Jeffrey Epstein Mentor Found Dead, Cause of Death Not Disclosed: Police

Jeffrey Epstein (C) appears in court in West Palm Beach, Fla., on July 30, 2008. Uma Sanghvi/Palm Beach Post via AP

Medical examiners on Friday confirmed that convicted Ponzi schemer Steven Hoffenberg, described as a close associate of Jeffrey Epstein, was the individual found dead in a Connecticut home earlier this week.

Hoffenberg, 77, is suspected to have died at least seven days before his body was located Tuesday by authorities in Derby, Connecticut. Officials said they arrived at his apartment on a welfare check.

His body was identified via dental records due to the decomposition of his body, officials told local media.

“The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) positively identified the deceased male discovered on TUE 23 AUG from 201 Mount Pleasant Street as Steven Hoffenberg DOB 1/12/45. His next of kin has been notified,” the Derby Police Department wrote in a statement.

His cause of death was not disclosed.

A neighbor who lived near Hoffenberg said that he mainly kept to himself and kept his blinds closed.

“The only time I really saw him was when he was coming out of his front door, coming to his car,” the woman told local media. “He would leave for a while, come back, go right back into the apartment. Like I said, I never saw him buy groceries, I never saw him do laundry, you know normal things which most people do which I found was a little odd.”

Epstein, the disgraced financier and sex trafficker who was found dead in 2019 while awaiting trial on allegations he sexually abused 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, who once tried buying the New York Post, ended up getting busted in one of the country’s largest frauds. He admitted he swindled thousands of investors out of $460 million and was sentenced in 1997 to 20 years in prison. He claimed Epstein was actually the architect of the scheme, but Epstein was never charged.

He was released from federal custody in 2013, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. He was living in a small apartment in a multifamily home in Derby, about 12 miles northeast of Bridgeport.

‘Special Relationship’

Gary Baise, one of Hoffenberg’s friends and a former acting deputy U.S. attorney general, claimed Hoffenberg and Epstein had a “special relationship,” reported AP.

Hoffenberg “was too smart for his own good,” Baise told AP. “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.”

Maria Farmer, an artist who was allegedly abused by Epstein, told Rolling Stone that she knew Hoffenberg well and contacted the police to check on him. She said Hoffenberg actually helped Epstein survivors.

“I want people to know how kind this gentleman was to survivors, while asking for nothing,” Farmer remarked.