by Conchita Sarnoff Info
Conchita Sarnoff has developed multimedia communication programs for Fortune 500 companies and has produced three current events debate television programs, The Americas Forum, From Beirut to Kabul, and a segment for The Oppenheimer Report. She is a contributor to The Huffington Post and is writing a book about child trafficking in America.
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Hedge fund mogul Jeffrey Epstein becomes a free man today, five years after he was first accused of sexually abusing underage girls. After months of reporting, The Daily Beast’s Conchita Sarnoff reveals exclusive details of the investigation and the legal wrangling that saved him from a long prison term. She reports:
• Palm Beach’s police chief objected to Epstein’s “special treatment” and gave The Daily Beast an exclusive look at his nine-hour deposition about the investigation.
• Earlier versions of the U.S attorney’s charges, including a sealed 53-page indictment, could have landed Epstein in prison for 20 years.
• Victims alleged that Epstein molested underage girls from South America, Europe, and the former Soviet republics, including three 12-year-old girls brought over from France as a birthday gift.
• The victims also alleged trips out of state and abroad on Epstein’s private jets, which would be evidence of sex trafficking—a much more serious federal crime than the state charges Epstein was convicted of.
• Epstein’s attorneys investigated members of the Palm Beach Police Department, while others ordered private investigators to follow and intimidate the victims’ families; one even posed as a police officer.
• Then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told The Daily Beast that he “would have instructed the Justice Department to pursue justice without making a political mess.”
Film director Roman Polanski is not the only convicted pedophile to walk free this month and return to a life of privilege. On Wednesday, hedge fund manager Jeffrey Epstein completes his one-year house arrest in Palm Beach, which has been even less arduous than Polanski’s time at a Swiss ski chalet.
During Epstein’s term of “house arrest,” he made several trips each month to his New York home and his private Caribbean island. In the earlier stage of his sentence for soliciting prostitution with a minor—13 months in the Palm Beach Stockade—he was allowed out to his office each day. Meanwhile, Epstein has settled more than a dozen lawsuits brought by the underage girls who were recruited to perform “massages” at his Palm Beach mansion. Seven victims reached a last-minute deal last week, days before a scheduled trial; each received well over $1 million—an amount that will hardly dent Epstein’s $2 billion net worth.
With that, the known victims of Epstein’s sexual compulsion have been officially silenced, and the case against him is closed unless new ones come forward. According to banking sources, he has been moving assets out of the U.S. and may well follow Polanski into a luxurious exile.
Watch Jeffrey Epstein Storm Out of a Deposition When Asked About His Penis
But the question remains: Did Epstein’s wealth and social connections—former President Bill Clinton; Prince Andrew; former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak; New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson; and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers were just a few of the prominent passengers on his private jets—allow him to receive only a slap on the wrist for crimes that carry a mandatory 20-year sentence? Was he able, with his limitless assets and heavy-hitting lawyers—Alan Dershowitz, Gerald Lefcourt, Roy Black, Kenneth Starr, Guy Lewis, and Martin Weinberger among them—to escape equal justice?
123 July 20, 2010 | 11:05pm Twitter Emails
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Is anybody the slightest bit surprised at the incestuous behavior between power junkies and money junkies. If we want even a slight chance of creating an equitable civilization, this man must experience the full extent of the law. I don't care what his political persuasion is. I don't care who his important friends are. If this case does not travel its appointed route to its natural conclusion, we are not a country of the people, for the people, but of the rich, for the rich.
I think this is typical behavior for our ruling aristocracy, but for some reason this one just got caught and prosecuted. These people feel entitled to anything they want, and regard the lower classes as cattle.
Same as it ever was...
Now here is where Fox news could finally earn its keep. Let them run like the mad demons they are and raise such a ruckus, that this guy's friends will throw him under the bus. Here is sensationalism that they don't even have to create themselves. And I will support them all the way on this one.
Check out the guys wikipedia entry- he really is pretty incredible. I get the feeling this is one of those things where the guy feels he is so superior to everyone else that they humanity doesnt count next to his desires. And just so we are clear- this also seems to demonstrates Alan Dershowitz can be bought.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
Um...what?
You never miss a chance to be irrelevant. How perfectly rabid of you. Have an agenda much? Here's Liberals offering to put this guy away and you couldn't resist your programming for rage long enough to say thank you.
republicansexoffenders.com you might want to check out some of your heros, the elected republicans that used their status to rape and sodomize children. How's that for perversion? Do you support these men that terrorize children but shoving their dicks in them?
bigdave--- it is obvious to anyone reading your post that you are the racist here. Now, what would you say if this guy were a Republican? Huh???? Tell us.
He has an egg-shaped pennie??
Were his girls younger than Polanski's?
does it really matter?
Does it matter?
Gee, another rich, liberal pal of Bill Clinton gets off easy on sex charges with underage girls.... Roman Polanski is still free to rome the countryside. Gore is still seeking forced hapy endings. And there is not a safe bridesmaid at Chealsea's upcoming nuptuals when Bill is whispering "Here's Daddy" in their ears.... There is not enough cleanser to scrub off the vile filth of the Dems heroes. All those poor girls.
You really like to play with your id while spewing this right wingnut ideology, do you nut?
what's so wignut? did I say something that wasn't true?nope
It truly is sick. he need about 50 years in jail.
This is some serious bullshit. First, I don't care how rich this guy is he should be in jail for at least 10 years for this nonsense. Second, the fact that he has kept a girl as is slave for 10 years and no one is doing anything about it is kind of sick as well. Finally, the sad fact this goes on all over the world is both sad and scary.
Forget Polansky. He's not a repeat offender and he looks more nebbish than monstrous. He got a substance fueled hard on for this girl and it turned into crap. The girl doesn't even want to prosecute him, and I don't think this reluctance is the product of some kind of Stockholm syndrome or payoff. But this FrankEpstein monster should pay. He's a systematic repeat offender who got away. Superhero. Superheroes go after bad guys who constantly get away. Who are rich and powerful and are adept at playing the system. Superheroes are extra-judicial vigilantes who battle super villains (and Epstein sure as hell qualifies) and set things right. All I can say is this : Superman, where are you now?
You are totally wrong about Polanski who has admitted to a string of sexual liaisons with minors. He has also said that he is fascinated by extremely young girls and is not ashamed to say so. Your point is well-made, however, that those super villains with the pots of dosh always get to subvert the system and break the law with virtual impunity. It is sad there is no superman. What a weasle Alan Dershowitz is : hate to think of him lecturing students. Yeuch.
You are the one who is wrong. Polanski committed a crime of opportunity. No matter what he prefers he hasn't repeated his crime. There are many in this world that prefer children but never act on those feelings. This piece of scum clearly committed many crimes including having his own harem of sex slaves. This is no crime of opportunity but a well planned lifestyle with a fortune to carry it out. Polanski was charged with one incident and has pretty well been under the public microscope ever since. We have spent millions on both cases. Which would you prefer to see locked up? Think about it and make a choice.
Polanski brags about the string of girls going to his villa. Even in LA he was well known for his preferences. He is a serial pedophile. He creates the opportunity and then he commits the crime.
I'm with susangalea. Please don't forget that Polanski calmly (not under duress) admitted to drugging and raping a child. What victim doesn't want to put it all behind her? But rapists mustn't be allowed to get away with it, or commit fresh crimes -- especially when Polanski, like many others, admits that he targets the young. And excuse me, but Stockholm Syndrome is seen in long-term relationships with captors and doesn't apply here. Raping children distorts their perceptions in a major, permanent way until professional help or personal will are applied to the wounds.
Raping children will always be a horrible crime, at least in MY book. I did get a taste of this crap in a Catholic orphanage when I was about six or seven years old, and I've never forgotten, or forgiven, being soiled by this episode. I've never heard of Polanski doing it more than this one time. Sorry, I might be misinformed. Or maybe he didn't. This is the HARD part here : I'd rather it had been a woman who exploited me sexually as a child. I might have found some shreds of comfort in it. Instead, it was a man (if you could call him that). It adds a layer of dirty perversion to the whole experience that makes it even more sickening and hard to forget... I keep trying to wipe it off my life. Yecch! And I referred to the Stockholm Syndrome simply as an analogy, so pls don't go nuts with this...
There's no doubt that Epstein is one of the tens of thousands of Americans who fly to undeveloped countries to sexually prey on poor children, but with money like that who could honestly expect that the American courts would find him guilty? You live in a plutocracy, and this is sadly one of the results.
"You live in a plutocracy, and this is sadly one of the results." Amen.
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