Forbes Magazine -
Jeffrey Epstein, the underage massage king of Palm Beach, was back in the headlines this week: "Billionaire pedophile goes free," (Daily Beast) "billionare hedge funder" (Business Insider)billionaire sex offender" (Epstein's Florida NBC affiliate). "
What are they talking about? The guy they freed this week after pleading guilty to soliciting an underage prostitute is NOT A BILLIONAIRE. We repeat: not a billionaire. More likely he is worth a fraction of that. Because of so much uncertainty around his numbers, he's never been included in the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans.
The source of his wealth -- a money management firm in the U.S. Virgin Islands -- generates no public records, nor has hisLeslie Wexner, billionaire founder of The Limited clothing chain, was widely believed to be his benefactor for years and the major source of his wealth: at one time, Epstein was listed as a trustee of The Wexner Foundation, and Wexner reportedly bought Epstein a $13 million New York apartment. client list ever been released. One known client,
But once Epstein was charged with engaging in sexual activity with minors, Wexner dropped his old friend, replacing him with JPMorgan's Dennis Hersch. Without Wexner's backing, Epstein is almost certainly not a billionaire -- so why is he continually labeled one in the press?
It may all come down to an accident of wording. When asked to turn over his finances to the Florida court in May to establish punitive damages, Epstein's lawyers "agreed to a confidential stipulation that his net worth is in excess of nine figures." The Palm Beach Post ran a story following this filing, deeming Epstein a billionaire, while nine figures makes him only a multimillionaire.
"It was a bone of contention with Esptein's lawyers," said Spencer Kuvin, an attorney who represented three of Epstein's alleged victims on the case, of the "billionaire" designation. "In the litigation itself we were never able to get him to produce verified financial information. The 'nine figures' came by negotiation. It kept going up and up and up. They started at zero -- they wouldn't tell us at all."
Kuvin added that he and his team "pursued every possible angle" to find out Epstein's net worth but found that much of his wealth is offshore. "We'll never know now because everything was resolved out of court," he said.
Kuvin added that, for the three young women he represented, Epstein's net worth and the resulting amount of settlement they received did not matter compared to the "psychological pain" caused.
"For my clients, the money didn't really matter," he said. "It was more anger than anything."
~ Spencer Kuvin
Cohen & Kuvin, P.A.
http://www.cohenkuvin.com/
561-665-8020
Jeffrey Epstein, the underage massage king of Palm Beach, was back in the headlines this week: "Billionaire pedophile goes free," (Daily Beast) "billionare hedge funder" (Business Insider)billionaire sex offender" (Epstein's Florida NBC affiliate). "
What are they talking about? The guy they freed this week after pleading guilty to soliciting an underage prostitute is NOT A BILLIONAIRE. We repeat: not a billionaire. More likely he is worth a fraction of that. Because of so much uncertainty around his numbers, he's never been included in the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans.
The source of his wealth -- a money management firm in the U.S. Virgin Islands -- generates no public records, nor has hisLeslie Wexner, billionaire founder of The Limited clothing chain, was widely believed to be his benefactor for years and the major source of his wealth: at one time, Epstein was listed as a trustee of The Wexner Foundation, and Wexner reportedly bought Epstein a $13 million New York apartment. client list ever been released. One known client,
But once Epstein was charged with engaging in sexual activity with minors, Wexner dropped his old friend, replacing him with JPMorgan's Dennis Hersch. Without Wexner's backing, Epstein is almost certainly not a billionaire -- so why is he continually labeled one in the press?
It may all come down to an accident of wording. When asked to turn over his finances to the Florida court in May to establish punitive damages, Epstein's lawyers "agreed to a confidential stipulation that his net worth is in excess of nine figures." The Palm Beach Post ran a story following this filing, deeming Epstein a billionaire, while nine figures makes him only a multimillionaire.
"It was a bone of contention with Esptein's lawyers," said Spencer Kuvin, an attorney who represented three of Epstein's alleged victims on the case, of the "billionaire" designation. "In the litigation itself we were never able to get him to produce verified financial information. The 'nine figures' came by negotiation. It kept going up and up and up. They started at zero -- they wouldn't tell us at all."
Kuvin added that he and his team "pursued every possible angle" to find out Epstein's net worth but found that much of his wealth is offshore. "We'll never know now because everything was resolved out of court," he said.
Kuvin added that, for the three young women he represented, Epstein's net worth and the resulting amount of settlement they received did not matter compared to the "psychological pain" caused.
"For my clients, the money didn't really matter," he said. "It was more anger than anything."
~ Spencer Kuvin
Cohen & Kuvin, P.A.
http://www.cohenkuvin.com/
561-665-8020
No comments:
Post a Comment