Jeffrey Epstein's mentor, who was imprisoned for massive Ponzi scheme, found dead by police

The longtime mentor to Jeffrey Epstein was found dead by Connecticut police during a welfare check at his residence in the town of Derby.

Steven Hoffenberg was 77 years old.

His "rotting corpse" was found by police on Tuesday evening on the floor of his bedroom at about 8 p.m. Police said there were no obvious signs of trauma to the body and the cause of death was unclear. Police told the Daily Mail that he might have been dead for a week before he was found.

“Every indication is that it is Mr. Hoffenberg,” said a spokesman for the Derby Police Department. “There’s nothing to suggest that it isn’t. We believe it’s him. We’re just waiting for dental records.”

Hoffenberg pleaded guilty to running a Ponzi scheme worth half a billion dollars in 1995 and was sentenced to prison for 20 years. Investors in the scheme later claimed in a lawsuit that Epstein “knowingly and intentionally utilized funds he fraudulently diverted and obtained from this massive Ponzi scheme for his own personal use to support a lavish lifestyle.”

He later claimed that Epstein had been the mastermind behind the scam and got away with it.

Epstein, a convicted pedophile, was found dead in his cell in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial. The bizarre circumstances around his apparent suicide and the claims that he arranged underage sex for wealthy and powerful people has led many to suspect a conspiracy behind his death.

Epstein's associate and friend Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of five counts, including the sex trafficking of young girls, and sentenced to 20 years in prison in June. She was also fined $750,000.

Hoffenberg had also briefly been the court-appointed manager for the New York Post in 1993.

Here's a news story about the death of Hoffenberg:

Steven Hoffenberg, Epstein mentor and one-time New York Post manager, found dead | New York Postwww.youtube.com