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Subject: NY Times: Jeffrey Epstein's New York Hunting Ground: Dance Studios 
Date: The, 03 Sep 2019 20:26:24 +0000 
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Jeffrey Epstein's New York Hunting 
Ground: Dance Studios 
The financier recruited young dancers to give him erotic massages even after his 2008 conviction for 
solicitin: rostitution from a minor. 
oD ff or me New York Times 
as asked if she would become Jeffrey Epstein's personal trainer.CreditCreditRachel 
By Ali Watkins 
Sept. 3, 2019Updated 3:23 p.m. ET 
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M vas 17 when a fellow dancer approached her after a ballet class in 2002 and asked if she wanted to 
give private exercise classes to a wealthy man named Jeffrey Epstein. 
Another dancer, 
eceived a similar pitch in 2006 from a woman, this time to give Mr. Epstein 
a massage. 
The same year, a third dancer, 
as asked if she would become his personal trainer. 
At the time, Mr. Epstein was exp oiting ozens of girls he had plucked from high schools and shopping 
malls in Florida, luring them to his Palm Beach mansion and coercing them into giving him erotic 
massages through false promises, cash payments and threats, according to court records. 
But in New York City, Mr. Epstein had a different hunting ground: dance studios. 
The scope of Mr. Epstein's sex trafficking in Manhattan has become clearer as several lawsuits have 
been filed against his estate in the days since he was found dead from a suicide in his  jail cell in 
Manhattan, where he had been awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. 
The suits say that when Mr. Epstein was luring teenagers into sexual exploitation in Florida, he was 
using a network of recruiters within New York City's dance studios to procure aspiring performers into 
a similar scheme. 
Not even a 13-month stint in jail in 2008 and 2009 stopped him, recently filed lawsuits say. While in 
jail, Mr. Epstein arranged for two women he had recruited in New York to be flown to Florida, where 
he pressured them into sex while he was on work release, the court papers said. 
The United States attorney in Manhattan is continuing to investigate people dose to Mr. Epstein 
whom prosecutors have said he relied on to feed his appetite for girls, including a half-dozen 
employees, girlfriends and associates. It remains unclear if the people who recruited girls from dance 
studios are under scrutiny. 
Mr. Epstein's activities in Manhattan apparently did not cross the radar of the New York police. "None 
of it sounds remotely familiar to me," said Michael Bock, the former supervising sergeant for the 
Manhattan bureau of the Police Department's Special Victims Division. "I don't recall ever even seeing 
his name across my desk." 
Mr. Epstein's network of recruiters in dance studios was described in the lawsuits filed earlier this 
month in Federal District Court in Manhattan by two women who say they were sexually exploited by 
Mr. Epstein, and in interviews with two dancers who had dealings with him in New York. 
These women said Mr. Epstein took advantage of the insularity of the dance world, where dancers rely 
on one another for job opportunities and trust that those tips are legitimate. 
"There's some sort of level of trust with people through ballet studios," saic 
a former 
dancer who said she was recruited at 
be a personal trainer to Mr. Epstein by another woman 
at a dance studio in 2013. "There is that kind of inherent trust, we're all part of the same community. 
You wouldn't share that kind of unsafe opportunity with someone." 
=whose last name was not revealed in court papers, said in her complaint that she was recruited by 
a fellow dancer at her studio and that she accepted an opportunity to make money giving private 
exercise lessons to Mr. Epstein. 
But when she arrived days later at Mr. Epstein's palatial townhouse on East 71st Street, she found her 
patron was not interested in a dance workout, according to a lawsuit. Instead, Mr. Epstein quizzed her 
on her dance aspirations, promised to buy her new point shoes and asked her to take part in several 
sexually charged stretching activities. 
On her third visit, Mr. Epstein asked for a massa e during which he assaulted her with a sex toy and 
masturbated, the complaint said. He implied 
ance career would be over if she did not go along. 
Afterward, he gave her $300 and the book "Massage for Dummies." It was the start of an eight-year 
cycle of abuse. 
The lawsuits name as defendants Mr. Epstein's estate and eight companies that the plaintiffs claim 
assisted Mr. Epstein in his sex trafficking, including by serving as fronts for procuring young women 
and paying associates who helped him. 
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The suits are among at least six complaints filed in Manhattan against Mr. Epstein's estate and his 
close associates since he died by suicide on Aug. to, all saying he forced girls and young women into 
sexual servitude. 
One woman 
aid in a suit that she was 
in 2001 when a woman recruited her outside 
her high sch 
med over time, she said, a 
was eventually pressured to give Mr. 
Epstein erotic massages at his townhouse. 
A year later, she said, he raped her during one of those encounters. She had been an aspiring actress. 
Mr. Epstein's lawyers declined to address the allegations. They have pointed out in court that no one 
has accused Mr. Epstein of abusing underage girls since his conviction in 2008, when he struck a 
widely criticized plea bargain with prosecutors in Florida that shielded him from federal sex-trafficking 
charges. 
Under that deal, Mr. Epstein pleaded guilty to two state charges, including soliciting a minor for 
prostitution. He served a 13-month sentence in a Florida jail, but was permitted to leave for 12 hours a 
day, six days a week. 
Two of the lawsuits say that Mr. Epstein used his time on work release to have sex with at least two of 
the young women he had recruited in New York. 
One, identified in court papers as 
said Mr. Epstein flew her to Florida during his 
imprisonment and had sex with her at his mansion while he was wearing an ankle monitor. 
aid in court papers that she had been drawn into his world two years earlier, at age. Her 
experience after she was offered a job as a masseuse closely tracked patterns described by his accusers 
in other lawsuits. 
The first two visits, she had just given him massages and received payments. After that, however, Mr. 
Epstein began assaulting her sexually with his hands and sex toys, telling her that he had resources 
that he would use to advance her dancing career "if she would do what he wanted to do." 
In 2007, 
flew to Mr. Epstein's private island in the Caribbean and posted about the trip on 
social media, the lawsuit said. The next morning, Mr. Epstein was furious, held her down by her wrists 
and threatened her safety if she ever told anyone about what she knew of his activities. 
After that, she "was in fear for her safety and her life and knew that strict compliance with the dictates 
of this very powerful man was required as a condition of maintaining her safety." Mr. Epstein 
continued to coerce her into sex until 2 1 the lawsuit said. 
Another woman, identified only 
said in a lawsuit that she was introduced to Mr. 
Epstein through her sister, who was working for him. She said Mr. Epstein promised repeatedly that 
he would help pay $20,000 for a critical medical procedure she needed if she complied with his sexual 
demands. She continued to engage in sex acts with him for money until 2014. 
Mr. Epstein was accused in the suits of sexually exploiting the women until they looked less like 
teenagers. Mr. Epstein then allegedly sought to turn two of the women into recruiters, urgin 
to 
go to her dance studi 
ancers." Another he pushed to become a trained masseuse. 
The recruitments of 
cho the experience of 
in an interview that she was recruited to provide private lessons o 
r. pstein in New York around 
2006. 
who is now based hand 
manages her own dance business, said a woman 
she met in a bar 
in her dance career and said she knew a wealthy man looking for a 
personal trainer 
who was in her early 20s at the time and new to New York City, took the 
job. 
When she arrived at Mr. Epstein's townhouse, he did not want to exercise but seemed interested in 
bizarre stretching maneuvers. During one session, 
said, Mr. Epstein suggested she could 
massage his testicles to help with flexibility. 
"He was lik 'Y u kn w, my Russian ballet instructor, she massages my testicles because it helps my 
flodbili ' 
ecalled. "I said, 'O.IC, I can't do that for you.'" 
aid she worked for Mr. Epstein for a only few weeks, and wa, 
to give classes to 
o eenagers living in one of his apartments, whom he called "my girls." 
aid the 
a dance instructor who said 
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arrangement ended after she refused Mr. Epstein's suggestive proposals. 
"It certainly  wasn't for personal training," she said of the classes.
Image 
New lawsuits say that Mr. Epstein sought dancers from Manhattan studios, including Steps on 
Broadway, to give him massages and private exercise classes. CreditMark Abramson for The New York 
Times 
a former dancer, said Mr. Epstein tried to recruit her to give him dance lessons in 2013. 
She was a but looked younger. A young-looking woman approached her in the bathroom of the Steps 
on Broadway dance studio and said she was looking for someone to take over one of her private ballet 
clients. 
agreed to speak to the potential student through Skype and was surprised when the 
person on e screen was an older man who wanted to fly her to Florida for lessons. The man told her 
that he was a registered sex offender and asked her to do an internet search for his name, Jeffrey 
Epstein, before she committ 
"I never talked to him again," 
said. 
Gia Kourlas contributed reporting. usan eachy and Sheelagh McNeill contributed research. 
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