BAIL DENIAL — UNITED STATES v. EPSTEIN Judge Richard M. Berman — July 18, 2019
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman denied Jeffrey Epstein's bail application, ordering him detained pending trial. Epstein's defense team had proposed a bail package valued at approximately $77 million, offering to post his Manhattan townhouse and private jet as collateral, submit to house arrest with GPS monitoring, and pay for armed private security.
FACTORS CITED BY JUDGE BERMAN: The court found that Epstein posed an extreme flight risk based on his vast wealth (estimated net worth exceeding $500 million), multiple residences across the country and overseas, ownership of private aircraft, and an expired foreign passport discovered during the FBI raid on his Manhattan home. The judge noted that the passport — an Austrian or Saudi passport bearing Epstein's photograph under a different name — was "troubling" evidence of potential flight.
DANGER TO COMMUNITY: Judge Berman also found that Epstein posed a continuing danger to the community based on the nature and seriousness of the charged offenses and the evidence presented, including the discovery of a locked safe containing compact discs labeled with the names of young women.
EVIDENCE FROM FBI RAID: During the July 6, 2019 raid of 9 East 71st Street, FBI agents discovered: compact discs in a locked safe, large amounts of cash, loose diamonds, an expired foreign passport, and what prosecutors described as a "vast trove" of photographs of nude and partially nude young women.
This was one of Epstein's last court appearances. He was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center less than one month later on August 10, 2019.