Life and times of shamed tycoon

SHAMED financier Jeffrey Epstein was born in 1953 and grew up in Newyork.a university dropout, he launched his firm Financialtrust Co in 1982.

In the 1990s he bought a mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, acquired a huge Manhattan property and bought Little St James Island in the Usvirgin Islands – now dubbed his “paedophile island”. During this period Prince Andrew was reportedly introduced to him through Ghislaine Maxwell.

In 2000, Andrew and Maxwell were seen on holiday with Epstein at Donaldtrump’s Mar-a-lago Club. In return, the Duke allegedly invited Epstein to stay at Sandringham, Balmoral and Windsor Castle.

In 2006, Epstein pleaded not guilty to felony solicitation of prostitution, more than a year after a 14-year-old girl reported abuse against her and others at his Palm Beach base.

He was jailed for 18 months in 2008 after admitting two lesser counts following a secret deal with the US Attorney’s Office in Miami.

After a legal battle, he was last month indicted with paying dozens of girls as young as 14 to engage in sex acts with him from 2002 to 2005. More than a dozen more women came forward after he denied the offences, and he had been facing up to 45 years in jail.