The Nymphets Are The Least Of It

The real question about Jeffrey Epstein has little to do with the Lolita Express, the private island, and the underage girls, although the prosecutions were over the nymphets alone, and the rest has been the focus of the tabloid news. But a much bigger question is how Epstein got his money in the first place, and, since there's a high likelihood that this involved fraud and blackmail, how much he stole, and maybe more important, from whom.

One potential early source of money was Les Wexner. This story in The New Republic gives details:

The founder and former chairman of L Brands, which includes stores like The Limited and Victoria’s Secret, Wexner was Epstein’s longtime friend and key enabler. A serial liar and cunning manipulator, Epstein sometimes approached women claiming to be a talent scout for Victoria’s Secret. He said he was a money manager for billionaires, but Wexner was his only confirmed client. After meeting Epstein in the mid-1980s, Wexner eventually gave him power of attorney, allowing him full control over Wexner’s billions. The source of most of Epstein’s own fortune, estimated at nearly $600 million at the time of his death, remains mostly unknown, but much of it appears to have come from Wexner himself, including mansions in Ohio and New York that Wexner essentially gifted to Epstein. According to transaction records, it appears that Epstein also used his position as Wexner’s fiduciary to off-load huge chunks of Wexner-owned stock, while skimming millions for himself. (Wexner eventually disavowed Epstein, claiming he stole $46 million from him—a relatively small amount compared to the overall sum Epstein likely earned through the relationship.)

But the Wexner Manhatten mansion alone, which the story and other sources indicate was effectively "gifted" to Epstein, sold at a distress price of $51 million in March. And this leaves out the value of the other real estate Epstein somehow wangled from Wexner, plus an undetermined amount of cash. $46 million is pretty clearly a wildly lowball estimate meant to preserve both Wexner's self-esteem and his public image.

The public figures who've been suddenly named as Epstein cronies, now including Bill Gates, have all scrambled to insist that they only "discussed philanthropy", never went to the island, or whatever. Alan Dershowitz is such another:

Dershowitz admitted to being at the billionaire’s home but noted that he’d never seen an underaged girl at Epstein’s place despite sworn testimony from Epstein’s former butler who claimed that Dershowitz was at the residence at the same time that underaged girls were there. Dershowitz has an easy explanation for that: “Were there young women in another part of the house giving massages while I was around? I have no idea of that!”

Oh, and did Dershowitz ever receive a massage at Epstein’s house? Yep. But Dershowitz claimed that it was from an adult woman and he kept his underwear on.

But in 2003, before Epstein's 2008 first case, Dershowitz told Vanity Fair:

In the Vanity Fair piece, Dershowitz told the magazine, "I'm on my 20th book … The only person outside of my immediate family that I send drafts to is Jeffrey." In 2015, however, he relayed to The American Lawyer that he was an Epstein acquaintance, describing the relationship as "entirely professional."

Another prominent figure who's had to backtrack furiously over Epstein ties is Leon Black. According to the Financial Times,

Over two decades, Mr Black confided in Epstein regarding personal matters, leaned on him as an “architect” of, and “strict taskmaster” for, the private office that managed his investments. The men socialised or held meetings at Epstein’s Caribbean island and his other properties in New York, Paris, Florida and New Mexico.

. . .“Let me be clear, there has never been an allegation by anyone that I engaged in any wrongdoing because I did not,” Mr Black said then. “Any suggestion of blackmail or any other connection to Epstein’s reprehensible conduct is categorically untrue.”

The pair last spoke in 2018, after Epstein sent emails that made what Dechert called “unsubstantiated assertions” about the work he had performed and demanded more cash. Mr Black refused to pay anything more.

It sounds, though, as if Epstein was demanding payments over "unsubstantiated assertions". Er, isn't this blackmail?

The nymphets -- or whatever else -- were just a means to an end. We'll likely never get to the bottom of these relationships, Wexner, Dershowtiz, Black, Gates, and surely many others. But we can be fairly sure there's much beyond what they're willing to say publicly. How much Epstein stole may not be anything like the whole picture, either.