- Goldman Sachs veteran Michael Daffey is buying Jeffrey Epstein’s NYC home, Insider has learned.
- He funded the roughly $51 million purchase with cash after making gains on a bitcoin investment.
- Daffey left Goldman Sachs after 28 years in March and most recently chaired its markets division.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
A former Goldman Sachs executive is the mystery buyer of Jeffrey Epstein’s palatial Manhattan home – one of the largest private properties in the city, Insider has learned.
Michael Daffey purchased the seven-floor Upper East Side house for $51 million in a deal that closed last week, according to a spokesman. The 28,000-square foot property was listed in July for $88 million. Daffey bought the home with cash and a bridge loan, the spokesman said.
“Mr. Daffey is a big believer in New York’s future and will take the other side of all the people who say the city’s best days may be in the past,” Stu Loeser, a spokesman for Daffey, said in an emailed statement.
Another person familiar with Daffey’s investment activity said the former Goldman exec has recently raked in big gains on an investment in bitcoin. Daffey, a friend of bitcoin evangelist Michael Novogratz, was early to invest in bitcoin, the person said. As bitcoin soared past $50,000, Daffey has looked to take some of those gains off the table.
Daffey left Goldman Sachs this month after 28 years with the firm, part of a wave of partner departures in recent months. He has long been known for managing some of Goldman’s most important hedge fund clients, a role he was freed up to do last September when CEO David Solomon tapped him to become the chairman of the markets division. Prior to that, Daffey was the global co-COO of the equities business.
He joined the bank in 1994, made managing director in 2000 and partner two years later. Daffey held a place on Goldman’s most powerful decision-making body, the management committee, for years.
Goldman Sachs’ compliance rules state that personal bitcoin investments aren’t required to be cleared through the bank, though an investment in a fund or digital-currency-related product would be. Insider couldn’t learn if Daffey had alerted the firm to his bitcoin investment or not.
Proceeds from Daffey’s purchase go to a compensation fund for victims of the convicted sex offender.
Adam Modlin of Modlin Group, who sold the property, did not respond to requests for comment. An attorney for Epstein’s estate declined to comment.
One of Epstein’s associated entities bought the trophy property – reportedly on behalf of longtime client Les Wexner – in 1989 for $13.2 million, per records reviewed by Insider. Another Epstein entity purchased it in 1998; the Wall Street Journal reported Epstein bought the home for $20 million.
Situated between Madison and Fifth Avenues, the property was built in 1932 for Macy’s heir Herbert Straus and was later used as a school. Journalist Vicky Ward visited the property for her 2003 Vanity Fair profile on Epstein, writing that it was a “private Xanadu” but “curiously impersonal.”
The home’s quirky decorations over the years included taxidermied animals and a painted mural of Epstein in prison.
Jeffrey Epstein’s lavish New York townhouse and Palm Beach residence hit the market for a combined $110 million in July. Developer Todd Michael Glaser bought the Palm Beach house in December for $18 million, $4 million under the asking price, and plans to demolish the home.
Epstein’s estate has been valued at more than $600 million. It features a private island in the US Virgin Islands and properties in New Mexico and Paris, in addition to those in Palm Beach and New York.
Epstein was accused of luring young girls and then sexually abusing them at his various properties. Last July, investigators said they found “hundreds” of nude photos of girls, some of whom appeared to be underage, at his New York townhouse.
The disgraced financier also used his properties to entertain politicians, CEOs, celebrities, dignitaries, and other influential guests.
At the New York house, he threw a party for Prince Andrew in 2010, hosted Bill Gates at least three times, and put together a smaller meeting in recent years with James Watson and guests including longtime friend Eva Dubin and daughter Celina. Insider reported that Watson, the scientist who helped discover DNA and has been stripped of awards after repeatedly making racist remarks, discussed his work and accomplishments.
Blocks away from the townhouse, Epstein for decades ran some of his operations quietly out of a squat Second Avenue residential building owned by his brother, Mark Epstein, and frequently visited by the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Though the building shares a ZIP code with Epstein’s townhouse, its share of the neighborhood east of Park Avenue is less upscale, catering more to families and young professionals than foreign heads of state.
Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on suspicion of sex trafficking minors in his Manhattan and Florida homes from 2002 to 2005. On August 10, 2019, he was found dead in a Manhattan jail cell in an apparent suicide.
Leave a Reply
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
