The Southern District of New York unsealed its indictment against billionaire Jeffrey Epstein Monday. Already a registered sex offender, Epstein faces one count of sex trafficking and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking for crimes allegedly committed in New York City and Florida.
Epstein is accused of molesting underage girls who he paid to give him massages, and then paying them to recruit other girls to do the same. In a statement, the U.S. Attorney’s office accused him of creating “a vast network of underage victims for him to sexually exploit, often on a daily basis.”
While some details of the accusations against Epstein are known thanks to dogged investigative reporting and similar charges he faced in 2008, newly released court documents, including an indictment and bail memo, contain new revelations. Here are six of them:
Epstein’s victims told him they were underage
The indictment says Epstein “intentionally sought out — and knew that he was abusing — minors.” Some of the girls were as young as 14, and Epstein knew this, prosecutors allege, because they “expressly told him.”
He wasn’t working alone
While Epstein sometimes set up appointments with his victims, he had help, too, according to prosecutors. He “worked and conspired with others, including employees and associates who facilitated the conduct by, among other things, contacting victims and scheduling their sexual encounters with Epstein,” the indictment reads. Prosecutors identified three employees who allegedly set up appointments with victims to “engage in paid sex acts with Epstein.”
He paid his victims to recruit new victims
Epstein’s victims in New York City and Palm Beach, Florida, were paid hundreds of dollars to bring him new victims. The indictment says this was done to “ensure a steady stream” of minor victims.
Prosecutors think he’s an enormous flight risk
Why? Because Epstein owns homes in New York City, Palm Beach, New Mexico, Paris, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, where he owns a whole island. He also has access to two private planes and owns 15 cars, including “seven Chevrolet Suburbans, a cargo van, a Range Rover, a Mercedes-Benz sedan, a Cadillac Escalade, and a Hummer II,” according to the bail memo.
He held on to evidence of his crimes
After Epstein was arrested over the weekend, police searched his New York City mansion and found a trove of evidence of his crimes, including “lewd photographs of young-looking women or girls,” and “evidence consistent with victim recollections” that serves to strengthen “the evidence of the conduct charged in the Indictment,” the bail memo says.
He kept CDs of child porn
Some of the photographs law enforcement found in Epstein’s home were on CDs that were kept in a locked safe. The handwritten labels made it clear what was contained on the discs. According to the bail memo, the labels said, “‘Young [Name] + [Name],’ ‘Misc nudes 1,’ and ‘Girl pics nude.’”
