Epstein staff, police donations, and alleged racketeering via MC2 modeling agency

Jeffrey Epstein Pedophile Bilionaire and His Sex Den - The Daily - Page 2 of 3 shape of sex organs, and various sex toys, such as a “twin torpedo” vibrator and creams and lubricants available at erotic specialty shops, were stowed near the massage tables set up in several rooms upstairs. Epstein also enlisted his staff in the predatory activity, and four—Sarah Kellen, Adriana Ross, Lesley Groff, and Marcinkova—figured in the FBI investigation. The Non Prosecution Agreement stipulated that they would not be charged. According to police reports and sworn statements in the civil suits, all four women, among their other duties, worked to ensure that an appointment book for twice- or thrice-daily “massages” was stocked with fresh recruits. Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the late Czechoslovakian-born press baron Robert Maxwell, who was for many years Epstein’s live-in partner, also recruited young girls. Since his 13-month sentence for soliciting prostitution with a minor, Epstein has settled more than a dozen lawsuits brought by underage girls. Seven victims reached a last-minute deal last week, days before a scheduled trial; each received well over $1 million—an amount that will hardly dent Epstein’s $2 billion net worth. The victims told police they waited in the kitchen to be called upstairs for a massage, and the house chef often gave them a bite to eat. House manager Alfredo Rodriguez said in his sworn statement that a maid named Lupita, who was a devout Catholic, wept when she complained to him about cleaning up after the massage sessions, picking up soiled towels and putting away the sex toys. And she was upset that a photo of Epstein with the pope hung next to one of him with a young girl. Ironically, Rodriguez, who ran the house on EI Brillo Way in 2004 and 2005, ended up being sentenced to more jail time than his boss as a result of the complex investigation into Epstein’s activities. He was fired, he says, for inadvertently drawing police attention to one of the girls when she arrived at the house unannounced to collect money. He saw an unfamiliar “beater” in the driveway one evening and called 911. When he left Epstein’s employ, Rodriguez took away some notes and emails about massage appointments as “protection” against his own prosecution, and failed to produce them during the Palm Beach Police Department’s initial investigation. Unable to get work as a house manager elsewhere in South Florida, he says, Rodriguez later tried to sell this “golden nugget’—his term—for $50,000, to be used in the victims’ civil suits. Unfortunately, he made the offer to an undercover cop, and was subsequently charged with “obstruction of official proceedings” for withholding information that could have advanced the criminal investigation of Epstein—which by that point had been settled in a plea deal. Rodriguez was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison (Epstein was allowed to serve 13 months in the Palm Beach county jail), and now awaits an additional sentence on Aug. 24 in federal court in Miami for transporting firearms, another deal he says he made to pay the bills after he lost his job. In a deposition given for the civil suits, Rodriguez testified that he was instructed to always have $2,000 in cash on hand, so that he could pay both the girls who gave massages and recruiters such as Haley Robson who brought them to the house. He also testified that Epstein made large contributions to the Palm Beach Police Department, and in return was given PBPD baseball hats to put on the dashboard of his various cars to avoid being stopped or ticketed by local police. Retired Police Chief Michael Reiter, in his own deposition, acknowledged that, in addition to earlier donations to the police department (which are fairly common in well-heeled Palm Beach), Epstein had recently given the department $100,000 for some sophisticated equipment. The police were still researching the purchase when Epstein came under suspicion, and Reiter ordered the money returned. (Guy Frostin, one of Epstein’s local attorneys, told police that Epstein also gave $100,000 to the Florida Ballet for massages, because he was “very passionate” about massages being “therapeutically and spiritually” beneficial. Yet victims told police they had no massage training.) Perhaps most disturbing, in terms of possible sex trafficking, was Epstein’s relationship with Jean Luc Brunel, owner of the MC2 modeling agency. According to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, an alleged victim said that Epstein, Maxwell, Brunel, Rodriguez, and Marcinkova “deliberately engaged in a pattern of racketeering that involved luring minor children through MC2, mosily girls under the age of 17, to engage in sexual play for money.” (Which would amount to trafficking.) Brunel is a 50-plus French playboy who was formerly part owner of Karin, a Paris-based modeling agency. He lives in New York and South Beach, Florida, and owns 85 percent of MC2, which has offices in New York, Miami, and Tel http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-07-22/jeffrey-epstein-pedophile-billi... 7/23/2010 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_021667 —