Re:Epstein's sex trafficking was aided by JPMorgan, US Virgi...
by morelisp on Tuesday January 03, 2023 @02:28AM
(#34228830)
To this day I'm not sure if anyone is really sure whether Epstein's "philanthropy" was just another avenue of his sexual abuse (cf the stories about his "scientific" interest in his own genetics), or a "cost" to launder his reputation allowing him to continue it, or if both were tools for an intelligence service's broader aims.
I do think it's clear he didn't have any really legitimate businesses. Even in the best case he was donating money to largely unproductive research and pop science in order to flatter himself, and the "conferences" are well attested to not be particularly intellectually rigorous.
Epstein had a bunch of stuff going on in the finance world and was a philanthropist. His black book was full of contacts related to those activities.
Same with the flight records. His island was a hub for his legitimate (or legitimate appearing) activities. There were plenty of people who had reason to visit his island to arrange business deals, or to try to convince him to fund their cause, or to attend conferences that were hosted there without knowing that he also ran a sex trafficking operation there.
That makes merely being in the black book or flight records a pretty weak signal on its own that someone was involved in the sex trafficking.