Inside Brokers’ Attempts to Access Epstein’s Townhouse

For nearly a decade, Jeffrey Epstein’s Upper East Side townhouse was one of the most closely guarded homes in New York.

Newly released Justice Department documents show how Epstein tightly controlled access to the sprawling, off-market mansion, demanding buyer names, rejecting offers he deemed too low and expressing suspicion of ulterior motives. Locked out of one of the city’s most notorious properties, agents dangled the names of billionaires, oligarchs and financiers in hopes of securing a showing. The bar for who was granted access to the townhouse — later revealed to be the site of much of Epstein’s abuse of young women — was not just high, but often arbitrary, shaped as much by Epstein’s ego as by any realistic prospect of a sale.

Brokers paraded a procession of ultra-wealthy would-be buyers in an effort to unlock the front door, to little avail. Even Ben Ashkenazy, the billionaire developer behind a roughly $10 billion portfolio, was dismissed as “not rich enough.” Others tried name-dropping foreign oligarchs — including one pitch promising “my very wealthy Russians.” And when hedge funder and Mets owner Steve Cohen surfaced in broker paperwork, Epstein responded not with a showing, but by suggesting a “sting.”

“My very wealthy Russians”

The correspondence captures a strange audition process, as brokers cycled through names and pitches while Epstein and his aides decided who was worth letting inside.

In 2016, when Jed Garfield, who runs the boutique brokerage Leslie Garfield, approached an associate of Epstein’s about showing the home at 9 East 71st Street to Ashkenazy, Epstein wrote back: “tell jed [sorry] not rich enough.”

Epstein also appears to have turned down Michael Lehrman, who heads up Newmark’s European group, and former Stephens CEO and current Ambassador to the United Kingdom Warren Stephens, emails show.

“Mr Epstein can only assume the buyers are mere tire kickers,” Epstein’s assistant wrote to Garfield when he tried to bring Stephens by in 2010. “Your previous clients never bid, so we are kind of wary.”

In rare instances, Epstein allowed Garfield to show the home to some of his wealthy clients. In 2014 Garfield arranged a showing for one of the “Candy brothers,” presumably referring to real estate tycoons Nick and Christian Candy, and in 2015 for Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, also known as Miles Kwok, who was later arrested in the United States for tax fraud.

A spokesperson for Nick Candy confirmed that he toured the house in 2014, but the visit “did not result in any relationship, business dealings, or subsequent contact of any kind.”

Agents rarely communicated with Epstein directly, instead liaising with his cadre of advisors and assistants who relayed his thoughts on potential buyers and showings. Epstein also issued specific instructions for readying the house ahead of showings, including taking down photographs on the third floor — later identified by a New York Times investigation as the location of his bedroom and massage room, which were filled with images of naked women.

“JE just informed me [that] Jed Garfield will be showing 71st to someone on Friday at 11am…Can we please make sure that the photos on 3rd floor are taken down as well,” read an email related to a showing in December 2011, where the sender is redacted.

Garfield declined to comment on the emails.

Other agents tried to get in on the action as well. In 2010, Sotheby’s International Realty’s Serena Boardman emailed an Epstein’s assistant claiming to have “two good prospects,” presumably referring to buyers for his townhouse. Epstein responded to his assistant, “no interest.”

Boardman did not respond to requests for comment.

In some cases, brokers tried to bypass the process by leaning on name recognition. In 2016, Douglas Elliman’s Richard Steinberg emailed Epstein’s accountant with a “longshot” proposal of showing the home to two separate Russian oligarchs, Roman Abramovich and Alexi Kuzmichev.

“Would Mr. Epstein consider showing two of my very wealthy Russians who I have sold two of the most expensive townhouses in New York to his home,” Steinberg wrote.

But eight years later, Steinberg said those names were likely no more than a ploy to get in the door.

“I wanted to give myself credibility, because I imagined he would have gotten calls from 100 brokers trying to get access into the house,” Steinberg told TRD.

“They never looked at it, they were never interested,” he said of the Russians.

“Let’s set up a sting”

One peculiar interaction revolved around yet another billionaire put forward as a potential buyer: Steve Cohen.

A document dated May 5, 2010 shows “Steven A. Cohen” as a prospective buyer in a right-to-sell agreement sent to Epstein by Brown Harris Stevens. The document, which doesn’t show a countersignature from Epstein, allowed BHS agent Brian Manning to show the property to Cohen through June 2010.

Nearly everybody involved in the emails around a potential showing for Cohen denied that he was interested in the property.

“At no point did Steve or any authorized representative visit the property or express interest in purchasing it,” a spokesperson for Cohen said in a statement.

Hall Wilkie, who was president of Brown Harris Stevens at the time and whose name appeared at the bottom of the document, said he never knew that Cohen was a potential buyer of Epstein’s townhouse, and that he never personally toured the house. But Willkie’s signature appears on a previous right-to-sell agreement for the property sent on April 30, 2010 that does not reveal Cohen’s identity.

Epstein did not appear to believe Cohen was a real buyer. “Have Brian manning [confirm] in writing that his buyer that he represents is steve cohen,” Epstein wrote to his accountant, Richard Kahn, the morning of May 5.

Epstein went so far as to suggest that the tour was a ploy for “either thieves or investigators trying to get into the house” in another email copying Kahn that day. When Kahn asked if he should schedule a viewing of the home if Manning did confirm Cohen’s identity, Epstein replied “no, lets set up a sting.” He didn’t provide any other details on what a sting would entail.

A house not for sale

9 East 71st Street (Jim.henderson, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Epstein never sold the property while he was alive, likely because he sought eye-popping prices upward of $150 million, according to emails and interviews with agents familiar with the discussions. It was not until his death in 2019 — and as the full scope of his abuse became public — that the estate listed the home for $88 million with the Modlin Group’s Adam Modlin. The mansion ultimately sold for $51 million in 2021 to financier Michael Daffey, after the asking price was cut to $65 million.

Epstein, who died by suicide 2019 while awaiting his trial on sex trafficking charges, appeared to take over the home in the mid-1990s from his longtime friend and mentor, Les Wexner.

Who Epstein approved to see the home and what offers he would contemplate seemed to be an ever-changing threshold. In 2016, when Steinberg suggested showing Abramovich and Kuzmichev the home for $150 million, Epstein told his accountant: “[Tell] him that roman already saw the house and i have turned down 250 m.”

Epstein repeated similar claims throughout the years.

In 2012, James Meiskin, at the time the head of real estate advisory firm Plymouth Partners, told Epstein’s assistant that Russian financier Andrei Vavilov could write a check “for $100 million or so” for the house. Epstein responded by saying, “i have already turned down three bids in the TWO hundreds.”

The next year, Epstein had Garfield relay to Nick Candy that he had “turned down 240m.” And in 2015, Garfield arranged a showing for Guo Wengui after offering to “show him the house at 250 million.” Although Garfield later hinted Candy might consider bidding, Candy never made an offer on the property, according to his spokesperson.

But in 2009, Epstein quoted Garfield a price of $120 million for a showing, half of what he was asking just a few years later. Agents who had shown Epstein’s home said there was no chance he had received offers over $200 million.

“That is probably, absolutely BS,” one agent said in response to questions about offers of that size. “That’s not true,” said another.

Multiple sources confirmed that Epstein did receive an offer for roughly $125 million around 2010, which he turned down.

“With Epstein, it was always a higher number,” said one of the brokers familiar with the offer. The broker said Epstein shot back a counter around $175 million, which made it “pretty clear he wasn’t a seller. It was already an above-market transaction by any stretch of the imagination.”

Despite Epstein’s apparent aversion to selling, other emails show a fixation on the Upper East Side townhouse market.

Epstein’s associates sent him articles from TRD, Curbed NY and other local outlets about townhouses in the area, including a story on art heir David Wildenstein selling his townhouse for a then-record $79.5 million in 2017 and a $48 million townhouse listing in 2012. In 2014, one of Boardman’s team members put together a list of off-market townhouses for Epstein’s review.

Epstein also appeared to be particularly interested in Cohen’s real estate dealings. In 2017, Kahn sent Epstein a TRD article about Cohen cutting the price of his One Beacon Court apartment by 50 percent.

In 2019, just five months before Epstein’s arrest, Kahn shared another article about Cohen again cutting the price.

“Waited too long,” Epstein responded.