WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A teenager and her family filed a $50 million lawsuit against a New York billionaire Thursday, saying he sexually abused her when she was 14.
Jeffrey Epstein’s attorney, Lilly Ann Sanchez, said the allegations are false and motivated by money.
The girl, now 17 and identified only as Jane Doe, claims Epstein invited her to his Palm Beach mansion in 2005 to perform a massage for $300. She claims he demanded she remove her clothes and sexually assaulted her, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in West Palm Beach.
The girl, her father and stepmother are seeking more than $50 million.
Sanchez said the girl told Epstein she was 18 and he did nothing inappropriate.
The teen is also at the center of a criminal case against Epstein in Florida, said her lawyer, Jeffrey Herman.
Epstein, 55, is charged with one felony count of solicitation of prostitution. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
The teen’s father pleaded guilty in 2001 to three federal fraud counts accusing him of arranging fraudulent loans as a mortgage broker in a scheme to collect commissions from sales. He was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison. The Associated Press is not naming the father to protect the girl’s identity.
Epstein, a money manager, also was sued last year in New York by a woman who claims he had sex with her in 2000 when she was 16.
Gerald Lefcourt, Epstein’s New York attorney, denied the allegations in the New York case. He also said in court papers that the attorney and his client, who is a man living as a woman, filed a similar suit in a separate case.
