Jeffrey Epstein worked at financial firm that engaged in massive Ponzi scheme in 1980s and 1990s http://archive.is/UiXoX Jeffrey Epstein worked as a paid consultant during the 1980s and 1990s at a New York financial company that participated in one of the largest Ponzi schemes in American history, according to court records and the accounts of attorneys and executives connected with the firm, Towers Financial.  Towers was a bill collection agency founded by Steven J. Hoffenberg, who told CBS News he hired Epstein in 1987 to help commit a billion dollars worth of financial fraud.   "He was my best friend for years. My closest friend for years," Hoffenberg told CBS News, speaking of Epstein. "We ran a team of people on Wall Street, investment people that raised these billion dollars illegally. He was my guy, my wingman." Hoffenberg was investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, and pleaded guilty in 1995 to five criminal charges. He was sentenced in 1997 to 20 years in prison and was released in 2013. Towers Financial executives Mitchell Brater and Michael Rosoff were given prison sentences between seven and nine years. Other employees who pleaded guilty received civil judgments.  Epstein was never charged in the fraud. His legal team did not respond to CBS News' request for comment. Epstein died in an apparent suicide this weekend in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges. During his bail proceedings last month, his asset summary listed more than $559 million in total assets.  Corrigan likened Towers' business model to the classic con movie "The Sting." He described an operation where Hoffenberg and other executives would woo investors in a Manhattan wood-paneled boardroom before giving tours of operating floors one floor below. Someone would make a call downstairs to make sure employees would look busy once investors arrived. ... "The company had different lines of business. It was selling promises to investors: Buy our notes, buy our bonds. It never had a core operating business that would have sustained the kind of payoffs that were being promised."