WEST PALM BEACH — from www.palmbeachpost.com – Multi-millionaire convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has now settled four of the 18 civil lawsuits filed by young women who claimed they were seeking millions for the abuse they suffered at his Palm Beach mansion.

The latest settlement was approved by U.S. District Court Kenneth Marra on Sunday . The settlement, in a case involving a woman who claims she was 14 when Epstein paid her for sexual favors, comes two weeks after two other women dismissed their lawsuits, saying they had been amicably resolved.

The terms of the agreements with the women, most of whom used pseudonyms in court papers, are confidential. Attorneys involved declined comment. Epstein’s attorney Robert Critton could not be reached.

But attorney Spencer Kuvin, who represented the first young woman who settled her lawsuit in May and has another case pending, said he can understand why the women wanted to avoid a protracted legal fight.

With unlimited financial resources to defend himself, Epstein has hired investigators to pry into the most intimate details of the women’s lives. They have interviewed the women’s boyfriends, ex-boyfriends, family members, friends and employers as part of a relentless campaign to discredit the 56-year-old financial manager’s accusers, he said.

“My client, Jane Doe 1, was beat up [emotionally] so badly. . . to be honest she didn’t want anything to do with it anymore,” he said. “She just wanted it over. The girls who are settling are fearful of him.”

But attorney Jack Hill, who negotiated the settlement that was approved by Marra on Sunday, said intimidation didn’t play a role in his client’s decision. He represents Carolyn Andriano, the only one of the women who sued under her real name.

Attorneys who are representing some of the other women agreed that Epstein and his attorney are playing hardball.

“Our clients have uniformly said the investigators have gone too far,” said attorney Adam Horowitz, who represents seven women in suits against Epstein.

While Kuvin said it makes some woman cave in, Horowitz said it has made some of his clients even more determined.

“Some realize that the prospect of a jury trial is the only way the true facts can come out,” he said. “After what they’ve gone through, they think Jeffrey Epstein deserves the discomfort of having his dirty laundry aired in public.”

Arrested in 2006, he pleaded guilty last year to solicitation of prostitution and procuring teenagers for prostitution. He served 13 months of an 18-month sentence.

The bare-knuckle tactics that emerged since the civil suits began mounting have even gotten the attention of the courts.

Earlier this month, Magistrate Judge Linnea Johnson, who is handling the preliminary proceedings for Marra, chided Epstein’s attorneys. After reviewing a 446-page transcript of an eight-hour deposition of one of Horowitz’s clients, Johnson found Epstein’s lawyers had badgered the woman by repeatedly quizzing her about having three abortions, the type of sex she engages in and Epstein’s treatment of her.

“Counsel for (Epstein) must be mindful that the deposition of the (women) in these cases covers the most intimate and private details of their lives and if not handled correctly may serve to needlessly embarrass and humiliate them,” Johnson wrote. “(Epstein’s) counsel is ordered to refrain from repetitive questioning. . . .[and] is expected to conduct himself in a responsible and professional manner befitting members of the Bar.”

Horowitz said he is hopeful the verbal attacks will subside. But he cautioned against reading anything into the recent settlements. Since Epstein never stood trial for his crimes and served a short jail sentence, the women may view a settlement as the only acknowledgement they will ever get that they were mistreated.

“I guess it’s his way of apologizing,” Horowitz said of the high-flying financial whiz who counts former President Bill Clinton among his friends. “Money is how people apologize whether it be wealthy people or corporations.”