Good morning. I'm Geoff Berman, US Attorney for the Southern District on New York. Today we announce the unsealing of sex trafficking charges against Jeffrey Epstein. The charges allege that Epstein sexually abused young girls by enticing them to engage in sex acts for money. Epstein was arrested this past Saturday evening at Teterboro Airport aboard his private jet which had just landed from Paris, France. Epstein was taken to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in NYC. Later today he will presented before a Judge in the SDNY. Our Office will take the position at that presentment that Epstein should be detained pending his trial. Epstein is charged in a two-count Indictment — first, conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, and second, the substantive crime of sex trafficking of underage girls. Beginning in at least 2002, and continuing until 2005, Epstein is alleged to have abused dozens of victims by causing them to engage in sex acts with him at his mansion in New York City and at his estate in Palm Beach, Florida. The victims—all underage girls at the time of the alleged conduct— were given hundreds of dollars in cash after each encounter, either by Epstein or one of his employees. The underage girls were initially recruited to provide Epstein with massages, and often did so nude or partially-nude. These massages became increasingly sexual in nature, and would typically include one or more sex acts, as specified in the indictment. EFTA00095984