Among the tens of thousands of documents that the federal government released last month related to the late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein is an August 2020 tip to the FBI from someone who lives in Essex, N.Y.
The person’s name is redacted, but, based on the description of this tipster, it’s clear who it is: Sandy Lewis. For decades, the cantankerous — but at times generous — former Wall Street maverick has lived full time in the Adirondacks, where he owns an organic beef farm — a property that is now for sale.
The FBI’s Epstein document says the tipster described himself as someone who had worked “with prominent business figures such as Leslie Wexner” — once a major client at Epstein’s money management firm — and been “pardoned by a U.S. president.” Lewis, who was convicted of financial crimes while working on Wall Street during the 1980s, was pardoned by president Bill Clinton in 2001 and later exonerated by a judge.
The tipster told the FBI that he was in touch with an Epstein victim who “knew about criminal activity which happened in multiple states, on airplanes, etc.” The person said there were “films of men recorded,” including of “Epstein, President Bill Clinton and President Donald Trump.”
Reached on Monday, Lewis couldn’t recall the name of the Epstein victim who had contacted him — or whether he’d actually called in the tip.
“But it wouldn’t surprise me if I did,” said Lewis, who turns 87 later this month.
Wexner, a billionaire businessman who created the Limited, Bath & Body Works, and Victoria’s Secret, was a client of his, Lewis acknowledged, but he never met Epstein — or Trump, for that matter.
“God knows, I never spoke to him,” Lewis said of Epstein, “but I certainly heard about him.”
In 2018, Lewis was the subject of a Seven Days cover profile, in which he detailed a troubled childhood. As an adult, he’s taken a particular interest in helping kids, especially those in difficult circumstances. That, perhaps, is why the Epstein case, in which young women were trafficked for sex, has touched a nerve for Lewis.
“I’m for children, and I’m not for this kind of thing at all,” he told Seven Days. “And I think this is just dead wrong all the way around.”
Read the full FBI tip below.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Dropping a Dime”
This article appears in Jan 7-13 2026.
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