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<v Speaker 1>What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the

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<v Speaker 1>Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're going to pick up

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<v Speaker 1>where we left off talking about the failure of the

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<v Speaker 1>United States government to expand their scope of investigation into

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<v Speaker 1>Jeffrey Epstein. Then came twenty nineteen, when the Southern District

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<v Speaker 1>of New York effectively confirmed that the criminal architecture had

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<v Speaker 1>always existed. Its indictment alleged dozens of underage victims, repeated

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<v Speaker 1>cash payments, paid recruitment employees and associates, scheduling multiple locations,

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<v Speaker 1>and a continuing supply of girls. Read that description without

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<v Speaker 1>looking at the caption, and it sounds like the opening

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<v Speaker 1>paragraph of a racketeering indictment. There was a principle directing

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<v Speaker 1>the scheme, there were associates helping accomplish its objectives. There

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<v Speaker 1>was repeatable method of obtaining victims. There were financial transactions

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<v Speaker 1>built into the method. There was interstate activity and substantial

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<v Speaker 1>logistical infrastructure. Yet the federal government charged Epstein with sex

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<v Speaker 1>trafficking and conspiracy, rather than using the machinery at routinely

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<v Speaker 1>deployees when it wants to expose an entire criminal organization.

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<v Speaker 1>The message was again unmistakably narrow prosecute Epstein, not the

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<v Speaker 1>Epstein enterprise. Defenders of the charging decision can argue that

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<v Speaker 1>the twenty nineteen indictment was merely an opening move and

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<v Speaker 1>that superseding charges might have followed. That possibility cannot be

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<v Speaker 1>disproved because Epstein died barely a month after his arrest,

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<v Speaker 1>But that explanation does not erase the much longer institutional

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<v Speaker 1>history that preceded twenty nineteen. The government had known about

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<v Speaker 1>the recruitment system for years, had previously assembled an enormous

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<v Speaker 1>federal case, and had already identified alleged co conspirators during

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<v Speaker 1>the South Florida investigation. Federal agents were not beginning from

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<v Speaker 1>zero in July of twenty nineteen. They were reopening a

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<v Speaker 1>scandal whose contours had been documented for more than a decade.

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<v Speaker 1>If enterprise charges were being seriously developed, the public deserves

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<v Speaker 1>to see the memoranda, referrals, grand jury strategy, financial investigations,

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<v Speaker 1>and racketeering analysis showing it. The burden should not be

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<v Speaker 1>on the public to assume the Department planned to broaden

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<v Speaker 1>a case it had already narrowed once before. That burden

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<v Speaker 1>belongs on the DOJ. To demonstrate that it actually tried.

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<v Speaker 1>Epstein's death should have expanded the institutional urgency rather than

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<v Speaker 1>ending it. The government's principal defendant was gone, But a

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<v Speaker 1>criminal enterprise does not cease to be worthy of a

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<v Speaker 1>prosecution because its leader dies. If anything, the leader's death

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<v Speaker 1>makes the prosecution of surviving participants more important, because personal

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<v Speaker 1>accountability against the central actor has become impossible. The obvious

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<v Speaker 1>investigative response was to identify everyone who knowingly helped recruit, transport, groom,

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<v Speaker 1>pay case, con seal, finance, obstruct were otherwise advanced qualifying crimes.

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<v Speaker 1>That should have meant a grand jury campaign measured in years.

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<v Speaker 1>It should have meant financial subpoenas, immigration records, corporate records,

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<v Speaker 1>electronic communication, employee interviews, cooperation agreements, and forensic examination of

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<v Speaker 1>payment systems. It should have meant approaching the remaining case

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<v Speaker 1>as prosecutors approached organized crime organizations after a boss died. Instead,

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<v Speaker 1>the Great Federal Reckoning eventually produced one major conviction, Glane Maxwell.

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<v Speaker 1>One conviction against the surviving operational network cannot reasonably be

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<v Speaker 1>called a complete dismantling. Maxwell's prosecution makes the absence of

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<v Speaker 1>Rico more glaring. Because the government proved beyond a reasonable

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<v Speaker 1>doubt that Epstein did not operate alone. A unanimous jury

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<v Speaker 1>found Maxwell guilty of participating in and facilitating the sexual

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<v Speaker 1>abuse of minors with Epstein, and she ultimately received a

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<v Speaker 1>twenty year federal sentence. Her conviction destroyed any remaining basis

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<v Speaker 1>for portraying Epstein's conduct as the work of an isolated

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<v Speaker 1>offender surrounded by innocent bystanders. There were at least two

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<v Speaker 1>knowing principles operating together over many years. The government proved

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<v Speaker 1>conspiracies involving recruitment, grooming, transportation, and trafficking. Those facts provide

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<v Speaker 1>an obvious nucleus around which an association, in fact enterprise

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<v Speaker 1>could have been alleged. RICO would not have required prosecutors

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<v Speaker 1>to prove that every employee or associate was guilty of everything.

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<v Speaker 1>It would have required them to identify which participants knowingly

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<v Speaker 1>joined or furthered the criminal enterprise. That was the investigation

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<v Speaker 1>that the public deserved, and I think when you look

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<v Speaker 1>at the R. Kelly prosecution, it makes the disparity impossible

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<v Speaker 1>to ignore. Federal prosecutors alleged that Kelly and members of

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<v Speaker 1>his entourage, including managers, bodyguards, drivers, personal assistants, and runners

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<v Speaker 1>constituted a rocketeering enterprise that operated for approximately two decades.

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<v Speaker 1>Prosecutors did not say that because Kelly's employees were automatically

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<v Speaker 1>guilty merely for collecting paychecks. They investigated whether members of

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<v Speaker 1>the entourage performed functions that furthered Kelly's criminal objectives, including recruitment, transportation, control,

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<v Speaker 1>and access to victims. That is precisely the analytical framework

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<v Speaker 1>that cried out to be applied to Epstein. Epstein likewise

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<v Speaker 1>surrounded himself with employees, assistants, recruiters, transportation, infrastructure, residences, and

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<v Speaker 1>financial machinery that allegedly made repeated exploitation possible. Yet kelly

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<v Speaker 1>support apparatus became central to the government's theory, while Epstein

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<v Speaker 1>support apparatus remained largely background scenery. I think the contrast

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<v Speaker 1>is devastating. What you think, federal law suddenly discovered rico

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<v Speaker 1>between Epstein and Kelly. Kelly's case also demolished the argument

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<v Speaker 1>that recods somehow becomes inappropriate when a criminal enterprise exists

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<v Speaker 1>largely to satisfy one man's sexual desire. His enterprise was

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<v Speaker 1>not accused of conquering territory, selling narcotics, or controlling unions

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<v Speaker 1>in the classic mafia mold, Prosecutors alleged that employees and

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<v Speaker 1>entourage members helped maintain access to women and girls for Kelly.

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<v Speaker 1>The government treated sexual exploitation itself as part of the

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<v Speaker 1>enterprise central criminal purpose. Kelly was ultimately convicted of racketeering,

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<v Speaker 1>proving that a jury could understand precisely such a theory.

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<v Speaker 1>The Second Court later upheld his federal racketeering conviction. The

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<v Speaker 1>legal architecture was therefore not radical, speculative, or fanciful. It

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<v Speaker 1>was mainstream federal prosecution. Epstein's factual circumstances were at least

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<v Speaker 1>as serious enough to demand comparable scrutiny. Indeed, in important respects,

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<v Speaker 1>the publicly alleged Epstein system was tailor made for the

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<v Speaker 1>same theory. Kelly's employees allegedly arranged travel and access to

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<v Speaker 1>women and girls. Epstein's employees and associates allegedly contacted victims,

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<v Speaker 1>scheduled deployments, and participated in maintaining a supply of underage girls.

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<v Speaker 1>Kelly used fame and professional infrastructure to create access. Epstein

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<v Speaker 1>used extraordinary wealth, residences, aircraft, money, social connections, and professional infrastructure.

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<v Speaker 1>Kelly's alleged conduct cross state lines, Epstein's operation cross state

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<v Speaker 1>lines and international boundaries. Kelly had an entourage, Epstein had

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<v Speaker 1>an ecosystem. Prosecutors call one racketeering and treated the other

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<v Speaker 1>primarily as trafficking by two individuals. Keith Rayniery presents an

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<v Speaker 1>even more embarrassing comparison. Federal prosecutors did not artificially isolate

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<v Speaker 1>rayniery sexual crimes from the larger Nexium organization. They charged

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<v Speaker 1>a racketeering conspiracy involving sex trafficking, force labor extortion, identity theft,

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<v Speaker 1>wire fraud, money laundering, obstruction, and related conduct. They prosecuted

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<v Speaker 1>lieutenants and administrators according to the different roles that they

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<v Speaker 1>played within the broader enterprise. Some defendants pleaded guilty to

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<v Speaker 1>racketeering offenses, while others pleaded guilty to immigration or identity

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<v Speaker 1>related crimes. Prosecutors followed the structure wherever it went, instead

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<v Speaker 1>of demanding that every participant commit the identical offense. Raynieri

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<v Speaker 1>was convicted of racketeering and racketeering conspiracy and ultimately sentenced

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<v Speaker 1>to one hundred and twenty years in prison. That is

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<v Speaker 1>what institutional commitment to dismantling an enterprise looks like and

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<v Speaker 1>when talking about Epstein, I think Nexium is particularly relevant

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<v Speaker 1>because immigration violations became part of a broader prosecutorial picture.

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<v Speaker 1>Clara Bronfman was convicted of offenses involving concealing and harboring

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<v Speaker 1>undocumented person for financial gain and fraudulent use of identification information.

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<v Speaker 1>While Nexium bookkeeper Kathy Russell pleaded guilty to visa fraud.

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<v Speaker 1>Prosecutors did not shrug and announced that immigration crimes were

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<v Speaker 1>on related side issues because the headline offense involved sexual exploitation.

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<v Speaker 1>They understood that an enterprise uses many kinds of illegality

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<v Speaker 1>to achieve organizational purposes. That lessons should have been applied

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<v Speaker 1>ruthlessly to Epstein. Public records and civil litigation have for

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<v Speaker 1>years raised serious questions about visas, foreign recruitment, employment arrangements,

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<v Speaker 1>immigration status modeling, pipelines, travel documentation, and marriages surrounding people

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<v Speaker 1>in Epstein's orbit. Not every allegation would necessarily have survived

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<v Speaker 1>criminal scrutiny, but that's precisely why investigators exist. A serious

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<v Speaker 1>racketeering investigation would have tested those allegations instead of leaving

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<v Speaker 1>them scattered through civil suits and investigative journalism. The question

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<v Speaker 1>is not whether every immigration allegation was provable. The question

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<v Speaker 1>is why the federal government never publicly demonstrated the comprehensive

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<v Speaker 1>criminal investigation the allegations demanded. Now, the financial misconduct presents

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<v Speaker 1>the same problem on an even larger scale. Epstein couldn't

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<v Speaker 1>operate an international trafficking network using houses, planes, employees, recruiters, payments, corporations,

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<v Speaker 1>and constant travel without moving enormous amounts of money through

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<v Speaker 1>the legitimate financial system. That doesn't mean that every banker

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<v Speaker 1>who touched his accounts was a racketeer. It does mean

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<v Speaker 1>the money was evidence. Financial records could identify recruiters, employees, beneficiaries, travel,

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<v Speaker 1>property expenses, cash withdrawals, unusual transfers, corporate relationships, and payments

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<v Speaker 1>made during moments when Epstein faced legal jeopardy following that

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<v Speaker 1>money should have been an organizing principle of the federal

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<v Speaker 1>investigation rather than a secondary curiosity. Reco investigations routinely used

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<v Speaker 1>financial evidence to expose relationships that witnesses either cannot or

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<v Speaker 1>will not describe. Epstein's money wasn't peripheral to his criminal enterprise.

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<v Speaker 1>It was the fuel that allowed that enterprise to function.

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<v Speaker 1>The later litigation involving major financial institutions only sharpened how

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<v Speaker 1>much there was to investigate. New York regulators imposed one

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<v Speaker 1>hundred and fifty million dollar penalty on Deutsche Bank in

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<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty over compliance failures that included its relationship with Epstein.

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<v Speaker 1>Civil litigation involving JP Morgan and the US Virgin Islands

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<v Speaker 1>produced extensive allegations and records concerning Epstein's banking activity, payments, employees,

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<v Speaker 1>and trafficking infrastructure. None of that automatically proves that a

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<v Speaker 1>bank or banker joined a criminal rocketeering conspiracy, but it

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<v Speaker 1>brutally undermines any suggestion that Epstein's finances were too ordinary

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<v Speaker 1>or opaque to warn a sweeping federal financial investigation. There

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<v Speaker 1>were transactions, compliance alerts, accounts, entities, cash activity, and identifiable

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<v Speaker 1>financial relationships everywhere investigators looked. A reco minded prosecution team

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<v Speaker 1>would have treated every one of those records as potential

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<v Speaker 1>connective tissue. Instead, much of the public's understanding of Epstein's

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<v Speaker 1>finances came from civil litigants, years after the federal prosecutors

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<v Speaker 1>had repeatedly encountered them. Private plaintiffs effectively excavated terrain the

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<v Speaker 1>criminal justice system should have mapped first. All right, folks,

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<v Speaker 1>we're going to wrap up episode two here and in

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<v Speaker 1>the next episode, we're going to pick up where we

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<v Speaker 1>left off. All of the information that goes with this

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<v Speaker 1>episode can be found in the description box.