James PATTERSON i Seckel acquaintances, I kept hearing variations on a scheme Mrs. It was an odd thing, Epste: Pearce Williams believed he perpetrated against her late hus- 4 PhD who, on closer ee band, the man Seckel said was his mentor. Seckel took books j But the Mindshift confer and promised money, or he took money and promised a book; Hl in the Virgin Islands dic but somehow, the promised party lost money.” re Mann was there, along wit “He was charming, erudite, humorous,” one of Seckel’s marks | coauthored books with St told the reporter. “I lent him $75,000. When the time came to J expert on artificial intel; pay it back he didn’t want to do it.” q attended the conference, s: Oppenheimer found several people whom Seckel had stiffed i about it. and uncovered dozens of lawsuits he’d been involved in. In 2007, 4 4 “We had scientific disc: Seckel settled a libel lawsuit against a man who'd edited his Wiki- q he said vaguely. pedia page. Years later, Oppenheimer spoke with Seckel'’s lawyer, a E When Mark Oppenheir Nicholas Hornberger. z j Seckel, Sussman “got testy” “Hornberger confirmed that he'd reached a settlement for the id 4 “I have had some dealir case, a favorable one,” the journalist wrote. “Hornberger added ES 4 want to say what it’s abot that Seckel has still not paid him for his services.” 4 | it, okay?” He also interviewed Seckel’s wife, Isabel Maxwell. 2 . Aland Isabel met on a blind date and married in Malibu in or 4 j “around” 2007 (“I don’t keep the dates in my head,” Seckel ; 4 Today, Epstein’s websites— explained). A few years later, they moved to the South of France, 4 5 JeffreyEpsteinScience.com— where Seckel continued to trade in rare books and papers. While q q long since expired. Several r living in France, he was sued by a Virgin Islands company that = q tributions, including New Yc accused him and Isabel of fraudulently attempting to sell rare — E Palm Beach, announced tha books and a seventeenth-century portrait of Isaac Newton. ; gifts.