Convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein used some of his staggering net worth of $500 million to “influence” potential witnesses against him, Manhattan federal prosecutors charged Friday.
The globe-trotting former hedge fund manager — who was arrested in New Jersey last week for allegedly trafficking underage girls to sexually abuse them — doled out a total of at least $350,000 in bribes to two people last year, prosecutors say.
The money — $250,000 in one case and $100,000 in the other — was secretly funneled to the potential witnesses around the same time the Miami Herald unleashed a series of exposes about the perverted financier, the feds said.
“Epstein’s efforts to influence witnesses continue to this day,” the prosecutors added.
Details of the alleged bribes surfaced as prosecutors continue to argue that Epstein should still be held without bail.
He is at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan — three doors down from drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo’’ Guzman — awaiting another bail hearing next week.
His lawyers have been fighting to at least keep him under home detention — while trying to ensure that details of his wealth remain under wraps.
Prosecutors have argued strongly against letting Epstein stay at home while his case proceeds, citing the fact that he’s facing serious charges and that he is a deep-pocketed globetrotter who has his hands on a private jet and remains a danger to the public.
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“He is a man of nearly infinite means, your honor,” Assistant US Attorney Alex Rossmiller told a judge at a hearing for Epstein last week.
But Epstein’s lawyers said their client’s only serious brush with the law was his 2008 guilty plea in Florida on sex charges.
Epstein’s lawyers have offered to put up his $77 million, 21,000-square foot, Upper East Side townhouse — where the feds say he sexually exploited and abused minor girls and kept a trove of child porn — and his private plane as collateral if he gets bail.
They also say Epstein will wear an ankle monitor if he gets home detention, as well as install surveillance cameras and ground his private jet.
Epstein is also willing to pay for round-the-clock, armed security to keep an eye on him, his lawyers said.
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