Fittuy Ricu women to go with the prize. Tall, beautiful women, blondes and brunettes, who wouldn't have given a math teacher the time of day. Now they found Epstein exciting and handsome. Greenberg’s gorgeous assistant was one of these women. If Greenberg knew about their affair, he did not seem to care. Then again, Greenberg had other things on his mind. The Rea- gan era, when deregulation kicked into high gear, was still on CHAPTER 22 } the horizon. But there was already a decreasing amount of gov- | ernment oversight on Wall Street, and a new breed of bare-knuckle 2 traders had begun to push every available limit. It was the start i of the age of corporate raiders, and with Ace Greenberg looking 3 3 out for him, Epstein had no reservations when it came to throw- 4 I ing his weight around. The golden boy’s gift for working the [ % numbers earned him a place in the special-products division, : 4 where he worked on extremely complex tax-related problems for . it was Ace Green- 4 a select group of Bear Stearns’s wealthiest clients—an elite shied seperts, : Greenberg. : 3 within the elite—including Seagram CEO Edgar Bronfman. . — ee . Lynne, was 4 a In the spring of 1981 Bronfman made a bid to take over the eenberes dag -_ . ~ how q 3 St. Joe Minerals Corporation. He offered forty-five dollars a woreing Z ale and beau- 4 3 share, or close to three times the value of St. Joe’s stock. The by CHAINS shinies ; 4 whole offer amounted to $2.1 billion in cash. anneal an to a trader on 3 ; Se But St. Joe’s executives didn’t want to sell their 118-year-old ee, sa a" _ to junior 4 1 company. In a press release, they called Seagram's bid unsolic- an ie adi i the prof- { | ited and dismissed it as “grossly inadequate.” At which point the i - , mn the bulls, kicking ‘ q SEC decided to investigate. ° cial 1 | __ There were allegations of insider trading. Within a few weeks, si = hich above Madison g | Bear Stearns’s employees were called in to testify. =e anne = . Je city was lit F