Nearly four years before Jeffrey Epstein was investigated for allegedly luring underage girls into his flowery house for illicit massages: A local police report was opened to investigate allegations that Epstein’s associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, was recruiting young women from a nearby university to answer phones at Epstein’s home, according to a police report recently revealed by the Department of Justice.
“They get paid $200.00 a day for this [sic] service. It is not clear what is happening at the residence,” reads the initial entry of the city of Palm Beach Police Department Report, dated December 6, 2001.
The report goes on to detail claims that three “college students…were approached by an English woman who identified herself as Maxwell.”
FILE – Audrey Strauss, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, points to a photo of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell during a news conference in New York on July 2, 2020.
John Minchillo/AP
“Maxwell said he needed young, beautiful single women to answer phones and work in the office at his home in Palm Beach,” reads a Dec. 10, 2001, entry.
The report goes on to say that one of the college girls went to the house on several occasions and described the phone calls as “men calling to say when they were going to drop off certain girls.”
Three of the college “girls,” as the report describes them, said Maxwell and Epstein “kept what was happening at the house a secret” and that “at least two of the girls complained that Epstein touched them inappropriately.”
They also told police that Maxwell had asked for a list of other girls who could work on short notice and explained that she needed a “large group of girls” because she didn’t know how many she would need at any given time.
The document appears to be the first public indication of the 2001 investigation.
Its existence represents another missed opportunity to potentially stop Epstein’s exploitative behavior much sooner.
This undated photograph released by the U.S. Department of Justice shows Ghislaine Maxwell.
AP
After receiving reports from the college students, officers noted they were having difficulty contacting them again to follow up. However, they continued their investigation of the reported activity at Epstein’s home.
They removed items from trash bins, which they say included listings for massages in New York and lists of women with ages, descriptions and “what they do.” Investigators also looked into Epstein and Maxwell’s phone and business records. They located others students who said Maxwell had approached them and who told police there was something “off” about Epstein and Maxwell, but that they had not seen anything illegal, according to the report.
Other The student interviewed, according to the report, told officers there were “women running around the pool area topless and people were always getting massages.”
Ultimately, the four-page report states that the investigation was closed after determining that no crimes had occurred.
“Although it seems as if it were common [sic] “Activity is occurring at this residence, at this time, no illegal activity has been reported or detected,” reads the final entry of the April 25, 2002, report.
Three years later, the family of a 14-year-old girl contacted Palm Beach City Police to report that an older acquaintance had offered her $200 to massage an older man named “Jeff.” That call launched three years of investigation by local and federal authorities that ultimately led to Epstein’s controversial non-prosecution agreement. with federal prosecutors in 2007.
Epstein served 13 months of an 18-month sentence in the Palm Beach County Jail.
He was indicted by a grand jury in 2019 on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges before being found dead by suicide in his cell awaiting trial.
Maxwell was charged in 2020 with conspiring to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sexual acts, sex trafficking of a minor and other crimes. She was convicted in 2021 on five of six counts and is serving a 20-year prison sentence in Texas.
