(Bloomberg) -- Federal sex-trafficking and conspiracy charges against Jeffrey Epstein were unsealed Monday as prosecutors pursue a case against the fund manager whose state plea deal in Florida in 2008 has been intensely criticized as inadequate.

Epstein faces a two-count indictment: one count of sex-trafficking and one count of sex trafficking conspiracy. Epstein lawyers Martin Weinberg and Reid Weingarten declined to comment on the case.

This is what prosecutors allege:

  • The crimes occurred at Epstein’s homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida, from 2002 to 2005 involving minors as young as 14. The U.S. accused Epstein of “creating a vast network of victims.”
  • Epstein paid victims hundreds of dollars in cash after sex acts. The victims were “often particularly vulnerable to exploitation,” prosecutors said. They were initially recruited to give Epstein massages, which became increasingly sexual in nature. He encouraged certain girls to recruit others in return for cash, prosecutors said, enabling him to maintain a “steady supply of victims to exploit.”
  • When victims arrived, they would be escorted to a room with a massage table and told to fully or partially undress, the U.S. said. Epstein would then escalate physical contact to include groping and would typically pleasure himself while asking the victims to touch him.
  • Epstein sometimes contacted the victims personally to schedule encounters and sometimes directed employees to communicate with the girls to arrange for future visits.
  • At least three of Epstein’s employees were involved in recruiting and scheduling minors for sexual encounters with him, as well as other unspecified “associates,” the U.S. said. One was based in New York, while two other assistants based at his mansion in Palm Beach were responsible for scheduling the encounters there and escorting victims to a room in the house, according to the indictment.
  • Epstein faces decades in prison if convicted.
  • Prosecutors also seek forfeiture of the Upper East Side townhouse they say Epstein used in the sexual encounters. The townhouse, said to be one of the largest in Manhattan, is at 9 East 71st Street.

--With assistance from Bob Van Voris.

To contact the reporters on this story: Chris Dolmetsch in Federal Court in Manhattan at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.net;Patricia Hurtado in Federal Court in Manhattan at pathurtado@bloomberg.net;Christian Berthelsen in New York at cberthelsen1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter Jeffrey

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