IHIP News: Jeffrey Epstein's PAST Comes Back to HAUNT HIM After NYT EXPOSES ALL!

As the Epstein Files take center stage. again, we have David Enrich from the New. York Times who wrote a fabulous article. regarding Jeffrey Epstein's finances. with three other authors from the New. York Times that was titled Scams, Schemes, Ruthless Cons: The Untold Story. of How Jeffrey Epstein got rich. I was. fascinated from the minute of the title. So, just give us an overview. How did. Jeffrey Epstein get so rich? because we. know he didn't come from money.

>> Yeah, that's right. He came from a very. modest kind of working-class background. in Coney Island, Brooklyn. And really, and he his career started off in this. very traditional kind of American rags. to riches way. He's a teacher at a. prestigious high school in Manhattan. Uh. some of the parents notice and are. impressed by his math skills and they. introduce him to Ace Greenberg who is a. top executive at the Wall Street firm. Bar Sterns. Greenberg is immediately.

impressed with him and offers him a job. and you know this should be and it is. his lucky break. However, Epstein and. what becomes this lifelong pattern is. not satisfied to merely be rich and. well-connected. He needs to take things. quite a bit further than that. And so. from virtually the moment he arrives at. Beer Sterns, he starts to lie, cheat, and deceive and then to use the. connections he's built with people like. Ace. Greenberg to bail him out of. trouble. And this is a pattern again.

that extends for the next several. decades and just on a larger and larger. scale over time. And so the bottom line. answer that we found as to how Epstein. at least initially makes his money is. that he was a liar and a thief and a. conman and stole a lot of this money. from people who probably should have. known better but were blinded by greed. and this very thick rolodex of. connections that Epstein uh towed it. around with him wherever he went.

What I found interesting is a. reoccurring theme even in his young life. was charming young women and then they. took him into their social circle and he. kept it didn't matter you know that if. he was dating someone if there was. somebody he can get with that would get. him a higher stratosphere. So it sound. it looked like from reading the article. that he was using women maybe not. underage women at that time but women. were a pawn in his life from jump.

>> Yeah that's absolutely right. Um and. yeah I think in the early years and it. wasn't really until the early 1990s I. think that he uh started preying on very. young women and in some cases girls. Um. and and initially he was uh you know had. seemed to have a lot of charm and. attracted a lot of very successful, wealthy, beautiful women. And as you. said, he would use those women as kind. of a a crowbar to get into these ever.

more elite circles. And he did it with. great success. You know, we talked to a. bunch of these women for for our. reporting for this article. And again, this is in the late '7s and through the. 1980s. This is before he becomes or. develops a clear track record of raping. girls and things like that. But in those. days, and this is one of the things I. found really surprising as we did this. reporting, is that one woman after. another. said that they found him to be really. charming and appealing and a gentleman.

and sexy. And that was not like on my. bingo card as I started this reporting. And these are not these are. sophisticated, smart women. They're not. fools who are just swept away by a. conman. They're people who I I think. really were genuinely charmed by him and. helped him kind of climb rung by rung. this ladder up the New York and global. social stratosphere. >> Okay. So I've always had So Les Wexner,

he is the Victoria Secret founder and. he's like the first one documented that. Epstein made a killing on. >> Yep. I've always thought it was love on. Wexner's part. I've always thought he. was in love with Jeffrey Epstein. That. was my own personal theory. You didn't. help me in that regard at all in this. article, but he seems to have been the. one that he started with. Everybody else. is screwing you. I alone can fix it. And. that was a pattern. How would you. characterize that relationship?

>> Well, you know, it's a bit of a mystery. still to be honest with you. I mean, I. think the way you described it is spoton. and there this is Wexner is someone who. is super successful uh in his industry. but is not someone who's super. sophisticated about money and finance. We talked to his financial adviser uh. who whom Epstein ultimately replaced and. you know Epstein did this thing and. again you just said this so I'm. repeating this back at you but and he.

convinced Wexner that he was kind of the. victim of this theft from his current. financial adviser and persuaded Wexner. that he Jeffrey Epstein was the one. person who could fix this and help. protect him from the betrayal of his. close allies and in some cases his. family members. Uh, you know, the. question of what exactly Wexner knew. about what Epstein was doing and what. was what Wexner found so appealing about. Epstein remains a bit of a mystery to be.

honest with you. And we saw later in. Epstein's life and he got very close to. the private equity billionaire Leon. Black who paid him in, you know, in the. same range of money that that that Epste. got from Wexner. And with with Black, our reporting has shown that Epstein. actually was providing some pretty. valuable tax and financial advisory. services as well as interacting with. some of the young women whom Leon Black. had been allegedly uh engaged in. misconduct with. We're not seeing any of. that those shades with Wexner, which.

does not mean it's not happening, but. this it really the Wexner what Wexner. thought about this remains a really deep. mystery. And you know, we've tried very. hard, as have other journalists, to get. Wexner or his people to talk to us. openly about what was actually going on. And we have been rebuffed every time. we've done that. And so I think it is. pretty safe to assume that there is more. to that story that Wexter's camp really. does not want to get out there. >> You know, it's interesting. Wexter is a.

very old man and I'm waiting for the. documentary on this after his death. I. hope I live long enough to see it. Okay. So, somebody else [snorts] that I found. very interesting in the way you phrase. the article, you talk about how he. becomes in a relationship with Alan. Derswitz. They become friends. They. become palaround guys. And then it. alludes to after they were friends for a. while, then Alan Derswitz writes a. letter to or I'm sorry, an opinion piece.

for the Los Angeles Times about the age. of consent. And I just thought that was. interesting how you integrated that in. the story. What can you tell us about. that relationship? >> Well, uh, Epstein's relationship with. Durowitz starts when, uh, one of their. mutual friends, a woman named Lynn. Forester introduces the two of them on. Martha's Vineyard in 1996. And Epstein. tells Dersitz, and they go on this walk. around a pond near Duritz's home. And uh.

Epstein tells Dersitz that he wants. Durowitz to come out to Ohio to. celebrate Les Wexner's birthday. And so. Dersitz goes out there and uh yeah, that's the beginning of a a long and. very fruitful relationship for both men. And you know, Duritz becomes Epstein's. one of his primary lawyers who helps. engineer the sweetheart deal for him in. 2007. And really up in up till the. present or at least up until Epstein's. death, Durowitz was one of the few.

people who was publicly speaking up on. Epstein's behalf. And so one of the. things that we found interesting was. that just a several months or maybe 6. months after Epstein and Duritz met, Duritz wrote this opinion piece in the. LA Times calling for the lowering of the. age of consent I believe to 15 years. old. And that is now look there's. Dersuitz I think would say that that's. something that's a view he had. previously held uh he had told students. about it things like that I think he. would deny that this was because he had.

just met Jeffrey Epste or that Epste had. put him up to it or something like that. but it is quite a coincidence I think. that you know just months after meeting. someone who at that time was preying on. teenage girls and young women that that. his new friend and his soon-to-be uh. legal counsel would decide that that is. the moment that they want to commit to. writing uh an argument for lowering the. age of consent. Now, again, that it.

could very well be a coincidence uh but. it would be an interesting coincidence, I think. >> Well, and I've heard those same claims. attributed to Jeffrey Epstein about how. when he was in foreign countries, the. age of consent was lower. So it was an. arbitrary regulation put on by the. government. So I too thought that was. interesting. Okay. Then. >> let me just can I just say for clarity. though I mean with Epstein it's like you. know yeah I've heard him make that. argument as well. But Epstein even if. the age of consent was lowered and maybe.

reasonable people can disagree about. that. I'm not sure. I don't haven't. thought this through very hard. But. there's like what Epstein was doing was. not having consensual sex with young. women who happened to be just under. underage. he was raping and uh trapping. and trafficking these girls. And so even. if the age of consent were a couple. years lower, that would not excuse. legally or morally what Epstein was. doing. >> Now, did you find uh Okay, so there was.

somebody that shared office space with. him that was a partner that then started. working with Brad Edwards who. represented a bunch of the Epstein. victims. I found that to be somewhat. interesting. What? >> Yeah, that was another of the things. that we were really surprised when we. heard. Um, so Brad Edwards is probably. the mo single most famous lawyer. representing Epstein's victims. He's got. hundreds of them or has had hundreds of. them as his clients and he's been one of. the loudest voices calling for justice. for a lot of these victims. Uh, so and.

and this guy named Stan Pottinger who. died a couple years ago was his longtime. partner on those cases. And what we. found is that in the early8s uh after. Epstein had left Beer Sterns under this. kind with this cloud of suspicion that. Epstein and Potenter had briefly gone. into business with one another and you. know there's the whole we've we've been. covering this Epstein saga for like god. more than six years now and we're we've. grown accustomed to seeing these kind of.

overlapping concentric circles of. relationships and coincidences that seem. too good to be coincidences. is this is. one of those that really caught us by. surprise though. I mean the the notion. that of all the people in the world you. would be going into business is a guy. who's not only a sexual predator but. whom you and your future law partner are. going to kind of make your names uh. pursuing is I mean it's very strange to. say the least and I do think that there. have been some of Edwards and.

Pottinger's clients over the years who. have grown. I I think that they have had qualms at. times about how they are being legally. represented and whether they are being. pushed into settlements that end up. muzzling them and preventing them from. speaking publicly and basically allowed. some of this activity to go on longer. than it might have had these allegations. been public early on. And Edwards would. vehemently disagree with that. characterization. And I don't really. know where the truth lies, but again, it. is a very bizarre coincidence that.

Edwards's longtime legal partner was in. business with Epstein. And it's also. strange to me that that has not. previously been disclosed by anyone. >> Yeah, it took me by surprise. One thing. that also came out is, you know, the. Palm Beach connections. And so we have. Don Jr.'s now current fiance, her father. was a big buddy with Epstein and wrote. him letters. Tell us about that. >> Yeah, I mean again, same thing. I'll say. the same thing again. We've grown.

accustomed to coincidences in these. weird concentric overlapping circles, but this is another one where we were. just like, "Oh my god, are you kidding. me?" So, uh, back in the late 1990s when. Epstein was and his business had been. based in New York basically his whole. career and he decided in the late 1990s. that he wanted to relocate to the US. Virgin Islands uh because of I think in. part because there were some very. generous tax breaks down there. Also, I. think the regulatory and legal uh. infrastructure there was a lot more lax,

shall we say, than it might have been on. the mainland. And so, as part of the. application to uh be able to relocate. his business and be eligible for these. tax breaks, Epstein needed to appear at. a hearing and also needed to submit kind. of evidence that showing that he was. someone of good character. And so what. we found was that the evidence of him of. his good character, which and by the at. this point, by the way, he was deep into. the sex trafficking operation was fairly. well known on in his circle for being.

someone who prayed upon girls and young. women. And so the person he turned to to. voucher his character was uh his the the. head of this bank in Palm Beach, Florida, whom Epstein had this long. relationship with. And the guy wrote a. letter, uh, Leroy Anderson's his name, wrote a letter to the US Virgin Islands. calling Epstein a gentleman of the. highest integrity and really just. several paragraphs writing about what a. good guy this was and how we had no. qualms about working with him. And it. turns out, first of all, that that the.

man who wrote that letter is the father. of the woman who uh just recently got. engaged to Donald Trump Jr., The other. interesting thing we found was that the. bank that he was running at the time was. the one of the banks that Epstein and. his assistants were using to write. checks and to pay off some of his. victims. And so that bank, which is no. longer in existence, and Anderson is is. uh he died years ago. uh but they were.

playing a role in not only kind of. enhancing Epstein's credibility and. vouching for his character but also in. financing at least in a small way his. sex trafficking operation. And here we. now have them, you know, through this. engagement to Donald Trump Jr. uh kind. of part of the Trump family. >> Yeah. And I noticed that like he was at. Trump parties well, you know, early. early on. So this whole notion that they. didn't know each other. What I found.

interesting though was he was ruthless. Epstein. He was a con man. He alone. could fix everything and everybody's. screwing you. But then in re reality. he's the one that screwed all these. people. I mean I just it was like boy. and there's all these connections. So. I'm just like huh that's interesting. >> Yeah. It's I mean to me one of the. things this really speaks to aside from. the fact that Epstein was a very. effective con man and manipulator is. that there are a whole lot of people and. institutions out there that were just.

very easily conned and manipulated. And. to me and that comes that boils down in. large part to just greed. I I think a. lot of these people and companies were. so eager to take advantage of Epstein. and his money and his connections that. they kind of suspended disbelief a. little bit and just either managed to. look the other way and not think about. what Epstein was doing and how he'd been. so successful at what he was doing or. and and that's the most generous. explanation by the way and the less. generous explanation is that they knew.

exactly what he was doing and either. didn't care or thought they could. somehow benefit from it. There's in the. most generous explanation, it's still. not great because it shows that people. were so eager to impress Epstein and. work with him and kind of take advantage. of his network of connections that they. turned a blind eye to this the great con. that this man was pulling off. And in. some cases, they then fell victim to. that same con. And so, you know, that's. a mark of someone who is just an expert. expert fraudster and manipulator. And.

it's interesting to see Epstein in that. light as opposed to the light that I. think many people have portrayed him as. as this very sophisticated finance year. who is a math genius is cooking up all. these super complicated tax strategies. What we found and again there may be. more to the story. not completely. convinced that we have the exact. comprehensive picture of him yet. But. but to me that's a much simpler and. easier to kind of grasp explanation for. how Epstein got so rich and so deeply. kind of embedded in American society is.

that he was just a really good con man. >> Yeah. And as we would all agree, America. is very susceptible to conmens. But. loved your article. Thank you for coming. on. It's in the New York Times now. Scams, schemes, ruthless cons. The. untold story of how Jeffrey Epstein got. rich. Thank you so much, David. Thanks. for having me.