Epstein’s teen sex trafficking ring worked like a pyramid scheme, according to victims, who say they were paid to give massages to Epstein, paid extra for sex acts and paid even more to recruit more girls between the ages of 13 and 16 into the ring. The girls were also, at times, allegedly offered up to Epstein’s powerful friends.

“We had victims who didn’t know each other, never met each other and they all basically independently told the same story,” Michael Reiter told the Miami Herald. Reiter was police chief in Palm Beach, Florida — where Epstein resided — during the investigation. Two police officers also said that they were pressured by then-Palm Beach State Attorney Barry Krischer to discontinue their investigation or downgrade the case to a misdemeanor.

In 2008, Epstein was convicted of soliciting an underage girl for prostitution and served 13 months in prison following a plea agreement. His conviction followed a series of dismissals of other, similar lawsuits that same year.

“Our judgment in this case, based on the evidence known at the time, was that it was better to have a billionaire serve time in jail, register as a sex offender and pay his victims restitution than risk a trial with a reduced likelihood of success,” Acosta, then US attorney for Southern Florida — the top federal prosecutor in Miami — explained in a 2011 letter…..more here