Jeffrey Epstein managed to keep his job at Wall Street giant Bear Stearns after he was caught lying about his résumé — thanks in part to his romantic relationship with the daughter of one of the firm’s most powerful executives, according to a report.
Epstein was just 23 when he was hired as a junior trader at Bear Stearns in 1976, despite having no college degree or Wall Street experience.
Around the same time, he began dating Lynne Greenberg, the 20-year-old daughter of Ace Greenberg, a senior executive who would go on to become the firm’s CEO two years later.
While Epstein was dating Greenberg’s daughter, Bear Stearns employees discovered that he had falsely claimed on his résumé to have earned degrees from two California universities — neither of which had any record of him ever attending, according to the New York Times.
When confronted by his supervisor, Epstein admitted that he lied about his education, telling the executive that without impressive credentials “nobody would give me a chance,” the Times reported.
Despite résumé fraud that would typically get a Wall Street employee fired, Epstein was allowed to keep his job — and was later promoted — a decision that former executives later acknowledged was influenced by his relationship with the boss’s daughter, according to the report.
The relationship was reportedly facilitated by Ace Greenberg, himself. According to the Times, the Bear Stearns exec seated Epstein next to his daughter at a dinner party — a move that Lynne Greenberg later suspected was intentional.
Michael Tennenbaum, Epstein’s supervisor at the time, told the Times that the junior trader admitted to the fraud when he confronted him.
“You lied about your education,” Tennenbaum told Epstein.
“Yes, I know,” Epstein replied calmly.
“Without an impressive degree or two,” Epstein said, “I knew nobody would give me a chance.”
Tennenbaum later described being “disarmed” by Epstein’s admission and said he agreed to give him a second chance.
Decades later, Tennenbaum expressed regret for not firing Epstein.
“I didn’t realize that I was creating one of the monsters of Wall Street,” he told the Times.
Even if Tennenbaum wanted to fire Epstein, it’s unclear he would have been able to given that the relationship with Lynne Greenberg gave the junior trader “protected status” at the firm, according to the Times.
Word spread within the company of Epstein’s relationship with Lynne Greenberg, the Times reported.
The relationship eventually fizzled. Lynne Greenberg later told the Times that she came to the conclusion that Epstein “lied about everything.”
Ace Greenberg died in July 2014. He was 86. Lynne Greenberg declined to comment when reached by The Post.
A representative for the Epstein estate was not immediately available for comment.
Epstein’s escape from punishment would become a pattern. In 1980, Bear Stearns named him a limited partner — one rung below full partner — despite lingering concerns about his conduct, according to the Times.
The report detailed several instances of alleged misconduct by Epstein while at Bear Stearns, including charging the company more than $10,000 that he spent on jewelry and clothing for a girlfriend in 1980.
Despite the fact that Epstein was flagged for improper spending, he was not punished, according to the Times.
The report also stated that Bear Stearns executives knew that Epstein gave his girlfriend access to “hot” stock trades linked to clients just prior to them going public on the stock exchange — a major violation of investment banking rules.
Epstein also lent $15,000 to a high school friend that also violated federal rules governing brokers, according to the Times.
When the company conducted an investigation into the personal loan and the IPO shares, Epstein denied wrongdoing, saying he was “deeply offended” at the suggestion that he broke the rules.
After management fined him $2,500 and suspended him for two months, Epstein resigned — ending a five-year tenure at the company.
Bear Stearns ceased to exist after it collapsed in March 2008 — a victim of the crisis that was set off by subprime mortgage securities. Its assets were eventually absorbed by JPMorgan Chase.
Epstein would continue to trade on his Bear Stearns pedigree long after his departure.
Former colleagues maintained friendships with him and introduced him to new clients, relationships that would prove extraordinarily lucrative, according to the Times.
His tenure at Bear Stearns helped him become a wealthy financier who used his money and connections to oversee a long-running sex-trafficking operation that preyed on underage girls, recruiting, grooming and abusing dozens of victims over years.
Epstein was first convicted in 2008 on state prostitution charges involving a minor after securing a widely criticized plea deal, then arrested again in 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges, to which he pleaded not guilty.
Epstein died in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial, in a death ruled a suicide by hanging.
