Most everyone on the Street has heard of him, but nobody seems to know what the hell he is up to. The Sturm und Drang of their successes and failures has been played out in public. Power on Wall Street has generally accrued to those who have made their open bids for it.

He owns what is said to be Manhattan’s largest private house yet runs his business from a 100-acre private island in St. For more than ten years, he’s been linked to Manhattan-London society figure Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the mysteriously deceased media titan Robert Maxwell, yet he lives the life of a bachelor, logging 600 hours a year in his various planes as he scours the world for investment opportunities. A former Dalton math teacher, he maintains a peripatetic salon of brilliant scientists yet possesses no bachelor’s degree. Epstein is said to run $15 billion for wealthy clients, yet aside from Limited founder Leslie Wexner, his client list is a closely held secret.

Ever since the Post’s “Page Six” ran an item about the president’s late-September visit to Africa with Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker – on his new benefactor’s customized Boeing 727 – the question of the day has been: Who in the world is Jeffrey Epstein? He comes with cash to burn, a fleet of airplanes, and a keen eye for the ladies - to say nothing of a relentless brain that challenges Nobel Prize–winning scientists across the country - and for financial markets around the world.

Wheel of fortune 2002 mystery