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Palm Beach sex offender's secret plea deal: Possible co-conspirators not
charged, presses victims to settle civil suits

By SUSAN
SPENCER-WENDEL

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Friday, September 18, 2009

WEST PALM BEACH — Billionaire financier sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's secret
non-prosecution agreement he struck with federal prosecutors was unsealed
Friday, offering the first public look at the deal Epstein's high-powered legal
counsel brokered on his behalf.

According the agreement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S.
Attorney's Office investigated Epstein for various federal crimes, including
prostitution, some punishable by a minimum of 10 years up to life in prison

Read the agreement unsealed today(pdf)

Page2Live:
Epstein fined for leaving a deposition after attorneys ask
about his genitals (EXPLICIT)

Jeffrey Epstein

Billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein has been
sentenced to 18 months for felony solicitation of prostitution
following accusations by teen girls.
Past
coverage

• Page2Live.com
coverage

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But federal prosecutors backed down and agreed to recall grand jury
subpoeanas, if Epstein pleaded guilty to prostitution-related felonies in state
court, which he ultimately did. He received an 18-month jail sentence, of which
he served 13.

A former federal prosecutor of 15 years, Mark Johnson of Stuart, said the
disparity in the potential sentences was unusual.

The United States Attorney's Office also agreed not to charge any of
Epstein's possible co-conspirators - Sarah Kellen, Adriana Ross, Lesley Groff
and Nadia Marcinkova.

The agreement was negotiated in part by New York heavyweight criminal defense
attorney Gerald Lefcourt.

On its first draft in September 2007, it required that Epstein pay an
attorney - tapped by the U.S. Attorney's Office and approved by Epstein - to
represent some of the victims in civil suits they had filed against Epstein.
That attorney is prominent Miami lawyer Bob Josefsberg.

Former prosecutor Johnson said he has never seen a provision like that
before.

But an addendum to the agreement signed the following month struck Epstein's
duty to pay Josefsberg if he and the victims did not accept a settlement and
instead pursued litigation.

The agreement, signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Villafana, does not
expressly state whether any victims were contacted or consulted before the deal
was made.

Attorney Brad Edwards of Fort Lauderdale, who represents three of the young
women, believes that none of the between 30 and 40 woman identified as victims
in the federal investigation were told of the deal. Edwards said his clients
were still receiving letters in the mail months afterwards saying the U.S.
Attorney's Office assuring them Epstein would be prosecuted.

"Never consulting the victims is probably the most outrageous aspect of
it..." Edwards said. "It taught them that someone with money can buy his way out
of anything. It's outrageous and embarrassing for United States Attorney's
Office and the State Attorneys Office."

Epstein now faces many civil lawsuits filed by the women, who are represented
by a variety attorneys. In many, the facts alleged are the same: that Epstein
had a predilection for teenage girls, identified poor, vulnerable ones and lured
them to his home via other young women. The teens describe ascending a staircase
lined with nude photographs of young girls and to the spa room where Epstein
would appear in a small towel.

Former Circuit Judge Bill Berger, who represents one of the victims, and The
Palm Beach Post sought the unsealing of the agreement. Berger refers to it as a
"sweetheart deal."

"Why was it so important for the government to make this deal?" Berger asked
rhetorically. "We have not yet had honest explanation by any public official as
to why it was made .. and why the victim's were sold down the river."

Former federal prosecutor Ryon McCabe described the agreement as "very
unorthodox." Such agreements, he said, are usually reserved for corporations,
not individuals.

"It's very, very rare. I've never seen or heard of the procedure that was set
up here." said McCabe, who has no involvement in any Epstein litigation and is
now a securities litigation attorney.

"He's essentially avoiding federal prosecution because he can afford to pay
that many lawyers to help those victims review their cases.... If a person has
no money he couldn't be able to strike a deal like this and avoid federal
prosecution."

The back-room deal with federal prosecutors all the more interesting in light
of the legal heavyweights who have worked for Epstein, including Harvard
professor Alan Dershowitz and Kenneth Starr of Clinton impeachment fame.
Lefcourt is a past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense
Lawyers.

Epstein's local defense attorney, Jack Goldberger, issued a statement Friday
saying he had fought the release of the sealed agreement to protect the third
parties named there. "Mr. Epstein has fully abided by all of its terms and
conditions. He is looking forward to putting this difficult period in his life
behind him. He is continuing his long standing history of science
philanthropy..."

Epstein ended up avoiding federal charges, and pleaded guilty in state court
to felony solicitation of prostitution and procuring a person under the age of
18 for prostitution. In July 2008, he was sentenced to 18 months in jail, and
later allowed out up to six days a week on work release.

Epstein left the jail in late July 2009 after serving not quite 13 months of
the sentence, having earned gain time for good behavior.

Palm Beach Police began investigating the "international moneyman of
mystery," as the New York magazine dubbed him, after they received a complaint
from a relative of a 14-year-old girl who had given Epstein a naked massage at
his home on the Intracoastal Waterway.

Police sought and found in poor neighborhoods a variety of tall, thin,
model-like young women, who told stories of begin recruiting, then going to
Epstein's home and massaging and stimulating him. They walked away with between
$200 and $1,000.

The investigation triggered tensions between police and prosecutors, with
then-Chief Michael Reiter saying in a May 2006 letter to then-State Attorney
Barry Krischer that the chief prosecutor should disqualify himself.

"I continue to find your office's treatment of these cases highly unusual,"
Reiter wrote. He then asked for and got the federal investigation that ended in
the sealed deal.

"The Jeffrey Epstein matter was an experience of what a many-million-dollar
defense can accomplish," Reiter told the Palm Beach Daily News upon his
retirement.

More on palmbeachpost.com

Financier
Epstein's secret plea deal to be unsealed Friday (09/17/2009)

Dawn
breaks on Palm Beach billionaire Jeffrey Epstein's freedom after serving 13
months from procuring underage girls for sex (07/22/2009)

Jeffrey
Epstein victim says in lawsuit she was recruited as sex slave (07/15/2009)

Judge
rules sex offender Jeffrey Epstein agreement to remain sealed (02/17/2009)

Sex
offender billionaire Epstein on work-release program in Palm Beach County
(12/11/2008)

New
sexual abuse lawsuit filed against jailed Palm Beach billionaire (12/04/2008)

Attorney:
Unseal billionaire Epstein's deferred-prosecution agreement (10/10/2008)

Two
more girls file civil suit against Epstein (09/10/2008)

Rich
man fought the law and he mostly won (07/07/2008)

Banker
Epstein pleads in prostitution case, gets 18 months (06/30/2008)

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Jeffrey
Epstein

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Sentencing and Punishment

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