Jeffrey Epstein worked at financial firm that engaged in massive Ponzi scheme in 1980s and 1990s ( pizzagate )

submitted 2019-08-14T22:12:56 by kestrel9

I posted this in GA and have got the feeling that forum sliding pushed it down the short memory hole. I also know that 'Towers Investors' is an Epstein linked name that was known on PG in the past. This post submitted 2.5 years ago by @abcdefg222 is a good post with a lot of background in on Epstein: https://voat.co/v/pizzagate/1587483

And for some reason I remembered this: http://towersinvestors.com/towers-financial-updates/christ-card/ and wonder if it means anything in hindsight. Was it FBIanon that mentioned 'Christ Cards'? @Vindicator

At any rate, here is what I posted on PG earlier:

http://archive.is/UiXoX

Jeffrey Epstein worked at financial firm that engaged in massive Ponzi scheme in 1980s and 1990s

Jeffrey Epstein worked as a paid consultant during the 1980s and 1990s at a New York financial company that participated in one of the largest Ponzi schemes in American history, according to court records and the accounts of attorneys and executives connected with the firm, Towers Financial.

Towers was a bill collection agency founded by Steven J. Hoffenberg, who told CBS News he hired Epstein in 1987 to help commit a billion dollars worth of financial fraud.

"He was my best friend for years. My closest friend for years," Hoffenberg told CBS News, speaking of Epstein. "We ran a team of people on Wall Street, investment people that raised these billion dollars illegally. He was my guy, my wingman."

Hoffenberg was investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, and pleaded guilty in 1995 to five criminal charges. He was sentenced in 1997 to 20 years in prison and was released in 2013. Towers Financial executives Mitchell Brater and Michael Rosoff were given prison sentences between seven and nine years. Other employees who pleaded guilty received civil judgments.

Epstein was never charged in the fraud. His legal team did not respond to CBS News' request for comment. Epstein died in an apparent suicide this weekend in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges. During his bail proceedings last month, his asset summary listed more than $559 million in total assets.

"It was a pure Ponzi scheme right from the inception," Corrigan said.

Corrigan likened Towers' business model to the classic con movie "The Sting." He described an operation where Hoffenberg and other executives would woo investors in a Manhattan wood-paneled boardroom before giving tours of operating floors one floor below. Someone would make a call downstairs to make sure employees would look busy once investors arrived.

... "The company had different lines of business. It was selling promises to investors: Buy our notes, buy our bonds. It never had a core operating business that would have sustained the kind of payoffs that were being promised."

15 comments

shewhomustbeobeyed 2019-08-15T01:12:22

towersinvestigators - https://archive.is/jeaOI

cbsnews - https://archive.is/UiXoX

fec - https://archive.is/sB7UX

opensecrets - https://archive.is/uHrWl

theworldnews - https://archive.is/XsLnM

link

Niggardly_Jew 2019-08-15T00:26:15

I posted this in GA and have got the feeling that forum sliding pushed it down the short memory hole.

You need to felate Trump to get anything through to GA.

link

think- 2019-08-14T23:52:12

Hoffenberg created a super-PAC in June 2016, in order to get Trump elected, and pledged $ 50 million of his own money. He and Epstein ran their business from the Trump Tower, where they had rented a whole floor, hence the name 'Towers'.

He recently started suing Epstein, and claimed Epstein took the money they got from the ponzi scheme, and that this was the foundation of Epstein's wealth.

link

kestrel9 2019-08-15T00:51:50

regarding the super-PAC: https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/C00616078/1070515/ and https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00616078&cycle=2016

The $50 million was the super-PAC apparently. I think I read somewhere that the Epstein case was why he supported Trump. He wanted to see an inquiry into Epstein (having been upset that Epstein wasn't prosecuted).

Here's an account of Hoffenberg and Epstein's scams: https://theworldnews.net/nz-news/how-jeffrey-epstein-escaped-justice-for-decades

Over and over, Kohler asked Hoffenberg whether Epstein had designed Towers' scams. Hoffenberg affirmed the prosecutor's story at every turn.

"Jeffrey Epstein was the person in charge of the transactions," Hoffenberg said.

"Epstein was trying to manipulate the price of the stock?" Kohler asked.

"Yes," Hoffenberg replied.

"You didn't object to that, sir?"

"No," Hoffenberg said.

That was in November 1993. Three months later, Epstein's name disappeared from the case.

In court hearings, FBI reports and affidavits throughout 1994 and 1995, prosecutors and FBI agents referred to Hoffenberg's "co-conspirators," "confederates" and "others."

A review of court files finds no further reference to Epstein as the case moved toward a conclusion that convicted Hoffenberg and sent him to prison for 18 years.

Kohler, still a prosecutor in the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago, declined to comment on why Epstein was removed from the case.

"All I can tell you is it was 25 years ago," Kohler said this week. "I really haven't thought about it since then."

Other prosecutors who worked on the cases said that Hoffenberg was always their primary target and that Epstein was removed from the government's narrative because he cooperated with prosecutors.

Gary Baise, a Washington lawyer who represented Hoffenberg during his incarceration, said the judge in the case, Robert Sweet, told him years later that the purpose of the long sentence was to get Hoffenberg to give up co-conspirators. Sweet died this year.

"Judge Sweet did not like the idea that he had sentenced Steven to 18 years, but he said, 'By golly, I was trying to break him,' " Baise said. "He couldn't figure out why Steve didn't blow the whistle on Epstein or others."

Baise said he also couldn't figure it out. Clearly, any friendship between the two men had ended. After Hoffenberg was released from prison in 2013, Baise and his wife met Hoffenberg in New York, where the newly freed man unexpectedly offered to take them to Epstein's townhouse. Baise said a young woman greeted them at the door, took their names and disappeared inside. When she returned, Baise said, she slammed the door in their faces.

Four other Towers executives were convicted of roles in the fraud, generally serving little or no jail time.

Hoffenberg said he had decided he could not rat out a partner. He said variously that he was under threat from Epstein to remain silent and that prosecutors faced similar pressure to drop Epstein from their case. Hoffenberg offered no evidence for his allegation, which Nardello, the prosecutor at the time, called "desperate and ludicrous. . . . Hoffenberg's insinuations reflect only on his apparent ability to project his corrupt view of the world onto others."

Hoffenberg said Epstein's role in the scam eats at him. "He got away with it because I didn't cooperate," Hoffenberg said. "How could you remove the architect of the crime from the story of the crime? I screwed myself, but I also got in bed with the wrong set of criminals. The whole thing blew up, but he wasn't touched."

In 2016, Hoffenberg and some of his victims joined forces to file suit against Epstein, seeking restitution. But when a judge expressed scepticism that Hoffenberg could legally be part of a class action with his own victims, Hoffenberg withdrew the suit.

Some of the victims say they believe Hoffenberg is truly remorseful. Others aren't buying it.

"The concept of Hoffenberg being penitent is pure theater," said Gross, the lawyer who represented Illinois in the insurance case.

link

think- 2019-08-15T00:57:15

The judge, Robert Sweet, was the judge who wanted to keep the files in the Roberts-Giuffre v. Ghislaine Maxwell case sealed. He recently died at age 96, and another judge decided that the douments should be unsealed.

So the first batch was unsealed and published last Friday.