Jeffrey Epstein, the multimillionaire financier being held on federal sex trafficking charges, was found in a semi-conscious state and with superficial injuries to his neck in his Manhattan jail cell following a “possible suicide attempt,” according to multiple media sources.
Guards reportedly found him in a fetal position on the floor of his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.
Sources said he appeared to have tried to hang himself a week after he was denied bail on sex trafficking charges.
But another source said the injuries were not serious and that Epstein might have staged the alleged suicide attempt to get a transfer to another facility, NBC reported.
The New York Post reports that he was taken to hospital for treatment, but details about his condition were not disclosed, according to The Guardian.
Epstein, 66, was on suicide watch.
Sources also said that investigators did not rule out assault as another inmate, the former police officer Nicholas Tartaglione, was reportedly being questioned.
But Tartaglione, who was awaiting trial for the killing of four men, reportedly denied involvement.
Epstein was arrested on July 6 after his private jet landed in Teterboro, New Jersey, from a trip to Paris, France. He was taken into custody after federal prosecutors filed sex trafficking charges against him. Law enforcement officials also entered his Upper East Side, NYC mansion to execute a search warrant.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges related to alleged sex trafficking of minors in New York and Florida between 2002 and 2005.