Jeffrey Epstein has reportedly been arrested and charged with sex trafficking of minors

• Jeffrey Epstein was arrested Saturday evening and charged with sex trafficking of minors, according to The Daily Beast.
• The charges reportedly allege that Epstein trafficked dozens of underage girls as young as 14 in the early 2000s.
• The news comes more than a decade after Epstein dodged federal charges in a secret plea deal that has long drawn scrutiny.
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The billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein was arrested Saturday evening on suspicion of trafficking dozens of underage girls as young as 14 in the early 2000s, according to a bombshell report from The Daily Beast that cited three unnamed law-enforcement sources.

The news comes more than a decade after Epstein dodged federal charges in a secret plea deal that has long drawn scrutiny.

Epstein, 66, is set to be arraigned in federal court in New York on Monday, according to The Miami Herald.

These new charges allege that Epstein systematically molested dozens of underage girls by paying them for "massages" that rapidly devolved into sexual abuse, according to the reports.

The case is being prosecuted by the Southern District of New York's public corruption unit, with help from human-trafficking officials and the FBI, The Daily Beast reported.

The alleged abuse occurred in Epstein's homes in New York City's Upper East Side and Palm Beach, Florida, and took place between roughly 1999 and 2005.

Law-enforcement sources told The Daily Beast that Epstein's employees and associates recruited the girls, and some victims even became recruiters themselves.

Epstein has long fielded allegations of sexually abusing young girls, and was investigated by the Palm Beach Police Department in 2005. But in 2007, he cut a secret non-prosecution agreement with then-US Attorney Alex Acosta, who is now President Donald Trump's secretary of labor.

The deal granted Epstein immunity from federal prosecution, and Epstein pleaded guilty only to two state charges: solicitation of prostitution and procurement of minors for prostitution.

Epstein ultimately served just a 13-month jail sentence, but due to a work arrangement was allowed to leave jail six days a week to work out of his Palm Beach office, according to The New York Times.