Epstein’s human trafficking organization depended entirely on the wealth management industry (WMI). It was how he obtained the capital to build it, and it was how he hid his activities from the authorities. And none of this was an abuse of the industry; it is precisely how the WMI is designed to work. Nor is it an abuse of the law, because both American and international law has been carefully designed to accomodate the WMI.
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But capitalism didn’t just provide seed funds for Epstein’s operation. It also provided a whole legal and financial apparatus that helped him find victims and disguise his transactions. An article in Deviant Behavior by sociologist Thomas Volscho observes that at first, “the predominant means for gaining access to potential victims involved Epstein using philanthropy to gain access to youth-serving institutions.”
In particular, Epstein seems to have leveraged immense wealth to buy influence in youth organizations that focused on financially at-risk children and then used the wealth disparity to control them. This was a natural step for Epstein, since wealth managers often work with charitable organizations for tax-avoidance purposes. As his conspiracy matured, Volscho writes, Epstein’s “sex trafficking enterprise was funded by Epstein’s tax shelter advisory business, where he primarily helped wealthy people avoid taxation on the sale and/or bequeathing of their assets and incomes.”
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So while Epstein likely used blackmail and other illegal schemes to avoid prosecution for his crimes, his primary strategy — offshore wealth management — was not just legal but a central feature of modern financial capitalism. If the Left wants to use the Epstein case to talk about elite impunity, that conversation has to begin with the strategies the rich use to hide their finances that are completely legal.
For some years after leaving Bear Sterns Epstein worked as a “financial bounty hunter”. These are people that specialize in finding, and hiding, stolen money. Usually for extreme high net worth individuals and families.
Epstein’s most prominent client at that time was an aristocratic Spanish family. He allegedly helped find “hundreds of millions” for them, which he was paid a couple dozen millions over the years for.
But just the fact that “financial bounty hunter” is an actual position, job. That people make millions off of… is kinda insane isn’t it? Are the ultra wealthy just stealing millions and millions off each other? So much that they need specialists to help hide the stolen money, or find money that was stolen? Absolutely insane.
The richest and most powerful people in the world are all falling for schemes, and scheming each other.
That’s the game for them.
Many years ago an acquaintance of mine was a mechanic for a Formula 1 team owned by Bernie Ecclestone (Brabham F1 team for those in the know).
Bernie later went on to control the sport and remains a multi-billionaire to this day due to his somewhat shady business dealings.
Anyway, there was a race weekend at Monaco where behind the scenes Bernie was doing a deal with someone or other to sell a used Ferrari. The story goes that he colluded with Flavio Briatore (another shady F1 team owner) to manipulate the price of the car to screw the potential buyer out of a measly £5k or so.
The point was never the money, it was fucking over the other guy. You don’t get to accumulate such wealth without being a raging psycho/sociopath with the morals of a feral cat.
But it’s crazy how the media and “common knowledge” would imagine scammers to be usually very low level people. That scamming the upper echelons got you in trouble real quick.
When the truth is scamming IS the game, and the higher up you get the larger and more ubiquitous the scams get.