Jeffrey Epstein was found injured in his New York City jail cell while awaiting federal sex abuse charges, according to multiple reports.
The multimillionaire financier, who is accused of sex trafficking underage girls, was found semi-conscious at the Metropolitan Correctional Center with marks on his neck, local station NBC New York first reported, citing sources close to the investigation.
It’s not yet clear whether the injuries, which were incurred Tuesday, were self-inflicted or the result of an assault.
The injuries were not described as serious and prison officials were treating it as a possible suicide attempt, a law enforcement official who had been briefed on the matter told The New York Times.
A spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons in an email to HuffPost on Thursday said Epstein remains housed at the jail facility, denying reports that he had been taken to a local hospital for treatment.
“As with all inmates, for privacy and security reasons, we do not share information on an inmate’s medical status or their conditions of confinement,” the spokesperson added.
The 66-year-old was arrested on July 6 and last week denied bail by a judge after prosecutors labeled him an “extraordinary” flight risk. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
A lawyer for Epstein had said that his client was willing to post up to $100 million to secure his release. This followed his defense team asking that he be allowed to await trial under house arrest in his $77 million Manhattan mansion with electronic monitoring.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex Rossmiller argued against his release, reasoning that investigators found “piles of cash,” “dozens of diamonds” and an expired passport with an alias and a Saudi Arabian address during a search of his mansion.
Epstein’s attorneys argued that the passport had been expired for more than 30 years and had been only used for “personal protection” while traveling abroad, in case he came upon potential kidnappers, hijackers or terrorists. Prosecutors noted that the passport appeared to have been used during entry into France, Spain, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia.
An attorney for Epstein and officials with the Metropolitan Correctional Center did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This has been updated throughout.