Here Is a Breakdown of the Charges Against Jeffrey Epstein

(Bloomberg) -- Federal sex-trafficking and conspiracy charges were unsealed in New York on Monday morning against Jeffrey Epstein, whose state plea deal in Florida in 2008 has been intensely criticized as inadequate.

The indictment includes one count of sex trafficking of children by force, fraud or coercion, which carries a maximum prison term of 40 years, and one count of conspiring to commit that crime, punishable by as long as five years.

Epstein pleaded not guilty and a hearing on his request for bail will take place next week. This is what prosecutors allege:

What

• Victims were initially recruited to give Epstein massages. He paid them hundreds of dollars and encouraged certain girls to recruit others in return for more cash, enabling him to maintain a “steady supply of victims to exploit,” prosecutors said.
• He would typically masturbate during the massages and eventually touch his victims’ genitals with his hands or with sex toys, they said.
• His victims, as young as 14, were “often particularly vulnerable to exploitation.”

When

• The alleged crimes occurred from 2002 to 2005. Among them was the abuse of a girl the indictment refers to as Minor Victim-3 at Epstein’s Palm Beach house, according to prosecutors. “Epstein asked Minor Victim-3 how old she was, and Minor Victim-3 answered truthfully,” they allege.
• Prosecutors may have obtained evidence of new crimes. With the arrest of Epstein, they said, they searched his New York mansion and found nude photos of what appeared to be underage girls.

Where

• “Epstein created a vast network of underage victims for him to sexually exploit in locations including New York and Palm Beach,” according to the indictment.
• Prosecutors seek forfeiture of the Upper East Side townhouse they say Epstein used in the sexual encounters.
• The townhouse, said to be one of the largest in Manhattan, is at 9 East 71st Street. It is a 40-room structure built in 1932 in the French Renaissance style for Herbert Straus, whose parents owned R.H. Macy & Co. Epstein bought it from billionaire investor and philanthropist Leslie Wexner. Through a spokeswoman, Wexner declined to comment.

How

• When victims arrived, they would be escorted to a room with a massage table and told to fully or partly undress. Epstein would then escalate physical contact, the U.S. said.
• He sometimes contacted the victims personally to schedule encounters and sometimes directed employees to communicate with the girls to arrange for future visits, according to the indictment.

Who

• At least three employees, as well as other unspecified “associates,” were involved in recruiting and scheduling minors for sexual encounters with Epstein, the indictment says.
• The tabloid press called the private jet Epstein used to spirit celebrities such as Donald Trump and Bill Clinton to his Florida estate the Lolita Express.

--With assistance from Bob Van Voris, Greg Farrell, Sophie Alexander and David Voreacos.

To contact the reporters on this story: Chris Dolmetsch in Federal Court in Manhattan at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.net;Patricia Hurtado in Federal Court in Manhattan at pathurtado@bloomberg.net;Christian Berthelsen in New York at cberthelsen1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter Jeffrey

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