US financier Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in the New York prison where he was awaiting trial for sexual assault on minors, several US media reported Saturday.
According to the New York Times , which quotes officials on condition of anonymity, the fallen financier aged 66 hanged himself in his cell and his dead body was found Saturday morning at 7:30 (13:30 in France).
Jeffrey Epstein had already been found late July lying on the floor in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, a prison in Manhattan, with marks on the neck, after what had been presented as a possible suicide attempt. The injuries, however, were not serious at that time and he then appeared in the following days at a court hearing.
He was liable to 45 years in prison
He was accused of organizing for several years a network of dozens of girls under influence, some schoolgirls, with whom he had sex in his many properties. Indicted on 8 July for the sexual exploitation of minors and criminal conspiracy to sexually exploit minors, he was liable to 45 years' imprisonment. His trial was scheduled to open at best in June 2020. The financier whose fortune is estimated at more than $ 500 million had been dismissed on July 18, a request for release on bail.
Generally used for litigants awaiting trial, the Metropolitan Correctional Center is considered one of the safest institutions in the United States. The Mexican drug liner Joaquin Guzman, aka "El Chapo", stayed there for more than two years.