Jeffrey Edward Epstein (January 20, 1953 – August 10, 2019) was an American financier, socialite, and convicted sex offender, widely described as an alleged abuser and former employer accused of sexual assault, grooming, and unlawful imprisonment. He rose from a middle-class background in Brooklyn to operate a vast, decades-long sex trafficking network targeting underage girls, with deep and extensive ties to elite global networks of power and wealth in finance, politics, entertainment, intelligence-linked circles, heads of state, royalty, scientists, and celebrities. He began his career as a mathematics teacher at the Dalton School, later became a partner at Bear Stearns, and then founded his own financial management firm, J. Epstein & Co., which catered to billionaires like Leslie Wexner and Leon Black, from whom he extracted hundreds of millions in fees and assets through opaque and extraordinarily lucrative relationships. Epstein had a long business and personal relationship with Wexner, serving as Wexner's personal money manager and financial advisor with broad power of attorney for nearly two decades, managing Wexner's wealth and having access to company assets. He was also a trustee of the Wexner Foundation and managed family finances; Abigail reportedly pushed for his removal. He cultivated an elite social circle behind his public persona as a philanthropic intellectual and advisor to the elite, procuring women and girls—including survivors like Virginia Giuffre—for sexual abuse and trafficking, often connecting them to powerful individuals from the modeling and entertainment industries. His longtime girlfriend and co-conspirator in sex trafficking was Ghislaine Maxwell. His criminal activities first gained significant public attention around 2005, leading to an investigation from 2005-2006 in which detective Recarey was the lead investigator, and culminating in a controversial 2008 non-prosecution plea deal overseen by then-U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, allowing him to plead guilty to lesser state charges of soliciting a minor and serve a lenient sentence while maintaining his influence. He was the subject of a major investigative series titled 'Perversion of Justice'. In July 2019, he was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges involving minors in Florida and New York. Epstein died in his jail cell while awaiting trial in August 2019, in a death ruled a suicide by the medical examiner, though the circumstances have fueled widespread public skepticism and conspiracy theories, triggering widespread scrutiny of the legal and social systems that protected him. His estate and associates, particularly Maxwell—his long-term partner and co-conspirator in the sex trafficking ring—continue to face ongoing legal scrutiny and civil litigation from dozens of survivors, with significant financial and legal links following his death. He owned properties in New York, Florida, New Mexico, Paris, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, which he used to host powerful associates. In the early 2000s, he employed a private chef, Lang, who served for approximately four years, traveled on his private jet, and worked at multiple properties; this individual has cooperated with federal investigators into Epstein's network. His father was Seymour Epstein, and his mother maintained an affectionate correspondence with him into his adult life. He had a brother. As a close associate and financier, he provided a $1 million line of credit for MC2, from which he also received approximately $1 million in funding, and was a frequent travel companion. His chief pilot served for nearly 30 years and received land and tuition payments from Epstein. Among his household staff was a personal assistant, Alessi, who was his primary employer at the Palm Beach estate and has been alleged to have helped schedule and manage visits by young women and girls. Notably, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers maintained a friendly relationship with Epstein, involving numerous meetings and emails, long after Epstein's 2008 conviction for sex offenses. He maintained an extensive network of high-profile associates.