Jeffrey Epstein killed himself to shield fortune from victims, lawyer argues
- The paedophile was found dead in his jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking of underage girls
- Lawyers for Epstein’s estate argue that all of the punitive damages claims, including ones against corporations controlled by him, should be dismissed
Lawyer Brad Edwards, who represents an Epstein victim using the pseudonym Katlyn Doe, examined the timeline of Epstein’s suicide in a memo filed in Manhattan Federal Court.
Edwards wrote that he should be allowed to probe the reasons for Epstein’s suicide because he believed the multimillionaire pervert knew it would be difficult for victims to bring punitive damages claims once he was dead.
“In this situation where he was calculatedly attempting to shield his wealth from victims, he decided the best way to do so was to take his own life,” Edwards wrote.
“Reasonable grounds exist for concluding that Epstein’s suicide in his Metropolitan Correctional Centre (MCC) jail cell was likely motivated by his decision to escape the financial punitive consequences of his sex trafficking crimes and torts.”
The legal questions surrounding a wealthy, serial paedophile using suicide to avoid legal claims had little precedent “presumably because it is an extremely rare circumstance,” according to Edwards.