Draft:Gwendolyn Beck

Gwendolyn Beck (born 1958) is an American former financial services executive and Congressional candidate from Virginia.

Early life and education
Beck was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1958. Her father was from Virginia and her mother was from Florida. She attended Florida State University from 1979 to 1981 and earned a B.S. in International Relations and Affairs with an emphasis on Cold War military diplomacy and International Business (marketing). In 1993-1994, she studied Finance at the New York Institute of Finance and later, from 1996-2001, took Morgan Stanley Specialized Investment courses at UPenn Wharton School of Business. In 2015, she completed a Master's degree in Gerontology, Longevity and Successful Aging at George Mason University.

Career
After college, Beck began working as regional sales manager for the Mid Atlantic region at Thomas Cook Travel and then as national sales manager for Eastern Airlines. She then pivoted from the travel industry to work in finance. She first worked for Credit Suisse on the bond trading floor in US government securities and taxable fixed income from October 1993 to 1995. From 1995 to 2002, Beck was vice president of investments for Morgan Stanley where her reported expertise included stocks and IPOs as well as currencies, OTC & listed securities, Secondary’s, global equities, mutual funds, taxable fixed income, municipal bonds, convertible securities, options, managed futures, precious metals, mortgages, annuities, life insurance and working knowledge of tax laws. After 9/11, Beck worked in personal financial planning for Wachovia.

In 2012, Beck published a novel titled Flirting with Finance, which follows the character Samantha Davis through her life in the financial world. Although Samantha Davis is a fictional character, Beck has stated that "all of the stories are true."

In 2014, Beck ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives to represent the 8th Congressional District of Virginia as an independent. Beck lost the election to Democratic candidate Don Beyer and received 2.7% of the vote.

Personal life and Epstein controversy
Beck has been an associate of convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein since the 1990s. In 1995, Beck was pictured in photos alongside Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.

Beck appears in the flight logs of the late financier's "Lolita Express" 28 times, from 1996 until 2001 while she was working as VP of investments at Morgan Stanley and, according to Beck herself, managing about $65 million of Epstein's funds. During this time, Beck flew with other passengers such as Ghislaine Maxwell, Prince Andrew, billionaire hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin and his wife Eva Dubin, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, Jeffrey Epstein's brother Mark Epstein and his wife Karen, former Bear Stearns CEO Jimmy Cayne and his wife, former Bear Stearns President Warren Spector, Norwegian heiress and reported ex-girlfriend of Epstein Celina Midelfart, victim Virginia Roberts, and New York socialite Felicia Taylor.

In 2014, Epstein donated $12,600 to Beck's Congressional campaign, his only political donation that year. According to Beck, she hadn't spoken to Epstein "in years" at the time of the donation, and said her decision to accept the money was "a question of forgiveness". Other significant campaign donors included Richard Kramer ($7,600), chairman of Republic Holdings, Mort Zuckerman ($2,600), billionaire owner of the New York Daily News and U.S. News and World Report, and George Albrecht ($2,600), owner of a Boston-area car dealership chain.

In 2016, Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre testified under oath that Beck was involved in sex orgies with the underaged victim and Jeffrey Epstein.