In the US pressure has been building for more transparency on what the federal investigations into Jeffrey Epstein uncovered.
UMA SANGHVI
Emails recently released in the United States suggest that the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein recruited young women in Zurich for sex trafficking. Epstein was also reportedly a client of a major Swiss bank, the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper reported on Sunday.
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In a 2016 email, contained in the 20,000 documents released in early November by US authorities, an unidentified person wrote to the late convicted sex offender: “Hi Jeffrey! I have an assistant in Zurich for you. I had already sent you her photos (…) I have some news of her here in Zurich, but not yet in New York or Paris.”
The term “assistant” was reportedly used within Epstein’s network to refer to prostitutes, according to NZZ am Sonntag.
This suggests that the New York financier, who died in prison in 2019, may have extended his activities to Switzerland. The billionaire, who was close to the spheres of power in the US and elsewhere, was arrested and charged in 2019 for sexual exploitation of minors and criminal conspiracy.
Swiss bank accounts
The NZZ am Sonntag also reported an exchange from 2015 between a Guardian journalist and Epstein concerning a major Geneva bank where the businessman allegedly held accounts. This was confirmed by a bank report obtained by American media outlets in early November. The paper adds that he also had links to Zug’s Crypto Valley.
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To date, the Swiss justice ministry has not received any requests for mutual legal assistance from the US concerning the Epstein case. When contacted by Swiss public radio RTS, the public prosecutors’ offices in Zurich and Geneva, and the bank in question, declined to comment.
More documents are expected to follow in this case. After months of bitter debate and opposition from US President Donald Trump, the House and Senate last week overwhelmingly adopted a measure requiring the Justice Department to divulge its unclassified materials on Epstein. US authorities now have less than 30 days to disclose everything.
Adapted from French by DeepL/sb
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