This place really needs a good clean.
The mysterious buyer who bought Jeffrey Epstein’s posh Upper East Side mansion for a $ 51 million bargain is a former Goldman Sachs executive moving to New York from London who plans to live in the house with his wife. going to live.
Michael D. Daffey bought the seven-story 40-room property at 9 East 71st Street well below its original asking price of $ 88 million – and is determined to ensure that no trace of its twisted former owner remains.
“They are planning a complete makeover, physically and spiritually,” said a source.
The Australian resident recently retired from the major financial firm after spending the past year as Goldman’s chairman of global markets responsible for remodeling trade in Europe after Brexit – and also after bitcoin killing.
Mr. Daffey had never been to the house before and had never met the owner, but he strongly believes in the future of New York and will take the other side of all those who say that the best days in town are in the past. ”said Stu Loeser, a spokesman for Daffey.
Top real estate agents tell The Post the price is a bargain, given that any similar Manhattan property that had no connection to one of America’s most deranged sex criminals could easily have fetched $ 100 million.
“I think it’s half,” said top real estate agent Dolly Lenz, who had been among those trying to sell the property. It’s 28,000 square feet. That’s less than $ 4,000 a foot for the most magnificent mansion on the best block, just off Fifth Avenue. It’s the very best in New York. “
Even such a deal was hard to tempt many who could afford that price range.
“We offered it to a lot of people who said, ‘We don’t want to get near that place,’” Lenz said. Fancy international people who are always up for a deal, said ‘No way.’ ”
Sources say none of Epstein’s old belongings are in the house.
“The house was completely empty,” said a source. “There was no scary thing in it.”
Another source said Daffey bought it with cash and a bridging loan.
Adam Modlin, of the Modlin Group, represented both Daffey and Epstein Estate as broker.
Lenz thought Daffey had made a good purchase decision.
“I think he made a smart move, but it will be a long time before people forget that it was a place where children were abused,” she said. But he’s betting on it in the long run. That’s what some people do. ”
The money will go directly to a Jeffrey Epstein victim restitution fund, which is managed by Epstein’s estate.
In 2019, Epstein was found dead in his prison cell awaiting a sex crime trial involving girls as young as 14 years old. Epstein pleaded not guilty. During an FBI raid, federal agents found footage of child sexual abuse that the mansion was safe. The 40-room house is one of the largest in the city.
Epstein and his alleged partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, infamously entertained the rich, royals, and powerful in the house, which was wired to secretly take in its guests.
Some who stayed overnight included Prince Andrew. The mansion was previously owned by Epstein’s client, Victoria’s Secret owner Les Wexner.
The sale was halted by an asset freeze request in the U.S. Virgin Islands by more than two dozen alleged victims and Denise George, the U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General last month, after the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program said it would discontinue compensation offers about financing problems.
A judge rejected the request. The fund has so far received more than 150 applications from alleged victims since it launched last June, and has so far disbursed $ 55 million to an undisclosed number of victims, according to reports.