Mark Epstein (property developer)

Mark Lawrence Epstein (born July 14, 1954), nicknamed "Puggy",^[1] is an American property developer and the brother of financier and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

A former artist, Epstein has been a real estate investor since the 1990s. He was the president of J. Epstein & Co, his brother's investment company and an executive of Ossa Properties. He has founded and led real estate companies, a T-shirt printing business, a modelling agency and a charter company.^[2] His wealth and the source of it has been the subject of investigation by both Dow Jones Institutional News and The Wall Street Journal.

While denying his brother Jeffrey's involvement in blackmail, Mark has acknowledged that his brother admitted to being involved with girls who were "too young". He has not, however, implicated himself in his brother's crimes and maintains that he was cleared of any wrongdoing by investigators, later stating he didn't know anything about his brother's crimes until 2006. After his brother died in prison in 2019 following his conviction on child sex offences, Mark publicly expressed doubt that the death was due to suicide,^[3] saying "it looks more like a homicide", and has claimed that his brother had damaging information on powerful people that made him a target.^[4]

Mark Epstein was born in 1954 and is the younger brother of financier and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein^[5] (January 20, 1953 – August 10, 2019). Their parents were Pauline née Stolofsky, (1918–2004) and Seymour G. Epstein (1916–1991) who were Jewish and had married in 1952.^[6][7] The brothers grew up in the neighborhood of Sea Gate, a private gated community in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City.^[8]

He is a 1976 graduate of Cooper Union.^[5] He also studied at Stony Brook University.^[9] In 2002, he was Cooper Union's Alumnus of the Year.^[9]

A former artist,^[2] Epstein has been a real estate investor since the 1990s. He was the president of J. Epstein & Co, his brother's investment company and an executive of Ossa Properties. He is the owner of a T-shirt printing company Izmo that he founded in 1986. He also was the head of Atelier Enterprises, a leasing and chartering company. From 1987 to 2015 he was the owner-operator of Epstein Acquisitions, and in 2005 he incorporated Saint Model and Talent.^[5]

The source of Epstein's wealth has been described by both Dow Jones Institutional News and The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) as mysterious, after he refused to answer WSJ's journalists' questions about the source of his wealth.^[5][10] The newspaper noted his ownership of the $1m luxury yacht Izmo, and a 16-story condominium that he purchased from Les Wexner in the 1990s. The building had a mortgage of $7.24 million at the time.^[5]

Epstein is a six-figure donor to Cooper Union and was the chair of the school's governing board until 2015, when he resigned under pressure following the Cooper Union financial crisis and tuition protests. He donated his luxury yacht Izmo to the Marine Science and Nautical Training Academy in Charleston.^[5] He also served on the board of directors of the Humpty Dumpty Institute, an international charity that he loaned over $100,000 to in 2014.^[2] He also loaned $75,000 to Exit Art, a not-for-profit cultural center that he also was a board director for.^[2]

Epstein has two children with Joyce Anderson, whom he lived with in SoHo for seven years before their relationship ended. He has a home in Pennsylvania and property in West Palm Beach, Florida.^[2]

While denying his brother Jeffrey's involvement in blackmail, Mark has acknowledged that his brother admitted to being involved with girls who were "too young". He has not, however, implicated himself in his brother's crimes and maintains that he was cleared of any wrongdoing by investigators. Mark also later declared he didn't know anything about his brother's crimes until 2006.^[11]

After Jeffrey died in prison in 2019 following his conviction on child sex offences, Mark publicly expressed doubt that the death was due to suicide,^[3] saying "it looks more like a homicide", and has claimed that his brother had damaging information on powerful people that made him a target. Mark insisted that the circumstances of his brother's death were inconsistent with suicide and rejected the official findings from the Department of Justice. Mark stated that Jeffrey told him he had "dirt on people" that "could put them in prison", recounting an incident from the 2016 presidential election where Jeffrey allegedly claimed that if he revealed what he knew about the candidates, the election would be canceled. Mark alleged a government cover-up surrounding his brother's death and claimed that federal authorities released doctored or incomplete evidence, including edited video from the jail. He openly criticized high-ranking officials for their statements and actions related to the investigation. Mark urged authorities to reopen the investigation into his brother's death, though did not receive a response.^[4] He was identified by court papers as Jeffrey's only potential heir.^[12]

In 2024, Mark said that he did not know why Jeffrey and Donald Trump's friendship ended. He stated that his brother had said in a tape that he "stopped hanging out with Donald Trump when he realized Trump was a crook".^[13] In July 2025, Mark made further statements, emphasizing their closeness, refuting Trump's assertions that he "was not a fan" and Steven Cheung's statement that "The President was never in Epstein's office…" in relation to the accusation of one of Jeffrey's victims who mentioned having had a "disturbing" encounter with Trump in Jeffrey's office, in 1995.^[11]