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Match.com sent notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein the dating profiles of more than a dozen young women years after he registered as a sex offender, according to files recently released by the Department of Justice.
“Congratulations on your first 18 matches. We will continue to send you new matches,” an email from Match.com to Epstein said on July 5, 2012.
The email to the dating app user “jeeproject” contained information on multiple matches with women across the US, all of whom were 26 or younger.
An email from July 4, 2012, welcomed Epstein to the site owned by Match Group, which also operates other popular dating apps, including OkCupid, Tinder, and Hinge.
“Welcome to the Leading Online Dating Site. Congratulations! You’ve joined the most dynamic group of singles out there. We’re responsible for more dates, relationships, and marriages than any other site,” the email said, indicating Epstein was a man “seeking women.”
A few years prior, the disgraced financier was required to register as a sex offender in an agreement with prosecutors in 2008 after he pleaded guilty to soliciting an underage prostitute.
He served 13 months in a minimum security jail.
In April 2011, Match.com indicated they were implementing a service to screen for users who had been registered as a sex offender, the Associated Press reported at the time.
“We’ve been advised that a combination of improved technology and an improved database now enables a sufficient degree of accuracy to move forward with this initiative, despite its continued imperfection,” former Match.com CEO Mandy Ginsberg said in an email to the outlet.
Houston-based Match Group’s website currently says that the company works to ban registered sex offenders and anyone who is suspected of sex trafficking from using their products.
Match Group said in a statement to The Post that the emails included in the Epstein files were sent at a time when safety checks weren’t as advanced as modern times.
“The activity referenced dates back more than a decade, during a time when safety tools and registry checks were far more limited than they are today,” a Match Group spokesperson said.
“Since then, both the tools available and Match Group’s own Trust & Safety practices have been significantly strengthened through improvements in technology and our continued investment in safety.”
Epstein received several other email alerts from Match.com in 2012, with some credit card statements for the dead pedophile showing he paid just over $45 a month to the service.
Records also showed he signed up for an OkCupid account in Jan. 2011. Match Group acquired the online data company just a month later.
It is unclear whether Epstein ever messaged or met up with any of the women he matched with on the dating apps.
He was later charged by federal prosecutors in New York in 2019 for his years of allegedly trafficking and abusing underage girls.
Epstein died in his jail cell in August 2019 while facing federal charges of sex-trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex-trafficking of minors.
He is believed to have victimized hundreds of women and children.
English (US)