| Hoffenberg began pay | month for Epstein’s exper : The SEC had already f tling with him out of cov : 3 | securities. But Hoffenberg Ro In the 1980s, several n CHAPTER 27 a .. greenmailing of pub EF mailing means, in practic 2 4 : investors will start buyin, a ig vulnerable to takeover att i a utives at those companies 3 % It’s risky, but very often tk Steven Hoffenberg: July 10, 1987 ee profit. % q Yet another thing Hol i { q American World Airways. efore there was Bernie Madoff, there was Steven Hoffenberg. 4 its downward trajectory, t B In 1987, Hoffenberg was the head of Towers Financial 4 4 For Hoffenberg,’ the 5 Corporation, a company that bought debts, such as unpaid 4 huge. medical bills, at a very steep discount while pressing the debtors — i to repay in full. He'd started the company fifteen years earlier 4 3 with two thousand dollars and just a handful of employees. 3 f According to Hoffenberg, Thanks, in part, toa grueling work ethic, he'd turned that into a _ ‘over of Pan Am—a deal tl much bigger concern, with twelve hundred employees and stock | __ Steven Hoffenberg stil that traded over the counter. But Hoffenberg still spent fifteen istening to him, one mus hours each day, six days a week, in his office. 4 peilty to criminal conspir: He wanted more. Hoffenberg was 4 Wall Street outsider. AU am illion swindle, a familiz Brooklyn boy. A college dropout, like Epstein. ; Bernie Madoff case. One thing Hoffenberg wanted was respect. The other wa z i Like so many others, someone who was familiar with Wall Street’s inner workings. Je : without the necessary w frey Epstein, who had traded options for Bear Stearns, fit the bill: ?P ent at the office, he'd als 110 j HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_021968