In the early 1970s Hoffenberg founded Towers Financial Corporation, a New York City debt collection agency that was supposed to buy debts that people owed to hospitals, banks, and phone companies.[6] He was its Chief Executive Officer, President, and Chairman.[7][8][2][9] It was later discovered to be a Ponzi scheme.[7][8][2][9]

In 1987 Hoffenberg met Jeffrey Epstein through British arms dealer and intelligence asset Sir Douglas Leese, who was with Saudi Adnan Khashoggi and Prince Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud (Bandar Bush), architect in the billion dollar Al-Yamamah arms deal, Britain's biggest arms deal ever concluded - earning the prime contractor, BAE Systems, at least GBP 43 billion in revenue between 1985 and 2007.[10] Leese told Hoffenberg about Epstein: "The guy's a genius, he's great at selling securities. And he has no moral compass." Hoffenberg hired Epstein about 1987 and 1993 to help with the Towers Financial Corporation, paid him $25,000 a month and gave him a $2 million loan in 1988 that Epstein would never have to pay back.[11][2] Hoffenberg set Epstein up in offices in the Villard Houses.[2] They unsuccessfully tried to take over Pan Am in a corporate raid with Towers Financial as their raiding vessel. Their bid failed, in part because of the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, which ultimately contributed to the airline's bankruptcy. A similar unsuccessful bid in 1988 was made to take over Emery Air Freight Corp.[2]

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