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Date: Tuesday, March 8 2011 08:17 PM
Subject:
From: gmax
To: J Jep ;

Jeffrey and Ghislaine: Notes on New York's Oddest Alliance <
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/03/notes- on-new-yorks-oddest-
couple-jeffrey-epstein-and-ghislaine-maxwell.html>
by Vicky Ward
March 8, 2011, 2:30 PM

"I've got a story idea for you. The rebuilding of Indonesia. Or New Orleans. Or both. Go there. I've just been. You will never
think the same way about anything again."
So spoke not Bill or Melinda Gates, but Ghislaine Maxwell, the 48-year-old woman being written up everywhere at the moment
as the alleged "procurer" of young women for billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein, 57, is the financier who spent a year in jail on charges of soliciting prostitutes—and now there is talk of another
investigation because various women, now in their twenties and thirties, have come forward with allegations that he molested
them when they were under-age. The allegations first surfaced in British newspapers, which have zeroed in on Epstein's
friendship with Prince Andrew, who has recently tried to publicly disassociate himself from his old pal.
I wrote a piece for Vanity Fair in 2003 called “The Talented Mr. Epstein.” It was largely a business piece that focused on his
mysterious exit from Bear Stearns in 1981, his close relationships with Jimmy Cayne, Les Wexner, the chairman of Limited
Brands, and above all, the man who claimed to be his mentor, Steven Jude Hoffenberg, who is currently serving a 20-year-jail
sentence for bilking investors in Towers Financial out of $450 million.

The piece alluded to Epstein's great friendship with Maxwell, and how she introduced him to young women with whom he had
sexual relationships. But, in the end, the story didn't really go there, focusing instead on the issue that remains a mystery—how
Jeffrey made his money, and how Ghislaine made hers.

This is not to say I didn't hear stories about the girls. I did. But, not knowing quite who to believe, I concentrated on the intriguing
financial mystery instead. But now the women have come back. Not the same ones, different ones. And their stories are bone-
chilling. Journalists from England have phoned—and, in one case, flown—to ask me about Epstein and Maxwell. Who is he?
And the British, especially, want to know: Who is she? At this point, I am so bored of repeating myself to others—it was, after all,
my 2003 Vanity Fairstory that really brought him into the limelight—that I have decided to write about this myself.

Bizarrely, perhaps, I have gotten to know Jeffrey and Ghislaine far better after my piece than before it. I kept running into both of
them, separately, at parties. Jeffrey is not a social animal so he usually has a couple of young women with him who stand two feet
behind him, as if serving a monarch. “Do they speak?” I remember asking him once, nodding at his lookalike blondes. He
laughed. “Not like you, Vicky,” was his riposte.

I remembered that when we'd once discussed math—in particular, an isosceles triangle—and I revealed I hadn't studied math
since I was 14 (such is, or was, the way of the British educational system), I received a package at home via messenger. It was a
book: “Math for idiots.”

So he is not without humor, even though he doesn't drink or smoke, and hates restaurants.

“Jeffrey knows a good deal about most subjects,” newspaper publisher Mort Zuckerman told me last week. He was certainly
preaching to the converted. The truth is, Epstein does know a lot about a lot of things. Just a few moments in his company and
you know this to be true.

When I saw pictures of Prince Andrew walking in Central Park with Jeffrey, my immediate thought was that “Andy”—as Jeffrey
calls him—is probably asking for help with his role as British trade envoy, or whatever his strange title is. Because if one thing's
for sure: When it comes to international business, Jeffrey knows what he's talking about far more than “Andy” does. Which is
why Leon Black, Mort Zuckerman and a few other financiers hang out with him.

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