Topics: Jeffrey Epstein, US News
Steve Hoffenberg, a former mentor and associate to Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead in his home.
The 77-year-old was discovered by police at his apartment in Derby, Connecticut where he was found in his bedroom.
Authorities were called to the property to do a welfare check.
The cause of death is currently unconfirmed, with no visible signs of trauma to his body, according to the Daily Mail.
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Hoffenberg was infamously convicted and spent 18 years in prison for running a $420 million Ponzi scheme while heading up a debt collection company called Towers Financial Corporation.
It was a firm he ran alongside Jeffrey Epstein.
Together they used investor funds to live the high life, purchasing mansions and private jets.
Upon being released from prison, Mr Hoffenberg had seemingly turned a leaf and spent his later years helping Epstein’s victims in their fight against the pedophile.
According to Daily Mail, it was one of the first people to report Epstein to the police, Maria Farmer, who called the police to ask for a welfare check on Hoffenberg.
She had cause for concern for Hoffenberg’s health with the former businessman struggling to recover from Covid-19.
She said: “Hoff was one of my dearest friends on earth, more like a father than my own father ever was to me. He lived in kindness, always giving what little he had, never asking for anything.
“This man was beyond incredible and a dear friend to survivors of Epstein.”
Ms Farmer’s sister, Annie, was one of the four who testified against Ghislaine Maxwell during the child sex trafficking trial last year.
Hoffenberg briefly owned the New York Post in early 1993 as he attempted to resurrect the paper which was struggling at the time.
However, he was forced out of the paper just three months later.
In 2016, after being released from prison, Hoffenberg filed a suit against Jeffrey Epstein asserting that his partner had been the mastermind behind the Ponzi scheme, despite getting off scot-free.
Hoffenberg maintained that Epstein's wealth primarily came from the scheme.
He told The Washington Post in 2019: “I thought Jeffrey was the best hustler on two feet.
“Talent, charisma, genius, criminal mastermind. We had a thing that could make a lot of money. We called it Ponzi.”
