South Florida Financier Jeffrey Epstein Appeals Denial Of Bail

NEW YORK (CBSMiami/CNN) - South Florida financier Jeffrey Epstein and his lawyers appealed a denial of bail order on Tuesday.

Epstein, 66, is accused of sex trafficking dozens of underage girls.

On July 18, U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman concluded Epstein is a danger to the community and a flight risk. Berman pointed to Epstein's wealth, overseas connections and the danger his bail would pose to previous victims and other possible ones.

He had asked Berman to allow him to stay in his million-dollar mansion in Manhattan, but Epstein was ordered to remain behind bars until a trial for his sex trafficking charges.

Epstein was arrested on July 6 and is being held at Metropolitan Correctional Center. He has pleaded not guilty to one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of minors.

He is accused of having paid girls as young as 14 to have sex with him at his Upper East Side home and his estate in Palm Beach, Florida, between 2002 and 2005. Prosecutors say he used employees and associates to lure the girls to his residences and then paid some of his victims to recruit other girls for him to abuse.

According to Epstein's lawyers, he has been clean since pleading guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution charges in Florida in 2008, in which he struck a deal to avoid federal prosecution.

(©2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company, contributed to this report.)