Federal prosecutors examined Jeffrey Epstein for money laundering and operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business in 2007, according to emails from the deceased sex trafficker’s personal Yahoo account obtained by Bloomberg.
The money-laundering investigation, launched in February 2007, was conducted alongside the probe into Epstein’s sex crimes and included requested grand jury subpoenas for “every financial transaction conducted by Epstein and his six businesses” back to 2003, the news agency said.
Prosecutors working under then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Marie Villafaña focused on a pattern of transactions indicating that Epstein had directed certain employees to withdraw large cash sums to be distributed to women around the world he was believed to have trafficked. The money flows served as the basis for the potential charge of operating an unlicensed money services business, Bloomberg said.
The FOIA records obtained by the news outlet place Alex Acosta, then-U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida and Villafaña’s boss at the time, on email chains related to the financial probe, even as he told House investigators last month he didn’t recall a financial component to the case.
Acosta’s lawyer, Jeffrey Neiman, told Bloomberg that the existence of such an inquiry wouldn’t be inconsistent with Acosta’s testimony and emphasized that no agreement barred the U.S. Justice Department from pursuing financial crimes later.
In August 2007, Villafaña contacted billionaire Les Wexner, Epstein’s longtime wealth-management client, seeking cooperation on Epstein’s business dealings and travel, according to the emails. Epstein’s lawyers protested in writing that prosecutors were trying to “poison” his reputation in the business community. Shortly afterward, Wexner moved to end Epstein’s role as his money manager, Bloomberg reported.
Villafaña ultimately drafted a 53-page indictment and an 82-page prosecution memo in May 2007, according to a 2020 Justice Department review cited by Bloomberg. The memo recommended charging Epstein with money laundering and operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, but the indictment was never filed and remains under seal, Bloomberg said.
The 18-month probe into suspected financial crimes ended when Epstein pleaded guilty to two sex crimes charges in state court—a decision approved by Acosta and later characterized as a “sweetheart deal” for Epstein, who spent 13 months in jail under a work-release program that allowed him to leave during the day.
Acosta, who had previously worked under the Bush administration, later served as the Trump Administration’s Secretary of Labor from 2017 to 2019.
Read more at Bloomberg