Free Republic

Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on July 6 on suspicion of sex trafficking minors in his Manhattan and Florida homes from 2002 to 2005. The arrest comes over a decade after Epstein pleaded guilty to solicitation of prostitution and procurement of minors for prostitution and served 13 months in prison. Epstein's real-estate portfolio has played a major role in the ongoing sex-trafficking and sexual abuse allegations against him. ... At the center of the investigation is Epstein's Upper East Side townhouse, which is one of the largest private homes in Manhattan. The FBI raided the seven-story mansion on 9 East 71st...

A convicted Scottish sex offender who ran up a 140,000 kronor bill at one of Stockholm's top restaurants has said he wants to serve his sentence in Sweden. John Cronin, from East Lothian in Scotland, is well known as a confidence trickster and sex offender in Britain and Ireland. Earlier in August, he ran up a huge bill at Stockholm's exclusive Operakällaren restaurant, which he refused to pay. Following his arrest, police found that he had also run up a big bill at Malmö's Hotel Savoy. Cronin's lawyer, Bengt H Nilsson, said he had no desire to serve his sentence...

I'm trying to compile a list of history's greatest con artists -- people who cheated nations out of prime land, famous people out of their money, or who even faked their own death. So far I've got: *'Count' Victor Lustig who sold the Eiffel tower to greedy steel dealers -- twice. *Joseph 'Yellow Kid' Weil, who once set up a fake bank in Muncie, Ind., staffed by prostitutes, and conned a rich man into depositing $50,000. *Elmyr de Hory- art forger extraordinaire, whose bio was authored by Clifford Irving, who faked a biography of Howard Hughes. Some think Hory faked...