Palm Beach, Florida- [NY Post] Big-time Manhattan investment manager Jeffrey Epstein has agreed to plead guilty to soliciting underage prostitutes at his Florida mansion in a deal that will send him to prison for about 18 months, The Post has learned.
Epstein, 54, will admit to felony charges in the next month or so in a Florida state court, sources said.
The silver-haired moneyman also is expected to be ordered to serve a shorter period of house confinement in his pink Palm Beach mansion after release from prison.
Sources said state prosecutors, who in 2006 charged Epstein with solicitation of prostitution, will upgrade the offense because the females were under 18, the age of consent in Florida. But Epstein, who denies knowing any of the girls were under 18, is not going to be charged with having sex with underage girls, sources said.
The feds have agreed to drop their probe into possible federal criminal violations in exchange for the guilty plea to the new state charge, with the understanding that he will do prison time, sources said.
A former business partner of Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman who also has socialized with former President Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew, Epstein owns what is reportedly the largest home in Manhattan, a 51,000-square- foot Upper East Side mansion.
Epstein, a bachelor who has been romantically linked to Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the late, disgraced newspaper owner Robert Maxwell, also has a New Mexico ranch and a 100-acre private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Epstein, who reportedly manages money for billionaires, keeps his client list secret and is notoriously publicity shy. But his solicitation arrest last year exposed salacious details of his private life, including an obsession with massages.
The underage girls who told Florida cops they gave Epstein massages for hundreds of dollars per session at his home have said they had claimed to be 18 or older, sources said.
“Recorded interviews of the girls confirmed that Epstein insisted the girls that would be referred to him be 18 or over,” a source said.
But one girl was described in court documents as just 14 when Epstein allegedly used a “purple vibrator” on her during a 2005 massage in which she partially stripped. A source noted that the girl’s MySpace Web page indicated she was 18. Other girls were said to be 16 or 17 when they gave Epstein massages.
Some of the girls, legal documents indicate, were recruited by Haley Robson, now 21, who described herself as “like Heidi Fleiss,” the notorious Hollywood madam.
Police also alleged that Epstein’s assistant, Sarah Kellen, helped arrange massage sessions.
Cops had wanted to charge Robson and Kellen for their alleged roles in procuring the girls, but a grand jury did not indict them.
Epstein’s lawyer, Gerald Lefcourt, had no comment.
Epstein’s spokesman, Howard Rubenstein, said the money manager had no comment.
“I’ve known him for a few years, and know that for 30 years, he’s been one of the most charitable individuals I’ve ever met. He’s given tens of millions of dollars without seeking publicity for it, and he’s also known as a brilliant financial adviser,” Rubenstein said.
“So this was clearly out of character for a man who’s led a very decent life.”
Palm Beach prosecutors had no comment.