“For Mr. Epstein, anything is possible.” How a sex offender received special treatment in one of the best hospitals in the US. We reveal
A week before Christmas in 2014, Jeffrey Epstein's assistant contacted the plastic surgeon with a special request: could he take in a friend of Epstein's to “repair a hole in her nose from a piercing” while she was in New York for a week.
The surgeon, Jess Ting of Mount Sinai, replied that he was going on vacation, but ““Everything is possible for Mr. Epstein.”.
Ting's years of correspondence with the convicted sex offender and others close to Epstein were part of more than 3 million pages of materials released last week by the U.S. Department of Justice.
A POLITICO analysis of newly released Epstein files found that the late financier donated at least $250,000. hole. (PLN 895,000) Mount Sinai in the years after he was convicted in 2008 of inciting a minor to prostitution. This is more than 10 times more than previously reported.
Thanks to his wealth and contacts, Epstein benefited from extremely close access to doctors at the prestigious Mount Sinai Health System, including Ting.
Examples include email correspondence between Epstein and his staff and a cardiologist at Mount Sinai Hospital about an ambulance he wanted to buy for his private Caribbean island, Little St. James, and which later became known for Epstein's minor sex trafficking activities. Epstein received personal invitations to events at the Palm Beach Country Club hosted by Mount Sinai board members. He also used home visits to get a flu shot and examine a lump.
Epstein even hosted Ting and his family on the island for one day in March 2013 while the surgeon was vacationing in nearby St. John, according to an email from Epstein's assistant that references a previous visit. A copy of Epstein's schedule for the day suggests that he was absent during Ting's visit.
Dr. Jess Ting in New York, September 2019John Lamparski/Getty Images for Film at Lincoln Center/Getty Images
“Jeffrey would like you to spend a day on his island during your vacation! We can pick you and your family up from St. John on a day that is convenient for you, take you to Jeffrey's island so you can play with his 'toys' and eat lunch,” Epstein's assistant previously wrote in an email to Ting.
“That's incredibly generous of Jeffrey!!” Ting replied.
“I hope your visit to Jeffrey Island last Friday was a success,” the assistant wrote in a follow-up email.
Ting, who was later promoted to director of the Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery, did not want to comment on the matter without the hospital's approval.
POLITICO sent Mount Sinai a list of detailed questions about Epstein, but the facility declined to comment.
“I hope I haven't offended you with too much directness.”
Prestigious nonprofit hospitals from New York to California are known for preferential treatment of donorsand many now offer luxury suites and private concierge services to attract generous VIP patients. New details about Epstein's involvement with Mount Sinai provide an even fuller picture of just how far nonprofit hospitals are willing to go.
Over two decades, Epstein faced various state and federal charges related to the sexual abuse and trafficking of dozens of underage girls as young as 14 years old. In 2008, the financier pleaded guilty to state charges in Florida of soliciting a child for prostitution as part of a controversial non-prosecution agreement with Alexander Acosta, then a federal prosecutor in Miami.
A new federal indictment led to his arrest in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges, and he pleaded not guilty. The case was dropped a month later after Epstein committed suicide in prison while awaiting trial.
In August 2019, after the Miami Herald discovered that Epstein had donated at least $15,000. hole. (PLN 54,000) to Mount Sinai, the hospital agreed to donate “an amount equal to the donations we received from Mr. Epstein and his foundation to a charity that deals with preventing human trafficking and sexual exploitation, as well as providing financial support for our intervention program in cases of sexual violence and assault.”
Mount Sinai has never disclosed how much money it received from Epstein or which charity received the diverted funds, making this claim difficult to independently verify. POLITICO asked Mount Sinai for a full accounting of Epstein's donations and the charity mentioned in the 2019 statement, but did not receive a response.
Donations identified by POLITICO included 50 thousand hole. (PLN 179,000), which Ting personally asked Epstein for in 2013 for a research project on breast cancer. “Would you consider financially supporting our activities?” – he wrote in one of the e-mails. “I hope I haven't offended you with my too directness.”
Epstein's accountant promptly issued a check, according to the email correspondence, and the financier was named as a donor to Ting's research in an article he co-authored.
Some of the sex offender's donations were made under the names “Uncle F” or “Enhanced Education,” including $25,000. hole. (PLN 89,000) to renovate the neonatal intensive care unit and sponsor lunches at the Dubin Breast Center in September 2013 and 2014, according to email correspondence regarding donations, a letter of thanks and a photocopy of a check for PLN 50,000. hole. (PLN 179 thousand).
The Dubin Center, which opened in 2011 at the Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai, was named for physician, philanthropist and former model Eva Andersson-Dubin — Epstein's longtime collaborator and ex-girlfriend. Dubin and her husband, billionaire hedge fund manager and longtime Mount Sinai board member Glenn Dubin, reportedly donated $15 million. (PLN 54 million) to launch the center.
Ting “waits on standby”
It is not entirely clear how or why Epstein became deeply involved with Mount Sinai, beyond his ties to Andersson-Dubin, who also serves on the board. The documents show that Andersson-Dubin she often acted as an intermediary between Epstein and Mount Sinai doctors or administrators.
A spokesman for Andersson-Dubin declined to comment.
Andersson-Dubin informed Epstein that Ting was “waiting on standby” one day in October 2012 when Epstein was flying home to New York with an unknown person who “fell off his ATV and needs stitches in his forehead,” according to the emails.
Apparently at Andersson-Dubin's request, Epstein issued a check for $100,000 in 2014. hole. (PLN 358,000) from his foundation for the renovation of a room in the Eleven West wing of Mount Sinai Hospital. This wing offers “upscale patient accommodations” with gourmet cuisine, daily afternoon tea and views of Central Park, according to the hospital's website.
Eva Andersson-Dubin (right) speaks at the Dubin Breast Center Benefit in New York, December 2024.Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Mount Sinai Health System/Getty Images
Epstein, in turn, received special attention from Mount Sinai's medical staff.
Epstein had a direct telephone line he could call if he was going to the Mount Sinai emergency room, where he was identified as “Eva's friend,” according to a list of his doctors included in a Justice Department news release.
On the other side, standing watch 24 hours a day, was a Mount Sinai team member responsible for “our board and donor community,” Andersson-Dubin said in a 2013 email: Robin Solomon, who launched the health system's donor relations program.
“The emergency department always operates on a triage basis, but we work behind the scenes,” Solomon wrote in an email.
Solomon, who no longer works at Mount Sinai, did not respond to requests for comment.
Andersson-Dubin even called on Mount Sinai cardiologist Rony Shimony to “brainstorm” about purchasing and equipping two ambulances — one for Epstein's island and the other for his Santa Fe ranch. Shimony did not respond to messages seeking comment.
“The patient is a VIP and we have to sort this out.”
Epstein also managed to get medical appointments on short notice.
When Epstein's assistant, Lesley Groff, contacted Mount Sinai in 2016 to schedule a chest and pelvic MRI, Ting personally intervened to ensure Epstein could get the tests done within a week, emails show.
“The patient is a VIP and we have to handle this. Let me know if there are any hiccups,” Ting wrote to several colleagues.
Some of the visits took place not at the doctor's office but at Epstein's residence on the Upper East Side.
Ting agreed to come one day in May 2013 with his three young children after Epstein asked him to “meet his very good friend about her nose,” Groff wrote in an email. The calendar noted at least two other visits by Ting to Epstein's home, including one scheduled for 22:00.
Mount Sinai Hospital on the Upper East Side in New York City, January 9, 2023.Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images/Getty Images
Ting wasn't the only doctor who visited Epstein. Shimony allegedly went to Epstein's Upper East Side residence one day in September 2014 to give him a flu shot, according to emails and text messages about the visit. In turn, Ting and his brother, Mount Sinai vascular surgeon Windsor Ting, according to emails, made an appointment together in December 2016 to examine a “lump” on Epstein's collarbone.
The emails show that Epstein also arranged medical care at Mount Sinai for various associates, with the help of the person in charge of international patients and VIPs at that health care system.
One of the beneficiaries was the mother of Epstein's girlfriend, Karyna Shuliak. At Epstein's request, Mount Sinai's international patient services department wrote to the U.S. Embassy in Minsk, Belarus, to help Shuliak's mother obtain a medical visa in 2014, Justice Department documents show.
Epstein he also put Shimony, his cardiologist, in touch with former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorbjorn Jaglandand even covered the cost of the visit in the amount of $1,995. (over PLN 7,000), according to a copy of the bill from 2012.
After Shimony visited Epstein's residence for dinner one evening in 2016, Epstein gave the cardiologist's number to another longtime associate, investor Leon Black, who was then a member of the board of directors of Mount Sinai Medical School.
“DO NOT make him wait in the hospital like you did me,” Epstein wrote in a text message to Shimony, who has since left Mount Sinai and moved to Atria New York, a private medical practice. “He's already skeptical of Sinai.”
“I would like us to control every aspect of Sinai,” Shimony replied.
