Now that the spotlight has turned with a vengeance on the odious Jeffrey Epstein, journalists are looking into shady aspects of his life other than the sex trafficking charge he currently faces and his previous convictions for abuse of minors that has resulted in his mow being a convicted sex offender.

He is described in the media as a billionaire or a multi-millionaire but the specific label is unimportant. The fact that he has mansions in pricey locations like Manhattan and Florida in addition owning an entire Caribbean island with yet another mansion, and that he flits between them in his two private jets, means that he has plenty of money and likes flaunting it and entertaining all manner of prominent people in his homes and on his planes. These include politicians (the Clintons and Donald Trump to name three), academics (like Steven Pinker and Lawrence Krauss), and lawyers (like Alan Dershowitz),.

What is less clear is the source of all that wealth and that is where new revelations are soon likely to emerge. PZ links to a report that says that Epstein started out as a math teacher and somewhere along the line became a wealthy hedge fund manager. What is not clear is exactly how that transition occurred and who his clients are that enabled him to get so rich.

Once a math teacher at the elite Dalton School, Jeffrey Epstein left for Bear Stearns before starting his own firm, J. Epstein & Co., which supposedly only managed the fortunes of billionaires. Les Wexner, chairman of Limited Brands, is his only known client.

Wexner owns The Limited and Victoria’s Secret brands. I am definitely ignorant about how this kind of high finance works but I find it hard to believe that you can get so wealthy by having a single client unless that client is really, really wealthy and you are fleecing him or her. There must be other clients and it is not clear why they have remained in the shadows. Or is the hedge fund a front for other sources of money?

While much of the media is focused on the many prominent friends and associates of Epstein and the degree of their involvement in his sleazy and criminal activities, I hope some of them will dig into the source of his finances. ‘Follow the money’ has always been a good guide to unearthing corruption.