Bidding on pedo perv Jeffrey Epstein’s 1997 ‘little black book’ of contacts started on Wednesday, with the infamous item expected to fetch $200,000 or more.
The personal address book includes names, addresses and phone numbers of 221 people not included in the better-known later version first published by Gawker in 2015.
Bill Panagopulos, owner of Alexander Historical Auctions who are facilitiating the sale, told The Post despite the long shadow cast by its author — who died in jail awaiting trial for abusing young girls in 2019 — there has been great interest.
“As far as I know, Mr. Epstein’s estate is in no way involved in any manner,” Panagopulos said.
“As for the proceeds of the sale, I can say with a great deal of confidence that they will be going to a party that does not, nor ever did have any connection with Mr. Epstein or anyone named in the book.”
The 64-page address book, dated by a forensic doument examiner to be from around 1997, lists 349 people in total. Among them are celebrities including Robert F. Kennedy Jr, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo’s wife Cristina Greeven, actress Morgan Fairchild and billionaire Carl Icahn.
As with Epstein’s other black book, many of those included have denied meeting or having any connection to the pedophile financier.
The book on the auction block has an intriguing history of its own.
The book was initially stumbled across in the 90s by Denise Ondayko, a musician who claims she found it while walking down Fifth Avenue in New York City. She held onto it, fascinated by the names inside, but not initially realizing it belonged to Epstein.
After realizing the book had numbers for Epstein’s mansions and staff, Ondayko put the book up for sale on eBay in 2020, with Chris Helali purchasing it for $425 and sharing some of its contents with reporters.
Auction houses Sotheby’s and Christie’s declined to auction the book on the grounds of it being in poor taste, but Helali was convinced to partner with Alexander’s by New York City antiques collector and expert, Billy Leroy, according to the Daily Beast.
Alexander’s noted interested bidders can come to the auction houses’ Maryland office to inspect the book after submitting a two day notice. Private bidding is open until June 15.
Once the auction closes, the top two bidders will be notified via FedEx and given the chance to make one final offer before a winner is chosen. The person with the second highest bid will then be given a chance to make a counter offer.
Should Helali not accept the winning bid for whatever reason, then the Epstein book will be offered at a public auction in July.
While Panagopulos previously estimated the book could be sold for $200,000 or more, he said the book’s unique history and contents will make for an unpredictable outcome.
“There are NO comparables [sic], nothing so far-reaching in its effects on politics, society, royalty, finance…it goes on and on,” Panagopulos said.