Former Epstein Associate Steven Hoffenberg Found Dead in Connecticut

Lorenz Duchamps
By Lorenz Duchamps
August 26, 2022US News
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Former Epstein Associate Steven Hoffenberg Found Dead in Connecticut
Steven Hoffenberg talks with the media outside U.S. Bankruptcy Court, in N.Y., on March 19, 1993. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo)

A body that was recovered inside an apartment in Connecticut earlier this week has been identified as Steven Hoffenberg, a businessman who served for many years as a mentor for Jeffrey Epstein, medical examiners confirmed on Friday. He was 77.

Hoffenberg’s body was found after the Derby Police Department (DPD) received a request at approximately 8 p.m. on Aug. 23 to conduct a welfare check at the location, police said in a statement.

Upon arrival, police found the body “in a state where a visual identification could not be made” and officials had to identify him through dental records.

It wasn’t immediately clear how or when Hoffenberg died, but police said there were no immediate signs of trauma to his body. His official cause of death is pending further toxicology study.

The body was discovered in such an advanced state of decomposition that police suspect he had been there for at least seven days, DPD Lt. Justin Stanko said.

Maria Farmer, a woman who says she was sexually assaulted by Jeffrey Epstein and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, reportedly requested the welfare check after Hoffenberg didn’t return her calls for days, the DailyMail reported.

ghislaine maxwell spotted in public
(L)-Ghislaine Maxwell attends a symposium in New York City in a 2013 file photograph. (Laura Cavanaugh/Getty Images) (R)-Jeffrey Epstein in a 2013 mugshot in Florida. (Florida Department of Law Enforcement via Getty Images)

Farmer notified Derby police to check on him because he was diagnosed with Omicron, a COVID-19 variant, about a month ago and had struggled to recover.

Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for sexually abusing dozens of girls, worked for Hoffenberg’s bill collection company, Towers Financial Corp., in the late 1980s, when prosecutors said the Ponzi scheme began.

Hoffenberg was arrested in 1994 and sentenced to 20 years in prison after being part of one of the country’s largest Ponzi schemes that Epstein allegedly masterminded. Epstein was never charged in the fraud.

Hoffenberg admitted to swindling thousands of investors out of $460 million and spent 18 years behind bars for the crimes. He emerged a changed man who befriended Epstein’s victims and joined their fight against Epstein.

In 1993, Hoffenberg briefly took over the New York Post while bidding to own it. The Post reported that Hoffenberg funded the paper for three months and rescued it from bankruptcy. His efforts to buy the paper were derailed by civil fraud allegations by the Securities and Exchange Commission that led to the criminal prosecution of the Ponzi case.

The Post staff eventually rebelled against Hoffenberg, which led to the paper being briefly handed over to Abe Hirschfeld before being bought for a second time by Rupert Murdoch, the current owner.

NTD Photo
Steven Hoffenberg, (L), is escorted by FBI agents in a Little Rock, Ark., parking garage after turning himself in on Feb. 15, 1996. (Danny Johnston/AP Photo)

Gary Baise, one of Hoffenberg’s friends and lawyers and a former acting deputy U.S. attorney general, said Hoffenberg and Epstein had a “special relationship” and Hoffenberg said Epstein was the smartest person he knew when it came to money.

“He was too smart for his own good,” Baise said in an interview on Friday. “He thought he could get away with his Ponzi scheme but he could not. He did not have self-control. He always thought he was smarter than the next guy and that was one of his problems. … But he was a good man.”

Baise, who said he had not had contact with Hoffenberg for several months, said he wasn’t surprised by his death because Hoffenberg did not appear to be taking good care of himself.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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