SEC was investigating Epstein's financial activities, new file release shows

Ben Wieder, Miami Herald on Dec 23, 2025

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WASHINGTON — Jeffrey Epstein’s August 2019 death in federal custody put an end to a criminal investigation into his sex crimes that had been brought a month earlier by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.

It might have also put an end to a nascent financial investigation into the deceased financier by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

That’s according to the latest files released by the Department of Justice as required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a bipartisan piece of legislation signed into law last month by President Donald Trump.

The law mandates that the department release its vast trove of investigative materials into the sex trafficker, who is believed to have abused roughly 1,000 victims.

New files released Tuesday suggest that the SEC was investigating whether Epstein had failed to register as an investment adviser. Investment advisers managing more than $100 million in assets are required to register with the SEC and file annual reports.

Epstein’s vast wealth allowed him to live a lavish lifestyle, with mansions in New York and Palm Beach, the private island Little St. James in the U.S. Virgin Islands and a ranch in New Mexico, along with several private jets.

He claimed that his wealth was derived from managing money for wealthy clients, and famously bragged that he only took on billionaires.

To date, Les Wexner, the founder of L Brands, and the private equity investor Leon Black, are Epstein’s only publicly known billionaire clients, and it’s unclear exactly what he did for them.

On August 8, 2019, two days before Epstein’s death in federal custody, a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York relayed hearing from the financial regulator with questions about Epstein. “They mainly want to continue to avoid anything that would be problematic for their criminal case.”

The prosecutor and three other colleagues were scheduled to talk with the SEC that afternoon.

The SEC appears to have continued its inquiry into Epstein after his death. On August 16. 2019, an e-mail thread between New York prosecutors reveals that the SEC was in touch again with one of the prosecutors about whether they had seen evidence that Epstein was investing other people’s money.

The prosecutors were flippant in dismissing the SEC’s questions.

“This fell down the priority list after, you know, he strangled himself the morning after our call,” one of the prosecutors wrote.

Another responded, “The SEC’s failure to register as an [Investment Adviser] case most[sic] continue!”

But the SEC never brought charges against Epstein and it’s not clear what became of the SEC’s efforts. The agency declined to confirm one way or another on what became of its inquiry, saying that it does not “comment on the existence or nonexistence of a possible investigation.”