This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking conspiracy and sex trafficking contained in a newly unsealed 13-page Manhattan federal court indictment. Some victims of Epstein’s abuse were just 14 years old, prosecutors alleged in the shocking document.

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Epstein, arrested on Saturday in New Jersey, allegedly “sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls” from 2002 to 2005 at homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida.

In a statement, Manhattan US attorney Geoffrey Berman said: “While the charged conduct is from a number of years ago, the victims – then children and now young women – are no less entitled to their day in court.

“My office is proud to stand up for these victims.”

It is time for Jeffrey Epstein and those who participated in these sex crimes to be brought to justice Virginia Giuffre

Early on Monday afternoon, a fatigued-looking Epstein was brought into the courtroom. He wore navy blue jail scrubs, his silver hair was messy and he maintained a stoic air.

Asked to enter a plea, he said: “Not guilty, your honor.”

The indictment alleges that Epstein “enticed and recruited, and caused to be enticed and recruited, minor girls” to “engage in sex acts with him, after which he would give the victims hundreds of dollars in cash”.

“In order to maintain and increase his supply of victims,” prosecutors allege, he also paid some to lure others. “This way, Epstein created a vast network of underage victims for him to sexually exploit,” prosecutors claim.

Epstein was aware many of his victims were younger than 18 “because, in some instances, minor victims expressly told him their age”, prosecutors said.

Epstein, who reportedly counted Donald Trump, Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton among friends, is alleged to have conspired with others to form a “network”. Employees and associates contacted victims and scheduled sexual encounters, prosecutors said.

Epstein’s accusers were recruited to give massages “which would be performed nude or partially nude”, the indictment said, adding that the massages would turn “increasingly sexual in nature, and would typically include one or more sex acts”.

Epstein is alleged to have paid some victims hundreds of dollars for each new victim procured.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jeffrey Epstein’s Upper East Side home. Photograph: Carlo Allegri/Reuters

Federal authorities want a forfeiture order to obtain Epstein’s New York mansion. In a “detention memo”, prosecutors cited his wealth and an alleged abundance of evidence including “an extraordinary volume” of photographs of nude and partially nude young women or girls found during a search of that home.

“The defendant, a registered sex offender, is not reformed, he is not chastened, he is not repentant,” prosecutors wrote.

Prosecutor Alex Rossmiller told judge Henry Pitman that Epstein was “a man of nearly infinite means”. In the New York home, he said, “the massage room is still set up the same way it was 15 years ago”, with a table and sex paraphernalia.

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The Manhattan case comes more than a decade after allegations that Epstein sexually abused minors spurred local and federal criminal investigations and civil suits.

In 2008, Epstein and the Miami US attorney’s office, led by Alexander Acosta, now the US labor secretary, reached a deal that ended a federal investigation involving at least 40 teenage girls. Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges, served 13 months in jail and registered as a sex offender.

In February, the Department of Justice opened an inquiry. Acosta has defended his role in abandoning a more than 50-page indictment, saying in May: “This matter was appealed all the way up to the deputy attorney general’s office. And not because we weren’t doing enough, but because the contention was that we were too aggressive.”

On Monday, Epstein attorney Reid Weingarten said the allegations were “ancient stuff”, dealt with in prior proceedings. “To us,” he said, “this indictment is essentially a do-over.”

A different judge scheduled Epstein’s bail hearing for Monday.

Several accusers were present. Lawyer Sigrid McCawley read statements from two: Sarah Ransome and Virginia Giuffre.

Ransome said: “The news of my abuser’s arrest was a step in the right direction to … restore my faith that power and money can’t triumph over justice.”

Giuffre said it was time for Epstein “and those who participated in these sex crimes to be brought to justice”.

Terrific guy … it is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side Donald Trump, 2002

Epstein’s friendships have long been the subject of speculation. In January 2015, the Guardian and Politico were first to report on a court filing alleging he forced a teenager into sexual encounters with Prince Andrew. Buckingham Palace said the claim was “categorically untrue … false and without any foundation”.

Ghislaine Maxwell, the daughter of media mogul Robert Maxwell, reportedly introduced Andrew to Epstein in the 1990s, when she was Epstein’s girlfriend. Giuffre has claimed Maxwell invited her to work as a masseuse when she was 15 and working at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. Giuffre sued Maxwell for defamation, over her denial of the sex abuse claims. They settled in May 2017.

Much attention has centered on a comment Trump made to New York magazine in 2002.

“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years,” Trump said. “Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

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Trump has sought to distance himself from Epstein.

In a statement issued on Monday, Bill Clinton also sought to distance himself from Epstein, saying he “knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago, or those with which he had been recently charged in New York”.

On Monday, Berman, the Manhattan US attorney, said justice department guidelines prohibited talking about individuals who might be associated with Epstein.

Asked why the southern district of New York’s public corruption unit was investigating, he said: “I will urge you not to read into the unit assignment anything one way or the other.”

He also praised reporting on the case, saying: “Our investigation was assisted by some excellent investigative journalism.”

In April, the Harvard lawyer Alan Dershowitz, another associate of Epstein, wrote an open letter to the Pulitzer prize committee, saying Miami Herald reporter Julie K Brown should not be rewarded for her work. She was not.