Jeffrey Edward Epstein is an American financier and has been convicted of sex crimes. He started his professional life as a teacher, but later turned to finance and banking in various roles, working at Bear Stearns before starting his own business. He developed an elite social community and bribed many women and children, who were then sexually abused by Epstein and some of his contacts. In 2005, police in Palm Beach, Florida began investigating Epstein after a parent complained that he sexually abused his 14-year-old daughter. Epstein pleaded guilty and was convicted in 2008 by a Florida state court of buying child sex and soliciting prostitutes. He was detained for nearly 13 months, but with time off work. He was only charged with these two offenses in a controversial plea agreement; Federal officials have identified 36 girls, some of them 14 years old, accused of sexual abuse by Epstein.

In August 2019, an American criminal and sex trafficker died in prison under strange circumstances. He pretended to be a financier and science philanthropist who began his career at Bear Stearns before going on to build his own financial management company. He had been convicted of multiple sex crimes in 2008, and he was going to go on trial for others in 2019.