US hedge fund billionaire charged with sex trafficking minors

NEW YORK: Jeffrey Epstein, a hedge fund billionaire with ties to top politicians and celebrities, was charged on Monday with sexually exploiting dozens of young girls.

Epstein, 66, was arrested at an airport in New Jersey on Saturday after returning to the United States from Paris on a private jet.

In an indictment unsealed in US District Court for the Southern District of New York, he was charged with one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors.

"Epstein sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida, among other locations," the indictment said. Some of the victims were as young as 14.

Epstein, a well-connected financier whose friends have included President Donald Trump and former president Bill Clinton, was convicted previously of paying young girls for sexual massages at his Palm Beach mansion.

But Epstein avoided federal prosecution in those cases with a 2007 plea deal negotiated by his lawyers with Alexander Acosta, now the labour secretary in the Trump administration. Under the secret deal, he pleaded guilty to a state charge of soliciting prostitution from a minor and served 13 months in a county jail.

Acosta, who was the top federal prosecutor in Miami at the time, has been the target of a campaign demanding his resignation over the relatively light sentence handed down to the billionaire financier.