HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_022131.jpg

JAMES PATTERSON Seckel acquaintances, I kept hearing variations on a scheme Mrs. Pearce Williams believed he perpetrated against her late hus- band, the man Seckel said was his mentor. Seckel took books and promised money, or he took money and promised a book; but somehow, the promised party lost money.” “He was charming, erudite, humorous,” one of Seckel’s marks told the reporter. “I lent him $75,000. When the time came to pay it back he didn’t want to do it.” Oppenheimer found several people whom Seckel had stiffed and uncovered dozens of lawsuits he’d been involved in. In 2007, Seckel settled a libel lawsuit against a man who'd edited his Wiki- pedia page. Years later, Oppenheimer spoke with Seckel’s lawyer, Nicholas Hornberger. “Hornberger confirmed that he'd reached a settlement for the case, a favorable one,” the journalist wrote. “Hornberger added that Seckel has still not paid him for his services.” He also interviewed Seckel’s wife, Isabel Maxwell. Aland Isabel met on a blind date and married in Malibu in or “around” 2007 (“I don’t keep the dates in my head,” Seckel explained). A few years later, they moved to the South of France, where Seckel continued to trade in rare books and papers. While — living in France, he was sued by a Virgin Islands company that 4 accused him and Isabel of fraudulently attempting to sell rare ~ books and a seventeenth-century portrait of Isaac Newton. Seckel had also been trying to sell papers belonging to Isa- 4 It was an odd thing, Epste: PhD who, on closer inspec But the Mindshift confer in the Virgin Islands dix Mann was there, along wit coauthored books with St expert on artificial intelli attended the conference, s: about it. “We had scientific disc: he said vaguely. When Mark Oppenheir Seckel, Sussman “got testy” “I have had some dealir want to say what it’s abo it, okay?” Today, Epstein’s websites— q JetfreyEpsteinScience.com— long since expired. Several r ; tributions, including New Yc 4 Palm Beach, announced tha ' gifts. “The further I can keep bel’s father. 4 1 better,” said Ballet Palm Beac Isabel is Ghislaine Maxwell's sister and the daughter of Rob- ~ | _ Butin 2012, Epstein held Jeff's Once again, three Nobe Stephen Hawking was also th MWenty-one physicists—from ert Maxwell. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_022131