NEW YORK: Federal investigators found that “numerous and serious failures” by staff at a New York jail allowed American financier Jeffrey Epstein to commit suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex crimes, the US Department of Justice said on Tuesday (Jun 27).
The investigation, led by DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz, focused on the conduct of employees at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, the federal detention facility where Epstein was discovered dead on August 10, 2019 with a sheet around his neck.
A summary of the report said staff had “engaged in significant misconduct and dereliction of their duties,” resulting in Epstein – who had been on suicide watch since late July – “being unmonitored and alone in his cell with an excessive amount of bed linens”.
The probe found no evidence to counter prior conclusions that the 66-year-old’s death was by suicide.
“We did not uncover evidence contradicting the FBI’s determination regarding the absence of criminality in connection with Epstein’s death,” the statement said.
Epstein’s known connections to politicians and business elites have fuelled conspiracy theories over his death.
Two prison guards on duty who admitted to falsifying records related to the night he died were charged later in 2019 over their alleged failure to monitor him.
However, federal prosecutors dismissed the charges in late 2021 after the pair completed community service work as part of an earlier legal agreement.
“The combination of negligence, misconduct, and outright job performance failures documented in the report all contributed to an environment in which arguably one of the most notorious inmates in BOP’s custody was provided with the opportunity to take his own life,” the summary said, referring to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
It said it had offered eight recommendations to improve the BOP’s management of corrections facilities.
Years after Epstein’s death, lawsuits continue over the sex trafficking scheme.
His former girlfriend, the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted of sex trafficking in late 2021 and sentenced to two decades in prison. She is appealing that ruling.
In early June, JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay US$290 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by Epstein’s victims who alleged that the bank facilitated his sex trafficking scheme.
That agreement came on the heels of a parallel Epstein-related settlement by Deutsche Bank, which announced in May it had agreed to pay US$75 million.
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