Epstein’s web

Introduction
This is the second part in a two-part series on Jeffrey Epstein. In the first part  we considered – and rejected – the claims that Epstein was acting as an agent or asset of Israel’s Mossad or Russia’s FSB. That first part concluded: “If we as the working class are to ever resolve the inescapable and evermore dire conflict with the bourgeoisie, then we have to understand every aspect of how that capitalist class functions and lives. This is where Jeffrey Epstein comes in. The second part of this series will start with a summary timeline of his life. This timeline draws from two main sources: One is the biography of Epstein called “The Spider” by Barry Levine. The second is the New York Times article How JPMorgan enabled the Crimes of Jeffrey Epstein. Both are worth reading in full.”

A few of the hundreds of Epstein survivors. They must never be forgotten.

The purpose of this article is to explain how Epstein rose (or sank) to the levels he did, how he made his connections. We hope this helps develop a better understanding of how the world capitalist class – the world bourgeoisie – functions. Therefore, this timeline does not do justice to the hundreds of women who survived Epstein’s crimes. It does not give adequate coverage to their experiences. That aspect of the Epstein story has been fully exposed in many articles and news stories and books like Levine’s “The Spider”. They should be read by anybody who wants to understand the full scope of the crimes of Epstein and his many associates.

Epstein first went to work as a math teacher at the elite Dalton school in New York City. He was fired from there evidently because he was not considered to be a very good teacher, although some of the teenage girls in that school also considered him to be “creepy”. Through his work at Dalton, Epstein was introduced to the CEO of Bear Sterns, Ace Greenberg., who apparently saw something of himself in Epstein and hired him as an option trader. Epstein also specialized in helping clients avoid taxes. In 1981 Epstein was forced to resign from Bear Sterns because he was accused of insider trading. He received a $100,000 bonus which he used to set up his own business. That business, then morphed into helping clients recover money stolen by fraudulent brokers and lawyers.

It was also during those years that Epstein started to practice another very lucrative business, one which he got into to satisfy his own pleasures. That was the sexual abuse of young girls, the first one of whom he lured into a vacation home at Hilton Head Island in South Carolina when she was 13 years old. He raped her there.

Through his business, Epstein met Spanish actress Ana Obregón. She introduced Epstein to arms trader Douglas Leese, who introduced Epstein to the even bigger arms trader Adnan Kashoggi, and also to Stephen Hoffenberg, who ran Towers Financial. In 1988 Towers Financial incurred huge losses and to make up for those losses it started carrying out a Ponzi scheme. Apparently both Epstein and Hoffenberg collaborated in this scheme, but it was only Hoffenberg who was caught and convicted. Epstein escaped Scot free.

Victoria’s Secret. It is a magnet for young women wanting to make as a professional model. Its real secret was how Epstein used their ambitions for his own crimes.

Around that time, Epstein was also introduced to Les Wexner, who was the largest clothing retailer in the country at that time. His business empire included Victoria’s Secret. Apparently the personalities of Wexner and Epstein really complemented each other. Sociology, professor Thomas Volscho explained: “Wexner doesn’t know much about money. He doesn’t know a stock from a bond. He knows fashion…. He was also shy and retiring, was Epstein was brash and outgoing” (as quoted by Levine in The Spider). By 1991 Wexner gave power of attorney over to Epstein. Darryl Cooper explains this on the basis that Epstein and Wexner were both working for Israel. However, the top capitalists don’t always operate just so rationally. We should remember how many multimillionaires and billionaires have turned their money over to cult leaders because that cult and/or its leadership satisfies certain deep emotional needs of theirs.

Epstein‘s connection with Wexner, and in particular with Victoria’s Secret, opened a whole new world for Epstein. It connected him with many young women and teen age girls who competed for modeling jobs in Victoria’s Secret catalogs. Epstein used that to enter into sexual exploitation and assault in a big way.

In 1997 one of the young women whom Epstein assaulted, Alicia Arden, filed a criminal complaint against Epstein with the Santa Monica Police Department. At that time, Arden was a nobody whereas Epstein had all kinds of important connections Levine explains in his book. “Epstein’s social circle included politicians and Titans of industry, men who traveled with bodyguards and whose indiscretion were shielded from public scrutiny. And if they did get into trouble, there were always attorneys..” one of those attorneys for Epstein was Alan Dershowitz, who was one of the first men that Virginia Roberts says she “entertained”. Others that Roberts said she was farmed out to included Matt Groening creator of The Simpsons, hedge fund billionaire Glenn Dubin, a Harvard University professor who was simply known as Stephen, New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, former Senate majority leader George Mitchell, MIT computer scientist Marvin Minsky, and Jean-Luc Brunell, owner of the modeling company Karin Models, which was later renamed MC2 model management. [These were the names Roberts mentioned. To this list of Epstein associates should be added NY Giants billionaire owner Steve Tisch, Noam Chomsky, Peter Thiel, Steve Bannon, Larry Summers, Leon Black, founder of Appollo Global Management and JP Morgan client, Bill Gates, former chief counsel for Goldman Sachs and former member of the Obama administration Kathryn Ruemmler, new age guru Deepak Chopra, Howard Lutnick, Peter Thiel, and Elon Musk. Heading up this all-star team, of course, is “The Donald” himself – so much so that some have branded the recently released Epstein Files as the “Trump-Epstein Files”.] It was such connections that led the authorities to help Epstein cover up his crimes. It was similar with the assault he carried out against Maria Farmer at the ranch of Les Wexner in New Albany, Ohio in 1996. There is one legal system for the rich and well-connected and another for the “nobodies”. As they say, it’s easier to get a poor innocent person convicted of a crime than to get a rich guilty one.

It wasn’t only the top capitalists with whom Epstein associated. Epstein’s manipulation of the media resembled the manipulation by Donald Trump, except in Epstein’s case he used his connections plus intimidation to keep his name off the headlines. As Levine writes: “The list of scientists that Epstein mingled with read like a who’s who of intellectual heavy hitters. It included Nobel Prize–winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann, paleontologist and evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould, and Oliver Sacks, the world-renowned neurologist and bestselling author. Epstein also had access to George M. Church, a molecular engineer who has worked to identify genes that could be altered to create superior humans; Nobel laureate and MIT theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek; and even the one and only Stephen Hawking. To lure these brilliant minds into his scheme, Epstein invited them to lavish dinner parties at his East Seventy-First Street mansion, where Dom Pérignon was served by the bucket and meals were prepared by Michelin-starred chefs.” There were also the “intellectuals” like Steve Bannon and Noam Chomsky. Despite his defense of Charlie Kirk at the time of Kirk’s murder, Ezra Klein explained Epstein’s role and the importance of the scientists and intellectuals well: “Epstein emerges as a broker of money, introductions, information — and human beings. He has a talent for sniffing out what his correspondents want most. The rich want to be taken seriously, the not-so-rich want the trappings of wealth, many of the men wanted sex and everyone wanted connections….

“Epstein is constantly tossing out offers.Would Peter Thiel like to have dinner with Noam Chomsky? Would Steve Bannon like to meet Sebastian Kurz, then the chancellor of Austria? Would Ariane de Rothschild like to have dinner with Bill Gates? Would Larry Summers like to have dinner with Ehud Barak? Would Steve Tisch like to meet a woman whose name I’ll leave out, but who Epstein describes as “tahitian speaks mostly french, exotic”? In other words, Epstein provided the connections  and satisfied the needs and desires of the global bourgeoisie and those hovering around or orienting towards them.

JP Morgan Bank
However, just as it’s impossible for any important drug cartel to exist without a cooperating bank, the same was true for Epstein. As with the drug cartels, Epstein needed a place to park and launder his money. He needed to launder his money in order to pay off the girls and women he was exploiting. That included paying for bringing some of them from Eastern European countries. For this, payments had to be made in cash so that it couldn’t be traced. Epstein’s laundering operation was carried out through JPMorgan Bank. The following is the introduction to the 2025 NY Times article How JPMorgan enabled the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein.  They write: “Epstein had long been a treasured customer at JPMorgan. His accounts were brimming with more than $200 million. He generated millions of dollars in revenue for the bank, landing him atop an internal list of major money makers. He helped JPMorgan orchestrate an important acquisition. He introduced executives to men who would become lucrative clients, like the Google co-founder Sergey Brin, and to global leaders like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. He helped executives troubleshoot crises and strategize about global opportunities….

“He used those relationships to cultivate new connections and establish his legitimacy. He traded favors and gossip and advice. He created an aura of indispensability and of being so plugged-in that he bordered on omniscience — traits that made him a vital asset for a worldwide cast of government and business leaders. That, in turn, gave Epstein access to more money and connections that he could use to power his criminal activities.”

Here is an example of Epstein’s value to the bank, not only as a major depositor, but also as a middleman: “Epstein had a useful point of contact: Glenn Dubin, who co-founded a $7 billion hedge fund called Highbridge Capital Management, and his wife, Eva Andersson-Dubin

“In 2004, with Epstein acting as middleman, JPMorgan agreed to pay $1.3 billion for a controlling stake in Highbridge…. Epstein, for his part in arranging the Highbridge deal, pocketed a $15 million fee from the hedge fund that JPMorgan now controlled. The payout reflected a crucial reality: Epstein was the rarest of customers, one whose moneymaking potential extended far beyond his own accounts.” [emphasis added]

Deposits or withdrawals of large amounts of cash is almost always a signal for money laundering. Epstein fit the bill. According to the NY Times, between 2004 and 2005 alone, Epstein withdrew over $1.7 million in cash. He could not pay the girls and young women he exploited by check. That included the hundreds he brought from Eastern Europe. Nor could he pay by check those in Eastern Europe who facilitated Epstein’s dirty business. The cash withdrawals caused red flags to go up among JPMorgan officers.

Top to bottom: Jamie Dimon, Jes Staley, Jay Cutler, Mary Erdoes – the JPMorgan executives chiefly responsible for the bank’s support for Epstein.

The JPMorgan executive who seems to have dealt most regularly with Epstein was Jes Staley, who was reported to be next in line to succeed then CEO Jamie Dimon. Epstein was not only a valued bank customer, he also helped Staley in the latter’s own personal career. But it wasn’t only that, as the NYT article shows. “In November 2009, Staley visited [Epstein’s] sprawling Zorro Ranch in New Mexico, where girls and young women later accused Epstein of raping and trafficking them. (Epstein also discussed using the desert compound as a venue for inseminating women in order to seed the human race with his DNA.) Staley emailed Epstein while sipping white wine in the hot tub. ‘Next time, we’re here together,’ he wrote. ‘I owe you much.’ Other messages were littered with apparent sexual references. ‘That was fun. Say hi to Snow White,’ Staley emailed in 2010. Epstein responded by asking which character he would like next. ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ Staley answered.”

Another top bank executive who helped enable Epstein was Mary Erdoes, who signed off on a major loan to Epstein just months after Epstein’s 2006 indictment in Florida. When questions arose, she claims she referred them to Staley, but when there was no action on his part, Erdoes let the matter drop. (She is also not Jewish, so Cooper didn’t bother mentioning her.)

The bank executive who was responsible for compliance with federal anti-money laundering laws was bank Chief Counsel Jay Cutler. He did question the Epstein account. He says that time and again his questions were sent to Jamie Dimon, who according to Cutler referred them back to Staley. (Dimon described Staley as a man of “impeccable character and integrity”.) In a sworn affadavit, Dimon said that he was unaware of the questions swirling around Epstein’s cash withdrawals, but considering that Dimon was known as a micro-manager, and considering the claims of Cutler and others, Dimon’s claim is dubious. Once Dimon effectively squelched Cutler’s questioning of Epstein’s accounts, Cutler had one of three choices: report the whole matter to the federal authorities, resign, or shut up and accept what appeared to him as Dimon’s inaction. Cutler chose the last option.

And so the web is complete. It includes top members of the international bourgeoisie including those named above plus also some others whose names are just coming to light, such as Dubai tycoon Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem. Epstein provided them with enormously profitable connections. He also had links with figures like Britain’s Prince Andrew and Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit. He was not only linked with US and Israeli politicians; he also was linked  with Mona Juul, Norway’s ex-ambassador to Jordan, Jack Lang, head of the Arab World Institute in France; Slovakia’s former national security adviser and former head of the UN General Assembly, Miroslav Lajčák; and Peter Mendelson, long time central figure in the British Labour Party. Epstein’s links were profitable for such figures, but that was not all. What the Bible says – that “though shalt not live by bread [or profits] alone” – applies to the international bourgeoisie. Epstein provided them with intellectual stimulus through the links he had with various scientists, who almost certainly also benefited both financially as well as in terms of “pleasure”. It is inevitable that in this huge web of international capitalist superstars there would be those linked to the foremost spy agencies in the world – the CIA, Mossad and the FSB, but it was not those particular connections that made Epstein nearly untouchable; it was his wider network.

Noam Chomsky
There is one more individual who deserves attention: the hero of much of the “socialist” left, Noam

Not only was Chomsky part of the criminal Epstein’s circle, he was also friendly with the fascistic Steve Bannon.

Chomsky. His connection with Epstein and the excuse offered by his wife Valeria, says a lot as far about the “socialist” left, much of which worshipped Chomsky. In Valeria’s statement, she says Noam “regrets his mistake in judgement” and claims it was no more than that. It is just as impossible that he did not know what Epstein was up to as it is that Chomsky was unaware of the crimes of governments like those of Cambodia, Serbia, Syria and Russia. Instead, Chomsky repeated their lies. He gave all of them a pass. Chomsky looks upwards, towards the ruling circles as long as they are rivals or opponents of US imperialism, rather than to the masses of the people. In this same way, Chomsky looked upwards to Epstein and his circle of friends (including the fascistic Steve Bannon with whom Chomsky was evidently friendly) rather than at the women and girls Epstein exploited and abused.

Conclusion
The claims that Epstein was simply an asset or agent of some intelligence agency sees but one element of a wide network. It also lets off the hook capitalism and the class that rules this system – the capitalist class.

The international capitalist class is destroying the planet. They composed Epstein’s true web. Picture by Sonia Mitralia.

Epstein built a network. He was the consigliare. What Michael Cohen did for Trump – make the connections – Epstein did for the global bourgeoisie. He provided mutually beneficial financial connections plus intellectual and also sexual gratification. And since the global bourgeoisie thrives by economic and political domination, what more natural could it be for them and those around them to express, or at the very least accept that domination and exploitation in their sex lives?

As a general rule, any individual’s personal relations reflect and are strongly influenced by how they relate to society as a whole. In the past, capitalism was able to advance the forces of production. Today, it is increasingly destroying those forces and destroying the planet. The class that rules the system – the capitalist class – is becoming increasingly parasitic and destructive. The individual capitalists reflect that role in their personal relations. As for the bourgeoisie who formed part of Epstein’s net, they carried and expressed their domination and exploitation of all of the planet into their personal sex lives. They are the living, breathing expression of the degeneration of capitalism itself. The scientists and intellectuals that revolve around them are simply a pale reflection of the class to which they orient.

Epstein’s web