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QINGDAO TODAY
在线翻译:
szdaily -> Special Report -> 
The death of Jeffrey Epstein: Fact, fiction and confusion
    2019-08-16  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

JEFFREY EPSTEIN’S apparent suicide in a U.S. federal jail launched new conspiracy theories online in a saga that has provided fodder for them for years, fueled by Epstein’s ties to princes, politicians and other famous and powerful people.

Online theorists have quickly offered unsubstantiated speculation — including some retweeted by U.S. President Donald Trump — that Epstein’s death wasn’t a suicide, or it was faked.

Conspiracy chatter has picked up on the conjecture that resurged after Epstein’s indictment last month on charges that he orchestrated a sex-trafficking ring designed to bring him teenage girls. Some of his accusers have described being sexually abused by the wealthy financier’s friends and acquaintances.

The indictment came 11 years after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to state charges of soliciting and procuring a person under 18 for prostitution.

Epstein, who was 66 when he died, had been denied bail and faced up to 45 years behind bars on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. He had pleaded not guilty and was awaiting trial next year.

His relationships with Trump, former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew were at the center of those online rumors and theories, many of which question what politicians knew about Epstein’s alleged sex crimes.

The indictment of Epstein has shone a light on what prosecutors say is a sprawling network of high school and college students forced to satisfy the U.S. hedge fund billionaire’s insatiable sexual appetite, strengthened by money and young recruiters.

“He likes beautiful women. ... and many of them are on the younger side,” Trump said in 2002, describing his friend Epstein’s taste in women.

At the time, the Brooklyn native was beyond reproach: a brilliant hedge fund manager, rich, a friend to celebrities and politicians whose appearance was often compared to the designer Ralph Lauren.

In order to guarantee a continuous inflow of young girls, Epstein allegedly had an army of recruiters often not much older than their targets, whom they would smoothly approach, presenting the former math teacher as a kind of benefactor.

“He’s helped me,” one such recruiter told Jennifer Araoz, who was 14 years old at the time, outside her Upper East Side school, near Epstein’s home.

“She was similar to me,” Araoz, now 32, explained during an interview with NBC in July.

The recruiter promised Araoz that Epstein could help her start a career in the entertainment industry.

Epstein favored “economically disadvantaged minor girls” who were lured into an “ever-expanding web of new victims,” according to U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman.

Once recruited, the girls were entered into Epstein’s “little black book,” an address book that, over time, came to contain more than 100 names, the Miami Herald reported.

The girls were spread throughout areas where Epstein had residences, including Paris, according to the now-inactive news site Gawker, which published parts of the book in 2015.

According to multiple accounts, housekeepers, Epstein’s secretary and the recruiters meticulously managed the grim agenda, with appointments, modes of transport — sometimes by private jet — instructions and payment, usually US$200-US$300 per visit.

The most loyal girls would also receive gifts.

Each session was allegedly conducted nude and almost systematically included sexual contact of varying degrees.

Multiple women say they attempted to refuse Epstein, but to no avail.

“If I left Epstein ... he could have had me killed or abducted, and I always knew he was capable of that if I did not obey him,” an alleged victim, Virginia Roberts, said during a hearing.

“I was very scared, particularly since I was a teenager,” added Roberts, who said she met Epstein in 1999.

Roberts and other victims said that the former Bear Stearns investment banker also provided his friends and acquaintances with teen girls.

“Epstein specifically told me ... him doing this was so that they would ‘owe him,’ they would be ‘in his pocket,’” Roberts explained.

Last week, thousands of pages of formerly sealed documents from a civil suit were unsealed that accuse rich and famous men, including Prince Andrew, of having sex with Virginia Giuffre supplied by Epstein decades ago when she was underage. Andrew has vigorously denied the claim.

A photo showing the prince standing with his arm around Giuffre’s waist was included in the unsealed documents.

The judicial system has had its sights on Epstein since 2005. In 2008, he officially registered as a sex offender.

But when FBI agents searched his New York residence in July, they allegedly found an infamous massage room used before still in place, with “vast trove of lewd photographs” of young-looking girls.

Media reports also said on Little St. James, Epstein’s 70-acre (28-hectare) private island in the Caribbean, locals say Epstein continued to bring underage girls to the island as recently as this year.

Conflicting information attempting to detail the final minutes of Epstein’s life emerged Tuesday as authorities sought to determine how the disgraced financier and registered sex offender managed to kill himself or otherwise die amid the tight security of a federal lockup.

CBS News reported that shouting and shrieking was heard from Epstein’s cell at the Manhattan Correctional Center (MCC) on the morning he died. Guards attempted to revive Epstein while saying “Breathe, Epstein, breathe,” the news outlet reported — but cited no sources.

A lawyer for an inmate locked up a few cells away, however, said his client heard nothing out of the ordinary.

“Nobody heard anything,” lawyer Bruce Barket told NBC News on Tuesday. “It was a silent act.”

Barket represents Nicholas Tartaglione, a former upstate New York police officer awaiting trial on murder charges that could result in the death penalty. Tartaglione was a cellmate of Epstein, who was placed on suicide watch three weeks ago. He had been found in his cell with bruises on his neck, and attempted suicide was one possible explanation.

Epstein was later returned to the jail’s special housing unit but apparently had no cellmate. He was found “unresponsive in his cell shortly after 6:30 a.m. Aug. 10 and was rushed to a hospital. Authorities have released few details on his death, but the MCC referred to it as an apparent suicide.

Barbara Sampson, the city’s chief medical examiner, said an autopsy on Epstein was performed and that a ruling on the cause of death was pending.

Guards on the unit are now suspected of falsifying log entries to show they were making the checks, a person familiar with the probe said.

Multiple news reports have said the guards did not follow procedures to check on Epstein frequently and that he was left alone for as long as three hours.

The autopsy report of Epstein found that he had several broken bones in his neck, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. The injuries can occur to people who hang themselves or who are strangled, the newspaper reported, quoting unidentified sources familiar with the autopsy results.

Epstein’s death prompted outrage from victims, federal authorities and even Congress. Attorney General William Barr said he was “appalled” and angered.

Barr made it clear that the probe of Epstein’s behavior will continue. Epstein’s victims deserve justice, and any co-conspirators involved in sex trafficking with the disgraced financier “should not rest easy,” Barr said.

Jack Scarola, a Florida attorney representing five of Epstein’s accusers, says one target for prosecution is Epstein’s ex-girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, a British-born socialite and daughter of the late, disgraced fraudster and media mogul Robert Maxwell, described in a civil case as a co-conspirator accused of recruiting girls to perform sex acts on Epstein and others.

Maxwell has not been charged with a crime, and she has denied wrongdoing.

“We will get to the bottom of what happened, and there will be accountability,” Barr said. “Let me assure you that this case will continue on against anyone who was complicit with Epstein.”(SD-Agencies)

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