How Jeffrey Epstein Made a Fortune From An Illegal Ponzi Scheme Then Skipped Away With Millions Of Other People’s Money
Aug. 1 2021, Published 11:05 a.m. ET
When the full horror of billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes were laid bare in 2019, the world wondered how he managed to get away with his abuse for so long. But, as authors Dylan Howard, Melissa Cronin, and James Robertson reveal in their book Epstein: Dead Men Tell No Tales, the man who would be unmasked as the worst pedophile in American history was guilty of other criminal acts too – and should have been jailed in the early 1990s.
“He was a master manipulator,” they write. “But Epstein’s manipulations weren’t always done through legal means. By the early nineties, the authorities had set their sights on Epstein for operating a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme.”
As the authors explain, Epstein’s rise through Wall Street was unusual – and unusually fast. Born in New York and raised in the quiet Brooklyn community of Sea Gate, his early life seemed unremarkable, and after leaving University without graduating, he initially worked as a math teacher in Manhattan, before being dismissed from the prestigious Dalton School for his “lackadaisical teaching style."
Howard, Cronin, and Robertson also note that the “master manipulator” was to use his dismissal to his advantage.
“True to form, Epstein somehow managed to turn that failure into a stepping-stone to even greater success: a job on Wall Street,” they write. “During a parent-teacher conference, the twenty-three-year-old had managed to dazzle one student’s financier father. So, when Epstein was fired from Dalton, the broker connected Epstein with Alan Greenberg, a Wall Street bigwig who was poised to become chief executive officer of multibillion-dollar global investment bank and brokerage firm Bear Stearns.
“Later that year, Epstein landed a job at Bear Stearns as a low-level junior assistant to a floor trader. He swiftly rose through the ranks, and within four years he had become a limited partner, taking on mega-millionaire clients like Seagram president Edgar Bronfman.
“Getting in on Wall Street before the 1980s banking boom allowed Epstein to build a spectacular network of connections that made him the toast of Manhattan during one of the most prosperous decades it had ever seen. In just a few short years with Bear Stearns, Epstein had made millions of dollars, was traveling full-time by chauffeured limo, had billionaires relying on his financial advice, and was carousing around town with stunning women on both arms.”
Still, it was not enough. Epstein’s greed and ambition were to push him to grow ever more desperate and reckless in his pursuit of money and influence.
“In early 1981, one of Epstein’s colleagues at Bear Stearns tipped off management that Epstein was testing the boundaries of the law,” write Howard, Cronin and Robertson. “After an investigation, Epstein admitte