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From: "Scott Kornspan" <[email protected]> 
To: "Jackie Perczek" <JPerczek®royblack.com>, "Roy BLACK" <[email protected]> 
Subject: Palm Beach Post 
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2009 14:18:34 +0000 
Palm Beach sex offender's secret plea deal: Possible co-conspirators not 
charged, presses victims to settle civil suits 
By SUSAN SPENCER-WENDEL 
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer 
Friday, September 18, 2009 
WEST PALM BEACH - Billionaire financier sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's 
secret non-prosecution agreement he struck with federal prosecutors was 
unsealed Friday, offering the first public look at the deal Epstein's 
high-powered legal counsel brokered on his behalf. 
According the agreement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the 
U.S. Attorney's Office investigated Epstein for various federal crimes, 
including prostitution, some punishable by a minimum of 10 years up to 
life in prison 
But federal prosecutors backed down and agreed to recall grand jury 
subpoeanas, if Epstein pleaded guilty to prostitution-related felonies 
in state court, which he ultimately did. He received an 18-month jail 
sentence, of which he served 13. 
A former federal prosecutor of 15 years, Mark Johnson of Stuart, said 
the disparity in the potential sentences was unusual. 
The United States Attorney's Office also agreed not to charge any of 
Epstein's possible co-conspirators - 
The agreement was negotiated in part by New York heavyweight criminal 
defense attorney Gerald Lefcourt. 
On its first draft in September 2007, it required that Epstein pay an 
attorney - tapped by the U.S. Attorney's Office and approved by Epstein 
- to represent some of the victims in civil suits they had filed against 
Epstein. That attorney is prominent Miami lawyer Bob Josefsberg. 
Former prosecutor Johnson said he has never seen a provision like that 
before. 
But an addendum to the agreement signed the following month struck 
Epstein's duty to pay Josefsberg if he and the victims did not accept a 
settlement and instead pursued litigation. 
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The agreement, signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Villafana, does 
not expressly state whether any victims were contacted or consulted 
before the deal was made. 
Attorney Brad Edwards of Fort Lauderdale, who represents three of the 
young women, believes that none of the between 30 and 40 woman 
identified as victims in the federal investigation were told of the 
deal. Edwards said his clients were still receiving letters in the mail 
months afterwards saying the U.S. Attorney's Office assuring them 
Epstein would be prosecuted. 
"Never consulting the victims is probably the most outrageous aspect of 
it..." Edwards said. "It taught them that someone with money can buy his 
way out of anything. It's outrageous and embarrassing for United States 
Attorney's Office and the State Attorneys Office." 
Epstein now faces many civil lawsuits filed by the women, who are 
represented by a variety attorneys. In many, the facts alleged are the 
same: that Epstein had a predilection for teenage girls, identified 
poor, vulnerable ones and lured them to his home via other young women. 
The teens describe ascending a staircase lined with nude photographs of 
young girls and to the spa room where Epstein would appear in a small 
towel. 
Former Circuit Judge Bill Berger, who represents one of the victims, and 
The Palm Beach Post sought the unsealing of the agreement. Berger refers 
to it as a "sweetheart deal." 
"Why was it so important for the government to make this deal?" Berger 
asked rhetorically. "We have not yet had honest explanation by any 
public official as to why it was made .. and why the victim's were sold 
down the river." 
Former federal prosecutor Ryon McCabe described the agreement as "very 
unorthodox." Such agreements, he said, are usually reserved for 
corporations, not individuals. 
"It's very, very rare. I've never seen or heard of the procedure that 
was set up here." said McCabe, who has no involvement in any Epstein 
litigation and is now a securities litigation attorney. 
"He's essentially avoiding federal prosecution because he can afford to 
pay that many lawyers to help those victims revperson has no money he couldn't be able to strike a deal like this 
and 
avoid federal prosecution." 
The back-room deal with federal prosecutors all the more interesting in 
light of the legal heavyweights who have worked for Epstein, including 
Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz and Kenneth Starr of Clinton 
impeachment fame. Lefcourt is a past president of the National 
Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. 
Epstein's local defense attorney, Jack Goldberger, issued a statement 
Friday saying he had fought the release of the sealed agreement to 
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protect the third parties named there. "Mr. Epstein has fully abided by 
all of its terms and conditions. He is looking forward to putting this 
difficult period in his life behind him. He is continuing his long 
standing history of science philanthropy..." 
Epstein ended up avoiding federal charges, and pleaded guilty in state 
court to felony solicitation of prostitution and procuring a person 
under the age of 18 for prostitution. In July 2008, he was sentenced to 
18 months in jail, and later allowed out up to six days a week on work 
release. 
Epstein left the jail in late July 2009 after serving not quite 13 
months of the sentence, having earned gain time for good behavior. 
Palm Beach Police began investigating the "international moneyman of 
mystery," as the New York magazine dubbed him, after they received a 
complaint from a relative of a 14-year-old girl who had given Epstein a 
naked massage at his home on the Intracoastal Waterway. 
Police sought and found in poor neighborhoods a variety of tall, thin, 
model-like young women, who told stories of begin recruiting, then going 
to Epstein's home and massaging and stimulating him. They walked away 
with between $200 and $1,000. 
The investigation triggered tensions between police and prosecutors, 
with then-Chief Michael Reiter saying in a May 2006 letter to then-State 
Attorney Barry Krischer that the chief prosecutor should disqualify 
himself. 
"I continue to find your office's treatment of these cases highly 
unusual," Reiter wrote. He then asked for and got the federal 
investigation that ended in the sealed deal. 
"The Jeffrey Epstein matter was an experience of what a 
many-million-dollar defense can accomplish," Reiter told the Palm Beach 
Daily News upon his retirement. 
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