Epstein frequently connected NY Giants co-owner Steve Tisch with women, emails show
Steve Tisch, executive vice president of the New York Giants looks on before pre-season football game against the Carolina Panthers at MetLife Stadium on August 18, 2023 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Rich Schultz/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Jeffrey Epstein frequently connected New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch with women, according to dozens of 2013 emails released by the Department of Justice.
In the emails, the late sex offender appeared to be a frequent point of contact for Tisch, coordinating meetings with various women and providing specific details regarding their ages, nationalities, and physical appearances.
Tisch and Epstein discussed specific women, according to the emails, with Tisch frequently inquiring whether they were “pro or civilian” or a “working girl.”
In one April 2013 exchange, Tisch asked Epstein about a woman identified as “M,” writing: “Curious to know about M… pro or civilian?”
Epstein replied that she was a “civilian, but Russian,” and added that she was “fun.” In another exchange in June, Tisch asked if a woman was a “working girl,” to which Epstein replied, “Never.”
In another email, Epstein told Tisch that a Ukrainian woman was “a little freaked by the age difference” but that he would “try to convince her not to return” to her home country.
In another instance, Epstein told Tisch that a microbiology student in Florida was interested in meeting, advising Tisch to “make it clear that you will organize her ticket.”
The documents also indicate that the women were informed of Tisch’s professional background. One woman emailed Epstein in April 2013 stating she had “googled Steve Tisch” and noted he was an “Oscar winner producer, and Giants owner” before agreeing to a meeting.
The communication between the two men often involved invitations to Epstein’s home and sports events. In September 2013, Tisch emailed Epstein to offer “two tickets in my Suite for Sundays game.” Epstein, in an April 2013 email, referred to Tisch as a “new but obviously shared interest friend.”
Tisch has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
In a statement to ABC News provided by a Giants spokesperson, Tisch said on Epstein, “We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy and investments. I did not take him up on any of his invitations and never went to his island. As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with.”
Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges that he “sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida, among other locations,” using cash payments to recruit a “vast network of underage victims,” some of whom were as young as 14 years old.
Stock photo of a shark fin in the water. (Dirk Hoffmann/STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Beachgoers planning out their summer swims on the East Coast may take a moment to consider the yearly arrival of a famed ocean predator.
A juvenile white shark named Nori has been coasting its way north along the eastern seaboard and pinged a shark-tracking system off the coasts of New Jersey and New York last week.
According to OCEARCH, a nonprofit tracking shark movements, Nori is “the first tagged white shark on the Global Shark Tracker to begin this year’s seasonal northward jump.”
Nori, an eight-foot ten-inch female pinged the tracking system off the coast of south New Jersey on Tuesday night, again further north off the coast on Wednesday night, and by Friday night, the shark had pinged off the coast of Long Island around Southampton, New York, according to an OCEARCH map.
“Juvenile white sharks are not typically among the first sharks to begin this northward movement, making Nori’s early migration particularly interesting to follow,” OCEARCH senior data scientist John Tyminski said in a statement.
“The first sharks to move north are often the larger adults and subadults, possibly because their size allows them to tolerate colder waters more effectively,” Tyminski added.
Nori was first tagged in Nova Scotia in October of last year, and had since traveled south to the coast of the Carolinas for the winter before making its move north this spring.
The post from the nonprofit shared, “Nori’s movement north from the staging areas off the Carolinas may signal that the larger seasonal migration of western North Atlantic white sharks is not too far off.”
How to stay safe from sharks in the ocean this summer
As temperatures begin to rise and beachgoers flock to sandy shores this summer, swimmers can follow a few simple guidelines to take caution and reduce the risk of a shark attack.
In a website message, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation says, “Humans assume risk whenever they enter any wild environment, whether on land or in the water. When in the ocean, part of this risk includes interacting with apex predators such as sharks.”
The message continues explaining that although eliminating all risk is not possible, “people can modify their behavior to minimize potential interactions with sharks and reduce overall risk.”
The department recommends “avoiding areas with seals,” staying clear of areas with “schools of fish, splashing fish, or diving seabirds,” keep swimming times during daytime hours and “avoid swimming at dusk, night, and dawn.”
The department also recommends avoiding murky waters and listening to lifeguard and park staff instructions at all times.
“The vast majority of unprovoked incidents are the result of test bites, which occur when a shark misidentifies a human as their preferred prey,” the site reads.
“There is no evidence which suggests that sharks in New York are intentionally pursuing or ‘attacking’ humans,” the message finished.
Fraudsters are posing as ICE officers, immigration lawyers and federal judges. (Evelin Flores)
(NEW YORK) — Twenty-year-old Edith from Guatemala has remained in her home with her 1-year-old baby Justin for weeks after selling her only means of transportation.
“Being stuck at home, locked up inside, is very, very difficult for us,” she told ABC News.
Edith, a U.S. citizen who was raised in Guatemala and requested she only be referred to by her first name out of concern over her privacy, sold her car and spent her life savings to pay someone who she thought was an attorney to help her husband Dimas, who was arrested and placed in immigration custody in March.
After Dimas, the undocumented breadwinner of the family, was quickly sent to a detention center in Georgia, Edith sought an immigration lawyer on social media, where a stranger recommended a supposed Florida-based attorney.
“I was scheduled for a video call, and the woman who said she was a lawyer said that to get someone out of immigration detention, a habeas corpus needed to be filed,” Edith told ABC News.
Edith retained the woman and began communicating with her frequently. She completed documents the woman sent her, and began sending the woman payments. She even received documents that appeared to be from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the federal agency that oversees immigration services.
“She began asking for money, $500, $600, $1,750, $4,000 for the bond, petition, copies [of forms],” Edith said.
But last month, when the woman was scheduled to participate in a video call for Dimas’ initial hearing before an immigration judge, she never appeared on the call. Edith’s husband later told her that the judge said that the attorney wasn’t registered in the court system.
“He said, ‘They’re scamming you,'” Edith said. “I said, ‘But why? Why me?’ I started to feel really bad and I didn’t know what to do.”
After confronting the woman she had hired, Edith realized she had been scammed out of more than $10,000 — her life savings. And with all her money gone, she was unable to pay for a legitimate lawyer to represent her husband, who last month was ordered deported by an immigration judge.
‘A billion-dollar industry’ Edith is one of many victims across the country that law enforcement and immigration lawyers say are being targeted by bad actors seizing on the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.
Some scammers, according to officials, are using artificial intelligence to hold fake immigration court proceedings with scammers wearing judicial robes and law enforcement uniforms, using fake documents that appear to be from federal agencies.
“In my experience, this is a billion-dollar industry,” said Jorge Rivera, an immigration lawyer in Florida.
Rivera told ABC News that scammers, including the woman who Edith hired, have used his credentials and his law firm’s information to target immigrants.
“[Victims] have shown up to our office and they say, ‘What happened to my case?'” he said.
ABC News found cases of sophisticated immigration scams across the country, including in New York, where five defendants pleaded not guilty to charges accusing them of holding “sham immigration proceedings” including asylum interviews and court appearances.
According to the complaint, one victim ended up missing their real immigration hearing and was deported.
“In doing so, the defendants demonstrated a complete and utter disregard for the potentially life-altering consequences that their actions inflicted on their victims — vulnerable individuals who not only lost significant funds, but also missed their actual immigration court appearances,” prosecutors said.
And last month, four people in Orlando, Florida, were charged with setting up a fake immigration law firm and extorting millions from victims. They have not yet entered formal pleas.
‘It’s heartbreaking’ Rivera said immigration scams have gotten “exponentially worse” during the second Trump administration, because more pathways for immigration relief “have closed.”
“There’s been pauses, there’s more denials, undoubtedly, it’s more difficult to be able to resolve your immigration status,” he said. “So this is a perfect storm for the criminals.”
Rivera said that if those seeking help are “talking to a legitimate attorney and they’re talking to a fraudster, and the fraudster is giving them hope and giving them possibilities, they’re going to go with the person that’s giving them the hope.”
Rivera said he has been working with law enforcement across the country to send them information on alleged scammers, and has been reaching out to social media companies to take down fake profiles.
In a statement to ABC News, the Department of Homeland Security said scammers are also “pretending to be ICE and USCIS to trick people into giving them money or personal information.”
The DHS said that officials will never call out of the blue, demand money, or accept payments using gift cards or crypto currency.
Scammers are also targeting immigrant advocacy groups like Catholic Charities, Kevin Brennan, Catholic Charities’ vice president, told ABC News.
“It’s really been over the past year or so that we started hearing reports of people claiming to be Catholic Charities and other organizations that provide legal services to immigrants and refugees and using social media to fraudulently offer services, express urgency, ask for money,” Brennan told ABC News.
“It’s heartbreaking to see people who are in need and looking for help and being taken advantage of in such a terrible way by these fraudsters and criminals,” he said.
In Edith’s case, the possibility of getting legitimate legal help to try to get her husband released before he’s deported is slipping away. After an immigration judge ordered her husband deported on April 28, he is currently in ICE custody awaiting removal to Guatemala.
Edith said she will likely go to Guatemala to remain with her husband.
“It’s very ugly, and I don’t wish it on anyone else — to a person who is alone and without support,” she said. “This is not easy.”
(NEW YORK) — American journalist Shelly Kittleson, who was kidnapped in Baghdad, Iraq, on March 31, has been released by her abductors, according to the Iraqi militia group Hezbollah Brigades.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
