Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire financier and former friend of the Duke of York, Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking. A report in The Daily Telegraph notes that Epstein is accused of paying dozens of girls as young as 14 to perform nude massages and then assaulting them, as well as paying some of the girls to recruit others. Epstein appeared at a federal court in Manhattan this week to enter his not guilty plea before Judge Henry Pitman. The sex trafficking charges carry a penalty of up to 45 years in prison. The former hedge fund manager ‘intentionally sought out minors and knew that many of his victims were in fact under the age of 18,’ the indictment against him stated. Epstein has said in earlier court filings that his encounters with alleged victims were consensual and that he believed they were 18 when they occurred.