Wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was facing sex trafficking charges, has committed suicide at the New York jail where he was being held, according to news reports.
Epstein was being held without bail at the Manhattan Correctional Center after being charged with sex trafficking girls as young as 14. He pleaded not guilty to the charges when he was arrested last month.
The medical examiner’s office in Manhattan confirmed Epstein’s death, according to the New York Post.
His suicide comes a day after unsealed documents in New York revealed the extent of his abuse of young women at his home in Palm Beach, New York, and the Virgin Islands.
He had been on suicide watch after he was found unconscious in his jail cell with injuries to his neck. It is not clear how those injuries were caused, NBC News 4 reported.
Epstein had been held since he was arrested on charges relating to alleged sexual misconduct from at least 2002 to 2005.
He faced similar accusations in Florida in 2007 but signed a plea deal with Miami prosecutors that allowed him to avoid federal charges and plead guilty to lesser state prostitution charges.
The new charges renewed attention on the 2008 plea deal, spurring outrage against it and leading to the resignation of Trump administration Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, who negotiated the plea agreement when he was the US attorney in Miami.
In February, a judge ruled prosecutors in the case violated the law by concealing the deal from his underage alleged victims.
