Disgraced Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein Settles ‘Sex Slave’ Lawsuit
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — Jeffrey Epstein, a billionaire who was convicted in 2008 of soliciting a teenage girl to prostitution, settled out of court with another woman who sued him for using her as a “sex slave,” as she called it.
The complainant, Sarah Ransome, on Thursday withdrew her lawsuit after settling with Epstein on undisclosed terms, the New York Post reported.
Epstein, of Palm Beach, Fla., has been alleged to having assembled what the Miami Herald called “a large, cult-like network of underage girls — with the help of young female recruiters — to coerce into having sex acts behind the walls of his opulent waterfront mansion.” In November, The Herald reported on what it called the “extraordinary” plea deal under which Epstein pleaded guilty to two prostitution charges and served just 13 months in the county jail, and which ended the FBI probe into whether there were more victims and other powerful people who took part.
The hedge fund manager boasted a number of powerful friends and associates, including President Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Britain’s Prince Andrew and attorney Alan Dershowitz.
In 1990, Epstein and fellow billionaire Leslie H. Wexner partnered to fund the construction of a new building at Harvard Hillel, named after what the Harvard Crimson called one of Epstein’s oldest friends, former Harvard dean Henry Rosovsky.
In the 2017 lawsuit against Epstein, Ransome accused Epstein of forcing her into sex acts in 2006 and 2007, when she was in her 20s. She said he made her sleep with his friends, including Dershowitz. Previously, another one of Epstein’s accusers, Virginia Roberts, claimed Dershowitz had sex with her when she was underage. Dershowitz denied the allegation at the time, telling the Miami Herald “the story was 100 percent flatly categorically made-up.”
Dershowitz also responded angrily to the latest allegation, saying Ransome’s allegations were ginned up by her lawyer, David Boies, as an act of personal vengeance against Dershowitz.
“I never had sex with anyone except my wife,” Dershowitz told The Post. “I don’t know her, I never heard of her. She just made it up completely.”
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