Epstein's $100 Million House

Recently, the U.S. Department of Justice released Jeffrey Epstein's correspondence. There was a storyline in there about how he had been trying for years to sell his Manhattan townhouse. Epstein owned one of New York City's largest private residential properties at 9 East 71st Street.

7 stories. 40 rooms. 2,600 square feet. Epstein bought the mansion in 1996 for little money from his mentor Les Wexner, founder of Victoria's Secret.

Jeffrey decided to sell his 40-room townhouse. He didn't allow a lot of shows. Turned a lot of people away. Billionaire Ben Ashkenazi, with a $10 billion fortune, turned them down, saying he wasn't "rich enough." He suspected NY Mets owner Steve Cohen of being "either a thief or an investigator."

Epstein, though, was thrilled with the idea of selling the house to "Russian oligarchs." Agent Richard Steinberg of Douglas Elliman wrote in 2016, "Would Mr. Epstein consider showing to two of my very wealthy Russians?"

The latter enthusiastically agreed. It was about Roman Abramovich and Alexei Kuzmichev. Eight years later, Steinberg admitted that it was a ruse: "I wanted to give myself credibility."

Epstein kept raising the price. Made up stories about the shaft of offers. In 2009, he put a $120 million price tag on his house. In 2016, he claimed to have rejected a $250 million offer from a certain "Roman". In 2012, talked about 3 offers of "two hundred and something million."

Agents are calling it untrue. The actual offer he was made was one - $125 million in 2010. Epstein responded with a counter-offer of $175 million.

As a result, Epstein never sold his Towne during his lifetime. After his death in 2019, the property was listed for $88 million. A year later, they lowered the price to $65 million.

In 2021, the townhouse did sell - for $51 million. The buyer was a former top executive at Goldman Sachs.

Typical story of the odd owner. A seller who's spent years "exhibiting" his palace and asserting himself at the expense of others.

Or maybe it was a clever move for top networking?