Jeffrey Epstein email cites ties to Prince Andrew, Les Wexner, Leon Black and hints at financial mystery

Date: Tuesday, March 8 2011 08:40 PM Subject: Re: Looking for someone who made the early bet that Middle East would implode... From: Jeffrey Epstein <[email protected]> To: Pl Jeffrey and Ghislaine: Notes on New York's Oddest Alliance < http://www. vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/03/notes- on-new-yorks-oddest- couple-jeffrey-epstein-and-ghislaine-maxwell.html> by Vicky Ward <http:/www.vanitvfair.com/contributors/vicky-_ ward> March 8, 2011, 2:30 PM “T’ve got a story idea for you. The rebuilding of Indonesia. Or New Orleans. Or both. Go there. ’ve just been. You will never think the same way about anything again.” So spoke not Bill or Melinda Gates, but Ghislaine Maxwell, the 48-year-old woman being written up everywhere at the moment as the alleged “procurer” of young women for billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein, 57, is the financier who spent a year in jail on charges of soliciting prostitutes—and now there is talk of another investigation because various women, now in their twenties and thirties, have come forward with allegations that he molested them when they were under-age. The allegations first surfaced in British newspapers, which have zeroed in on Epstein’s friendship with Prince Andrew, who has recently tried to publicly disassociate himself from his old pal. I wrote a piece for Vanity Fair in 2003 called “The Talented Mr. Epstein.” It was largely a business piece that focused on his mysterious exit from Bear Stearns in 1981, his close relationships with Jimmy Cayne, Les Wexner, the chairman of Limited Brands, and above all, the man who claimed to be his mentor, Steven Jude Hoffenberg, who is currently serving a 20-year-jail sentence for bilking investors in Towers Financial out of $450 million. The piece alluded to Epstein’s great friendship with Maxwell, and how she introduced him to young women with whom he had sexual relationships. But, in the end, the story didn’t really go there, focusing instead on the issue that remains a mystery—how Jeffrey made his money, and how Ghislaine made hers. This is not to say I didn’t hear stories about the girls. I did. But, not knowing quite who to believe, I concentrated on the intriguing financial mystery instead. But now the women have come back. Not the same ones, different ones. And their stories are bone- chilling. Journalists from England have phoned—and, in one case, flown—to ask me about Epstein and Maxwell. Who is he? And the British, especially, want to know: Who is she? At this point, Iam so bored of repeating myself to others—it was, after all, my 2003 Vanity Fairstory that really brought him into the limelight—that I have decided to write about this myself. Bizarrely, perhaps, I have gotten to know Jeffrey and Ghislaine far better after my piece than before it. I kept running into both of them, separately, at parties. Jeffrey is not a social animal so he usually has a couple of young women with him who stand two feet behind him, as if serving a monarch. “Do they speak?” I remember asking him once, nodding at his lookalike blondes. He laughed. “Not like vou, Vicky,” was his riposte. Iremembered that when we’d once discussed math—in particular, an isosceles triangle—and I revealed I hadn’t studied math since I was 14 (such is, or was, the way of the British educational system), I received a package at home via messenger. It was a book: “Math for idiots.” So he is not without humor, even though he doesn’t drink or smoke, and hates restaurants. “Jeffrey knows a good deal about most subjects,” newspaper publisher Mort Zuckerman told me last week. He was certainly preaching to the converted. The truth is, Epstein does know a lot about a lot of things. Just a few moments in his company and you know this to be true. When I saw pictures of Prince Andrew walking in Central Park with Jeffrey, my immediate thought was that “Andy”—as Jeffrey calls him—is probably asking for help with his role as British trade envoy, or whatever his strange title is. Because if one thing’s for sure: When it comes to international business, Jeffrey knows what he’s talking about far more than “Andy” does. Which is why Leon Black, Mort Zuckerman and a few other financiers hang out with him. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_030522