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One of his early employers in finance, Steve Hoffenberg, was convicted of running one of the largest pre-Madoff Ponzi schemes in U.S. history. According to journalist Vicky Ward, Hoffenberg brought on Epstein in 1981 after he left Bear Stearns. “He has a way of getting under your skin,” he told Ward. Hoffenberg paid Epstein $25,000 per month for his work as a consultant for Towers Financial, though Epstein had left well before Hoffenberg pleaded guilty in 1994 to defrauding investors to the tune of $450 million. For years, it appeared Epstein had no exposure in the Towers Financial case, until 2018, when shareholders filed a putative class action suit against him for his alleged role in the Ponzi scheme. In a separate New York state case in 2018, Hoffenberg reportedly detailed Epstein’s alleged involvement in the scam.
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