Florida Science Foundation

The Florida Science Foundation was an entity headed by Jeffrey Epstein and located at the West Palm Beach office of his defense lawyer Jack Goldberger, which served as Epstein's place of employment under the work release program of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office during his 2008 to 2009 state sentence. From October 2008 Epstein left the county Stockade for up to 12 hours a day, six days a week, "purportedly working at the 'Florida Science Foundation,' an entity Epstein had recently incorporated," in the words of the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility. The foundation paid the sheriff's office 128,136 dollars for off-duty deputies whose assignment, in their own overtime reports, was to "Provide security for Jeffrey Epstein."¹²³

Origins and Epstein's Account

At his state plea hearing on June 30, 2008, under the Epstein non-prosecution agreement, Epstein told the court that he was "President" of the Florida Science Foundation, that it had been in existence for 15 years, and that he worked there "every day." The next day Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Marie Villafaña told a sheriff's office official that Epstein had told the court he had worked "every day" for a "couple of years" at the foundation, but that the entity "did not even exist until November 2007," and that the address Epstein gave the court for it was the office of Goldberger.¹

Work Release

The sheriff's office placed Epstein in its work release program on October 10, 2008, without notice to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida, which had asked to be told of any application. On December 11, 2008 Villafaña wrote to the office's Corrections Division that the telephone number listed for the foundation on Epstein's application was the number of Goldberger's law firm. She wrote that the person named in the work release file as Epstein's "supervisor" at the foundation, its vice president and so subordinate to Epstein as its president, had submitted sworn filings to the Internal Revenue Service stating that Epstein worked one hour a week for no compensation, while telling the sheriff's office that his duties required him to work 12 hours a day, six days a week; the same supervisor had promised to report any breach of the work schedule but lived and worked in the New York area. The sheriff's office did not answer her letter. On December 3 she had written to her supervisors that since the start of the case Goldberger and State Attorney Barry Krischer "have been scheming to get Epstein out on work release."⁴

The Deputies

The sheriff's Extra Duty Permits System carried the foundation's detail as Permit No. 7804, "Florida Science Foundation," with posts titled "FL Science Foundation - Plain Clothed Position." Overtime reports for July 1 to 14, 2009 describe the deputies' work as "Provide security for Jeffrey Epstein," including logging visitors and escorting him from the office to his house at 358 El Brillo Way at midday and back. Villafaña had written in December 2008 that Epstein was paying "between $3000 and $4100 per week" for the deputies' "protection," despite work release rules barring the sheriff's office and its members from "any business transactions with inmates." Records obtained by the West Palm Beach station WPTV show that the foundation paid the sheriff's office 128,136 dollars during Epstein's incarceration. He was released to home confinement on July 22, 2009.²³⁴

In May 2021 the Florida Department of Law Enforcement reported that it "appears that Epstein received differential treatment" in the sheriff's custody, but found no criminal conduct by the office's members with respect to "Epstein's work release or the permit detail," according to the sheriff's office's account of the findings.⁵