Mark Epstein, the brother of financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was convicted of sex trafficking and committed suicide in prison, called the suicide note released this week in federal court a forgery.
“I've known Jeff my whole life. If he was going to commit suicide, if he was going to write a suicide note, he would have written it to someone, not just a general statement. "I don't believe it," Epstein told The National Enquirer, as quoted by The Independent.
According to the case file, the note was discovered by Epstein's former cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, in July 2019. This happened after an incident in which Epstein was found unconscious but alive in his cell. A month later, in August 2019, the financier died in prison. His death was officially ruled a suicide.
Epstein has questioned the circumstances surrounding the incident in July in his cell. According to him, his brother initially reported that he was attacked by a cellmate, but later denied this version. "He told his lawyer about it and then recanted the story, saying he didn't remember what happened because he was afraid of retaliation," the financier's brother said.
According to the publication, Tartaglione claimed to have found the note in a book. The document was initially classified. The New York Times later secured its disclosure by filing a petition. The U.S. Department of Justice supported the request to publish the document.
In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to organizing prostitution and received a light sentence. In 2019, he was arrested again on charges of trafficking minors, and in August of the same year he committed suicide in prison.
According to a BBC investigation, after British police refused to investigate the financier's activities, he rented apartments in central London for several years, where he housed women who had been sexually abused. At the same time, the “Telegraph“ reported that the US Department of Justice blocked a British investigation into Epstein's ties to former British ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson.
In November 2025, the US Congress ordered the Department of Justice to disclose documents related to the “Epstein“ case. At the end of January 2026, the department published over 3 million pages, but the publication was criticized for extensive censorship and possible incompleteness of the materials.