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- The hedge-fund founder Glenn Dubin and his wife, Eva, have longstanding business and social ties with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that persisted even after Epstein's 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor.
- The couple told Epstein's probation officer in 2009 they were "100% comfortable" having the sex offender around their children, including their then teenage daughter, according to a previously unreported email obtained by Business Insider.
- If they had known about the current round of allegations against Epstein, their spokesperson said, "they would have cut off all ties and certainly never have allowed their children to be in his presence."
- The Dubins have other business and philanthropic connections to Epstein that were uncovered by Business Insider, including a hedge-fund deal gone south.
- They're the latest high-profile Wall Street family to come under scrutiny for ties to Epstein. Last week, Business Insider revealed that Epstein was the director of the private-equity guru Leon Black's family foundation from at least 2001 through 2012. The Blacks later said that he resigned in 2007 and that they submitted erroneous tax forms for years.
Jeffrey Epstein spent his first Thanksgiving out of jail as he had many others before that: dining with one of America's wealthiest and best-connected families, new documents reviewed by Business Insider reveal.
In 2009, the financier — and newly registered sex offender — went to a large Thanksgiving celebration at the Palm Beach, Florida, home of Glenn Dubin and Eva Andersson-Dubin, a prominent hedge-fund manager and his model-turned-doctor-turned-donor wife. They had long invited Epstein, a onetime boyfriend of Eva Dubin who remained a family friend, to their Thanksgivings.
Instead of distancing themselves from Epstein after he spent 13 months in jail on charges including procurement of a minor for prostitution, the Dubins wrote to Epstein's probation officer and asked for permission to break bread with him — a decision they now say they regret.
Eva Dubin even went so far as telling the probation officer via email that she and her husband were "100% comfortable" with Epstein spending time with their three children, the oldest of whom was then a teenager, according to an email obtained by Business Insider.
"I, Eva Dubin, am an internist and have known Jeffrey for over 20 years," she wrote.
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Now, though, after Epstein was arrested last week on sex-trafficking charges and his business and social circles have come under intense scrutiny for their association with the disgraced financier, the Dubins have changed their tune.
"The Dubins are horrified by the new allegations against Jeffrey Epstein," a spokeswoman said in a statement. "Had they been aware of the vile and unspeakable conduct described in these new allegations, they would have cut off all ties and certainly never have allowed their children to be in his presence."
But in the 2008 email, which is signed "Eva and Glenn Dubin," the couple made clear that they were aware that Epstein was "a registered sex offender and had plead guilty [sic] to soliciting for prostitution, and procuring a minor for prostitution."
Epstein was a 'long-time investor' in prominent hedge fund Highbridge Capital
The Dubins are well known in New York and Palm Beach circles and have a net worth of more than $2 billion, according to Forbes. But they are far from the only couple among the ultrarich who are scrambling to distance themselves from Epstein.
Last week, Business Insider revealed that the private-equity guru Leon Black's family foundation listed Epstein as a director in tax returns from at least 2001 through 2012. The Blacks later said he resigned in 2007 and that they accidentally submitted erroneous tax forms for years — though they have yet to provide amended returns or respond to follow-up questions about their relationship with Epstein.
The Dubins, though, appear to have had a more intimate relationship with Epstein.
Eva Dubin once dated him, and they remained friendly after she married Glenn in 1994. That friendship helped bring Epstein into an investment opportunity that, before his 2008 jail stint, went badly for everyone.
Glenn Dubin cofounded the hedge fund Highbridge Capital Management in the 1990s and more recently started a quant fund called Engineers Gate. In 2002, Dubin connected Epstein to one of his former Highbridge employees, Daniel Zwirn, according to a 2010 complaint Epstein's Financial Trust Co. lodged against Zwirn. Dubin also advised Epstein to invest in one of Zwirn's funds, which partly focused on issuing debt to radio stations.
"One of the early investors that I introduced to Zwirn was Jeffrey Epstein," Dubin said in a 2010 sworn affidavit in subsequent litigation over money lost in the investment. "Epstein was both a personal friend of mine and a long-time investor in [Highbridge]."
Epstein's Financial Trust Co. invested $80 million from 2002 to 2005 in D.B. Zwirn Special Opportunities Fund, which lent money to several radio stations and other businesses, according to a complaint Epstein filed. In November 2006, the complaint says, Epstein tried to pull his investment — which had grown to $140 million — after Zwirn's chief financial officer was fired for approving the purchase of a $3 million Gulfstream 400 jet for Zwirn using investor funds. (The CFO later sued Zwirn with his own allegations that he was wrongly thrown under the bus for the accounting irregularities.) Dubin, court records say, eventually convinced Epstein to only partially withdraw his investment.
It didn't save the fund, though, which was later sued by several of its radio-station borrowers, who accused it of predatory lending. The financial irregularities Zwirn disclosed to Epstein led to a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation and caused investors to pull their money en masse, and eventually, Zwirn wound down his hedge fund.
An alleged 'loan-to-own' scheme
Dubin and Epstein lost millions. The litigation between Epstein and Zwirn went to private mediation in 2010. The outcome of the case is unclear. Zwirn's fund alleged in court filings that Epstein's company had failed to honor withdrawal-notice obligations.
The radio-station owners accused Zwirn's fund of engaging in a "loan-to-own" scheme, presenting itself as a friendly lender before hammering clients over defaults and then taking over the companies. Those allegations were largely unsuccessful. The stations were overwhelmed, several of the former owners told Business Insider, by large law firms with deep pockets. At least one former station manager is still suing.
To fight back, the broadcast-station owners also filed complaints with the Federal Communications Commission, saying Zwirn's fund should be barred from holding a broadcast license both because it was operated through an offshore entity and because Epstein, by then a confessed sex offender, was an investor.
The FCC found in Zwirn's favor, saying he was not required to disclose Epstein's company as an investor and that he didn't fail to disclose offshore ownership.
"We were just some minority broadcasters," said Glenn Cherry, who previously owned Tama Broadcasting Inc., which operated nine stations funded by Zwirn in Florida and Georgia. "The FCC were talking about 'why don't we have minority ownership [of broadcast stations]?' And they watched [Zwirn] take us out and they didn't do anything about it."
The FCC did not immediately respond to comment.
Social and philanthropic ties
Meanwhile, other documents show that the Dubins' relationship with Epstein continued after he was released from jail.
For example, when Epstein wanted to contribute to Eva Dubin's breast-cancer organization — the Dubin Breast Center of the Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai — in 2009, he understood that a public donation from a registered sex offender might not be welcome. So Eva established a new nonprofit, called the Celina Dubin United Fund, to serve as a pass-through.
Epstein gave $50,000 to the Celina Dubin United Fund, which in turn donated about $26,600 to the breast-cancer group from 2010 through 2012, according to tax documents reviewed by Business Insider. In 2013, according to a source familiar with the matter, Glenn Dubin learned about the arrangement and asked Eva to wind it down. The Celina Dubin United Fund returned about $22,000 that had not yet been spent to one of Epstein's foundations.
Over the years, Epstein's foundations donated to a number of causes close to the Dubins, according to a review of dozens of tax filings and charities' annual reports. Those organizations — with which many prominent Wall Street families are also affiliated — include:
- Trinity School, the elite New York school, which two of the Dubin children attended.
- Robin Hood, the anti-poverty charity cofounded by Glenn Dubin that's popular with Wall Street donors.
- The Hasty Pudding Foundation, a Harvard student theater group with which one of the Dubins' children was involved.
- New York Tennis & Learning, a kids' tennis organization. Both Epstein and Glenn Dubin donated tens of thousands of dollars each to the charity in 2012, according to its annual report.
Lawyers for Epstein did not respond to a request for comment.
Correction: This post erroneously reported that Glenn Dubin described Jeffrey Epstein in an affidavit as an adviser to his hedge fund, Highbridge Capital. He described him as a "long-time investor" in the fund, but not an adviser. The post has been updated to correct the error.
Do you have a story to share about Epstein or the Dubins? Contact this reporter via encrypted messaging app Signal at +1 (646) 768-1627 using a non-work phone, email at mmorris@businessinsider.com, or Twitter DM at @MeghanEMorris.
With reporting by John Cook.
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Now, though, after Epstein was arrested last week on sex-trafficking charges and his business and social circles have come under intense scrutiny for their association with the disgraced financier, the Dubins have changed their tune. 