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6:36 AM 7/11/2019 - “We’ll Give You One Guess Which Bank Was Lending To Jeffrey Epstein: Oh, Deutsche, you beautiful monster.” - dealbreaker.com
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6:18 AM 7/11/2019 – Jeffrey Epstein, the Deutsche Bank (again!), and the "Counterintelligence concerns"… | Trump and Trumpism – Review Of News And Opinions
“We’ll Give You One Guess Which Bank Was Lending To Jeffrey Epstein:
Oh, Deutsche, you beautiful monster.” – <a href="http://dealbreaker.com" rel="nofollow">dealbreaker.com</a>
News Review – 6:18 AM 7/11/2019: Jeffrey Epstein, another “lucrative” Deutsche Bank’s cient: Jeffrey Epstein May Have Been A Russian Spy, Ex-Counterintelligence Officer Says
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| Trump and Trumpism – Review Of News And Opinions: mikenov on Twitter: “Deutsche Bank managers overruled their concerns, the people said. They noted that there was nothing illegal about the transactions and that Mr. Epstein was a lucrative client.” – Very similar pattern with Trump handling… nytimes.com/2019/07/10/bus… pic.twitter.com/eEcl9ogTio |
“Deutsche Bank managers overruled their concerns, the people said. They noted that there was nothing illegal about the transactions and that Mr. Epstein was a lucrative client.” – Very similar pattern with Trump handling…
nytimes.com/2019/07/10/bus… pic.twitter.com/eEcl9ogTio  |
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Deutsche Bank Ended Its Relationship With Jeffrey Epstein This Year
Bloomberg-11 hours ago
Deutsche Bank AG severed business ties with Jeffrey Epstein earlier this year, just as federal authorities were preparing to charge the financier ...
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We'll Give You One Guess Which Bank Was Lending To Jeffrey Epstein
Dealbreaker-14 hours ago
We'll Give You One Guess Which Bank Was Lending To Jeffrey Epstein ... Take, for instance, the fact that accused sex monster and alleged financier Jeffery Epstein has been "managing money" ... It really is always Deutsche.
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11 hours ago - Deutsche Bank AG severed business ties with Jeffrey Epstein earlier this year, just as federal authorities were preparing to charge the financier with operating a sex-trafficking ring of underage girls out of his opulent homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach.
1 day ago - But the investor’s former Wall Street mentor has one theory about how Epstein amassed his fortune: Fraud.
7 hours ago - The bank reportedly provided him with trading services and loans up until recently.
8 hours ago - The story also revealed that Epstein has been a client of Deutsche Bank, the embattled institution facing waves of controversy in recent months ...
15 hours ago - Oh, Deutsche, you beautiful monster. ... Jeffrey Epstein Borrowed 'Tainted Money' From Deutsche Bank, Says Former Mentor [Observer].
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He left after a few years. Mr. Epstein told Securities and Exchange Commission lawyers in an insider-trading investigation that there were three reasons, according to a 2003 Vanity Fair article. He had been disciplined over lending money to a friend to buy stock, and there were irregularities with his expense account and rumors he was having an affair with a secretary. (Mr. Epstein testified that he had known nothing about any insider trading, and neither he nor anyone else at the firm was charged.)
In 1981, he struck out on his own. He founded his own advisory firm, Intercontinental Assets Group, which he ran out of his apartment on East 66th Street. In 1987, he met Mr. Hoffenberg, then the chief executive of Towers Financial Corporation.
Mr. Hoffenberg said in an interview that he had met Mr. Epstein in New York at the height of the 1980s takeover boom, when Ivan Boesky’s “Merger Mania” was a national best seller. Towers Financial was buying unpaid debt from hospitals, nursing homes and phone companies and trying to collect it — a distinctly unglamorous niche. Mr. Hoffenberg hired Mr. Epstein as a consultant for $25,000 a month, and the two men refashioned themselves as corporate raiders.
Two takeover efforts were spectacular failures. They made a run at Pan Am, and a news release issued by Towers in November 1987 listed their advisers as John Lehman, a former secretary of the Navy; John N. Mitchell, the attorney general during the Nixon administration; and Edward Nixon, former President Richard M. Nixon’s brother. But the bid collapsed after a jetliner exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, which sent Pan Am into bankruptcy.
Mr. Epstein and Mr. Hoffenberg also made a run at Emery Air Freight — an “epic failure,” according to an affidavit filed by Mr. Hoffenberg in a 2018 lawsuit against Mr. Epstein, which was brought by investors defrauded in Mr. Hoffenberg’s Ponzi scheme. The suit was dismissed.
One takeover bid involving Mr. Epstein met with success: He told Vanity Fair in 2003 that he had invested $1 million, including $300,000 of his own money, in a raid on Pennwalt, a chemical processing firm in Philadelphia. Pennwalt eventually accepted an offer from a French company that was nearly double the price at which the investor group began acquiring shares, giving Mr. Epstein a profit.
Now that federal prosecutors have multi-millionaire Jeffrey Epstein in custody on alleged sex trafficking charges, many are wondering: What will happen to the hedge fund manager's fortune?
While Epstein's defense attorneys are trying to get him out of jail by seeking bail, prosecutors have asked a federal judge in New York to deny the request. They argue that Epstein's wealth and the severity of the charges make him a severe flight risk who should remain locked up. His bail hearing is scheduled for July 15.
Meanwhile, according to an indictment, prosecutors say they are seeking a forfeiture of Epstein's luxurious Manhattan mansion where he allegedly ran a part of his trafficking ring. They claim the eight-story building is worth $77 million.
To figure out what might become of Epstein's properties, his jet (dubbed the "Lolita Express) and his supposed hedge fund fortune, we turned to former federal and state prosecutor Elie Honig. Honig is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the same office that charged Epstein, and is now a legal analyst for CNN.
Honig points out that the indictment says that prosecutors can go after "any and all property that was either used in the course of the crime or as an instrumentality or proceed of the crime."
"With a wealthy guy like Epstein, if he's found guilty, I would attempt to seize all of his assets connected with the crimes, and ensure victims get paid restitution owed to them," Honig said. "But that can never be in lieu of serving appropriate jail time."
Given the secretive nature of Epstein's line of work, the scope of his net worth is not yet clear. But prosecutors may unravel that as they typically seek forfeiture of any property and assets in every case as potential leverage, Honig says. Prosecutors are likely to tack on restitution for any alleged victims who come forward, which could be many women and could cost Epstein potentially millions of dollars if there's a conviction.
"Forfeiture can be a very powerful tool for prosecutors," said Honig. "Of course, defendants want to protect their liberty first and foremost, but they also want to hold on to their money, assets, and properties."
The 66-year-old Epstein pleaded not guilty to one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of minors. Prosecutors claim Epstein paid girls as young as 14 to participate in sex acts from 2001 to 2005 his luxurious Upper East Side mansion and a home in Palm Beach, Florida.
He faces a maximum sentence of 45 years in prison if convicted of both counts. Epstein's attorney, Reid Weingarten, did not immediately return requests for comment.
Epstein avoided similar sex trafficking charges when he got a non-prosecution deal with federal prosecutors in Florida. Instead of facing federal charges, Epstein was allowed to plead guilty to two state prostitution charges in 2008 and served 13 months behind bars in the deal with the U.S. attorney's office in Florida which was then overseen by Alexander Acosta, who is currently President Donald Trump's secretary of labor. Many politicians are now calling for Acosta's resignation.
On Wednesday, Acosta defended his former office's negotiating of Epstein's plea and told reporters during a briefing in Washington, D.C., that he "rolled the dice," with Epstein's deal, adding that "times have changed" since 2008.
Going forward there are three likely scenarios for Epstein and his fortune, Honig said. One, Epstein could go to trial which would be "a massive risk" and if he's found guilty and gets hammered in the sentencing. "If he goes to trial, he risks losing everything," she said. While the prosecution's indictment specifies Epstein's Manhattan mansion, it also covers all property, Honig added.
Two, Epstein can plead guilty without cooperation. But that's unlikely, Honig said, because prosecutors in New York don't want a repeat of the deal Epstein got in Florida.
Three, Epstein can cooperate. This could be Epstein's best option to significantly reduce any prison sentence, Honig said. And, prosecutors will be sure to include some restitution to victims.
Either way, Epstein's fortunes seem to be diminishing rapidly.
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4:33 AM 7/11/2019 – Jeffrey Epstein May Have Been A Russian Spy, Ex-Counterintelligence Officer Says
Michael Novakhov – SharedNewsLinks℠
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| Acosta won’t deny he made deal with pedophile Epstein because he was told financier was spy | ||
Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta avoided on Wednesday answering a reporter’s question about whether he consented to a lenient plea deal for pedophile Jeffrey Epstein in 2007 because he was instructed that the financier was a spy.
According to The Daily Beast, when President Donald Trump‘s transition team vetted Acosta for the top Labor Department post, he was asked about the deal and replied that he had ‘been told’ to go easy.
Acosta, in one source’s telling, said he ‘was told Epstein “belonged to intelligence” and to leave it alone.’
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Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta avoided on Wednesday answering a reporter's question about whether he consented to a lenient plea deal for pedophile Jeffrey Epstein in 2007 because he was instructed that the financier was a spy.
According to The Daily Beast, when President Donald Trump's transition team vetted Acosta for the top Labor Department post, he was asked about the deal and replied that he had 'been told' to go easy.
Acosta, in one source's telling, said he 'was told Epstein "belonged to intelligence" and to leave it alone.'
In a press conference Wednesday afternoon, he dodged a pointed question about whether that version of events was true.
'Were you ever made aware at any point in your handling of this case,' a reporter asked Acosta, 'that Mr. Epstein was an intelligence asset of some sort?'
Acosta neither confirmed nor denied it.
Labor Secretary Alex Acosta dodged a question on Wendesday about whether a lenient plea deal he approved in 2007 for pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was informed by knowledge that the financier was a spy
Epstein faces New York charges for sexually abusing teenage girls, more than a decade after similar charges in Florida brought him a relative slap on the wrist
Acosta says he 'cannot address' whether Epstein was intelligence asset
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Acosta claimed Wednesday that Epstein, pictured in a 2017 New York sex offender registry photo, would ave gotten no jail time at all on the Florida charges if his fdeeral office hadn't stepped in at the time
'There has been reporting to that effect,' he said. 'And let me say, there’s been reporting to a lot of effects in this case, not just now but over the years. And again I would hesitant to take this reporting as fact.'
'This was a case that was brought by our office,' he said of his then-position as Florida's top federal prosecutor. 'It was brought based on the facts.'
'And I look at the reporting and others, I can’t address it directly because of our guidelines, but I can tell you that a lot of reporting is going down rabbit holes.'
The Daily Beast reporter, Vicky Ward, wrote a profile of Epstein in 2003 for Vanity Fair but said later that her editor deleted many of the most salacious details in her story despite victims' willingness to go on the record.
The 2007 non-prosecution agreement ended a separate federal investigation into alleged sex crimes with minors and human trafficking.
'I tried to expose Jeffrey Epstein for what he is and I was silenced,' Ward tweeted. 'Everyone who knew about Epstein was – silenced by people with more money and power and influence.'
Epstein's lawyers parlayed their agreement with Acosta into a 2008 plea deal with local prosecutors that required him to register as a sex offender and serve 13 months in a county jail.
Acosta's press conference on Wednesday yielded little that was new but highlighted his unwillingness to address a reporter's claim that spycraft played a role in his decision-making a decade ago
Epstein, shown in court in 2008, got a short jail term that included permission to leave every day on work-release
County officials later granted him permission to leave jail every day on a work-release program, a perk that Acosta called 'B.S.' on Wednesday.
A judge ruled this year that the plea deal was illegal; the U.S. attorney in Manhattan said Monday that it was not bound by it.
Prosecutors there accused Epstein of luring dozens of girls, some as young as 14, and coercing them into sex acts. He remains in jail while he awaits a bond hearing scheduled for next Monday morning.
Chuck Schumer says Alex Acosta should resign from role
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The Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility, which investigates alleged misconduct by department lawyers, is reviewing how Acosta and the other prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida handled the Epstein deal.
Acosta said he would comply with any investigation.
The Justice Department disclosed the review into Acosta earlier this year after Republican U.S. Senator Ben Sasse raised concerns about the handling of the Epstein case with then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, according to Reuters.
A status of the review is unknown. The Justice Department has said Attorney General William Barr is recused from the matter because of his prior employment with the law firm Kirkland & Ellis, which represented Epstein at the time. Acosta also previously worked for the same law firm.
Democrats in Congress have called for Acosta to resign over the 'sweetheart deal.'
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Trump praises Alex Acosta before discussing Epstein's charges
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He dismissed those demands on Wednesday, saying that if his office hadn't stepped in at the time Epstein would have only faced one minor and non-jailable charge from state prosecutors.
'Without the work of our prosecutors, Epstein would have gotten away with just that state charge' and avoided jail time, Acosta told reporters. 'He was and is a sexual predator.'
'My relationship with the president is outstanding,' Acosta added.
Acosta would not say if he would make the same decision regarding Epstein again today.
'We live in a different world. Today's world does not allow some of the victim shaming that would have taken place at trial 12 years ago,' Acosta said.
'I don't think we can, say, take a case that is this old, and fully know how it would play out today.'
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The shocking and sordid case of Jeffrey Epstein — the multi-millionaire confessed pedophile who has counted Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and many other powerful individuals among his friends — took a bizarre twist on Wednesday when United States Labor Secretary Alex Acosta gave a strangely evasive answer to a question about whether Epstein had connections to intelligence agencies, as Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper reported.
Acosta served as United States Attorney in Miami, Florida, in 2008 when his own office hit Epstein with a 53-page indictment accusing the jet-setting financier of sex trafficking underage girls, as well as raping minors himself. But as The Miami Herald revealed in a major investigative report last year, Acosta struck a “non-prosecution” agreement that imposed an extraordinarily light sentence on Epstein — and failed to inform Epstein’s victims that he would not be prosecuted for his alleged crimes against them.
On Wednesday, Acosta — reportedly at the urging of Trump himself, according to CNBC — held a press briefing to offer his own explanation for his extreme leniency toward Epstein. In that press conference, he was asked an unexpected question.
The question appears to have been sparked by a Daily Beast report published on Tuesday. According to the report, during his vetting by the Trump administration, Acosta revealed that he was told to “leave it alone,” referring to the Epstein case. Why? Because Epstein “belonged to intelligence,” Acosta said in the interview with Trump administration officials.
Acosta was asked by a reporter on Wednesday whether Epstein was an intelligence asset of some kind. The Labor Secretary’s answer simply dodged the question, according to Raw Story.
“So there has been reporting to that effect and let me say, there’s been reporting to a lot of effects in this case, not just now but over the years and, again, I would hesitant [sic] to take this reporting as fact,” Acosta said.
Writing in The Observer newspaper, former National Security Agency counterintelligence officer John Schindler called Acosta’s answer “a non-denial denial of an epic kind.” In fact, Schindler added, Acosta “functionally admitted” that the allegations of Epstein’s intelligence connections are true.
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But Schindler believes that Epstein was not a spy for any American intelligence agency, because according to Schindler, U.S. intelligence would not permit as “asset” to operate a child sex trafficking ring for years at a time.
Instead, Schindler said that “it seems awfully coincidental that Epstein’s best pal and business partner for decades has been Ghislaine Maxwell.” Maxwell is the daughter of deceased British media mogul Robert Maxwell, who died in 1991 under unclear circumstances, but who was reported by The Guardian to have worked for the KGB. Maxwell was also suspected of connections to Israel’s spy agency, the Mossad.
“Since the lines between Russian intelligence, Israeli intelligence and organized crime can get remarkably blurry in practice,” Schindler wrote, “assessing whom Epstein’s been working for may prove difficult to answer.” But starting with the Russians and Israelis, “we have a suspect list.”
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8 hours ago - The shocking and sordid case of Jeffrey Epstein — ... ... newspaper, former National Security Agency counterintelligence officer John Schindler ...
Web results
11 hours ago - In terms of scandals, the sordid saga of Jeffrey Epstein has it all. ... British counterintelligence assessed that Maxwell was working for the KGB, ...
Web results
11 hours ago - In terms of scandals, the sordid saga of Jeffrey Epstein has it all. ... on prosecuting Epstein back in 2007, because he "belonged to intelligence."
10 hours ago - Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta declined to answer Wednesday if he had ever been told that Jeffrey Epstein was an intelligence asset during his handling of the 2008 child sex abuse case against the jet-setting financier.
20 hours ago - I was told Epstein 'belonged to intelligence' and to leave it alone...”
2 days ago - “I was told Epstein 'belonged to intelligence' and to leave it alone,” he told his interviewers in the Trump transition, who evidently thought that ...
2 days ago - Jeffrey Epstein's Sick Story Played Out for Years in Plain Sight How did the New York financier stay nearly untouchable for decades?
1 day ago - The source of Jeffrey Epstein's wealth is a mystery, but unproven theories on ... Whether that's the American intelligence community, the greater ...
12 hours ago - ... and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was an intelligence asset. ... of Epstein a decade ago because Epstein “belonged to intelligence.”.
15 hours ago - In my earlier post I mentioned the reporting of Vicky Ward who did a lengthy piece on Epstein for Vanity Fair in 2003 and is now revisiting the ...
14 hours ago - A new report from The Daily Beast shed light on a potential reason that alleged pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was given the deal of a lifetime when ...
8 hours ago - Labor Secretary Alex Acosta on Wednesday strangely dodged a reporter's question about whether Jeffrey Epstein was an intelligence agent.
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Jeffrey Epstein accuser asks court for help in identifying his alleged ...
The Guardian-11 hours ago
Jennifer Araoz, who in a recent interview accused the billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein of raping her when she was just 15, asked a New ...
Alex Acosta: Trump labour chief defends Jeffrey Epstein plea deal
In-Depth-<a href="http://Aljazeera.com" rel="nofollow">Aljazeera.com</a>-12 hours ago
In-Depth-<a href="http://Aljazeera.com" rel="nofollow">Aljazeera.com</a>-12 hours ago
Acosta Defends His Role in Brokering Jeffrey Epstein Plea Deal
International-The New York Times-11 hours ago
International-The New York Times-11 hours ago
Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein in Cambridge, Massachusetts on September 8, 2004. Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty Images
In terms of scandals, the sordid saga of Jeffrey Epstein has it all. Mysterious gaudy fortunes. Jet-setting debauchery. Lots of pretty girls—including very young girls. Sex and more sex, not necessarily legal or consensual. Add a battalion of VIPs, including billionaires, A-list celebrities, royalty and no less than two American presidents.
The only thing missing was espionage… and it’s not missing anymore.
This week, the Epstein story took center stage for all the reasons listed above. The surprise arrest of the 66-year-old admitted pedophile on Saturday night at New Jersey’s Teterboro airport, as he was headed home from Paris, reopened it all. The case had jumped in and out of the news since 2007, when Epstein admitted his affection for underage women to the Department of Justice, in exchange for lenient treatment.
The media has been agog since the weekend, as details of Epstein’s shocking private life are emerging. Public horror has followed—another alleged victim came forward just today, claiming Epstein raped her in 2002, when she was 15—and more seems certain to come.
The Justice Department unsealed its new indictment against Epstein on Monday, which focuses on that 2002 to 2005 period, when Epstein allegedly ran a secret empire devoted to moving underage girls between his New York and Florida residences, in order to sexually exploit them. Epstein’s life will never be the same.
But what was that life, really? That’s a key question which nobody has been able to publicly answer. How Epstein maintained his fantastically extravagant lifestyle has long been a topic of speculation and mystery. He claimed to have made his vast fortune as a financial guru to the super-rich, but nearly all of his clients were unnamed. Moreover, in a business where overwork is standard, Epstein seemed to have unlimited free time to pursue his avocation of obtaining “massages” from young women.
A major hint was dropped this week by Vicky Ward, the intrepid investigative journalist who has tried to expose the ugly reality behind the Epstein facade longer than anyone. In a report for the Daily Beast, Ward shed light on the Justice Department’s 2007 non-prosecution agreement with Epstein, that sweetest of sweet deals, since it got Epstein a laughably lenient sentence—for crimes which any normal person would have gone away for decades after admitting to.
Alexander Acosta, the current U.S. Labor Secretary, is in the hot seat, since a dozen years ago he was the U.S. Attorney for South Florida who cut that deal with Epstein. Ward explained the background of that deal, which is now a noose for Acosta. Specifically, she elaborated that the Epstein issue came up when Acosta was appointed to the cabinet by President Donald Trump. Ward writes:
He’d cut the non-prosecution deal with one of Epstein’s attorneys because he had “been told” to back off, that Epstein was above his pay grade. “I was told Epstein ‘belonged to intelligence’ and to leave it alone,” he told his interviewers in the Trump transition, who evidently thought that was a sufficient answer and went ahead and hired Acosta. (The Labor Department had no comment when asked about this.)
Wait, what?
So, Acosta, according to himself, backed off on prosecuting Epstein back in 2007, despite the possession of ample evidence proving his guilt, because he “belonged to intelligence.” Whose intelligence, exactly? is the first of many questions that arise here.
This claim was met with an appropriate degree of skepticism, and Acosta had a chance to explain what he meant in a press conference this afternoon. On camera, Acosta maintained that he did the best he could with that case, while admitting that it hardly looks like a fair punishment now.
The intelligence issue came up, and Acosta’s response was bizarre. He punted on setting the record straight, instead proffering this strange word salad when asked about Ward’s reporting:
So there has been reporting to that effect and let me say, there’s been reporting to a lot of effects in this case, not just now but over the years and, again, I would hesitant to take this reporting as fact. This was a case that was brought by our office, it was brought based on the facts and I look at the reporting and others, I can’t address it directly because of our guidelines, but I can tell you that a lot of reporting is going down rabbit holes.
To anyone acquainted with our nation’s capital, that’s a non-denial denial of an epic kind. Given the chance to refute Ward’s report, specifically that the Epstein case involved intelligence matters, Acosta did nothing of the sort. Indeed, he functionally admitted that it’s true.
What then can we conclude at this point? It appears that Jeffrey Epstein was involved in intelligence work, of some kind, for someone—and it probably wasn’t American intelligence either. The U.S. Intelligence Community is lenient about the private habits of high-value agents or informants, but they won’t countenance running sex trafficking rings for minors on American soil, for years. While it’s plausible that Epstein was sharing some information with the FBI—many criminals do so to buy themselves some insurance—it’s implausible that he was mainly working for the Americans.
Who are the suspects then? It seems awfully coincidental that Epstein’s best pal and business partner for decades has been Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite and daughter of the late Robert Maxwell, the media mogul who died under mysterious circumstances in 1991. Something of a Bond villain turned real life, Maxwell loved the limelight, despite being a swindler and a spy. British counterintelligence assessed that Maxwell was working for the KGB, while pervasive allegations that he was working for Mossad too are equally plausible.
Since the lines between Russian intelligence, Israeli intelligence and organized crime can get remarkably blurry in practice, as I’ve explained previously, assessing whom Epstein’s been working for may prove difficult to answer with any precision. But we have a suspect list to start asking questions.
What’s not in doubt is that a sex trafficking ring centered on minors, which involved numerous global VIPs in compromising situations, would be of high interest to quite a few intelligence services. The Epstein saga seems certain to get even more unpleasant and interesting.
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