Authorities revealed on Friday that convicted Ponzi schemer and Jeffrey Epstein mentor Steven Hoffenberg was found dead inside a Connecticut apartment earlier this week.
The 77-year-old is thought to have been dead at least seven days before the discovery of his body on Tuesday in Derby. Police officers found his remains when they responded to a request to check on his welfare. The individual had to be identified through dental records because of the decomposition of the body.
Steven Hoffenberg's Death
Hoffenberg's cause of death is still unknown pending toxicology test results as an autopsy showed no signs of trauma and there were no indications of a struggle or forced entry at the apartment, said officials.
The disgraced financier, Epstein, worked for Hoffenberg's bill collection company, Towers Financial Corp, in the late 1980s, when prosecutors said the Ponzi scheme began. The recently deceased, who once tried to buy the New York Post, ended up getting busted in one of the country's largest frauds.
Hoffenberg admitted that he swindled thousands of investors out of $460 million and was sentenced in 1997 to 20 years in prison. He later claimed that Epstein was actually the one who came up with the scheme, but was never charged, as per NBC News.
The 77-year-old was then released from federal custody in 2013, based on the U.S. Bureau of Prisons data. However, it was not immediately clear how he ended up living in a small apartment in a multifamily home in Derby, about 12 miles northeast of Bridgeport.
One of Hoffernberg's friends, Gary Baise, is also a lawyer and a former acting deputy U.S. attorney general. Baise said that Hoffenberg and Epstein had a "special relationship" and noted that the former said the latter was the smartest person that he knew when it came to money.
According to NPR, Baise noted that Hoffenberg himself was also very intelligent, which may have contributed to his downfall. The official said that the 77-year-old was "too smart for his own good." During a phone interview, Baise said that Hoffenberg thought he could get away with the Ponzi scheme and lost his self-control.
Jeffrey Epstein's Mentor
Baise, who said that he had not had contact with Hoffenberg for several months, said that he was not surprised by the recent incident because the 77-year-old did not appear to be taking good care of himself.
Derby police were asked by a private investigator to do a welfare check on Hoffenberg on Tuesday. The investigator was hired by a woman who identified herself as close to Hoffenberg and a sexual abuse victim of Epstein. The investigator added that the woman had not heard from Hoffenberg for five days, and that was unusual, said Derby police, Lt. Justin Stanko.
There was a brief time when Hoffeberg briefly took over the New York Post in 1993 while bidding to own it. The paper was funded for three months and it was rescued from bankruptcy but Hoffenberg's efforts were derailed by civil fraud allegations.
Police posted a statement on Facebook saying that responding officers found Hoffenberg's body "in a state where a visual identification could not be made," the New York Post reported.
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