Carter clearly had no problem with the rest of her reporting

that is someone who would do the right thing

I haven't done a deep dive on this, but apparently Jeffrey Epstein personally went to the Conde Nast building where Vanity Fair was also put together, and got past security into the Vanity Fair offices. That might be enough for even Graydon Carter to tiptoe around the guy, and give him the benefit of the doubt in the story as published. Carter wouldn't be the first nor the last editor to lose his nerve on a story that paints a very powerful, very rich, very well-connected man in a bad light.

and then went on to found his own financial management firm, J. Epstein & Co. in the early 80s.

the owners of Bear Stern. I'm not familiar with the story however the reporter basically stated that his claims to be involved in financial management is smoke and mirrors.

VICKY WARD: So, I don’t think he’s a hedge fund manager. He is certainly very wealthy. There is great mystery as to how he actually made his money. He tells people that he advises—he takes a percentage, and he advises billionaires only. He won’t take anyone poorer than a billionaire. And he takes a cut, which adds up to a lot of money. This, when I investigated him in 2002, really turned out to be untrue.

What was interesting was that the man who claimed to have sort of taught Jeffrey many financial tricks, and who claims to this day that Jeffrey has his money, is a gentleman by the name of Steve Hoffenberg, who went to jail for 20 years for committing the biggest Ponzi scheme pre-Bernie Madoff. So, the mystery of Jeffrey Epstein’s wealth has never been clarified.

AMY GOODMAN: He started out as a Dalton teacher, right?

VICKY WARD: Right.

AMY GOODMAN: A teacher at the private school in Manhattan.

VICKY WARD: Absolutely.

AMY GOODMAN: Math teacher.

VICKY WARD: Absolutely. And he then went to Bear Stearns. He left Bear Stearns, the investment bank, under very mysterious circumstances. And what’s interesting about that is that he seemed to have a curious power over the two gentlemen who ran Bear Stearns, James Cayne and Ace Greenberg. And he was certainly questioned by the SEC back in the day.

AMY GOODMAN: The Securities and Exchange Commission.


https://www.democracynow.org/2019/7/8/jeffrey_epstein_a_billionaire_friend_of

Then as the owner of the Financial Trust Company.

Still, this guys has shown that he has an enormous amount of money or that people are beholden to him for a hefty price.

accomplish that? Perhaps any company he owned was just a front. Vicky Ward is no slouch and she questions the storyline that he made his money in the financial industry.

She doesn't present much of an argument.

It's not uncommon for people to start in one field and then gain their wealth in another. And going from math whiz to options trader isn't that far out there. That's assuming he was a math whiz. He was teaching calculus and physics at the age of 22. He was a teacher for two years in his early twenties.

Long and detailed.

snip

Certainly, you won’t find Epstein’s transactions written about on Bloomberg or talked about in the trading rooms. “The trading desks don’t seem to know him. It’s unusual for animals that big not to leave any footprints in the snow,” says a high-level investment manager.

Unlike such fund managers as George Soros and Stanley Druckenmiller, whose client lists and stock maneuverings act as their calling cards, Epstein keeps all his deals and clients secret, bar one client: billionaire Leslie Wexner, the respected chairman of Limited Brands. Epstein insists that ever since he left Bear Stearns in 1981 he has managed money only for billionaires—who depend on him for discretion. “I was the only person crazy enough, or arrogant enough, or misplaced enough, to make my limit a billion dollars or more,” he tells people freely. According to him, the flat fees he receives from his clients, combined with his skill at playing

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2003/03/jeffrey-epstein-200303

Most of it doesn't even address it. Lots of fluff to make something that should be really short seem more substantial.

There is a chance some of his money has come from blackmail. I think we will know that pretty soon. I think it would be a bit difficult for him to launder money given his stature. That said, Manafort seems to have laundered his money pretty easily for some time. That really came back to bite him in the ass.

no college degree

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212253690

As the above poster noted, @LincolnsBible has as always done the homework. Epstein actually closes up a big loop in the whole Russian thing. Sex trafficking of minors through the modeling agencies to provide dirt for the Russian mob that was all the while pumping hundreds of millions through Bear Stearns...and phoning home to Vlad.

That's what I want to know.