The sex offender was worth $600m when he died, but exactly how he acquired his wealth remains a mystery
Jeffrey Epstein was a very wealthy man, but exactly how wealthy and where that money came from remains shrouded in mystery.
Newly unearthed emails last week shone light on Epstein’s role as freelance client development officer, acting as a channel between political figures and business titans, greasing up the former with lifestyles they could not afford and the latter with avenues of political influence.
Exposure of that channel ended the career of Lord Peter Mandelson, the UK ambassador to the US, provoking a crisis in Britain’s Labour government, after emails showed that Mandelson had steered a $1bn banking deal Epstein’s way and expressed sympathy for Epstein’s 2008 conviction for child sexual procurement.
Emails obtained by Bloomberg and others went further, showing that figures in Epstein’s network of billionaires, politicians, celebrities, royalty and intellectuals were assembled into schemes of influence.
