Jeffrey Epstein had 'piles of cash,' diamonds and a fake passport, federal prosecutors reveal in court

Prosecutors revealed that “piles of cash,” diamonds and a fake 1980s foreign passport listing a Saudi Arabian residence were found in a safe during a search last week of wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein’s house as they urged a judge Monday to deny bail to the accused sex trafficker.

U.S. District Judge Richard Berman deferred deciding on whether to release Epstein to home detention until Thursday after hearing from lawyers and two alleged victims who pushed for his continued detention in jail during the two-hour hearing in Manhattan federal court.

“He is a scary person to have walking the street,” said Courtney Wild, who told Berman she had been sexually abused by Epstein starting at age 14.

Epstein, 66, was arrested on July 6 and charged last week with sexually touching “dozens” of underage girls after hiring them to perform nude massages at his home in Palm Beach, Florida, and at his Manhattan mansion from 2002 to 2005.

He has been held in a secure unit at the federal jail in Manhattan since then. Defense lawyers want Berman to let him await trial at the mansion, with camera surveillance and an ankle bracelet, and said he would pay armed guards to watch him, and post a bond in any amount the judge asks.

At Monday’s hearing Epstein, who pegged his net worth at $550 million in a newly unsealed court filing, wore a standard-issue blue prison smock. He rubbed his chin and listened attentively but without expression as the lawyers and victims spoke.

Berman sounded skeptical about releasing Epstein. He said he didn’t have enough details about Epstein’s finances, questioned allowing a rich man to pay for security that a poor man couldn’t afford, and worried about recidivism of sex offenders despite Epstein’s clean record for 14 years since the alleged crime.

“I don’t think it’s so clear that with the passage of time the pattern disappears,’ he told defense lawyer Martin Weinberg.

Prosecutors say Epstein’s assets — over $110 million in one bank account, six homes including one in Paris, and at least one private jet — give him the resources to flee. They value the Manhattan house, where agents found hundreds of nude pictures of young women last week, at $77 million.

In addition to those photos, prosecutor Alex Rossmiller told Berman, Epstein’s East 71st Street home had jewels and art “in abundance,” including a safe with “piles of cash, dozens of diamonds” and an old foreign passport with Epstein’s picture but a different name and a Saudi Arabia address.

“How many other safes are there with similar contents?” Rossmiller asked Berman.

Epstein, whose past associates have included Bill Clinton and President Donald Trump, pleaded in 2008 to two state prostitution felonies in Florida for his conduct, did jail time and registered as a sex offender as part of a deal with Florida federal prosecutors to avoid federal charges.

Weinberg, told Berman that the new case in New York violated that deal, which he said was reviewed and “endorsed” at the time by “6 or 7” senior Justice Department officials, including former criminal division chief Alice Fisher and deputy attorney general Mark Filip.

Fisher called the claim a "mischaracterization" through a spokeswoman, and Rossmiller said reviews in Washington at the time did not involve any decision that the arrangement would be binding on federal prosecutors outside Florida. Epstein’s accusers have long denounced the 2008 deal as too lenient.

Weinberg also said the lack of claims that Epstein committed crimes or sexually misbehaved while being monitored as a sex offender for more than a decade showed it would not be a danger to release him.

“He disciplined himself,” Weinberg said. “ … It’s not like he’s an out-of-control rapist.”

But a second victim who spoke at the hearing disputed that claim. Annie Farmer, who said she got involved with Epstein at 16 and settled a civil suit claiming she was “lent out” to men he wanted to befriend, cited the trove of “pornography” involving young women found at his home.

“That would be the opposite of discipline,” Farmer said.