Jeffrey Epstein, a New York billionaire financier, whose friends include President Trump, Prince Andrew, and Bill Clinton, has been accused of running a sex trafficking operation in which he allegedly sexually abused dozens of underage girls, some as young as 14, in his New York and Florida homes between 2002 and 2005.

The underage girls were usually recruited by Epstein’s employees and by fellow victims, prosecutors said.



Epstein was arrested Saturday after authorities raided his Manhattan townhouse, where they said they seized “a vast trove of lewd photographs” of nude and partially nude young women — some of whom appeared to be underage girls, according to court documents.

“Epstein incentivized his victims to become recruiters by paying these victim recruiters hundreds of dollars for each girl that they brought,” a federal indictment unsealed Monday read. “In so doing, Epstein maintained a steady supply of new victims to exploit.”

The 66-year-old former hedge fund manager created an “ever-expanding web of new victims” to sexually abuse and exploit in New York and Palm Beach, Florida, Geoffrey Berman, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said at a press conference Monday.

Epstein “knew that many of his New York victims were underage, including because certain victims told him their age,” the indictment said. Many of the underage girls “were particularly vulnerable to exploitation,” Berman said.



Epstein was charged with one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of minors. He was arrested Saturday evening at New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport after returning from Paris on a private flight. The Daily Beast first reported the indictment.

He could face a maximum of 45 years in prison.



Epstein pleaded not guilty to the charges at a federal court in New York on Monday. He will remain in jail until a bail hearing scheduled for July 15. Federal prosecutors are seeking his detention pending a trial.

"To us, this indictment is essentially a do-over," Esptein's attorney, Rein Weingarten, said in court on Monday. "This is the very stuff that was investigated by the feds in Florida,” Weingarten said.

Weingarten did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

