Did Jacques Snicket give Jerome money to buy the penthouse?

[Foxy]

I suppose it is possible, but I had heard other people on here say Jerome likely inherited his money. My personal thoughts are that Jerome is an author, so he works whatever hours he wants wherever he wants. That's why writing the gigantic OLAF book in a matter of months was no big deal for him.

[Dante]

It's never clear, but it was always my impression that Jerome was independently wealthy. If Jacques had paid off Jerome to buy the penthouse, I'm certain that this would have come up in the letters between them in the U.A. Come to that, Jacques could just have bought it himself! I'm not convinced by the idea that he would have needed to act in secrecy, as he still had a public identity as a detective and occasional journalist; and conversely, just Jerome having bought the penthouse didn't stop Esmé from knowing there was something important about it.

[Foxy]

I wonder why Jacques would have wanted Jerome to buy the penthouse in the first place? He wasn't in VFD, so he couldn't necessarily keep the floor above the penthouse safe. I suppose Jacques could not have predicted Jerome marrying Esme.

[Dante]

I think the idea was that ownership of the penthouse effectively brought with it control of the ersatz elevator, the Baudelaire passageway, and the floor above the penthouse, whatever significance that has. A villain who owned the penthouse could invite any number of suspicious people past the doorman, bent on nefarious errands; whereas a volunteer could help their associates hold secret meetings and manage an escape route.