## JAMES PATTERSON

Seckel acquaintances, I kept hearing variations on a scheme Mrs. Pearce Williams believed he perpetrated against her late hus- band, the man Seckel said was his mentor. Seckel took books and promised money, or he took money and promised a book; but somehow, the promised party lost money."

"He was charming, erudite, humorous," one of Seckel's marks told the reporter. "I lent him $75,000. When the time came to pay it back he didn't want to do it."

Oppenheimer found several people whom Seckel had stiffed and uncovered dozens of lawsuits he'd been involved in. In 2007, Seckel settled a libel lawsuit against a man who'd edited his Wiki- pedia page. Years later, Oppenheimer spoke with Seckel's lawyer, Nicholas Hornberger.

"Hornberger confirmed that he'd reached a settlement for the case, a favorable one," the journalist wrote. "Hornberger added that Seckel has still not paid him for his services."

He also interviewed Seckel's wife, Isabel Maxwell.

Al and Isabel met on a blind date and married in Malibu in or "around" 2007 ("I don't keep the dates in my head," Seckel explained). A few years later, they moved to the South of France, where Seckel continued to trade in rare books and papers. While living in France, he was sued by a Virgin Islands company that accused him and Isabel of fraudulently attempting to sell rare books and a seventeenth-century portrait of Isaac Newton.

Seckel had also been trying to sell papers belonging to Isa- bel's father.

Isabel is Ghislaine Maxwell's sister and the daughter of Rob- ert Maxwell.

It was an odd thing, Epste
PhD who, on closer inspec
But the Mindshift confer
in the Virgin Islands di
Mann was there, along wit
coauthored books with St
expert on artificial intelli
attended the conference, sa
about it.

"We had scientific disc
he said vaguely.

When Mark Oppenheir
Seckel, Sussman "got testy"
"I have had some dealir
want to say what it's abo
it, okay?"

Today, Epstein's websites-
Jeffrey EpsteinScience.com-
long since expired. Several r
tributions, including New Yo
Palm Beach, announced tha
gifts.

"The further I can keep
better," said Ballet Palm Beac
But in 2012, Epstein held
Jeff's. Once again, three Nobe
Stephen Hawking was also th
twenty-one physicists-from

*

*

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{"people":["james patterson","pearce williams","nicholas hornberger","isabel maxwell","ghislaine maxwell","robert maxwell","isaac newton","jeffrey epstein","stephen hawking"]}