If you are rich, you can afford to park a few million with some investments manager, no problem.
The crass way of blackmail would be: i have pictures, you pay me $100,000 in cash or I send them everywhere.
The safer, smoother way of blackmail is to say: “hey, there’s another party happening next weekend like the last one, sound like a good time? Yeah? Hey, if you’ve got the time to spare, let’s have lunch while you’re here because I’ve got some good business opportunities I’d like to let you in on. Should be a good return, in on the ground floor…”
Now, if you’ve invest $5 million of your $50 million in an investment portfolio with this guy, he invites you to the kind of parties you like, and it’s no worry for you if the return on your investment seems a little low in that account because you have a good time and he invites a lot of important people, so you get fringe benefits of various sorts..
Decent investments average 12%, 14% for many of these years, if you are in the know, and have enough . Maybe Epstein charged 3% fees instead of 1%, and he doesn’t get the greatest returns for you because he is using your money for a lot of other purposes (like float), but are you going to complain to the guy that’s got pictures? As long as he treats you like a normal guy and doesn’t judge you, brings you what you want. So Epstein can pocket 3%x $5 million = $150,000 from you, but he might be skimming a lot more through various legal means, as long as you don’t care if you’re just getting 5%. Do this year after year and it adds up.
Leon Black paid Epstein $158 million for “tax and estate planning services”. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-did-jeffrey-epstein-make-his-money/ Do you think that those “services” were competitively sourced? No more than the billions that the Saudis handed to Jared Kushner.
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