Jeffrey Epstein's bodyguard has said he believes his former boss recruited someone to help with his apparent suicide at the prison where he was being held.
Convicted sex offender Epstein, 66, had pleaded not guilty and was awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges but had been denied bail and was facing up to 45 years behind bars.
He was found dead in his cell at Manhattan's Correctional Centre on Saturday. He was said to have committed suicide.
Igor Zinoviev, a former UFC fighter, who worked as Epstein's bodyguard and driver told New York Magazine: "Somebody helped him to do that".
On being asked why he believed Epstein was assisted, Mr Zinoviev said: "Listen, you know, that's going a little too deep."
In 2015, Mr Zinoviev also spoke to The Daily Beast about Epstein's relationship with teenage girlfriends.
At the time, he said: "So many time I tried to stop him. I try to tell tell him my opinion about that. He don’t listen to me.
"That’s the reason why I’m not working for him no more. I make him do that — to let me go.”
The bodyguard said he would shuttle Epstein from Palm Beach jail to the office and various appointments while the financier was serving a 13-month sentence for soliciting an underage girl for prostitution in 2008.
Mr Zinoviev has now backtracked, telling New York Magazine that any of Epstein's girlfriends he encountered were in their 20s.
It comes as the details from Epstein's post-mortem raised the possibility of foul play after an expert said one of the bones broken in his neck was more common in murder victims.
Jonathan Arden, president of the US National Association of Medical Examiners, said Epstein suffered a broken hyoid bone, more consistent with strangulation murders than suicidal hangings.
