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At 74, Steven Hoffenberg spends a lot of time reflecting on his long and checkered past, which included a lengthy prison sentence for running a Ponzi scheme.

Since last weekend, he says his thoughts have increasingly turned to the man he says conspired with him in that scheme — the notorious sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in his cell at New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center last Saturday.

“There’s so much going through my mind about me and Epstein. It’s a lifetime of errors. How do you correct a lifetime of errors?” Hoffenberg asks. He spoke to NPR from a hospital bed, where he was awaiting surgery.

Epstein is widely seen as someone who managed to dodge accountability for his actions. His 2006 arrest for sex crimes involving under-aged girlsin Florida resulted in a plea deal that was widely seen as very lenient. Hoffenberg maintains that Epstein also got away with financial crimes.

During his lifetime, Epstein was known as a man who lived a life of opulence. He threw lavish parties for his rich and powerful friends at his many homes, which included one of the largest mansions in Manhattan and a private island in the Virgin Islands, where he ferried his friends on a private jet.

Hoffenberg says he was introduced to Epstein by a British business acquaintance in the 1980s, and they quickly became friends.

“He appeared to be brilliant, extraordinarily gifted and talented in convincing people to buy from him. And a criminal mastermind,” Hoffenberg says.

Hoffenberg hired him at the financial company he ran, Towers Financial. Epstein had a vast network of wealthy connections and helped Hoffenberg raise money on Wall Street.

“He knew many people in the brokerage business that sold securities and they gave him access to investors,” he recalls.

Together, the two men acquired the parent company of two Illinois insurance firms, and then used the money in a failed bid to acquire the troubled airliner Pan Am. They also drained hundreds of millions of investors’ dollars and Towers Financial eventually was forced into bankruptcy, Hoffenberg acknowledges.

“This was a criminal investment enterprise. So I’m not trying to state to you that there was a purpose that should be complimented,” he says.

Hoffenberg would plead guilty to mail fraud, tax evasion and obstruction of justice in 1995, and would eventually serve 18 years in prison.

Epstein was never charged in connection with the scheme, although Hoffenberg says he told federal prosecutors about his role.

“There’s no question that I told them. It makes no sense. Like his whole life makes sense. His death makes no sense,” Hoffenberg says.

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