Well, first Epstein worked for a Ponzi Scheme for a few years in the 1980s, where he probably learned the ropes and started mingling with investors. Epstein left before it imploded, but he probably made millions during this time. Eventually, the Ponzi Scheme went bust and investors lost upwards of $450 Million. Epstein was never charged with a crime for his involvement in the Tower Financial Corporation scandal.
Then, he set up a new “financial firm”, that catered to clients with over $1 Billion Net worth. All he needed was 1 client, and he got him: Leslie H. Wexner, who has a net worth of about $6 Billion, and he let Epstein handle $1 Billion of it.
This is what (most likely) financed Epstein’s entire lifestyle, his fraudulent financial activity, and illegal activity with underage girls. Eventually he returned $100 Million to Wexner, and the issue was dropped (probably to save Wexner from the embarrassment of having to publicly disclose that he gave $1 Billion to a financial autist who then went on to lose 90% of it). Epstein most likely stole $900,000,000 from Wexler.
But that’s not all!
Epstein invested $80,000,000 in a hedge fund, and when he tried to withdraw the money a few years later when it appreciated in value to $140,000,000, the hedge fund refused, and eventually the value dropped, and the hedge fund was effectively shuttered in 2008 when the economy crashed. Epstein likely lost all of the investment.
In 2006, Epstein invested in one of the most autistic investments ever. It puts /u/analfarmer2 to shame. He put $57,000,000 into highly leveraged mortgage-backed CDOs, that were leveraged 17:1. For you financial illiterates, that means that for every dollar invested, there were 17 dollars leveraged (about $1 Billion). This is like the opposite of what Michael Burry did, and you can guess what happened: it helped to cause the collapse of Bear Stearns. Epstein likely lost his entire investment of $57,000,000 (which was probably from Lexner anyways, so who gives a shit right? Free tendies!)
So there you go. Not only was this douchebag a pedophile rapist, he was also one of the biggest financial fraudsters of all time, and also one of the dumbest/worst investors of all time.