Epstein's files reveal 'rotten culture' in US

Jeffrey Epstein — a financier whose estate was valued at $600 million — was a registered sex offender facing charges of trafficking minors at the time of his death in August 2019.

At the end of January, more than six years after his death, the United States Department of Justice finally released more than three million pages of FBI investigation files into Epstein, plus 2,000 videos and 180,000 images. An additional three million pages are being withheld, the DOJ said, due to sensitive material, victims' rights, and legal privilege.

The released files, though incomplete, revealed some of the architecture of Epstein's illegal operation. It was more than a sex-trafficking ring to lure the rich and the powerful, analysts and experts said, it was a sophisticated system of social engineering designed to procure money and impunity through proximity to power.

Epstein was born into an ordinary Jewish family — his mother was a homemaker and his father worked as a landscaper for the City of New York. He was good at math and played piano well. Both talents helped him later charm people.

In 1976, when he was teaching at the prestigious Dalton School in New York, Epstein got his first Wall Street job at investment bank Bear Stearns through parental connections of his students, according to a New York Times investigative report.

Soon after, his supervisor found that he lied about his two degrees from two California universities. When confronted, Epstein, a college dropout, admitted to having lied, but said if he hadn't nobody would have given him a chance.

Somehow, he was let off the hook and made a limited partner in 1980 at the young age of 27.

In his first financial job, Epstein exhibited a manipulative behavior pattern that later became more audacious. He endeared himself to top executives, abused expense accounts and lavished himself in luxuries.

In his five years at Bear Stearns, Epstein accumulated enough connections, credentials, and experience in manipulation to launch a future that far exceeded anyone's imagination.

He embarked on a long journey to scam investors of their money, betray friends, and cultivate a network of powerful people by leveraging important "friendships" — be they real or perceived — to procure other ones.

He secured some of these relations by offering young women and even minors through his sex-trafficking operation, a crime that eventually led to his downfall.