HOUSE OVERSIGHT 018933 •c=q. \rmer friend claimed Epstein A cro:,-ti out of a promise to reim- gurse him hundreds of thousands of dollars after their failed investment in Texas oil wells. A judge decided Epstein owed him nothing. "It's a bad memory. I would rather not have ever met Jeffrey Epstein," said Michael Stroll, the retired former president of Williams Electronics and Sega Corp. "Suffice it to say I have nothing good to say about him." Among the characteristics most attributed to Epstein is a penchant for women. He has been linked to Maxwell, a fixture on the high-society party circuits in both New York and Lon- don. Previous girlfriends are said to include a former Ms. Sweden and a Romanian model. "He's a lot of fun to be with," Donald Trump told New York maga- zine in 2002. "It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it, Jeffrey enjoys his social life." Investigation leads to Epstein Although he was not a fre- quenter of the Palm Beach social scene, he made his presence felt. Among his charitable donations, he gave $90,000 to the Palm Beach Police Department and $100,000 to Ballet Florida. In Palm Beach, he lived in luxu- ry. Three black Mercedes sat in his garage, alongside a green Harley- Davidson. His jet waited at a hangar at Palm Beach International Airport: At home, a private chef and a small staff stood at the ready. From a window in his mansion, he could look out on the Intracoastal Water- way and the West Palm Beach sky- line. He seemed to be a man who had everything. But extraordinary wealth can' fuel extraordinary desires. 411 In March 2005, a worried mother In Palm Beach police. She said another parent had overheard a conversation between their chil- dren. Now the mother was afraid her 14-year-old daughter had been molested by a man on the island. The phone call triggered an extensive investigation, one that would lea