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Mystery money man faces soliciting charge¶
By NICOLE JANOK Palm Beach Post Staff Writer¶
A part-time Palm Beacher who has socialized with Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Kevin Spacey was jailed early Sunday with accused drug dealers, drunken drivers and wife beaters after he was charged with soliciting a prostitute.¶
Manhattan money manager Jeffrey Epstein, 53, was picked up at his home on El Brillo Way at 1:45 a.m. He was released hours later on $3,000 bond.¶
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Epstein was indicted last week by a state grand jury, according to state attorney’s spokesman Mike Edmondson. Despite Epstein’s arrest, the indictment containing the allegations remained sealed Sunday and Edmondson provided no details.¶
Unlike most accused johns, Epstein was charged with a third-degree felony instead of a misdemeanor. Under state law, a solicitation charge usually is elevated to a more-serious felony when the defendant has at least two solicitation convictions.¶
However, checks of court records here and in New York Sunday turned up no such convictions.¶
Epstein could not be reached. F 1mondson said he was being represented by West Palm Beach attorney Jack Goldberg, who declined comment.¶
Epstein is the president of J Epstein & Co., a money management company based in Manhattan that caters to ultrawealthy clientele, according to pub-See SOLICITING, 6B ►¶
Jeffrey Epstein Indictment related to prostitution.¶
‘Mysterious billionaire’ has been on probation¶
SOLICITING from 1B¶
lished reports. National magazines have described him as a “mysterious billionaire” who lives in a 45,000square-foot New York City mansion.¶
He has been in trouble before. In 1993, he and two other defendants were charged in federal court with three counts of postal larceny and theft and one count of property theft. Epstein plead guilty to a single charge of conspiring to steal U.S. Treasury checks from residential mailboxes and received 5 years’ probation. The remaining charges were¶
dropped.¶
Since then, Epstein’s name has turned up in New York City’s tabloids. The New York Post noted he flew President Clinton and Kevin Spacey to Africa on his private Boeing 727. In 2003, the paper dubbed him one of the Big Apple’s “top studs.”¶
In 2004, Epstein bid against Trump for a 43,000square foot Palm Beach estate once owned by healthcare magnate Abe Gosman. Trump topped Epstein with a $41.35 million bid.¶
Staff Researcher Angelica Cortez contributed to this story.¶