Ex-Epstein worker faces obstruction charges Page I of 2 The Palm Beach Post Print this pago Close Ex-Epstein worker faces obstruction charges By SUSAN SPENCER-WENDEL Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Updated: 7:32 p.m. Monday. Jan. 25.2010 Posted: 3:12 p.m. Monday. Jan. 25.2010 A former employee of sex-scandal-plagued Jeffrey Epstein has been charged with obstruction of justice after the employee allegedly withheld critical information from federal agents — an expansive list of Epstein victims and witnesses — as investigators probed the Palm Beach financier for sexual exploitation of minors. According to an FBI agent's affidavit, Alfredo Rodriguez offered to later sell the information for $50,000 — Rodriguez calling it the "Holy Grail" or "Golden Nugget" — to a government witness, who is not named in the affidavit. The affidavit does not refer to Epstein by name, either. In early November, an undercover FBI agent was sent in to make the buy from Rodriguez. Rodriguez, born in 1954, had told police that he worked for Epstein as a butler, chauffeur, chef and houseman, sometimes picking up and cleaning sex toys left behind after Epstein finished his encounters with the underage girls. According to the affidavit, Rodriguez met the undercover agent and produced a small bound book and several sheets of legal paper, which he told the agent he had taken from Epstein's home while employed there in 2004 and 2005. Rodriguez then began counting his $50,000 payoff. He was stopped, detained on the spot and questioned by agents, according to the affidavit. Rodriguez told agents of witnessing nude girls whom he believed to be underage at Epstein's pool area, of knowing that his former employer was having sex with underage girls, and of viewing underage pornography on computers in Epstein's home. Special Agen' wrote that later review of the papers and book Rodriguez handed over revealed information "that would have been extremely useful in investigating and pro