Ponzi scheming associate of Jeffrey Epstein and chairman of Towers Financial Corporation Steven Hoffenberg found dead and decomposing; revealed first on Twitter by crusading author Kirby Sommers
Decomposing body of Jeffrey Epstein’s Ponzi scheming cohort Steven Hoffenberg found in grotty house in Connecticut after bizarre “welfare call” to police from alleged Jeffrey Epstein victim Maria Farmer yesterday.
Crusading author Kirby Sommers first to call out the news on Twitter ahead of mainstream media.
After serving 18 years for theft from 200,000 investors, grifter Hoffenberg ludicrously dared suggest he was a victim of Epstein himself and even sought out a new career in the media.
Hoffenberg claimed to have been introduced to Epstein by a mysterious British “arms dealer” with links to Adnan Khashoggi and the Saudi royal family and briefly owned the ‘New York Post’ in 1993.
This deviant criminal grifter’s American connections numbered Clintons, Kennedys and Trumps.
Not one of the four most infamous Ponzi schemers in history – Bernie Madoff, Jeffrey Epstein, the eponymous Charles Ponzi and Steven Hoffenberg – died either respected or renowned. In fact, all four will simply be noted in history as grubby grifters who caused mayhem and misery for all they encountered.
On Twitter, yesterday, prior to it being picked up in the mainstream media, crusading author of Ghislaine Maxwell: An Unauthorized Biography Kirby Sommers revealed that the latest of this number to be found dead was Steven Hoffenberg – a conman credited by some as being the individual who helped Jeffrey Epstein on his path from taxi driver to trader from 1987 onwards.
In the years that followed, Hoffenberg went on to become a man who ultimately came to blame his protégé for his own imprisonment for twenty years in 1997 for his £404 million ($475 million, €479 million or درهم1.7 billion) Towers Financial Corporation fraud – which became known as the largest Ponzi scheme in history until Bernie Madoff was exposed in 2008.
Brooklyn born, originally Jewish and later rather predictably a born-again Christian, Hoffenberg – whose exact date of birth remains unknown and whose first suspected brush with the law, which he always claimed to be a case of mistaken identity, was connected to the theft of a £12,800 ($15,000, €15,100 or درهم55,100) diamond ring in 1971 – made his first fortune buying debt in the 1970s. He is said to have been introduced to Jeffrey Epstein through the British “arms dealer” and intelligence asset Douglas Leese (1927 – 2011) in 1987 – a man said to be the former’s “mentor” since they had first met in London in 1981. Leese’s son, Julian, however, span the tale of the introduction slightly differently when he spoke on the Defiance podcast and claimed it was he, himself, who did the introducing and not anything like that that Hoffenberg repeatedly purported in his many media interviews.
At that time, whilst Leese was not only fraternising with the likes of Adnan Khashoggi and Prince Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud doing billion dollar arms deals, he also is said to have recommended Epstein to Hoffenberg by tellingly, given what was to come in future years, supposedly shared: “The guy’s a genius, he’s great at selling securities. And he has no moral compass.”
With Epstein brought into his orbit as first an employee – though remarkably never his patsy – Hoffenberg embarked on a series of corporate raids that included failed bids for Pan Am and the Emery Air Freight Corp and finally very briefly in 1994, ownership of the New York Post.
The feature, by a journalist named Diana B. Henriques, revealed that Hoffenberg was scuppered in a similar fashion to Madoff – whose failure to repay the small investment of the cleaner of the feeder fund honcho Frank Avellino’s resulted in her going to the FBI and the beginning of his end – by a small-time amateur newsman and “self-taught muckraker” from Rushton, Louisiana named John Hays.
“Hard-drinking, chain-smoking, cowboy-booted… blunt back-country publisher who [loved] to raise a ruckus” Hays had long claimed Hoffenberg was trying to pull a Ponzi-like scam in his neck of the woods, but had been met with mockery, resistance and disinterest. His hunch, however, paid off when “whatever money could buy” private jet possessing Hoffenberg’s decision to buy the New York Post threw him before nationwide limelight and scrutiny that ultimately resulted in the crook’s conviction on five counts of securities fraud, tax evasion and obstruction of a Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry.
After getting out of jail after serving 18 years for a con that resulted in 200,000 investors losing vast amounts of money, “still deviant to his core” Hoffenberg conveniently found God and illustrated his continuing ability to cross political and social divides by marrying outside Trump Tower in 2014. That the body of this one-time associate of others linked to Bill Clinton was found alone and left decomposing in a grotty flat in Derby, Connecticut after a welfare call from Jeffrey Epstein accuser Maria Farmer also speaks volumes as how the once mighty can well and truly fall.
As Kirby Sommers rightly concluded of someone with the same moral compass as Bernard L. Madoff and Charles Ponzi himself: “To be frank, I didn’t trust him. He lied throughout his life… Throughout the last couple of years, he spoke of the money left in Epstein’s estate as ‘belonging to him.’ [He] claimed the money that disappeared in Towers Financial was stolen by Jeffrey Epstein. And, his goal was to get a piece of the money Epstein left behind.”
Steven Hoffenberg most certainly failed in that goal and like Charles Ponzi probably died delusionally believing: “Even if they never got anything for it, it was cheap at that price. Without malice aforethought, I had given them the best show that was ever staged in their territory since the landing of the Pilgrims! It was easily worth fifteen million bucks to watch me put the thing over.”
The ‘Curious’ Deaths Connected To Jeffrey Epstein That Continue To Stack Up…
People who’ve moved in the orbit of Jeffrey Epstein do have a habit of coming to ‘sticky ends’ – amongst them:
Pension pot plundering tea leaf Robert Maxwell (death by ‘falling off the back of a boat’ in the Canary Islands, Spain on 5th November 1991).
Palm Beach based Ponzi schemer and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein (death by ‘suicide’ in prison in New York, USA on 10th August 2019).
Palm Beach based Ponzi scheming crook Bernard L. Madoff (death as a result of chronic kidney disease on 14th April 2021 in Butner, North Carolina).
Palm Beach based Marvin Weiner and his wife Sondra, the sister of Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff (death by murder-suicide in Boynton Beach, USA on 17th February 2022).
Molester model agent and alleged paedophile Jean-Luc Brunel (death by ‘suicide’ in prison in Paris, France on 19th February 2022).
Convicted Ponzi scheming Donald Trump associate and self-publicist Steven J. Hoffenberg (death by causes yet unknown on date yet unknown in Derby, Connecticut, USA, decomposing body found on 24th August 2022).
Derby Police Department announced the news on their Facebook page on Thursday. They posted: “On Tuesday, August 23 at approximately 8 PM Derby police officers responded to 201 Mount Pleasant Street in Derby, CT on a requested welfare check. Upon arrival the body of a white male was found deceased and in a state where a visual identification could not be made. The body was transported to the office of the chief medical examiner (OCME) where an autopsy was performed on Wednesday, August 24. The initial autopsy revealed no trauma sustained by the decedent. Official cause of death is pending further toxicology study. A subsequent dental record comparison is underway to make a positive identification and subsequent notifications to appropriate next of kin. This page will be updated once OCME confirms the identity. Thank you for your patience.” Responding, Facebook users commented: “It’s a multi-family property so the neighbours probably couldn’t put up with the smell any longer” and “well, well, well… Another Epstein fan gone. Ciao!”Bidding for the ‘New York Post’ was undoubtedly a stupid move on the part of the Towers Financial Coporation chief as the public attention it brought left him open to the scrutiny of his other very dodgy affairs.
The Hoffenberg’s gathered their small wedding party outside Trump Tower on 10th July 2014 (left to right: Associate publisher of ‘Post Publishing’ Flo Anthony, Steven Hoffenberg and his new wife ‘Post All Star News’ president Maria Santiago, best man Steven Jude, pastor Copper Cunningham and a video photographer. The ‘happy couple’ had met only one month earlier, but where Mrs Hoffenberg was at the time of her now late husband’s death – or whether they were still in contact even – remains unknown.Epstein’s associate Hoffenberg joined Twitter in February 2014 and declared that he was making himself available for interviews to his 3,278 followers. He bragged to have known the since croaked paedophile for 9 years also.Of Steven Hoffenberg claiming to have been introduced to Jeffrey Epstein to Douglas Leese, the latter’s son responded: “Hoffenberg seems to be very confused. What happened was this: The year was 1988. By 1988, my father had had no communication with Jeffrey for a number of years. Jeffrey did call me up. I was a very young man at the time and he asked whether I would be interested in having an internship with Towers Financial and I agreed to do it, so it was, in fact, me and I want to reiterate this: It was me who introduced Steven Hoffenberg to my father and not to Jeffrey.”Virtually nothing appears about “incredibly well connected” yet “understated” Douglas Leese (born in 1927 in Elstow, Bedfordshire to an “affluent” tractor cam gear manufacturer) on the Internet. He has, however, been described by Hoffenberg as “Epstein’s mentor,” owned a large manor house in Wiltshire and was referenced in the House of Commons on 24th January 1996 by George Galloway MP (pictured above) as “a British businessman” with “close connections with an offshore bank, the Bank of NT Butterfield in Bermuda.” On the very same day, Galloway mentioned also “bribes and commissions” relating to the Al-Yamamah deal, British Aerospace, Astra, Orbit Communications, Thorn EMI, Vickers, Vosper Thorneycroft, Sikorsky, Saudi Arabia and “middlemen” and decision makers including Prince Sultan, Prince Mohammed, Colonel Thomas Dooley, Fahd al-Athel, King Fahd, Wafic Said, Jonathan Aitken, Michael Gay, Sir Colin Chandler and Mark Thatcher amongst others. “Something of an enigma” Mr Leese at one time had a flat in The Dorchester Hotel and reportedly had “fingers in many pies” but those that describe him as ‘Sir Douglas Leese’ are actually incorrect – though he did win two Queen’s Awards for Industry in the 1970s and 1980s.As part of a podcast series titled ‘Defiance’ that was released on Apple Podcasts on 12th October 2020, Tom Pattinson interviewed “international ‘Mr Fixit’” Douglas Leese’s son, Julian, for 3 hours. Reviewing it, Epsteinsblackbook.com remarked: “This is interesting indeed, as he tells of his friendship from the time young Jeffrey Epstein (pictured above with Lord Mandelson) visited his family outside London to learn about the British upper-class life. Julian taught Jeffrey how to shoot a hunting rifle, and Epstein taught young Julian about maths, and probably how to pick up girls. Douglas Leese taught Epstein about how to live like an aristocrat, and possibly about shady dealings with corrupt regimes. Leese describes Epstein as very charming, very bright, very ambitious, and very interested in sex. He does not excuse any of Epstein’s acts, but claims to be completely unknowing of any illegalities from either Epstein, himself, or his father Douglas Leese. He further describes Epstein as a tragic character in his later years, after he got arrested in 2008, and that his suicide was not surprising. Julian Leese says the reason he did the interview was to clear the Leese name from what he called nonsense Internet discussions and slander from a confused Hoffenberg. Julian, like anybody else in this story, in all likelihood has an agenda of his own. In addition to interesting stories from one of Epstein’s oldest friends, his statements do possibly provide some more background into Epstein’s dealings with Hoffenberg and Towers Financial. As well as an almost chilling remark saying something about Ghislaine making the otherwise self-assured Epstein unusually meek. After being taken into the warmth by the Leese family, Epstein did ruin his relationship with Douglas Leese by going on a spending spree with his expense account. Flying on Concorde Jets and booking 5-star hotels was what Epstein did with other people’s money before he got hold on his own. This behaviour seems to be a pattern for Epstein. Befriending powerful people before ruining their relationship and moving on. This does strengthen the theory that Epstein was completely amoral, saw relationships as merely transactional, and was extremely charming.”Of Epstein – who fell out with his father over expenses that the British businessman thought were “not quite right” in 1984 to 1985 – Julian Leese – who himself last met with the since croaked paedophile in New York in 2013 but communicated with him up until days before his 10th August 2019 death – observed: “Given the personality that he was, I think he wanted to try and get as many contacts as possible. I certainly believe that he gave my father some advice, but I think that he was doing that for a lot of people too… He was very keen on the stock market, financial transactions. I think my father took some of his advice, but as I said to you before, I absolutely believe that it was mutual. Jeffrey was trying to get as many connections as possible and to learn as much as possible about the world from my father, who throughout his career travelled extensively and had many connections internationally… I have never, ever heard my father talking about introducing Jeffrey to [Adnan] Khashoggi (pictured). Indeed, during my conversations with Jeffrey, I’ve never heard him talk about Khashoggi and actually, even though it’s many, many years ago, I just don’t think the datelines, erm, I think my father actually met Khashoggi after he fell out with Jeffrey, so I really don’t understand the connections that people are making.” Going further Julian Leese added: “There are always many, many rumours about Jeffrey. Jeffrey, as I told you before, loved to be mysterious, I did hear him talking about being a bounty hunter. I have to say we all took it with a pinch of salt… Because of Jeffrey’s mysterious [ways], today, if he were alive, he’d be rather pleased that there are so many press reports with these sorts of aspersions, but do I believe it, no.”Towers Financial Corporation paid for a lavish lifestyle for Hoffenberg that included a Long Island mansion as well as homes in Sutton Place, Manhattan and Florida. He had numerous chauffeur driven cars, two private planes, a yacht and a Fifth Avenue office. His board included a “bipartisan entourage” according to ‘The New York Times’ that included “Ben Barnes, a business ally of former Texas Gov. John Connally, and Thomas B. Evans Jr., a former co-chairman of the Republican National Committee. In Louisiana, regulators got calls on his behalf from attorney Victoria Reggie, daughter of a powerful state judge and future wife of Senator Edward M. Kennedy (pictured). A legal wrangle in California was handled by Mickey Kantor, now President Clinton’s trade representative.”As ‘The Steeple Times’ pointed out earlier this week, the Metropolitan Police’s failure to proceed with their investigations into the activities of Ghislaine Maxwell in the 1990s in London is telling, but so also is that they shuttered an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s London activities more recently. Why is this and what on earth could the since croaked paedophile have been upto on his visits to the capital to see to the Leese family in the 1980s and Prince Andrew, Kevin Spacey, Jes Staley (pictured) and others in the years beyond? The plot, as it always does with this sordid story, thickens, but one thing is for sure: The British authorities have certainly engaged in some kind of cover-up in order to protect the powerful and the privileged from the fall-out of the death of Jeffrey Epstein and the conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell.
Kirby Sommers revealed news of the former Towers Financial Corporation chief’s death before the mainstream media on her social media channel in a series of tweets
A graduate of the London School of Economics, Matthew Steeples is a writer and marketing consultant. He conceived The Steeple Times as a media arena to fill the void between the Mail Online, The Huffington Post and such organs as the New York Social Diary in 2012.
I would trust a man who died in that grotty apartment sooner than anyone living in a mega fortification in Ohio…with a special cottage for Epstein..or an atmospheric disaster blocks from Central Park..such as Epstein, Maxwell and their ugly collection of buddies. The horror of their filthy money and what they wasted it on is sickening..to be drummed out of that New Yorks money ambitions seems like a sad form of salvation.
I do not discredit Maria Farmer. I am apt to believe her above many of the people with notable vested interest in this on going ,profoundly illuminating,. epic rats nest..if you have ever had a rats nest under your house then you understand how nasty they are. Oh…the inimitable odor of a flourishing rats nest.
Douglas Leese was an absolute con man.. Singapore based son Nicholas Leese is still running around the trap.. An impecunious alcoholic spriuking various Ponzi schemes, real estate deals and health potions, while conning, borrowing and stealing from all and sundry.
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I would trust a man who died in that grotty apartment sooner than anyone living in a mega fortification in Ohio…with a special cottage for Epstein..or an atmospheric disaster blocks from Central Park..such as Epstein, Maxwell and their ugly collection of buddies. The horror of their filthy money and what they wasted it on is sickening..to be drummed out of that New Yorks money ambitions seems like a sad form of salvation.
I do not discredit Maria Farmer. I am apt to believe her above many of the people with notable vested interest in this on going ,profoundly illuminating,. epic rats nest..if you have ever had a rats nest under your house then you understand how nasty they are. Oh…the inimitable odor of a flourishing rats nest.
Douglas Leese was an absolute con man.. Singapore based son Nicholas Leese is still running around the trap.. An impecunious alcoholic spriuking various Ponzi schemes, real estate deals and health potions, while conning, borrowing and stealing from all and sundry.