The court case has been around for some time, I remember reading about links and allegations some while back, possibly on a USA page.
“He once counted Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Kevin Spacey and Naomi Campbell among his associates, frequently lent his private jet to powerful contacts and became famed for his extravagant parties.”
“Epstein was arrested in 2005, after the stepmother of a 14-year-old girl told Florida police he had paid $200 for an erotic massage with her daughter, and later became the subject of an FBI investigation.
By the following year prosecutors said they had identified 40 young women who may have been illegally procured by Epstein. Dozens of his alleged victims are reported to have settled with Epstein out of court.
The federal inquiry was eventually dropped after Epstein negotiated a deal with prosecutors in which he agreed to plead guilty to a relatively minor state charge relating to soliciting paid sex with a minor. He served 13 months of an 18-month sentence and is now a registered sex offender.
A lawsuit against the US government brought by two of Epstein’s alleged victims, who are unhappy with the terms of the plea deal, has been ongoing for more than six years.”
Both excerpts quoted from
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/02/jeffrey-epstein-rise-and-fall-of-teacher-turned-tycoon
“Many of Epstein’s contacts rapidly disappeared when he became the subject of criminal proceedings that eventually resulted in 2008 in an 18-month jail term for soliciting prostitution with an underage girl after an 11-month police investigation.
But Andrew remained unswervingly – even perplexingly – loyal.
In 2011, a friend of both men told Vanity Fair magazine that Epstein had helped shape the Prince as a more relaxed individual – but after the financier’s conviction Andrew had been advised to sever all links.
The unnamed friend said the Prince told him: “Leave me alone, Jeffrey’s my friend. Being loyal to your friends is a virtue. And I’m going to be loyal to him.
At least until December 2010, that loyalty manifested itself in meetings between the two men, including several holidays. When Epstein was released from jail, the Prince was on a guest list for a dinner at his Fifth Avenue mansion which also included Woody Allen. The financier proved a worthy and generous friend, at one point paying £15,000 to help an indebted Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York.”
Quoted from
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/sex-slave-case-prince-andrew-may-regret-friendship-with-financier-who-had-a-very-dark-secret-9955061.html