four years after joining the firm,
he was named a limited partner for someone without a
degree or professional certification. The promotion was remarkable. It reflected
not only technical skill, but an instinct for cultivating influence.
Epstein became known for his comdemeanor on the trading floor
and for his discretion with clients. He projected confidence without arrogance,
(17:28):
and he learned to use information as currency. At bear Stearn's,
Epstein began constructing the first version of the persona that
would later define him. He told colleagues that he dealt
with wealthy clients who needed privacy, and he cultivated an
image of mystery. Few knew the full extent of his work.
He kept no visible social life outside of the office,
(17:48):
and he avoided the clubs and bars frequented by other traders. Instead,
he spent long hours with clients, many of whom preferred
phone calls to written correspondence. The absence of documentation became
a signature of his The firm rewarded results, not transparency,
and in that environment Epstein began to thrive. He operated
(18:10):
in the gray areas of finance, where regulation was limited
and interpretation could be profitable. It was during this period
that he learned how complex instruments could obscure the flow
of money. Transactions could be routed through subsidiaries, recorded in
ambiguous terms, and then later recharacterized depending on outcome. These
techniques were legal when executed properly, and opaque when not.
(18:34):
Epstein understood both aspects, and during this time his relationship
with Alan Greenberg deepened. Greenberg valued loyalty and initiative, and
he viewed Epstein as a protege. Epstein, for his part,
observed how authority functioned at the highest level of a
financial institution. Bear Stearns was a partnership, and its structured
(18:54):
demanded secrecy. Only partners knew the firm's internal finances, and
there well health depended on collective discretion. That model shared
secrecy as a form of protection would later appear in
Epstein's private dealings. Despite his success, Epstein's tenure at bear
Stearn's ended abruptly in nineteen eighty one. The official reason
(19:16):
was a violation of company policy. Epstein had reportedly lent
money to a client, an act prohibited under Securities and
Exchange Commission rules designed to prevent conflicts of interest. Internal
records described the incident as a breach of regulation, but
not as fraud. Epstein resigned before disciplinary action could occur.
(19:37):
The firm issued a polite statement of appreciation for his
service and paid him a bonus. There was no referral
to regulators, no public censure, no stain on his employment record.
The details of Epstein's departure illustrate another defining element of
his career. There when institutions had the option to address
misconduct privately or publicly, they almost always chose privacy. For
(20:01):
bear Stearns, a quiet separation avoided regulatory scrutiny. For Epstein,
it provided freedom and a story that he could rewrite.
He told associates that he had left voluntarily to pursue
independent opportunities. After leaving the firm, Epstein retained relationships with
several former colleagues and clients. He used those contacts to
(20:22):
start a small financial consultancy, positioning himself as a specialist
who could handle matters to discrete or complex for conventional banks.
He told potential clients that he could recover lost funds,
trace hidden assets, and mediate between rival investors. It was
an ambiguous service that combined legitimate financial analysis with elements
(20:44):
of private investigation. Timing was fortuitous. The early nineteen eighties
were a period of economic transformation in the United States.
New wealth was being created in technology, energy, and finance,
and the demand for confidentiality grew alongside it. Epstein understood
that secrecy itself could be marketed. What had been a
(21:04):
liability for an ordinary broker became for him a credential.
By mid nineteen eighty one, he had incorporated Intercontinental Assets Group.
The new company described its mission as helping governments and
investors recover stolen or embezzled funds. Its business model was
difficult to verify, and few corporate filings remain. What can
(21:25):
be traced is the change in Epstein's lifestyle. Within a
few years, he was living in Manhattan full time, traveling frequently,
describing himself as a financial consultant with global reach. When
Jeffrey Epstein founded Intercontinental Assets Group in nineteen eighty one,
he had no office on Wall Street. What he had
was a small company registration in New York and a
(21:48):
story that sounded credible to those who wanted to believe it.
Epstein described the firm as a boutique consultancy that recovered
stolen money for governments, banks, and wealthy individuals. The name
suggested global reach, and its mission promised confidentiality to clients
who valued their secrecy. The absence of details was part
of the appeal. Epstein told journalist years later that he
(22:10):
sometimes represented governments trying to locate embezzled funds, and at
other times worked for the individuals who had moved the money.
It was a claim that was of course impossible to verify.
No public records show which cases he handled or who
hired him. What is known is that he used the
image of a financial problem solver to expand his network.
(22:31):
By positioning himself between legitimate finance and the criminal underworld,
he created the impression that he was comfortable navigating both.
Epstein's work during this period coincided with an era of
economic turbulence. The early nineteen eighties saw the deregulation of
American banking, as well as a global debt crisis and
the rise of offshore finance. New money began flowing through
(22:54):
old channels, and fortunes shifted across borders. Governments and corporations
sometimes did rely on private consultants to trace or recover
funds that had been moved illegally, but that work was
opaque by nature. Epstein thrived in that new environment. His
reputation for secrecy grew, and so did the stories surrounding him.
(23:15):
Associates recalled that he traveled frequently, meeting people in Europe
and the Middle East. He began to speak casually of
international clients, including the Saudi arms dealer at Non Koshogi,
who had been a central figure in the Iran contra
arms trade. Koshogi circles included financiers, diplomats, and intelligence operatives.
(23:36):
Whether Epstein worked directly for him or simply invoked his
name to enhance credibility is unclear. Either way, the association
linked him to a world where money and politics overlapped
in ways that rarely appeared on paper. Epstein's own travel
documents added to the sense of mystery. When federal agents
searched his Manhattan home decades later, they found an Austrian
(23:57):
passport issued in the nineteen eighties that listens did a
false name and residence in Saudi Arabia. The passport bore
entry and exit stamps from several European countries and from
Saudi Arabia itself. Epstein's attorneys later said it had been
issued as a convenience for personal security, allowing him to
travel without attracting attention. That explanation did little to reduce speculation.
(24:20):
The possession of an alternate identity, however, acquired fit neatly
into the mythology he had started to build for himself.
By the mid nineteen eighties, Epstein had embedded himself in
social and financial circles far beyond what his verifiable work
could explain. He rented apartments in Manhattan and began hosting
meetings and upscale restaurants and private offices. He was known
(24:43):
as a man who could move discreetly between legitimate business
and shadow negotiations. Those who dealt with him often found
that his services were less about finance than about access.
He knew people who could open doors if not, he
knew people who knew people, and he understood how to
frame pri problems so that solutions appeared plausible. The fees
he charged were substantial. Former acquaintances said he expected to
(25:07):
be paid six figure sums for introductions or for advice
that others would have given freely. The value he offered
lay not in documented results, but in the perception of influence.
His new company gave him a stage on which to
perform that role. Intercontinental Assets Group also allowed Epstein to
build the infrastructure of secrecy that would later define his operations.
(25:30):
He relied on assistants who rotated frequently, private mailboxes, multiple
phone lines. He avoided paper whenever possible, and preferred to
conduct sensitive conversations by telephone. These habits created the impression
of high level discretion and made it difficult to track
his activities. Epstein's growing network of acquaintances now included individuals
(25:52):
with backgrounds and intelligence, law enforcement, and organized finance. Some
of them later speculated that he must have had tiesed
to and intelligence agencies. Given his apparent access and the
ease with which he moved through international circles. In a
field where reputation was often more important than truth, the
rumor itself became valuable. It suggested protection, and protection inspired
(26:15):
trust among those who needed it most. The period between
nineteen eighty one and nineteen eighty seven transformed Jeffrey Epstein
from a former school teacher into a figure with the
trappings of global wealth. He acquired tailored suits, he traveled
first class. He spoke with the assurance of someone who
operated above conventional scrutiny. Yet beneath that image there was
(26:38):
little substance that could be verified. His firm left no
major legal filings, and his tax records remained private. By
the time the decade reached its midpoint, Epstein had perfected
the first stage of his larger enterprise. He had learned
how to sell secrecy as a service. In the years
that followed, he would begin to sell it to people
(26:58):
whose fortunes dwarfed his own. That transition began in nineteen
eighty seven, when he met a man named Stephen Hoffenberg,
whose debt collection empire was about to collapse into one
of the largest financial frauds in American history. Their partnership
would draw Epstein deeper into the machinery of deception and
lay the foundation for his relationship with Leslie Waxner, the
(27:20):
alliance that would complete his transformation from a consultant to
a powerbroker. By nineteen eighty seven, Jeffrey Epstein had cultivated
(27:46):
the image of a discreet financial operator whose influence reached
far beyond his verifiable credentials. That year, he was introduced
to Stephen Hoffenberg, a fast talking New York entrepreneur who
controlled Tower's Financial Corporate, a company that claimed to specialize
in debt collection and corporate financing. In reality, Towers was
(28:07):
already becoming a vast and unsustainable scheme that raised hundreds
of millions of dollars through fraudulent bond offerings. Hoffenberg was
drawn to Epstein's confidence and his reputation for solving problems
that conventional financiers avoided. He hired Epstein as a consultant
at a fee of twenty five thousand dollars per month,
an extraordinary sum at the time. Hoffenberg later said that
(28:29):
Epstein's role was to design strategies for corporate takeovers and
to assist with investments in airlines and transportation firms. Epstein
was given an office in the Willard Houses, an ornate
building in midtown Manhattan that symbolized old money and ambition.
There he met with bankers, brokers, and lawyers who were
a part of Tower's growing web of financial activity. A
(28:51):
partnership between Hoffenberg and Epstein coincided with the era of
leveraged buyouts and speculative mergers. Corporations were being bought, sold,
and broken apart through complex debt instruments. Hoffenberg wanted to
expand Towers beyond debt collection and into high visibility acquisitions
that would give it legitimacy. Hoffenberg and Epstein devised a
(29:14):
plan to buy Pan American World Airways, the struggling airline
whose brand still carried some prestige. When that attempt failed,
they turned to Emery air Freight, another company with liquidity
problems but valuable infrastructure. They quietly began accumulating shares and
attempted to gain control using money that, according to later
(29:35):
court records, had been raised through fraudulent bond sales. Epstein's
precise role in these operations remains contested to this day.
Hoffenberg claimed that Epstein was the architect of the financing
structures that allowed Towers to move investor money between shell
corporations and disguised losses as assets. Hoffenberg described him as
(29:56):
the brain behind the plan, though the government never sustainediated
that claim. When federal prosecutors charged Hoffenberg and his associates
in nineteen ninety three with securities fraud and mail fraud,
Epstein's name appeared in investigative materials, but he was not indicted.
Former employees of Towers recalled that Jeffrey Epstein was both
(30:16):
visible and elusive. He appeared at key meetings, issued directives,
and then vanished for weeks on end. He preferred to
operate by telephone, rarely committing to anything written. When Towers
Financial eventually collapsed, it was one of the largest ponzi
schemes in American history. More than two hundred thousand investors
(30:37):
lost approximately four hundred and fifty million dollars. Hoffenberg pleaded
guilty and was sentenced to twenty years in federal prison.
In interviews conducted after his release, he maintained that Jeffrey
Epstein had been central to the fraud. Prosecutors and the
sec took a narrower view. They concluded that Stephen Hoffenberg
(30:58):
and his direct subordinates had executed the scheme, and that
Jeffrey Epstein's involvement, whatever it was, did not meet the
evidentiary threshold for charges. Epstein later told acquaintances that he
had left the company before the illegal activity began. The
timeline he offered was vague and has never been confirmed
through any documentation. When Stephen Hoffenberg was asked years later
(31:20):
how Epstein had managed to avoid indictment, he replied simply
that Epstein knew things about people. The remark was not
supported by any evidence, but it captured what had become
a growing belief among those who encountered Epstein that his
true business was information and that his protection came from
the secrets he held. What those were, though that's anyone's guess.
(31:43):
By the end of the nineteen eighties, Epstein had severed
visible ties with Towers Financial. He was wealthy, though the
source of that wealth could not be clearly identified. He
lived in Manhattan, kept offices in the city and in
Palm Beach, Florida, and had begun to cultivate relationships with
some of the country's most prominent scientists and public figures.
(32:04):
To those who asked what he did for a living,
he offered vague but reassuring answers. He managed money, he said,
for clients who required absolute discretion. No one doubted him.
By the end of the nineteen eighties, Jeffrey Epstein's wealth
and influence had grown faster than any verifiable record could explain.
(32:26):
In New York's financial world, people who had once dismissed
him as a minor day trader began to notice the
scale of his resources. He entertained on a larger footing.
He traveled frequently, and he spoke of clients whose name
he never revealed. His apartment grew more opulent, his circle
of acquaintances more rarefied. What remained consistent was the absence
(32:48):
of documentation that linked his new lifestyle to identifiable income.
Colleagues and journalists who later attempted to reconstruct his finances
found almost nothing in the public record. There were no
partnership filings that showed capital distributions, no management contracts, no
regulatory licenses that would have permitted him to trade securities
(33:08):
for outside investors. Yet Epstein spent and invested as if
he were managing hundreds of millions of dollars. The gap
between appearance and evidence produced the first serious speculation about
what sustained him in corporate Manhattan. Were gossip functioned as
an informal newswire, Stories about Epstein circulated with increasing frequency.
(33:30):
Some claimed that he had made a fortune in currency trading,
or that he had pioneered complex tax shelters for foreign investors.
Others insisted he had access to information that powerful people
preferred to keep private. None of these explanations could be substantiated,
but each contained an element of plausibility. Epstein's background in
(33:50):
options trading and his years around Hoffenberg's elaborate shell companies
lent credibility to the idea that he understood how to
move money invisibly. Distant rumors suggested that Epstein was connected
to intelligence services. Some traced it to his earlier employment
under Donald Barr, who had once served in US military intelligence.
(34:11):
Others linked it to his association with at Non Koshogi,
whose dealings in arms and politics had been entangled with
American and Israeli operations during the Iran Contry years. The
claim grew because it seemed to explain what ordinary business
could not. If Epstein had backing from an intelligence network,
his immunity from scrutiny would make sense, especially in an
(34:34):
age when espionage and high finance frequently intersected. Federal investigations
decades later, including a twenty twenty report by the Department
of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility, found no indication that
Jeffrey Epstein had ever worked for or been protected by
any US or foreign intelligence service. This perception of hidden
(34:56):
protection became one of Epstein's most effective assets. Alliance and
acquaintances who believed he had connections in intelligence or politics
were more inclined to trust him with sensitive matters. The
same rumour that should have been dangerous, implying that he
might record or exploit private information made him appear powerful,
and that illusion of immunity became self fulfilling. Those who
(35:19):
worked with him began to behave as if he were untouchable.
By nineteen eighty eight, Epstein had adopted habits consistent with
the image he was cultivating. He preferred verbal agreements to
written contracts. He discouraged clients from using intermediaries. He handled
transactions personally, often through accounts in the names of holding
(35:39):
companies registered in tax havens. Associates noticed that he kept
meticulous notes for himself, but never allowed others to see them.
His assistants signed nondisclosure agreements that barred them from discussing
his affairs outside of the office. The pattern of control
extended beyond business. It was a structure that demanded silence
and rewarded complicity. With these private arrangements, Epstein moved comfortably.
(36:06):
He invited academics, politicians, financiers to his home, introducing them
to one another under the banner of philanthropy or intellectual exchange.
The gatherings served multiple purposes. They gave him access to
people whose reputations enhanced his own and allowed him to
observe what others wanted or feared. Information acquired in those settings,
(36:28):
details about personal lives, business disputes, and ambitions, was stored
and never forgotten. Whether he intended to use it as
leverage or simply as insurance, it reinforced his position. Those
who later tried to chart Epstein's assent identified this period
as the point where his influence began to resemble infrastructure.
(36:48):
He was no longer simply a man with money. Friends
described him as a connector, someone who could arrange introductions
that might otherwise take months or years. He appeared to
know everyone into Oh No. One. The mechanics of how
he achieved that status remained obscure, but the results were visible.
He was invited to conferences, courted by institutions seeking donations,
(37:12):
and consulted on a wide array of projects. The whispers
surrounding him, claims of hidden clients, blackmail, material, ties to intelligence,
remained unverified, yet they shaped how people treated him. They
provided an explanation for his resilience and a justification for
their own curiosity. If Epstein was indeed connected to forces
(37:34):
larger than himself, then associating with him might confer a
measure of protection, whether or not that belief was founded,
and ensured that few people challenged him directly. The combination
of wealth, discretion, and myth drew the attention of a
man whose own empire relied on privacy and control. Sometime
before nineteen eighty nine, through overlapping social and business circles
(37:56):
Epstein met leslie H. Wexner, the founder of Limited, This
connection would transform them both. For Epstein, it would provide
the stability and legitimacy he had sought since his departure
from bear Stearns. For Waxner, it would introduce into his
life a man whose influence would eventually shadow his fortune
and his reputation. When Jeffrey Epstein met leslie H. Wexner
(38:32):
near the end of the nineteen eighties, both men had
already mastered the art of discretion, although in different ways.
Wexner had built The Limited from a single clothing store
in Columbus, Ohio into a multi billion dollar retail empire.
He was known in business circles as analytical, reserved, and
intensely private. Epstein, by contrast, projected effortless charm and claimed
(38:55):
to operate in the rarefied space where extreme wealth sought anonymity.
Their introduction came through social and business intermediaries. Accounts differ
on who exactly arranged it, but within a short paid
Epstein became a constant presence in Wexner's financial life. The
connection made practical sense at first glance. Wexner had a
(39:15):
mass of fortune that required sophisticated management, and Epstein presented
himself as an investment adviser who specialized in high net
worth individuals. He promised not only financial returns, but total confidentiality.
Wexner admired intellect and self assurance, and Epstein had both.
In interviews decades later, Wexner said that Epstein possessed extraordinary
(39:38):
financial talent and that his advice had been very valuable.
The arrangement was soon formalized. By nineteen eighty nine, Epstein
was Wexner's exclusive financial consultant. He handled personal and corporate funds,
oversaw trust, and advised on tax and real estate structures.
Employees within Wexner's organization noticed that Epstein operated with unusual independence.
(40:04):
He did not consult the limited's in house accountants or lawyers,
preferring to deal directly with Leslie Wexner himself. Decisions that
would normally have required committees or boards were made in private.
The relationship extended beyond the boundaries of a typical client
advisor dynamic. In nineteen ninety one, Wexner granted Epstein an
(40:25):
expansive power of attorney that codified his autonomy. The document
authorized Jeffrey Epstein to sign checks, open and closed bank accounts,
purchase and sell property, and borrow money in Wexner's name.
Sutch powers are usually reserved for family members or long
standing fiduciaries. For a non relative without professional licensing, it
(40:48):
was extraordinary. It was ridiculous. The arrangement gave Jeffrey Epstein
legal authority over billions of dollars in assets and control
over transactions that would never require Wexner's direct signature. Again,
the reasons for Wexner's trust remains unknown. Associates described him
as a man who valued loyalty and intellect, qualities that
(41:10):
he claimed to see in Epstein. Others have speculated that
Epstein's appeal lay in his ability to manage sensitive matters quietly.
Wexner's retail empire was sprawling, with complex ownership structures and
international operations. Epstein's promise of secrecy and efficiency offered both
convenience and control. Whatever the motivation was, the effect was clear.
(41:33):
Jeffrey Epstein became the single most powerful outsider in Leslie
Wexner's financial network. The new arrangement not only changed Wexner's life,
it changed Jeffrey Epstein's life. Shortly after the power of
attorney was executed, Wexner transferred to Epstein one of his
most valuable properties, a seven story townhouse at nine East
(41:54):
seventy first Street in Manhattan. Officially, the property remained under
corporate ownership linked to Leslie Wexner, but Jeffrey Epstein took possession,
moving in and using it as both residents and office.
Investigators later described the townhouse as the largest private home
in New York City. It was fitted with security systems,
(42:15):
guest suites, and extensive private quarters. Its walls were lined
with art and rare books, and visitors described an atmosphere
of wealth without warmth. Epstein also began managing charitable and
personal projects associated with Wexner's family foundations. He participated in
philanthropic planning and attended gatherings that mixed social elites with
(42:37):
political figures. Through these events, Epstein expanded his own network.
He met even more academics, more scientists, more politicians who
would later appear in his orbit as guests or associates.
Many believed he was a billionaire in his own right,
and his connection with Wexner reinforced that impression Publicly Epstein
(42:58):
described himself as the founder of j Epstein and Company,
a firm that managed investments for clients with a minimum
net worth of one billion dollars. None besides Leslie Wexner
were ever identified. He incorporated a holding company financial trust
Company in the US Virgin Islands, where banking secrecy laws
(43:19):
shielded client information. The structure gave him a legitimate explanation
for his invisibility. Confidentiality was part of his brand. By
nineteen ninety one, he had achieved what he had been
building towards since leaving bear Stearns, a position of power
without any sense of accountability. He managed immense sums of
(43:39):
money through private agreements, he controlled valuable real estate, and
he enjoyed the prestige of advising one of the country's
most successful businessmen. Two outsiders, the arrangement looked unconventional but effective.
To those inside Leslie Wexner's circle, it was baffling. No
one could explain why so much a threat authority had
(44:00):
been delegated to someone whose background remained largely undocumented. The
same year the power of Attorney was signed, Wexner's name
began appearing in property and trust documents alongside Epstein's The
transactions moved millions of dollars between companies and foundations, often
through accounts that only Epstein controlled. When reporters later attempted
(44:22):
to follow the money, they found labyrinths of ownership that
led back to him. It was the logical conclusion of
a lesson he had absorbed from every institution he had entered.
Control flowed to the person who understood the system best.
When later asked how a man with no formal financial
license and no visible clients could have acquired such power,
(44:43):
one of Wexner's former associates gave the simplest answer possible.
The money had to come from somewhere. The phrase captured
both the mystery and the mechanism of it. Epstein had
made secrecy itself his commodity. The trust that Wexner placed
in it became the foundation of an empire whose real
currency was invisibility. This was the point at which Jeffrey
(45:06):
Epstein's public narrative diverged permanently from the verifiable record. The
man who had once taught math at a private school
was now described as a billionaire investor with global connections.
The evidence for that claim rested largely on reputation, which,
in Jeffrey Epstein's world was more valuable than proof. The
structure of wealth and secrecy he built around Leslie Wexner
(45:29):
would become the template for every enterprise that followed. By
nineteen ninety one, Epstein had achieved the independence he had
always sought. Soon he would meet someone who had grown
up surrounded by the same principle, a woman whose father
had built his fortune on secrets, and whose loyalty to
him would make her both collaborator and accomplice. Their partnership
(45:50):
would extend Epstein's reach into every corner of elite society,
and it would begin in the same city where his
transformation had been completed. That on the next episode of Unresolved,
This episode contains graphic content that may not be suitable
for all ages. Listener discretion is advised. If you or
someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available,
call or text nine eight eight, or chat with someone
at nine eight eight lifeline dot Org. Those outside of
the US reach out to someone at your local crisis
(00:24):
center or hotline. Please do not suffer in silence. In
nineteen ninety one, in Columbus, Ohio, Leslie H. Wexner signed
(00:44):
a general power of attorney that gave Jeffrey Epstein authority
to act on his behalf in nearly all matters of
business and finance. The document allowed Epstein to sign checks,
open and close bank accounts, buy and sell property, and
borrow money in Wexner's name. It was filed quietly in
the state of Ohio, the home state of Wexner's retail empire,
(01:07):
the limited. For those familiar with corporate law, the scope
of this power of attorney was extraordinary. Powers of attorney
are common for narrow functions, but rarely do they extend
to the total management of a billionaire's fortune. The language
in this case made Epstein, at least on paper, a
legal extension of Leslie Wexner himself. Investigative journalists who examined
(01:30):
the document decades later described it as an unusual level
of control for a non family advisor. The agreement formalized
what had already been true in practice. By the late
nineteen eighties, Jeffrey Epstein had become Wexner's exclusive financial advisor,
overseeing personal and corporate investments through a network of private companies.
(01:50):
Wexner had met Epstein through mutual acquaintances and had grown
to regard him as unusually capable, a man who seemed
to grasp complex financial structures intios suitively. In interviews years later,
Wexner said that Jeffrey Epstein had extraordinary talent for managing money.
Associates within the limited's executive circle described the relationship as unique,
(02:12):
characterized by deference and secrecy. When the power of attorney
was executed, Jeffrey Epstein was not yet widely known outside
of New York's financial world. He had no public record
of managing portfolios of the scale that Wexner possessed, nor
did he have the conventional credentials of a licensed investment advisor.
Yet he now held legal authority over billions of dollars
(02:35):
in assets. That decision placed him in the orbit of
one of America's wealthiest business men and opened doors that
could never have been reached through traditional means. The legal
record of that single document would later require symbolic weight.
It represented the beginning of Epstein's assent, in the first
clear instance of a pattern that would follow him over
the next three decades. He moved quietly, accumulated power through proximity,
(03:01):
using private agreements to control resources that were not his own.
Wexner's signature gave Epstein legitimacy, and that legitimacy soon became leverage.
Within two years, Epstein occupied a mansion that had once
been Wexner's, established a trust company in the Virgin Islands,
and began describing himself as a manager of only billionaire's money.
(03:23):
When reporters later asked who those billionaires were, no names
beyond Wexner's were confirmed. The money had to come from somewhere,
as one acquaintance later remarked, but the mechanism remained invisible.
That invisibility became Jeffrey Epstein's business model. It would sustain
him long after this first transaction was forgotten, and it
(03:44):
began here with one document in an Ohio office that
turned a consultant into a man who could act as
another person's shadow. Juriser unt to two songs where on
your VOUTI yes, ma'am, would you please chate your.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Full name Jeffrey Edward Epstein and my residence addressed sixty
one hundred Red Hook Boulevard in Virgin Islandism. Have you
ever been convicted of a crime? Yes? What was the
crime of which you were convicted? Two cass one A
soliciting prostitution and preparing a minor for prostitution.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
This is the story of the Epstein Scandal, Part one.
The money had to come from somewhere. Jeffrey Edward Epstein
was born on January twentieth, nineteen fifty three, in Brooklyn,
New York. His parents, Seymour and Pauline Epstein, lived in
a narrow house inside the gated community of Seagate, a
(04:51):
quiet strip of Coney Island that faced the Atlantic. The
area was known for its small beaches and aging Victorian homes,
a middle class enclave surround the noise of amusement rides
in the shadow of Brooklyn's working dogs. Seymour worked for
the New York City Parks Department, maintaining equipment and park grounds.
Pauline was a school aid in the city's public school system.
(05:13):
The family's finances were steady but modest, and education was
their measure of success. Epstein's childhood was unremarkable in material terms,
but those who knew him described a boy marked by
two traits that would later define him, an intense focus
on mathematics and an unshakable confidence in his own intelligence.
At Lafayette High School, he excelled in math and science.
(05:35):
Teachers remembered him as unusually gifted, but impatient, more interested
in mastering a subject quickly than in following instructions. He
joined the math team, played piano at school assemblies, and
tutored classmates for extra money. He later skipped two grades
and graduated early, one of the youngest students in his class.
Jeffrey Epstein's early life offered little indication of the wealth
(05:57):
or infamy that would follow. He was a product of
the New York City public school system at a time
when that system still offered upward mobility to bright students
from working families. But those who later studied his trajectory
noticed that his path through institutions always followed the same pattern.
He entered, quickly, made himself indispensable through talent or charm,
and then left before anyone could define him. In the
(06:20):
early nineteen seventies, Jeffrey Epstein enrolled at Cooper Union, a
small college in Manhattan known for engineering and architecture. He
stayed briefly before transferring to the Qurant Institute of Mathematical
Sciences at New York University. The Qurant Institute was a
demanding program that required advanced calculus and proof based logic.
Epstein attended classes, but did not complete a degree. Professors
(06:44):
later said he was capable but uncommitted, the kind of
student who grasped complex concepts easily but lacked discipline for
formal study. During these years, Epstein earned money by tutoring
high school and college students and calculus and physics. Some
of his studenttudents were from elite private schools on the
Upper East Side, and the work brought him into homes
far removed from the modest world of Seagate. It was
(07:07):
his first contact with the wealthiest stratum of New York society.
He observed how influence operated, how private schools and family
connections formed an unbroken chain between privilege and opportunity. He
was ambitious enough to notice that the system relied as
much on confidence as on credentials. Friends from that period
described him as curious about status, but not intimidated by it.
(07:30):
He was comfortable speaking to anyone regardless of position. That
social ease, coupled with his intelligence, made him seem older
than his years. Even then, he preferred being the outsider
who could cross boundaries. Epstein's confidence and ambition were paired
with a belief that conventional rules could be manipulated if
he understood them better than the people enforcing them. That
(07:51):
conviction learned early in life would govern his later choices.
He learned that authority was rarely absolute, and that persuasion,
especially when combined with knowledge others did not have, could
shift almost any situation in his favor. By nineteen seventy four,
at the age of twenty one, Jeffrey Epstein had no
college degree, no formal credentials, and no clear career path.
(08:15):
What he had was a reputation among his tutoring clients
as being exceptionally bright and unusually persuasive. Through that network,
he was introduced to the Dalton School, an elite private
academy on Manhattan's Upper east Side. Dalton's headmaster, Donald Barr,
had a reputation for hiring unconventional teachers. Barr valued intellect
(08:36):
and independence more than formal qualifications, he claimed. He later
interviewed Epstein, liked his energy, and offered him a position
teaching mathematics and physics. For Jeffrey Epstein, this appointment represented
a leap from the periphery of the city's middle class
into its highest echelons. Dalton's students were the children of
Wall Street executives, lawyers, prominent families. The school's tuition was
(09:00):
higher than what many households in Seagate earned in a year.
It was a world of cultivated manners and inherited privilege,
and for the first time, Jeffrey Epstein occupied a place
inside it. Those who have examined Jeffrey Epstein's life often
noted that the Dalton job was his first training ground
for the skills that would later define him In the classroom.
Authority came not from title, but from performance. A teacher
(09:23):
succeeded by controlling perception. Epstein's combination of confidence, intellect, and
informal charm gave him a presence that commanded attention. It
also gave him access to his student's families, some of
whom would later become his professional contacts. The transition from
a civil servants son to a teacher in one of
Manhattan's most exclusive schools showed how Epstein's early years prepared
(09:45):
him to move between worlds. He had grown up watching
the city from its margins, learning how institutions worked from
the outside. When he entered Dalton, he carried with him
a conviction that rules existed to be studied and, when possible, repurposed.
In later accounts of his life, the details of his
childhood and his education often appear as a prologed scandal.
(10:06):
Yet those years explained how Jeffrey Epstein learned to shape
identity as strategy, the habits that later insulated him discretion, charm,
an instinct for finding authority figures, willing to overlook irregularities
they were already visible. He had learned to read institutions
and a sense which doors might open if he projected certainty.
(10:28):
By the time he accepted the job at Dalton, Epstein's
path was already diverging from that of his peers. He
had left behind the expectations of his family's world without
acquiring the credentials of the one he wanted to join.
What remained was his confidence, his intelligence, his ability to
convince others to give him a chance. Those traits would
carry him through the next decade, from the class rooms
(10:50):
of the Upper east Side into the heart of Wall
Street itself, where performance and persuasion were commodities as valuable
as money itself. When Jeffrey Epstein joined the Dalton School
in nineteen seventy four, he entered an institution that represented
the pinnacle of New York's private education system. Dalton's classrooms
(11:11):
overlooked the manicured streets of the Upper east Side, and
its students were the children of bankers, attorneys, and media executives.
School promoted itself as progressive, encouraging independence and intellectual exploration,
but beneath that idealism, it was a gateway to the
city's ruling class. The people who sent their children to
Dalton formed the same social networks that governed the city's
(11:35):
business and cultural life. Epstein arrived without a college degree
or teaching certification. His hiring was the decision of Donald Barr,
the headmaster, who believed that academic pedigree was less important
than curiosity and unconventional thinking. Barr had served as an
army officer and worked briefly in government intelligence during World
(11:55):
War II before turning to education. He was known for
his strict discipline, his literary interests, and his preference for
strong personalities. In Epstein, he reportedly saw potential, describing him
to colleagues as clever and engaging. The school offered Jeffrey
Epstein an annual salary, modest by private school standards, but
generous compared with his family's income. In Brooklyn, he was
(12:18):
assigned to teach mathematics and physics to students in the
upper grades. His pupils ranged in age from mid teens
to near adults, many of them bound for Ivy League universities.
For Epstein, it was an opportunity to establish himself among
families whose influence extended well beyond the classroom. Former students
later remembered him as a confident and informal instructor who
(12:39):
seemed eager to connect with his pupils as peers rather
than subordinates. He preferred conversation to lecture, and often discussed money, ambition,
and success. Topics that were uncommon in Dalton's humanity's oriented culture.
He wore open colored shirts and affected the casual demeanor
of someone who already considered himself successful. Several students told
(13:01):
journalists decades later that he seemed fascinated by wealth and
by those who possessed it. The boundaries between teacher and student,
between staff and the families who employed them were unusually porous.
At Dalton. Parents were frequent visitors, and social events often
blended the professional and the personal. Jeffrey Epstein took advantage
of this environment. He tutored outside of class and was
(13:24):
invited into students' homes, where he met parents who worked
in finance and law. It was through these contacts that
he encountered Allen or Ace Greenberg, the chief executive of
bear Stearns, one of Wall Street's most aggressive investment banks.
Greenberg's children attended Dalton, and he, like many others, appreciated
talent that operated outside of convention. Some former students described
(13:48):
Epstein's familiarity as excessive, and said that he blurred professional boundaries.
Nothing in the records suggest formal complaints or disciplinary action,
but his behavior made colleagues uneasy years after his hiring,
the school declined to renew his contract. The reason, according
to administrative notes later quoted by reporters, was poor performance.
(14:09):
The wording was diplomatic and left no paper trail of controversy.
When Jeffrey Epstein departed Dalton in nineteen seventy six, he
left no published research, no record of teaching awards, and
no alumni tributes. Yet he also left with something more
valuable than a letter of recommendation. Introductions Dalton's network connected
(14:30):
him to the families that ran the city's financial world.
He was remembered as an intelligent young teacher who might
be useful in other contexts. Within months, one of those
connections reached out to him. Alan Greenberg of bear Stearns
was known on Wall Street for his unconventional hiring practices.
He liked people who displayed nerve and imagination qualities. He
(14:51):
considered PSD poor, smart, and a deep desire to be rich.
Jeffrey Epstein fit that formula grown up without privilege, had
no traditional credentials, and projected absolute confidence. Alan Greenberg offered
him a position as a junior assistant at bear Stearn's.
The offer placed Epstein at the heart of the financial
(15:13):
industry during one of its most volatile and lucrative periods.
In later years, the Dalton period would take on an
outsized role in retrospective accounts of Epstein's life. It represented
the hinge between the ordinary and the extraordinary. From a
small house in Brooklyn, he had moved into the most
exclusive rooms of New York's elite. The job lasted only
(15:33):
two years, but the introductions it provided proved durable. After
leaving Dalton, Epstein told friends that he was finished with teaching.
Education had served its purpose. It had given him access.
He now turned toward a world where confidence, secrecy, and
performance mattered more than credentials. When Jeffrey Epstein joined bear
(16:01):
Stearns in nineteen seventy six, the firm was known for
two qualities that suited him, aggression and secrecy. It was
a place where bold risk taking was celebrated and where
success depended as much on self confidence as on technical knowledge.
Alan Greenberg, the firm's chief executive, had built his reputation
on finding unconventional talent, and he liked people who could
(16:22):
think quickly and persuade others to follow their lead. Epstein
entered the company at the lowest professional level, working as
a junior assistant to a floor trader. The position paid
little but provided an education that no university could offer.
Bear Stearns operated in a volatile period when the deregulation
of financial markets was creating new products and new forms
(16:43):
of speculation. Epstein showed an immediate aptitude for these innovations.
He specialized in the emerging field of options trading, which
required mathematical precision and an understanding of investor psychology. Colleagues
later said that he had an ability to calculate complex
probabilities in his head and to explain them in language
that clients could understand. His rise there was pretty quick.
(17:05):
By nineteen eighty, only four years after joining the firm,
he was named a limited partner for someone without a
degree or professional certification. The promotion was remarkable. It reflected
not only technical skill, but an instinct for cultivating influence.
Epstein became known for his comdemeanor on the trading floor
and for his discretion with clients. He projected confidence without arrogance,
(17:28):
and he learned to use information as currency. At bear Stearn's,
Epstein began constructing the first version of the persona that
would later define him. He told colleagues that he dealt
with wealthy clients who needed privacy, and he cultivated an
image of mystery. Few knew the full extent of his work.
He kept no visible social life outside of the office,
(17:48):
and he avoided the clubs and bars frequented by other traders. Instead,
he spent long hours with clients, many of whom preferred
phone calls to written correspondence. The absence of documentation became
a signature of his The firm rewarded results, not transparency,
and in that environment Epstein began to thrive. He operated
(18:10):
in the gray areas of finance, where regulation was limited
and interpretation could be profitable. It was during this period
that he learned how complex instruments could obscure the flow
of money. Transactions could be routed through subsidiaries, recorded in
ambiguous terms, and then later recharacterized depending on outcome. These
techniques were legal when executed properly, and opaque when not.
(18:34):
Epstein understood both aspects, and during this time his relationship
with Alan Greenberg deepened. Greenberg valued loyalty and initiative, and
he viewed Epstein as a protege. Epstein, for his part,
observed how authority functioned at the highest level of a
financial institution. Bear Stearns was a partnership, and its structured
(18:54):
demanded secrecy. Only partners knew the firm's internal finances, and
there well health depended on collective discretion. That model shared
secrecy as a form of protection would later appear in
Epstein's private dealings. Despite his success, Epstein's tenure at bear
Stearn's ended abruptly in nineteen eighty one. The official reason
(19:16):
was a violation of company policy. Epstein had reportedly lent
money to a client, an act prohibited under Securities and
Exchange Commission rules designed to prevent conflicts of interest. Internal
records described the incident as a breach of regulation, but
not as fraud. Epstein resigned before disciplinary action could occur.
(19:37):
The firm issued a polite statement of appreciation for his
service and paid him a bonus. There was no referral
to regulators, no public censure, no stain on his employment record.
The details of Epstein's departure illustrate another defining element of
his career. There when institutions had the option to address
misconduct privately or publicly, they almost always chose privacy. For
(20:01):
bear Stearns, a quiet separation avoided regulatory scrutiny. For Epstein,
it provided freedom and a story that he could rewrite.
He told associates that he had left voluntarily to pursue
independent opportunities. After leaving the firm, Epstein retained relationships with
several former colleagues and clients. He used those contacts to
(20:22):
start a small financial consultancy, positioning himself as a specialist
who could handle matters to discrete or complex for conventional banks.
He told potential clients that he could recover lost funds,
trace hidden assets, and mediate between rival investors. It was
an ambiguous service that combined legitimate financial analysis with elements
(20:44):
of private investigation. Timing was fortuitous. The early nineteen eighties
were a period of economic transformation in the United States.
New wealth was being created in technology, energy, and finance,
and the demand for confidentiality grew alongside it. Epstein understood
that secrecy itself could be marketed. What had been a
(21:04):
liability for an ordinary broker became for him a credential.
By mid nineteen eighty one, he had incorporated Intercontinental Assets Group.
The new company described its mission as helping governments and
investors recover stolen or embezzled funds. Its business model was
difficult to verify, and few corporate filings remain. What can
(21:25):
be traced is the change in Epstein's lifestyle. Within a
few years, he was living in Manhattan full time, traveling frequently,
describing himself as a financial consultant with global reach. When
Jeffrey Epstein founded Intercontinental Assets Group in nineteen eighty one,
he had no office on Wall Street. What he had
was a small company registration in New York and a
(21:48):
story that sounded credible to those who wanted to believe it.
Epstein described the firm as a boutique consultancy that recovered
stolen money for governments, banks, and wealthy individuals. The name
suggested global reach, and its mission promised confidentiality to clients
who valued their secrecy. The absence of details was part
of the appeal. Epstein told journalist years later that he
(22:10):
sometimes represented governments trying to locate embezzled funds, and at
other times worked for the individuals who had moved the money.
It was a claim that was of course impossible to verify.
No public records show which cases he handled or who
hired him. What is known is that he used the
image of a financial problem solver to expand his network.
(22:31):
By positioning himself between legitimate finance and the criminal underworld,
he created the impression that he was comfortable navigating both.
Epstein's work during this period coincided with an era of
economic turbulence. The early nineteen eighties saw the deregulation of
American banking, as well as a global debt crisis and
the rise of offshore finance. New money began flowing through
(22:54):
old channels, and fortunes shifted across borders. Governments and corporations
sometimes did rely on private consultants to trace or recover
funds that had been moved illegally, but that work was
opaque by nature. Epstein thrived in that new environment. His
reputation for secrecy grew, and so did the stories surrounding him.
(23:15):
Associates recalled that he traveled frequently, meeting people in Europe
and the Middle East. He began to speak casually of
international clients, including the Saudi arms dealer at Non Koshogi,
who had been a central figure in the Iran contra
arms trade. Koshogi circles included financiers, diplomats, and intelligence operatives.
(23:36):
Whether Epstein worked directly for him or simply invoked his
name to enhance credibility is unclear. Either way, the association
linked him to a world where money and politics overlapped
in ways that rarely appeared on paper. Epstein's own travel
documents added to the sense of mystery. When federal agents
searched his Manhattan home decades later, they found an Austrian
(23:57):
passport issued in the nineteen eighties that listens did a
false name and residence in Saudi Arabia. The passport bore
entry and exit stamps from several European countries and from
Saudi Arabia itself. Epstein's attorneys later said it had been
issued as a convenience for personal security, allowing him to
travel without attracting attention. That explanation did little to reduce speculation.
(24:20):
The possession of an alternate identity, however, acquired fit neatly
into the mythology he had started to build for himself.
By the mid nineteen eighties, Epstein had embedded himself in
social and financial circles far beyond what his verifiable work
could explain. He rented apartments in Manhattan and began hosting
meetings and upscale restaurants and private offices. He was known
(24:43):
as a man who could move discreetly between legitimate business
and shadow negotiations. Those who dealt with him often found
that his services were less about finance than about access.
He knew people who could open doors if not, he
knew people who knew people, and he understood how to
frame pri problems so that solutions appeared plausible. The fees
he charged were substantial. Former acquaintances said he expected to
(25:07):
be paid six figure sums for introductions or for advice
that others would have given freely. The value he offered
lay not in documented results, but in the perception of influence.
His new company gave him a stage on which to
perform that role. Intercontinental Assets Group also allowed Epstein to
build the infrastructure of secrecy that would later define his operations.
(25:30):
He relied on assistants who rotated frequently, private mailboxes, multiple
phone lines. He avoided paper whenever possible, and preferred to
conduct sensitive conversations by telephone. These habits created the impression
of high level discretion and made it difficult to track
his activities. Epstein's growing network of acquaintances now included individuals
(25:52):
with backgrounds and intelligence, law enforcement, and organized finance. Some
of them later speculated that he must have had tiesed
to and intelligence agencies. Given his apparent access and the
ease with which he moved through international circles. In a
field where reputation was often more important than truth, the
rumor itself became valuable. It suggested protection, and protection inspired
(26:15):
trust among those who needed it most. The period between
nineteen eighty one and nineteen eighty seven transformed Jeffrey Epstein
from a former school teacher into a figure with the
trappings of global wealth. He acquired tailored suits, he traveled
first class. He spoke with the assurance of someone who
operated above conventional scrutiny. Yet beneath that image there was
(26:38):
little substance that could be verified. His firm left no
major legal filings, and his tax records remained private. By
the time the decade reached its midpoint, Epstein had perfected
the first stage of his larger enterprise. He had learned
how to sell secrecy as a service. In the years
that followed, he would begin to sell it to people
(26:58):
whose fortunes dwarfed his own. That transition began in nineteen
eighty seven, when he met a man named Stephen Hoffenberg,
whose debt collection empire was about to collapse into one
of the largest financial frauds in American history. Their partnership
would draw Epstein deeper into the machinery of deception and
lay the foundation for his relationship with Leslie Waxner, the
(27:20):
alliance that would complete his transformation from a consultant to
a powerbroker. By nineteen eighty seven, Jeffrey Epstein had cultivated
(27:46):
the image of a discreet financial operator whose influence reached
far beyond his verifiable credentials. That year, he was introduced
to Stephen Hoffenberg, a fast talking New York entrepreneur who
controlled Tower's Financial Corporate, a company that claimed to specialize
in debt collection and corporate financing. In reality, Towers was
(28:07):
already becoming a vast and unsustainable scheme that raised hundreds
of millions of dollars through fraudulent bond offerings. Hoffenberg was
drawn to Epstein's confidence and his reputation for solving problems
that conventional financiers avoided. He hired Epstein as a consultant
at a fee of twenty five thousand dollars per month,
an extraordinary sum at the time. Hoffenberg later said that
(28:29):
Epstein's role was to design strategies for corporate takeovers and
to assist with investments in airlines and transportation firms. Epstein
was given an office in the Willard Houses, an ornate
building in midtown Manhattan that symbolized old money and ambition.
There he met with bankers, brokers, and lawyers who were
a part of Tower's growing web of financial activity. A
(28:51):
partnership between Hoffenberg and Epstein coincided with the era of
leveraged buyouts and speculative mergers. Corporations were being bought, sold,
and broken apart through complex debt instruments. Hoffenberg wanted to
expand Towers beyond debt collection and into high visibility acquisitions
that would give it legitimacy. Hoffenberg and Epstein devised a
(29:14):
plan to buy Pan American World Airways, the struggling airline
whose brand still carried some prestige. When that attempt failed,
they turned to Emery air Freight, another company with liquidity
problems but valuable infrastructure. They quietly began accumulating shares and
attempted to gain control using money that, according to later
(29:35):
court records, had been raised through fraudulent bond sales. Epstein's
precise role in these operations remains contested to this day.
Hoffenberg claimed that Epstein was the architect of the financing
structures that allowed Towers to move investor money between shell
corporations and disguised losses as assets. Hoffenberg described him as
(29:56):
the brain behind the plan, though the government never sustainediated
that claim. When federal prosecutors charged Hoffenberg and his associates
in nineteen ninety three with securities fraud and mail fraud,
Epstein's name appeared in investigative materials, but he was not indicted.
Former employees of Towers recalled that Jeffrey Epstein was both
(30:16):
visible and elusive. He appeared at key meetings, issued directives,
and then vanished for weeks on end. He preferred to
operate by telephone, rarely committing to anything written. When Towers
Financial eventually collapsed, it was one of the largest ponzi
schemes in American history. More than two hundred thousand investors
(30:37):
lost approximately four hundred and fifty million dollars. Hoffenberg pleaded
guilty and was sentenced to twenty years in federal prison.
In interviews conducted after his release, he maintained that Jeffrey
Epstein had been central to the fraud. Prosecutors and the
sec took a narrower view. They concluded that Stephen Hoffenberg
(30:58):
and his direct subordinates had executed the scheme, and that
Jeffrey Epstein's involvement, whatever it was, did not meet the
evidentiary threshold for charges. Epstein later told acquaintances that he
had left the company before the illegal activity began. The
timeline he offered was vague and has never been confirmed
through any documentation. When Stephen Hoffenberg was asked years later
(31:20):
how Epstein had managed to avoid indictment, he replied simply
that Epstein knew things about people. The remark was not
supported by any evidence, but it captured what had become
a growing belief among those who encountered Epstein that his
true business was information and that his protection came from
the secrets he held. What those were, though that's anyone's guess.
(31:43):
By the end of the nineteen eighties, Epstein had severed
visible ties with Towers Financial. He was wealthy, though the
source of that wealth could not be clearly identified. He
lived in Manhattan, kept offices in the city and in
Palm Beach, Florida, and had begun to cultivate relationships with
some of the country's most prominent scientists and public figures.
(32:04):
To those who asked what he did for a living,
he offered vague but reassuring answers. He managed money, he said,
for clients who required absolute discretion. No one doubted him.
By the end of the nineteen eighties, Jeffrey Epstein's wealth
and influence had grown faster than any verifiable record could explain.
(32:26):
In New York's financial world, people who had once dismissed
him as a minor day trader began to notice the
scale of his resources. He entertained on a larger footing.
He traveled frequently, and he spoke of clients whose name
he never revealed. His apartment grew more opulent, his circle
of acquaintances more rarefied. What remained consistent was the absence
(32:48):
of documentation that linked his new lifestyle to identifiable income.
Colleagues and journalists who later attempted to reconstruct his finances
found almost nothing in the public record. There were no
partnership filings that showed capital distributions, no management contracts, no
regulatory licenses that would have permitted him to trade securities
(33:08):
for outside investors. Yet Epstein spent and invested as if
he were managing hundreds of millions of dollars. The gap
between appearance and evidence produced the first serious speculation about
what sustained him in corporate Manhattan. Were gossip functioned as
an informal newswire, Stories about Epstein circulated with increasing frequency.
(33:30):
Some claimed that he had made a fortune in currency trading,
or that he had pioneered complex tax shelters for foreign investors.
Others insisted he had access to information that powerful people
preferred to keep private. None of these explanations could be substantiated,
but each contained an element of plausibility. Epstein's background in
(33:50):
options trading and his years around Hoffenberg's elaborate shell companies
lent credibility to the idea that he understood how to
move money invisibly. Distant rumors suggested that Epstein was connected
to intelligence services. Some traced it to his earlier employment
under Donald Barr, who had once served in US military intelligence.
(34:11):
Others linked it to his association with at Non Koshogi,
whose dealings in arms and politics had been entangled with
American and Israeli operations during the Iran Contry years. The
claim grew because it seemed to explain what ordinary business
could not. If Epstein had backing from an intelligence network,
his immunity from scrutiny would make sense, especially in an
(34:34):
age when espionage and high finance frequently intersected. Federal investigations
decades later, including a twenty twenty report by the Department
of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility, found no indication that
Jeffrey Epstein had ever worked for or been protected by
any US or foreign intelligence service. This perception of hidden
(34:56):
protection became one of Epstein's most effective assets. Alliance and
acquaintances who believed he had connections in intelligence or politics
were more inclined to trust him with sensitive matters. The
same rumour that should have been dangerous, implying that he
might record or exploit private information made him appear powerful,
and that illusion of immunity became self fulfilling. Those who
(35:19):
worked with him began to behave as if he were untouchable.
By nineteen eighty eight, Epstein had adopted habits consistent with
the image he was cultivating. He preferred verbal agreements to
written contracts. He discouraged clients from using intermediaries. He handled
transactions personally, often through accounts in the names of holding
(35:39):
companies registered in tax havens. Associates noticed that he kept
meticulous notes for himself, but never allowed others to see them.
His assistants signed nondisclosure agreements that barred them from discussing
his affairs outside of the office. The pattern of control
extended beyond business. It was a structure that demanded silence
and rewarded complicity. With these private arrangements, Epstein moved comfortably.
(36:06):
He invited academics, politicians, financiers to his home, introducing them
to one another under the banner of philanthropy or intellectual exchange.
The gatherings served multiple purposes. They gave him access to
people whose reputations enhanced his own and allowed him to
observe what others wanted or feared. Information acquired in those settings,
(36:28):
details about personal lives, business disputes, and ambitions, was stored
and never forgotten. Whether he intended to use it as
leverage or simply as insurance, it reinforced his position. Those
who later tried to chart Epstein's assent identified this period
as the point where his influence began to resemble infrastructure.
(36:48):
He was no longer simply a man with money. Friends
described him as a connector, someone who could arrange introductions
that might otherwise take months or years. He appeared to
know everyone into Oh No. One. The mechanics of how
he achieved that status remained obscure, but the results were visible.
He was invited to conferences, courted by institutions seeking donations,
(37:12):
and consulted on a wide array of projects. The whispers
surrounding him, claims of hidden clients, blackmail, material, ties to intelligence,
remained unverified, yet they shaped how people treated him. They
provided an explanation for his resilience and a justification for
their own curiosity. If Epstein was indeed connected to forces
(37:34):
larger than himself, then associating with him might confer a
measure of protection, whether or not that belief was founded,
and ensured that few people challenged him directly. The combination
of wealth, discretion, and myth drew the attention of a
man whose own empire relied on privacy and control. Sometime
before nineteen eighty nine, through overlapping social and business circles
(37:56):
Epstein met leslie H. Wexner, the founder of Limited, This
connection would transform them both. For Epstein, it would provide
the stability and legitimacy he had sought since his departure
from bear Stearns. For Waxner, it would introduce into his
life a man whose influence would eventually shadow his fortune
and his reputation. When Jeffrey Epstein met leslie H. Wexner
(38:32):
near the end of the nineteen eighties, both men had
already mastered the art of discretion, although in different ways.
Wexner had built The Limited from a single clothing store
in Columbus, Ohio into a multi billion dollar retail empire.
He was known in business circles as analytical, reserved, and
intensely private. Epstein, by contrast, projected effortless charm and claimed
(38:55):
to operate in the rarefied space where extreme wealth sought anonymity.
Their introduction came through social and business intermediaries. Accounts differ
on who exactly arranged it, but within a short paid
Epstein became a constant presence in Wexner's financial life. The
connection made practical sense at first glance. Wexner had a
(39:15):
mass of fortune that required sophisticated management, and Epstein presented
himself as an investment adviser who specialized in high net
worth individuals. He promised not only financial returns, but total confidentiality.
Wexner admired intellect and self assurance, and Epstein had both.
In interviews decades later, Wexner said that Epstein possessed extraordinary
(39:38):
financial talent and that his advice had been very valuable.
The arrangement was soon formalized. By nineteen eighty nine, Epstein
was Wexner's exclusive financial consultant. He handled personal and corporate funds,
oversaw trust, and advised on tax and real estate structures.
Employees within Wexner's organization noticed that Epstein operated with unusual independence.
(40:04):
He did not consult the limited's in house accountants or lawyers,
preferring to deal directly with Leslie Wexner himself. Decisions that
would normally have required committees or boards were made in private.
The relationship extended beyond the boundaries of a typical client
advisor dynamic. In nineteen ninety one, Wexner granted Epstein an
(40:25):
expansive power of attorney that codified his autonomy. The document
authorized Jeffrey Epstein to sign checks, open and closed bank accounts,
purchase and sell property, and borrow money in Wexner's name.
Sutch powers are usually reserved for family members or long
standing fiduciaries. For a non relative without professional licensing, it
(40:48):
was extraordinary. It was ridiculous. The arrangement gave Jeffrey Epstein
legal authority over billions of dollars in assets and control
over transactions that would never require Wexner's direct signature. Again,
the reasons for Wexner's trust remains unknown. Associates described him
as a man who valued loyalty and intellect, qualities that
(41:10):
he claimed to see in Epstein. Others have speculated that
Epstein's appeal lay in his ability to manage sensitive matters quietly.
Wexner's retail empire was sprawling, with complex ownership structures and
international operations. Epstein's promise of secrecy and efficiency offered both
convenience and control. Whatever the motivation was, the effect was clear.
(41:33):
Jeffrey Epstein became the single most powerful outsider in Leslie
Wexner's financial network. The new arrangement not only changed Wexner's life,
it changed Jeffrey Epstein's life. Shortly after the power of
attorney was executed, Wexner transferred to Epstein one of his
most valuable properties, a seven story townhouse at nine East
(41:54):
seventy first Street in Manhattan. Officially, the property remained under
corporate ownership linked to Leslie Wexner, but Jeffrey Epstein took possession,
moving in and using it as both residents and office.
Investigators later described the townhouse as the largest private home
in New York City. It was fitted with security systems,
(42:15):
guest suites, and extensive private quarters. Its walls were lined
with art and rare books, and visitors described an atmosphere
of wealth without warmth. Epstein also began managing charitable and
personal projects associated with Wexner's family foundations. He participated in
philanthropic planning and attended gatherings that mixed social elites with
(42:37):
political figures. Through these events, Epstein expanded his own network.
He met even more academics, more scientists, more politicians who
would later appear in his orbit as guests or associates.
Many believed he was a billionaire in his own right,
and his connection with Wexner reinforced that impression Publicly Epstein
(42:58):
described himself as the founder of j Epstein and Company,
a firm that managed investments for clients with a minimum
net worth of one billion dollars. None besides Leslie Wexner
were ever identified. He incorporated a holding company financial trust
Company in the US Virgin Islands, where banking secrecy laws
(43:19):
shielded client information. The structure gave him a legitimate explanation
for his invisibility. Confidentiality was part of his brand. By
nineteen ninety one, he had achieved what he had been
building towards since leaving bear Stearns, a position of power
without any sense of accountability. He managed immense sums of
(43:39):
money through private agreements, he controlled valuable real estate, and
he enjoyed the prestige of advising one of the country's
most successful businessmen. Two outsiders, the arrangement looked unconventional but effective.
To those inside Leslie Wexner's circle, it was baffling. No
one could explain why so much a threat authority had
(44:00):
been delegated to someone whose background remained largely undocumented. The
same year the power of Attorney was signed, Wexner's name
began appearing in property and trust documents alongside Epstein's The
transactions moved millions of dollars between companies and foundations, often
through accounts that only Epstein controlled. When reporters later attempted
(44:22):
to follow the money, they found labyrinths of ownership that
led back to him. It was the logical conclusion of
a lesson he had absorbed from every institution he had entered.
Control flowed to the person who understood the system best.
When later asked how a man with no formal financial
license and no visible clients could have acquired such power,
(44:43):
one of Wexner's former associates gave the simplest answer possible.
The money had to come from somewhere. The phrase captured
both the mystery and the mechanism of it. Epstein had
made secrecy itself his commodity. The trust that Wexner placed
in it became the foundation of an empire whose real
currency was invisibility. This was the point at which Jeffrey
(45:06):
Epstein's public narrative diverged permanently from the verifiable record. The
man who had once taught math at a private school
was now described as a billionaire investor with global connections.
The evidence for that claim rested largely on reputation, which,
in Jeffrey Epstein's world was more valuable than proof. The
structure of wealth and secrecy he built around Leslie Wexner
(45:29):
would become the template for every enterprise that followed. By
nineteen ninety one, Epstein had achieved the independence he had
always sought. Soon he would meet someone who had grown
up surrounded by the same principle, a woman whose father
had built his fortune on secrets, and whose loyalty to
him would make her both collaborator and accomplice. Their partnership
(45:50):
would extend Epstein's reach into every corner of elite society,
and it would begin in the same city where his
transformation had been completed. That on the next episode of Unresolved,
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