Arlington’s one-time Congressional candidate Gwendolyn Beck reportedly flew on notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s private jets, and was photographed partying with him and Prince Andrew.
Two British newspapers reported on the revelations last week, focusing on the prince’s association but also mentioning Beck. The 2014 independent candidate for Virginia’s 8th Congressional district told ARLnow today that her name is being “dragged into this” despite not doing anything wrong.
The Guardian reported last week that new flight logs indicate that Andrew flew on Epstein’s private jet with Beck in 1999, around the time Beck has said she managed about $65 million of the billionaire’s investment funds for Morgan Stanley. Beck flew with Epstein on his jet multiple times in the late nineties, logs show, including with former Treasury secretary and Harvard president Larry Summers.
Women have accused Epstein of using his Boeing 727 — nicknamed the “Lolita Express” — to traffic underage girls in New York, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Investigators recently subpoenaed his personal pilots to in connection to the accusations.
Logs have shown passengers over the years included world leaders like President Trump and Bill Clinton, but have not indicated passengers took part in the crimes with which Epstein was charged. Epstein died in a Manhattan jail cell last month; his death was ruled a suicide.
Beck was also captured in a photo from 2000 shared by the Daily Mirror, which was taken at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida; it shows Beck smiling standing in a circle with Epstein, Andrew, and now-First Lady Melania Trump (then Melania Knauss).
Beck reiterated the prince’s public denials of wrongdoing in Epstein’s company.
“Prince Andrew has a delightful personality and is a total gentleman,” she told ARLnow in a brief phone interview Tuesday morning. “I firmly agree with the statements he has made publicly.”
Beck was listed in Epstein’s “black book” under a “Massage — Florida” heading, as reported by The Smoking Gun in 2015. The book also contained the contact information for wealthy businessmen and underage victims who said they were forced to provide naked massages for Epstein and his friends.
Beck told the Smoking Gun at the time that she had received “a couple of massages” at Epstein’s home from a masseuse, but had never given any herself or spotted underage girls.
“I’m just sorry that I got dragged into all this,” Beck told ARLnow today of her association with Epstein, adding that she was “at a lack of words.”
In addition to being a VIP at his home and on his private jet, Beck was also the first candidate to accept political contributions from Epstein — as reported by ARLnow in 2015 — after he was forced to register as a sex offender in 2008 for soliciting sex from a minor.
Epstein donated a total of $12,600 to help Beck’s 2014 campaign. The money made up about half of her eventual warchest against incumbent Rep. Don Beyer who won the November general election that year with 63% of the vote compared to Beck’s 2.7% of the vote.
“I thought that Jeffrey was healed, I don’t know,” Beck told ARLnow today.
The amount exceeded the Federal Election Commissions’ limit for personal donations because it was spread out among Beck’s campaign and two political groups supporting her candidacy.
One group, Coalition for Independent Voices in Congress (CIVC), returned its $5,000 portion of the donation in March 2015 after the FEC sent a letter about the violation, according to records shared by the Center for Responsive Politics. The federal agency wrote in November of that year that, “after considering the circumstances of this matter, the Commission has determined to exercise its prosecutorial discretion and take no action.”
CIVC Treasurer Ginger Vuich did not immediately respond to requests for more information.
Since last week’s revelations involving Prince Andrew, Beck said reporters for British news outlets have been repeatedly trying to call her. One, she claimed, even tried to trick the doorman at her building into letting them visit her.
“I would like to stay out of the press,” Beck said. “I’m a private person.”
Since her unsuccessful bid for Congress, Beck — who described herself as “fiscally responsible, socially inclusive” — campaigned for President Trump in 2016, arguing that more businesspeople should run for public office. Also since her campaign, Beck started working at Virginia Hospital Center as the Manager of Senior Health.
Beck, a Rosslyn resident, says she loves Arlington — her reason for talking to ARLnow despite evading other media — but is now moving out, for reasons unrelated to Epstein.
“I resigned from the hospital on July 1 so I will stop working there the end of September and we are moving out of Arlington,” said Beck. “This has been in the works for quite some time.”