nadia marcinkova

nadia marcinkova

Guess who's been released from prison? That would be Jeffrey Epstein, the secretive money manager who pleaded guilty in 2007 to soliciting underage teen girls for sex. Epstein has spent the last year or so in a Palm Beach prison, although he hasn't had to spend every minute of the day confined to a cell. As part of a work-release program, Epstein was allowed to leave his cell during the day and work from an "office" in West Palm Beach, work that reportedly involved helping the government build a case against the Bear Stearns hedge fund that imploded last year and cost Epstein the $67 million he'd invested in the fund. His cooperation helped shave six months off his sentence and early this morning Epstein skipped out of jail, using a side entrance to avoid the reporters that had gathered outside to greet him. But while his lawyer told a reporter that Epstein is thrilled that "this part of his life is over," and he's "ready to move on to other things," it doesn't look like he's totally put his past behind him.

Page2Live's Jose Lambiet reports this morning that jail records indicate that Epstein was visited on more than 70 occasions by Nadia Marcinkova, a woman who was at the center of Epstein's prostitution case in 2007. Marcinkova, who has described herself as a real estate broker in the past, served as Epstein's "assistant," helped wrangle underage girls for the billionaire, and even took part in the sex play herself, according to testimony given the Palm Beach police. And she may have also been a victim herself, since Epstein reportedly bragged to friends and associates that he'd "purchased her from her family in Yugoslavia" and "brought her into the United States to be his Yugoslavian sex slave."

Marcinkova wasn't the only person connected to Epstein's prostitution case to visit him behind bars. Sarah Kellen, who also allegedly helped procure girls for the money manager, stopped by on a few occasions. As did a handful of shady characters, including one Igor Zinoviev, "a Russian extreme fighter," and Jean-Luc Brunel, who co-owns a modeling agency in Miami and has been accused of abusing underage models in the past, according to Lambiet.

This morning, Epstein's lawyer said his client was experiencing "relief and excitement" now that he's a free man. We'll assume that even more "relief and excitement" will be experienced when he finally gets to reunite with Marcinkova in the privacy of his bedroom.