International Assets Group

International Assets Group Inc. (I.A.G.) was the consulting company Jeffrey Epstein operated out of his apartment in New York after leaving Bear Stearns in 1981 and before forming J. Epstein & Co. Epstein described its business as recovering money stolen from wealthy clients or governments. It was the firm he represented when Steven Hoffenberg engaged him as a consultant to Towers Financial Corporation around 1987, and a 1987 Towers press release on the attempted takeover of Pan Am identified Epstein as its chairman.¹²³

Name

The company appears under three spellings. Vanity Fair's 2003 investigation called it "International Assets Group Inc. (I.A.G.)." A 2018 federal complaint by Towers investors and the sworn affidavit of Steven Hoffenberg attached to it use the same form, "International Assets Group Inc." The 1987 Towers press release quoted by CBS News gave "Intercontinental Asset Group," and later secondary accounts use "Intercontinental Assets Group." No incorporation record for any of the three forms has been published.¹²³

Business

Vanity Fair reported that Epstein ran I.A.G. "out of his apartment in the Solo building on East 66th Street in New York." Friends who knew him in the early 1980s recalled that he described himself as a "bounty hunter," "recovering lost or stolen money for the government or for very rich people." Though he later claimed to manage money only for billionaires, in a 1989 deposition he testified that he "spent 80 percent of his time helping people recover stolen money from fraudulent brokers and lawyers." He also sold risky, tax-sheltered oil and gas investments to smaller investors.¹

A suit by Michael Stroll, the former head of Williams Electronics, showed that in 1982 I.A.G. received 450,000 dollars from Stroll, which Epstein put into oil. Stroll asked for the money back in 1984 and by 1988 had received 10,000 dollars. Stroll lost the case after Epstein told the court, among other things, that the 10,000 dollar check was payment for a horse he had bought from Stroll. "My net worth never exceeded four and a half million dollars," Stroll said.¹

Hoffenberg, Leese and Mitchell

Epstein met Steven Hoffenberg in London in the 1980s. Hoffenberg said the two were introduced by Douglas Leese, whom Vanity Fair described as a defense contractor; Epstein said the introduction was made by John Mitchell, the former attorney general.¹ In his August 17, 2018 affidavit Hoffenberg swore that when they met, "Epstein was running his own consulting company, International Assets Group Inc. out of his New York City apartment," and that around 1987 he hired Epstein "as an associate and expert to consult with TFC and me."²

A Towers press release on the proposed 1987 Pan Am acquisition stated: "Jeffrey Epstein, chairman of the board of directors of Intercontinental Asset Group, is a financial advisor who has been familiar with Pan Am for approximately six years. Epstein serves as an advisor to Towers/United's management with respect to the proposed transaction." Towers attempted to use 3 million dollars from its insurance holding company, United Diversified Corporation, to finance the bid. A 1991 suit by the Illinois Department of Insurance listed "a series of checks payable to Jeff Epstein or Jeff Epstein & Co. totaling $215,000" among improper disbursements from the United Fire and United Diversified accounts; Epstein was not a defendant.³

Hoffenberg later swore that Epstein used money taken in the Towers scheme "as start-up capital for his corporations, including The Financial Trust Company," the St. Thomas company Epstein incorporated in 1998. Epstein denied any dealings with the Towers insurers and was never charged; Vanity Fair noted that much of Hoffenberg's testimony in his criminal case "has proven to be false."¹²