457 Madison Avenue
Snapshot
| Field | Documented information |
|---|---|
| Historical address | 457 Madison Avenue, Manhattan, New York |
| Building | Part of the Henry Villard Houses |
| Principal Epstein association | Business office, staff workplace, corporate correspondence and administrative address |
| Floor documented in contemporary records | Fourth floor |
| Reported beginning | Steven Hoffenberg reportedly provided Epstein with Villard House offices in 1987 |
| Direct documentary evidence | Government correspondence in 1996, a 2001 courier invoice, a 2002 FBI interview, corporate searches, police records and a 2008 bank statement |
| Staff accounts | Cimberly Espinosa’s 2021 trial testimony; Lesley Groff’s 2021 FBI interview and 2026 congressional interview; Richard Kahn’s 2026 deposition |
| Departure chronology | Groff recalled moving in 2009; Kahn recalled staff remaining until approximately May or June 2010 |
| Distinct from | Epstein’s residence at 9 East 71st Street and his earlier leased residence at 34 East 69th Street |
| Ownership limitation | The records reviewed establish office use and correspondence, not Epstein’s ownership of the Villard Houses or hotel |
| Last checked | October 7, 2026 |
457 Madison Avenue was a documented business address for Jeffrey Epstein, in the historic Villard Houses in Midtown Manhattan. It housed personnel who handled legal work, accounting, travel and appointments. Government letters, commercial records and witness testimony establish that its role extended beyond a name in an address book.
The office and Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse were separate locations. That distinction matters when reading testimony about what employees saw, identifying where a meeting occurred, or deciding whether an address on a corporate record establishes a person’s residence. The office also appears in records concerning other properties, including the State Department’s dispute over Epstein’s tenancy at 34 East 69th Street.
The evidence supports a history of an administrative workplace. Some records additionally concern disputed visitor accounts and the investigation of alleged witness intimidation. Those records must be read individually: employment, a mailing address and telephone registration do not by themselves establish criminal conduct or knowledge.
Important Points
- The Villard Houses address is supported by contemporary records as well as later recollections. It is not dependent on an unverified online location list.
- Epstein’s fourth floor office is expressly identified in the FBI’s record of an interview conducted there on May 8, 2002.
- State Department correspondence concerning the separate East 69th Street residence was sent to Epstein and his lawyer at the Villard House address in 1996.
- Staff described lawyers, accountants, an investment trader and assistants working in the office. Different employees described different periods and responsibilities.
- Espinosa testified for Maxwell’s defense in 2021. Her statement that she had not witnessed misconduct was qualified on cross examination by the fact that she worked at the office, rather than at Epstein’s homes.
- A 2006 police report connected a telephone number to an Epstein affiliated corporation registered at the address. It did not identify the speaker merely by tracing that number.
- A JPMorgan statement still used the office address in October 2008. A statement’s mailing address does not establish where Epstein was physically present that month.
- Groff’s 2009 departure date and Kahn’s approximate 2010 date should both be retained as witness recollections. The materials reviewed do not establish one definitive date on which every employee left or the lease ended.
- The history of Epstein’s tenancy should not be converted into an allegation against unrelated businesses, hotel operators, historic owners or later occupants.
Evidence Appearances
| Record | Date or period | What it documents | Principal limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Landmarks Preservation Commission report LP-0270 | September 30, 1968 | Identifies 457 Madison Avenue as part of the Henry Villard Houses | Architectural designation, not evidence of Epstein’s later tenancy |
| EFTA00597016, pages 33, 34 and 37 | June 3 and August 7, 1996 | Office of Foreign Missions letters to Epstein and copies to Jeffrey Schantz at the Villard House | Concerns the separate lease of 34 East 69th Street |
| EFTA01582886 | 1995 to 1997 case history | Commercial court index extract for J. Epstein & Company and Epstein v. 457 Madison Avenue Corp. | Not the complaint, lease, decision or settlement |
| EFTA00219265 | January 22, 2001 | FedEx invoice and shipping account address at 457 Madison Avenue | Does not identify package contents or prove personal receipt |
| EFTA00128666 | May 8, 2002 | FBI interview of Epstein at his fourth floor Villard House office, with Schantz present | Interview concerned a financial transaction; an interview report is not an adjudication |
| EFTA01582866 | December 9, 2002 record | Dun & Bradstreet business listing for J. Epstein & Co. at the address | Commercial database extract, not a certified corporate filing |
| EFTA01333133, stamped page EFTA01333219 | Police report printed July 19, 2006; calls on March 7, 2006 | Corporate address and telephone research during an intimidation investigation | Registration does not establish the caller’s identity or call content |
| EFTA01488292 | October 1 to 31, 2008 | Bank statement addressed to Epstein Interests, care of J. Epstein & Co., at the Villard House | Mailing evidence, not a visitor or occupancy log |
| EFTA01246216 | July 23, 2021 interview | Groff’s account of her hiring, office colleagues and administrative duties | Agent’s summary of a proffer interview, not a verbatim transcript |
| Maxwell trial, Document 761 | December 16, 2021 | Espinosa’s testimony about employment at the office | Her observations were limited to the places and periods where she worked |
| House Oversight, Richard Kahn deposition | March 11, 2026 | Recollections about the office and the move to East 66th Street | Approximate recollections; searchable transcription is unofficial |
| House Oversight, Lesley Groff interview | June 9, 2026 | Her office employment from 2001 to 2009 and subsequent moves | An individual employee’s account, not the office lease file |
The Building and the Address
New York City’s 1968 landmark designation identifies the building at 457 Madison Avenue as part of the Henry Villard Houses. The commission dated the complex’s construction from 1882 to 1885 and credited McKim, Mead & White. Its report describes Italian Renaissance style brownstone houses arranged around a courtyard.
The Library of Congress architectural record likewise identifies the group as the Villard Houses, with an address range of 451 to 457 Madison Avenue and 24 East Fifty-first Street. It explains that the apparently unified palazzo was built as six residences. The singular expression “Villard House” in Epstein correspondence therefore refers to an office location within a larger historic complex, not to a building he is shown to have commissioned or owned.
Groff described the office’s hotel setting as the Helmsley Palace. The records use several related labels, including the Villard House, Villard Houses, the palace and 457 Madison Avenue. These variations can describe the same historical office setting. They do not make the entire hotel, every room within it or every other tenant part of Epstein’s operation.
The Reported Beginning of Epstein’s Office Tenancy
Vicky Ward’s 2003 profile attributed Epstein’s arrival at the Villard House in 1987 to Steven Hoffenberg. The report is not an executed office lease.
That origin belongs to the history of Epstein’s business relationship with Hoffenberg. It should not be confused with a government finding that every later activity at the address concerned Towers Financial, or with proof that Hoffenberg continued paying the rent throughout Epstein’s occupancy. The contemporary documents discussed below independently establish later use without settling the terms of the original tenancy.
Government Correspondence in 1996
The Office of Foreign Missions’ June 3, 1996 letter, stamped EFTA00597048, was addressed to Jeffrey E. Epstein, J. Epstein & Company, Inc., at the Villard House, 457 Madison Avenue. A copy went to his lawyer Jeffrey Schantz at the same address.
The letter concerned Epstein’s lease of 34 East 69th Street. The government asserted that he had left that residence and allowed Ivan Fisher to use it without approval. A second letter dated August 7, 1996, stamped EFTA00597052, notified Epstein that the residential lease would terminate on August 23.
For the Madison Avenue article, the significance is the correspondence route. The government used Epstein’s business office to communicate about a different property, and his legal representative was associated with the same office. The letters do not establish that the State Department leased him the Villard Houses. Their legal subject was the East 69th Street residence.
The packet also contains a notice provision giving Schantz’s address as the fourth floor of 457 Madison Avenue. That is another contemporaneous fourth floor reference, separate from the FBI’s later description.
The 1995 Real Property Case
A released commercial court search, EFTA01582886, identifies a New York County Supreme Court action captioned J. Epstein & Company, Inc. and Jeffrey Epstein v. 457 Madison Avenue Corp. The extract lists index number 1213851995, a request for judicial intervention dated August 30, 1995, and Justice Louise Gruner Gans. It classifies the action as other real property and gives a disposition date of April 24, 1997.
This establishes that a case with that caption appeared in the search record. The extract does not provide the claims, the corporation’s legal relationship to the premises, the court’s reasoning or any settlement terms. Describing it as proof that Epstein won a rent dispute, purchased the building or was evicted would go beyond the document.
Its informational disclaimer also matters. The document is a database result reproduced in JPMorgan’s production, marked JPM-SDNY-00062467. It is not a certified copy of the state court docket or a judicial opinion. The distinction limits what can responsibly be inferred from the terse disposition entry.
Ward also reported that Epstein withheld office rent in 1995, alleging that his landlord, identified as the Municipal Arts Society, restricted staff access at night. She reported a settlement. The database extract alone does not establish that it describes the same dispute or disclose the settlement terms.
Staff and Workplace Testimony
Cimberly Espinosa testified on December 16, 2021 that she joined J. Epstein & Co. in October 1996 as a legal administrative assistant for Jeffrey Schantz and Darren Indyke, then became Maxwell’s assistant. She identified 457 Madison Avenue as her workplace through approximately the summer or fall of 2002. She described almost daily office contact with Maxwell.
Espinosa testified for the defense and said she had never witnessed inappropriate activity with underage girls. On cross examination, prosecutors established that she worked at the Madison Avenue office, did not work from Epstein’s homes and had never visited his Palm Beach house. Her lack of observation could therefore not establish what happened at those other properties.
Groff’s July 2021 FBI proffer supplies a separate account of the office in the following period. She said she began working for Epstein in February 2001 after interviews involving Maxwell and Epstein at 457 Madison Avenue. She recalled legal staff, accountants, a trader and assistants. The report describes a busy administrative operation in which appointments, calls, travel and household requests were coordinated.
A staff list shows who worked in the same setting; it does not establish identical duties, information or knowledge. The witnesses’ different roles are essential to evaluating their accounts rather than treating the office as an undifferentiated group.
What the Office Work Involved
The Groff interview report describes daily call lists, changing appointments and communication with people managing Epstein’s homes and travel. It also records her acknowledgment of scheduling massage appointments, which she characterized as ordinary scheduling work. Those explanations are her account to investigators, rather than an FBI conclusion endorsing them.
Her 2026 congressional interview again distinguished the business office from the townhouse. She denied seeing inappropriate conduct and described Epstein as having kept people separated. Congressional questioning tested those assertions against messages and other evidence. The fact that her employment took place partly in a commercial office does not resolve the separate issue of what she knew about appointments arranged elsewhere.
The address is important precisely because administrative work can concern events at another location. An appointment arranged at 457 Madison Avenue is not necessarily an appointment held there. Conversely, a residence named in an itinerary does not tell the reader which office, assistant or company prepared it. Documents should preserve both the place of administration and the destination of the activity when they identify them.
The FBI Interview of May 8, 2002
The first page of EFTA00128666 describes Epstein as a financial consultant and gives his business address as the Villard House, 457 Madison Avenue, fourth floor. It expressly states that investigators interviewed him at his office and that Jeffrey Schantz was also present.
The interview concerned Epstein’s account of a proposed bridge loan connected to Laurence Zimmerman and the acquisition of Winstar Communications assets. It was not an interview about the later Palm Beach sexual abuse investigation. The source is valuable here because it documents the office in a contemporaneous official record, with a date and a description of physical use.
The report also illustrates an important distinction between an investigative document and an investigative conclusion. The FD-302 records what Epstein told agents about a financial transaction. Its presence in the later Epstein disclosures does not make every assertion in that interview a verified finding, or establish that the office was the subject of a search.
Shipping, Corporate Records and Banking
A FedEx invoice dated January 22, 2001 identifies Jeffrey E. Epstein at 457 Madison Avenue both in the customer address and the billing account shipping address. It provides evidence of an operating courier account associated with the office. It does not reveal the contents of packages simply because an address appears on an invoice.
A Dun & Bradstreet listing dated December 9, 2002 places J. Epstein & Co. at the same address and describes an investment business. Its estimates and corporate history are commercial database information. The address can corroborate other records without treating every field as an official company filing or audited financial statement.
The October 2008 JPMorgan statement was addressed to Epstein Interests, care of J. Epstein & Co. Inc., the Villard House, 457 Madison Avenue. The document is marked JPM-SDNY-00009950 and EFTA01488292.
The statement shows that this mailing identity remained in the bank’s records in October 2008. It does not establish that Epstein personally collected the mail, attended the office that month or was free to travel there. Nor does continued use of a corporate name settle the legal status of that entity. Account administration, company registration and physical occupancy are distinct questions.
The Address in the Palm Beach Police Investigation
The Palm Beach incident report’s page 87, stamped EFTA01333219, describes investigators’ examination of calls on March 7, 2006 during an alleged witness intimidation episode. The investigator reported that a number was registered to an Epstein affiliated corporation at 457 Madison Avenue. A database check identified several Epstein related entities using that business address, including El Zorro Ranch Corporation, New York Strategy Group, Ghislaine Corporation, J. Epstein and Company, and Financial Strategy Group.
The report connects the New York administrative address to the Florida investigation through corporate and telephone records. It does not establish the identity of a speaker from the registered number alone. A call associated with a company number must not be silently rewritten as a personally placed call by Epstein or by a particular employee.
The source also records the investigator’s interpretation of the sequence, rather than a verdict that every individual in the call chain committed intimidation. The distinction is especially important where names are redacted. The redactions limit identification of the people involved.
Disputed Accounts of Visitors
The New York Times’ December 18, 2025 investigation, available in an archived copy, reported Maria Farmer’s account that Epstein summoned her to the Villard Houses office to meet Donald Trump. Farmer alleged that Trump leered at her. The newspaper also reported a former assistant’s recollection of office visits and Mark Epstein’s account of what his brother had told him.
These sources are not equivalent: Farmer described an encounter she said she experienced; the former assistant described observations; Mark’s statement included information attributed to his brother. Trump’s spokesman denied that Trump had visited the office, and the White House rejected the Times report. The Times stated that its investigation had not found evidence implicating Trump in Epstein’s abuse or trafficking of minors.
The office is therefore part of a disputed historical visitor account. That account should not be presented as a court finding, and a claimed visit should not itself be used as proof of participation in Epstein’s crimes.
Leaving Madison Avenue
Groff told House investigators in June 2026 that she worked at the Villard House from 2001 to 2009 before moving to 301 East 66th Street. She recalled being told that the palace location was expensive and the operation was downsizing because Epstein would no longer be there.
Richard Kahn’s March 2026 deposition provides a different approximate endpoint. In the searchable unofficial transcription at approximately 1:03, he recalled an expensive lease, efforts to reduce costs and staff continuing at 457 Madison Avenue until around May or June 2010. He then described a move to East 66th Street.
These accounts support a transition after Epstein’s 2008 incarceration, but they do not supply an agreed lease termination date. They could reflect imperfect memory or differences in when particular staff moved; the reviewed documents do not resolve which explanation applies. The defensible chronology retains both recollections and avoids presenting 2009 or 2010 as a conclusively established departure date for everyone.
Groff also distinguished the later offices from places where Epstein himself worked. She said he never worked at the East 66th Street or Lexington office. Those staff locations, and her subsequent work at the East 71st Street townhouse, belong to separate periods. A document dated after the move that still contains Madison Avenue may be using an old mailing address rather than documenting a new visit.
Chronology
| Date | Event | Evidence status |
|---|---|---|
| 1882 to 1885 | Construction dates given for the Villard Houses | Landmark commission report |
| September 30, 1968 | Landmark designation includes 457 Madison Avenue | Official designation |
| 1987 | Hoffenberg reportedly supplies Epstein with Villard House offices | Ward’s 2003 reporting, rather than a reviewed lease |
| August 30, 1995 | Request for judicial intervention in the case against 457 Madison Avenue Corp. | Commercial court index extract |
| June and August 1996 | OFM sends East 69th Street lease correspondence to the Madison Avenue office | Contemporary letters |
| October 1996 | Espinosa joins Epstein’s legal administrative staff | Later trial testimony |
| April 24, 1997 | Disposition recorded in the Madison Avenue corporation lawsuit | Commercial extract; terms not provided |
| January 22, 2001 | FedEx invoice uses the address | Contemporary invoice |
| February 2001 | Groff begins work after interviews at the office | Her 2021 and 2026 accounts |
| May 8, 2002 | FBI interviews Epstein at his fourth floor office | Contemporary FD-302 |
| March 7, 2006 | Calls later examined in the police intimidation investigation | Police narrative and telephone research |
| October 2008 | JPMorgan statement uses the Villard House address | Contemporary statement |
| 2009 or approximately mid 2010 | Staff move away from Madison Avenue | Different retrospective accounts by Groff and Kahn |
| December 16, 2021 | Espinosa testifies about the office in Maxwell’s criminal trial | Trial transcript |
| March and June 2026 | Kahn and Groff give further congressional accounts | Deposition video and interview transcript |
What the Address Establishes
Taken together, the records identify a durable business and administrative center. The strongest evidence combines dated documents with accounts from people who worked there: government mail, an on-site FBI interview, a courier account, bank correspondence and workplace testimony.
The evidentiary boundaries are equally concrete. The materials reviewed do not establish Epstein’s ownership of the entire complex, a definitive start or end date from an executed office lease, the contents of every shipment, the speaker on every registered telephone call or criminal knowledge by every employee. They also do not authorize the transfer of allegations about a residence to this office merely because the same people or companies appear in both sets of records.
Those limits make the address more useful to researchers. A carefully identified business office can explain how correspondence, legal affairs and appointments were coordinated without substituting association for proof.
Related EpsteinWiki Articles
- Jeffrey Epstein
- 9 East 71st Street: Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan Townhouse
- Lesley Groff
- Lesley Groff Congressional Testimony
- Richard Kahn Deposition
- Maxwell Criminal Trial
Sources
- New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, LP-0270, Henry Villard Houses in part, September 30, 1968.
- Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey NY-5635, Villard Houses architectural record.
- Vicky Ward, The Talented Mr. Epstein, Vanity Fair, March 2003.
- EFTA00597016, lease and litigation packet, especially EFTA00597043, EFTA00597048, EFTA00597049 and EFTA00597052.
- EFTA01582886, commercial court index extract, JPM-SDNY-00062467.
- EFTA00219265, January 22, 2001 FedEx invoice.
- EFTA00128666, Epstein-Data viewer and readable PDF, FBI interview of Epstein, May 8, 2002.
- EFTA01582866, Dun & Bradstreet listing dated December 9, 2002.
- EFTA01333133, Palm Beach police report, printed page 87 and stamped EFTA01333219.
- EFTA01488292, October 2008 JPMorgan statement, JPM-SDNY-00009950.
- EFTA01246216, Epstein-Data viewer and readable PDF, Groff proffer interview, July 23, 2021, entered September 24, 2021.
- United States v. Maxwell, Document 761, December 16, 2021 trial transcript, especially transcript pages 2329 to 2335 and 2386 to 2387.
- House Oversight release of Kahn and Indyke deposition videos, March 24, 2026, with Kahn’s video and a searchable unofficial transcription.
- House Oversight, Lesley Groff transcript, interview June 9, 2026, released June 23; especially pages 17 to 18, 57 to 59, 73, 93 and 193 to 194.
- Nicholas Confessore and Julie Tate, New York Times, December 18, 2025, with archived text.