My Epstein Piece
Originally posted: 13 August 2025
The Epstein situation has all the ingredients needed for a perennial scandal. Sex, money, politics, murder, and a bunch of high-profile players all connected in ways unknown to the public but potentially contained in thousands of files held by the Department of Justice. The Trump Administration’s recent hand wave of the files and their significance has caused an outcry. Everybody seems to have their guess at what information is contained in the files. Like others, I can take a stab at what I think the vast connections in this web represent. Like others, I am guessing. Without the release of key files, the evidence is circumstantial. This is, of course, by design, as the figures surrounding Epstein seem to be very careful about paper trails.
What I feel I can say with confidence is that Trump is afraid of what is in the files, and I doubt what is scaring him relates to sex trafficking. I need to stat clearly at the beginning of this piece that I am speculating. What can be found below are the results of my own theory crafting and should not be read as evidence. The evidence for any theory of what happened in the world of Epstein most probably only exists in the files the DOJ will not release.
MAGA’S EPSTEIN FASCINATION
It made sense for MAGA to build a political campaign around Epstein. It is the perfect negative campaign that highlights ‘the other.’ A perfect channel for working-class anger, that somehow absolves the actual guilty parties. Diverting it into a conspiratorial anger toward a mythologised sex cabal, which also just so happened to include some high-profile democrats. Yes, a cabal is preferable to systemic inequality and corporate corruption. A list of names of specific people to blame, all neatly included in a little black book. A shadowy group of powerful figures doing terrible things, rather than a problem with the country itself. All of this encapsulated by this one man. Contained, limited, controlled.
Never having to interrogate the system, which prioritises making the rich richer. Never suggesting that there is something rotten about the country. The problem is never internal; it is always external. It is not natural; it has crept in and infected America from the outside. No real accountability required. America is good and blameless.
As easily as predatory behaviour can be swept away, it can be weaponised. MAGA wants dirt on their enemies; they want dirt on the Clintons. If that dirt does not exist? Trump needs to make it exist. That is what would make them happy. Which is made all the more clear by how the administration has tried to distract from the Epstein fizzle out. Instead of trying to refocus on the business of government, Trump offered his base a different conspiracy that implicated another important Democrat. But the distractions haven’t been enough. The base want Trump to deliver on what he promised. Lie better, more convincingly like he did on January 6. And just like January 6, if Donald Trump is involved in something sinister, his base does not care.
TRUMP’S PSYCHIC IMMUNITY
Donald Trump once said that he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose a vote. The same is true of any of his sexual improprieties that may be in the Epstein documents. We know this because Trump has already got away with significant sexual misconduct.
His supporters know about Trump’s instructions to “Grab them by the pussy”; they knew this before the 2016 election. MAGA were happy to agree that the sexual transgressions of Bill Clinton, husband of his opponent, were far worse. His supporters are aware of Trump’s imapproproate behaviour around the young girls at Miss Teen USA. MAGA know that Trump was found liable for the sexual abuse of E Jean Carroll and that his divorce settlement contained the details of a vicious sexual attack against his ex-wife. Time and time again, MAGA has been made aware of the inappropriate comments Trump has often made about his daughter. His supporters know he has been accused of inappropriate sexual behaviour by over 24 women. And no matter how MAGA minimise, they know that Trump was a close friend and party associate of Jeffrey Epstein.
If Donald Trump is in the Epstein files, he has already confessed and been forgiven in the minds of MAGA. To an extent, they expect it. Sexual misconduct has never been a real problem for MAGA or many republicans more broadly. While uniquely horrific, sex crimes are also incredibly commonplace, constantly being forgiven, in the home, in the community, and the press. Often committed by people much closer to you than the president, and rarely justly resolved. MAGA are more than happy to sweep sexual crimes, particularly those of Donald Trump, under the rug.
None of this should be read as a denial of sex crimes by those associated with Epstein. I am not interested in relitigating those claims in this piece. Personally, I am convinced by the numerous brave accounts made by women about their interactions with Epstein.
Could Epstein have been running a sexual blackmail operation? Of course! Sexual blackmail has a long history in politics far beyond Jeffrey Epstein. Homosexuality, interracial relationships, and extramarital affairs have all been used as blackmail material in politics. The Mann Act (which was used to criminalise consensual sexual activity), the McCarthy Era, COINTELPRO, and the acts of J Edgar Hoover are all obvious examples. Not to mention the famous sexual blackmail operation of Trump’s former lawyer, Roy Cohn.
So why balk when it comes to releasing the files? If Trump had no intention to release the files, why let it become a central point of his campaign? Why would you install people so fixated on the Epstein conspiracy like Kash Patel and Dan Bongino? Why allow Pam Bondi to make such a spectacle of the Epstein files Phase 1? All of Trump’s behaviour indicates that he did intend to release the files in some form. Maybe the President was not intelligent enough to realise how implicated he was in the files. Maybe Trump didn’t consider the possibility of a house of cards investigation exposing his financial activities. Or maybe there is information about something or someone else.
FOLLOW THE MONEY
If the reason Trump does not want to release the files is because he is implicated in them, the smoking gun will likely be found in the financial records. This is the realm where Trump has taken the hardest hits politically, and his financial aptitude is also a huge part of his public persona. While everyone in this circle seemed to be careful about formalising deals and agreements, financial records may lead to some unwanted connections and investigations. The financial crimes of Epstein may also be much more serious than any of us have considered.
On July 17, 2025, the day after Trump dismissed fervour regarding Epstein as a "hoax", Senator Ron Wynden (D-OR) released a memo detailing his years-long investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's finances. Wyden revealed that the Treasury has evidence of 4,725 suspicious wire transfers totalling around $1.1 billion linked to a single Epstein account. These findings were not a result of a leak, but of a formal Senate investigation by the Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee. According to Wyden, in February 2024, under the Biden administration, the bipartisan investigators on the Senate Finance Committee were offered in camera access to the Treasury's files on Epstein, detailing financial movements over many years.
In his speech on the Senate Floor, Wyden detailed his findings and urged the Department of Justice to conduct a formal inquiry and "follow the money". The transactions occurred between 2003 and 2019, with hundreds of millions more attached to other Epstein accounts that were not investigated by the committee. This was followed by a letter to AG Bondi on July 21 outlining a "roadmap" for an investigation with seven specific recommendations. The Epstein financial file, compiled by the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), is extensive and matches publicly available evidence. This includes the New York Times reporting on the filing by four large banks (in the form of Suspicious Activity Reports to Treasury), that flagged more than $1.5 billion in transactions tied to Epstein, many of them only flagged after Epstein’s July 2019 arrest. Meaning we know that billions of dollars were passing through Epstein's hands.
Notably, some transfers were extremely large (a few as high as $100 million each) and involved accounts at two Russian banks (transactions that occurred before those banks were under U.S. sanctions). Other notable transactions include the “hundreds of millions of dollars” from ultra-wealthy individuals. Wyden is adamant Epstein’s operation “had access to enormous financing, and the details of how he got the cash to pay for it are sitting in a Treasury Department filing cabinet.”
JEFFREY EPSTEIN: THE FINANCIER
To arrive at a proposition of what I think might be in the financial transactions, I have done a comprehensive review of Epstein’s business dealings and associates. I will repeat that all evidence is circumstantial, and any conclusions are purely speculative. And I will repeat again that this is part of the design; by not releasing any government information on the case, any posited theories can be discredited as a conspiracy because no one has access to the requisite evidence to back them up.
Referring to Jeffrey Epstein as the New York Financier has become a common joking refrain, suggesting Epstein is known for his profession rather than a sex trafficking scandal. But what if the key to the Epstein files is his work as a financier? An investigation into what kind of work Epstein was doing up until his 2007 conviction is very revealing. And while, of course, without access to the required records, it’s all just strings, it is suggestive of some significant high-level criminal activity.
While it is strange that a high school maths teacher with no degree becomes a partner at one of the biggest investment banks in the world in the space of four years, what Epstein does after leaving the firm is even more peculiar. For years, it seems like the centre of Epstein’s business is arms dealing, insider trading, and money laundering. None of which he has ever been investigated for, despite those around him falling like dominoes. His activity around several financial crashes is particularly questionable and indicative of a much bigger conspiracy.
JEFFREY EPSTEIN: THE ARMS DEALER
Purportedly, Epstein resigns as a partner from Bear Stearns in response to a $2500 disciplinary fine following a Regulation D violation. Keep in mind that Epstein was making a partner's salary, and even after resigning, he retained his $100,000 bonus. It is unlikely that $2500 was beyond his means, and given the continuation of his relationship with other Bear Sterns executives, such as Ace Greenberg, it doesn’t seem likely that the resignation came as a result of feeling offended.
The day before his resignation, the SEC opened an investigation into an insider trading scheme being run by a Bear Stearns client, the Bronfman-owned Seagram Company Ltd. In an interview with the SEC, Epstein denied having any involvement with the deal, but the investigator expressed scepticism. Epstein was not found guilty of any criminal conduct. This is the first connection we have between Epstein and high-level financial crime.
The work Epstein does after leaving Bear Stearns is interesting. There are not many formal records of his business dealings during this period, other than the incorporation of Intercontinental Assets Group in 1981. The services these companies offer are not clear, although Epstein is said to provide complex financial advice to ultra-wealthy clients, sometimes referring to himself as a financial bounty hunter. This was because of his knowledge of offshore and shadow banking to locate and hide money, gained while working on tax mitigation at Bear Stearns. But given Epstein doesn’t start operating as a money manager until 1988, who were his clients?
The known associates of Jeffrey Epstein between 1981 and 1986 include British arms dealer, Douglas Leese, Saudi arms dealer, Adnan Khashoggi, the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos, and the British Media Mogul and crime Consigliere, Robert Maxwell.
Douglas Leese, a very private man, was a mentor to Epstein. Leese hired him to serve as an investment banker for Leese-owned and Leese-managed companies. During this period, Leese and Khashoggi were orchestrating the Al Yamamah arms deal between Britain and Saudi Arabia. It is likely that Epstein was involved in this deal as the Austrian passport found at Epstein’s residence, which lists his address in Saudi Arabia, has entry and exit stamps that match the Al Yamamah negotiations. $6 billion of corrupt payments from the UK government were identified and never recovered. At the same time, Khashoggi was involved in the Iran-Contra arms deal, another covert operation from which a significantly large amount of funds was siphoned. Finally, Leese was involved with the mass export of Chinese arms to Iran. In 1983, Leese set up a joint venture between his firm, Lorad Company, and the Chinese weapons company Norinco in Bermuda. Given that Epstein was acting as a representative for Leese manager companies at the time, and knowing his particular skill for offshoring, it is reasonable to assume Epstein may have been involved in this venture.
The origins of Epstein and Robert Maxwell’s relationship are uncertain, but many accounts have them working closely together in the early 80s, when Maxwell was facilitating the secret transfer and sale of military equipment and arms from Israel to Iran. It has been confirmed that Maxwell worked closely with Israeli intelligence, as well as with the KGB and Russian crime syndicates. Given his work in the area, it is possible that Epstein also assisted in the redistribution of weapons from the Warsaw Pact Arsenal.
Later in his career, Epstein interacted with the Clinton administration at the same time a covert arms deal was being negotiated with China. Epstein visited the White House 17 times and was often met by Mark Middleton, who had questionable ties to the Chinese government. In 1994, Jeffrey Epstein facilitated the purchase and transfer of Southern Air Transport (the freight company used during the Iran-Contra operation) to Ohio. The military materials that needed to be covertly transferred to China were in a factory in Ohio. The weapons were transported to China in the fall of 1994 and the beginning of 1995. Southern Air Transport filed for bankruptcy in 1998, the same day the CIA Inspector General released a report detailing SAT's involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal. Mark Middleton died under suspicious circumstances in 2022.
I would like to pause to distinguish an intelligence agent from an intelligence asset. While the maximalist conspiracy for many when it comes to Epstein is that he is a foreign agent sent to blackmail American politicians and elites, I don’t think that is the case. Epstein can be linked to American, British, French, Israeli, and Russian intelligence. It is possible that he worked with all of these organisations when their goals aligned. But working with a government is not the same as working for a government. To have a government or intelligence agency as a client, when you can personally benefit from the interaction, is not the same as doing their bidding. In any case, given his associates, intelligence organisations would have been aware of Epstein’s operations.
Epstein’s involvement in these deals likely related to his knowledge of front companies, offshore banking, and complex financial webs used to distort financial transactions and hide looted money.
JEFFREY EPSTEIN: THE INSIDE TRADER
While all of this was occurring, Epstein still had his finger in the financial world. In 1986, Douglas Leese introduced Epstein to Steve Hoffenberg. Together, the three of them started Towers Financial, a Ponzi scheme disguised as a collections agency. On its face, Towers purchased outstanding debts from hospitals, banks, and similar enterprises. In reality, the firm washed money for high-profile clients like Khashoggi and Marcos while also extracting significant sums for their own benefit.
When the scheme was on the verge of collapse, a saving grace acquisition was negotiated with Tom Barracks at Colony Capital. The deal would have saved the company and its investors, but according to Hoffenberg, Epstein sabotaged the deal, giving it instead to his friend John Hall. This led to the company’s collapse in 1993, Hoffenberg being convicted of financial crimes, serving 18 years in prison, and owing half a billion dollars in restitution. Epstein walked away from Towers, extracting a significant amount, and not being held responsible for any of the fraudulent activity. In 2022, Hoffenberg committed suicide.
A close financial associate of Epstein is a man named Leon Black. Black is flagged as a person of interest by Senator Wyden, given the inexplicably large sums of money he transferred to Epstein throughout their association. Black made his mark working as a principal at Drexel Burnham Lambert, the financial firm that pumped the American economy full of junk bonds in the 80s. Hoffenberg (although there are reasons to question the objectivity of his assertions) claimed that during this time, Epstein was working with Drexel. No formal evidence of this exists outside of the well-substantiated relationship between Black, Epstein, and CEO Michael Milken.
On February 13, 1990, Drexel declared bankruptcy, sparking a financial event that would be known as the Valentine’s Day Massacre. In the year prior to the filing, Black had extracted $16 million in bonuses. Further, the SEC investigation of Drexel reveals that more than $220 million had been "moved out of the broker-dealer in a short space of time."
With the money that Black made from Drexel, he was able to start a new firm with some of his previous colleagues: Apollo Global Management. Apollo would go on to purchase assets at a steep discount following the collapse of the junk bond market, including key pieces of real estate like Midtown Manhattan office buildings, Ski resorts in Vail, and the insurance company Athene. Apollo also purchased unwanted speculative bonds from Drexel’s former clients, including $3.25 billion worth of bonds from insurance firm Executive Life at a fraction of their previous value. Two years later, when the markets recovered, Apollo’s portfolio would double in value.
In 2000, Epstein became the director of an Offshore Banking Entity, Liquid Funding. The firm was a shell corporation that held a lot of mortgage-backed securities and collateralized loan obligations, financial products that would become synonymous with the Global Financial Crisis. 40% of the entity was owned by Epstein’s former employer, Bear Stearns; the owner/s of the other 60% remain unknown. In July 2007, two key things occurred related to this story. Epstein’s attorneys met with the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, namely with Alex Acosta, to cut a sweetheart deal. At the same time, two Bear Sterns hedge funds collapse, the prelude to the coming Global Financial Crisis. When the Global Financial Crisis hit, Liquid Funding Ltd had over $6.7 billion worth of liabilities. The government bailout of the banking industry led to all of these debts being resolved, with 60% (nearly $4 billion) of the proceeds being distributed to network participants.
At the time, Epstein was personally banking with JP Morgan, where he had a particularly close relationship with Jes Stanley, the head of Asset and Wealth Management, and soon-to-be CEO. JP Morgan had been in the process of ending their relationship with problematic clients following the Bernie Madoff scandal, however, the relationship with Epstein did not end until 2013, with Stanley visiting Epstein many times while he was serving his jail time. JPMorgan would work with the government to acquire Bear Sterns for $10 a share (for $240 million, 90% less than what it was valued at the previous week), with the Federal Reserve financing $30 billion of Bear Sterns' mortgage securities holdings on May 30, 2008. Jeffrey Epstein accepted his non-prosecution agreement and pleaded guilty on June 30, 2008. JP Morgan would go on to sue Stanley for his dealings with Epstein, and he would be stripped of his ability to work in the UK finance sector.
It is possible that the events detailed above are simple coincidences. However, releasing Epstein’s financial records would provide much-needed clarity to the suspicious extraction activities of the firms with which he was involved throughout this period.
JEFFREY EPSTEIN: THE MONEY LAUNDERER
If there are any transactions or records that could implicate Trump in something unrelated to sexual indiscretion, it is likely related to money laundering. Both Epstein and Trump ran in the same circles from 1981 and seemed to engage in very similar activities. At that time, Trump lived in the Olympic Towers, where his neighbours included Adnan Khashoggi and the Marcos family. Trump regularly attended parties on Robert Maxwell’s yacht. As well as being a well-established media mogul, Maxell was deeply involved with Russian criminal elites and their money, particularly Semion Mogliovech. At the time, the capital flight from the fallen Soviet Union needed to be moved outside of the traditional financial system.
New York and Florida are markets where properties are regularly purchased using shell companies, allowing the buyer to conceal their identity. During this period, if the purchase is done in cash, or without any financing, there are no obligations on financial institutions to track the money and know the customers. While measures such as the BSA existed, it was not appropriately enforced. As such, these markets are regularly used to launder money. More than 1300 Trump condominiums have been purchased by shell companies without any financing.
When Trump International Hotel opened in Manhattan in 1996, Shell companies bought 30% of the units, including 12 that sold for more than $5 million. The sales amount to more than $134 million. Earlier that year, Donald Trump had travelled to Moscow with Howard Lorber (former Drexel executive) and Leon Black. At the time, Leon Black served on Putin’s Russian Direct Investment Fund advisory board. During this visit, Trump netted $300 million of investments in Moscow.
Despite his previous financial difficulties, Trump purchased the Miss Universe pageant the same year. Similarly, Epstein spent the rest of the year setting up a number of offshore trusts in the Virgin Islands after being appointed as the Trustee of Leon Black’s family foundation.
The rumoured falling out over the purchase of Maison L’Amitie also seems like a dispute over money laundering profits. While Trump now wants to suggest that the falling out was to do with Epstein stealing staff from Mar-a-Lago, historically, this has been pointed to as the crux of their dispute. The sixty-two thousand square foot palace was previously owned by Leslie Wexner, Epstein’s client. Wanting Trump’s opinion on a planned renovation, Epstein took him on a tour of the property. Then Trump outbid Epstein by $41.35 million, securing the mansion.
Where this money came from is unknown, given that Trump’s casino was in 1.8 billion dollars of debt at the time (filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy). Despite owing Deutsche Bank $40 million, the Bank still financed Trump’s entire purchase. Four years later, in the middle of one of the biggest financial and real estate crises in American history, Trump sold the house to Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev for $95 million, which was $30 million more than the property’s appraised value. To this day, the sale of Maison L’Amentie is Trump’s most successful real estate deal. The deal was brokered by Howard Lorber, a former Drexel Burnham and Lambert associate with strong connections in Russia.
Both Trump and Epstein were welcomed back as clients of Deutsche Bank on August 19, 2013. During this period, Deutsche Bank was also moving more than $10 billion worth of Russian funds through a mirror trading scheme with VTB Bank. Thomas Bowers supervised both of their accounts as part of the Private Wealth Management division, allowing for millions of dollars worth of loans. On November 19, 2019, Bowers committed suicide after being asked to present for an interview with the FBI concerning Epstein’s finances.
WHO IS THE BIGGER BEAR?
There are many ideas about who could be directing a cover-up of the Epstein files outside of Donald Trump. The maximalist conspiracy is the one related to a sexual blackmail operation run by a foreign intelligence agency, namely, Mossad. As with all conspiracies, the conclusion leads to a Jewish plot for global domination. I never find this conclusion convincing, regardless of the theory that it accompanies.
A cursory interrogation of Epstein’s financial activity, particularly later in his life, shows that a lot of private wealth was funnelled to products and people at the intersection of tech, finance, and the military.
We know that private wealth from the tech space has significant sway over the Trump administration. The industry leaders paid for it. While decrying that Trump is in the Epstein files, Elon has been suppressing Epstein-related news on X and donating to the GOP ahead of the midterms, despite saying Musk was going to run his own party. We know that Peter Thiel, David Sacks, Brian Armstrong, Sam Altman, Marc Andreessen, and Ben Horowitz have already made a significant amount of money from the new contracts and legislation they have been able to get from the Trump administration. So, how deep are the ties between Epstein and the Tech industry? It's hard to know without seeing the transaction records.
JEFFREY EPSTEIN: THE MAN OF SCIENCE
Following his release from prison, Epstein was keen to rebrand himself as a science and tech investor. Epstein had historically been interested in this area, donating $35 million to start the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard and investing in many renowned scientists. However, following the 2007 conviction, his investment funds were no longer attractive or palatable. So, in an attempt to polish his image, with his house arrest coming to an end in 2010, he launched a blog titled Jeffrey Epstein’s Profiles in Science.
While not a scientist himself, Epstein was keen to be known as influential in space. As far as his rebrand was concerned, the admiration of leaders in the field was enough. So the only page on the website that mattered was the Testimonials. On this page, Epstein collected and presented praise from important figures (in many cases, given before his criminal conviction) such as Nobel Prize winner Richard Axel who said that Epstein “has the ability to make connections that other minds can’t make,” or Harvard psychologist, Stephen Kosslyn, who referred to Epstein as “one of the most intellectual people [he’d] ever met.” This is paired with a gallery of photos of Epstein with Tech and Science leaders, which is “indicative of Mr. Epstein’s involvement with the sciences”.
Several puff pieces were written about Epstein at this time, including one in the National Review exalting his “passion for cutting-edge science”. These profiles were all written by Christina Galbraith, Epstein’s publicist, and have since been removed.
When it comes to the tech community, their shared ideological beliefs can best be described as strange. A famous collective of tech and science evangelists was the Edge Group. Created by John Brockman, the Edge group was an online symposium for the “Third Culture,” a group of thinkers who were apparently “rendering visible the deeper meaning of our lives, redefining who and what we are.” Many of these important members attended an event known as The Billionaires Dinner, a night of conversation between great minds and money men. According to the website and images from Edge events, these Important guests included “the founders of Amazon, AOL, eBay, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, PayPal, SpaceX, Skype, and Twitter.” As well as scientists who were “a new generation of artists, writing genomes as fluently as Blake and Byron wrote verses.”
Epstein’s involvement with Edge was significant, being its sole donor for some years, and contributing $638,000 of the $857,000 worth of donations between 2001 and 2017. When Epstein stopped funding Edge in 2015, the tradition of the billionaires' dinner also came to an end.
In 2014, Epstein joined the lifeboat advisory board, another strange group that describes itself as a “class think tank with a rich cognitive diversity” which aims to “encourage scientific advancements while helping humanity survive existential risks and possible misuse of increasingly powerful technologies […] as we move towards the Singularity.”
Through these organisations and existing science and tech relationships, Epstein funded a number Artificial Intelligence projects at the beginning of the AI Boom, including the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (known at the time as the Singularity Institute for Artificial Research) and the MicroPsi Project 2, working to duplicate the human mind with artificial intelligence, placing it in a humanoid.
Like other future evangelists (including his close friend Steven Pinker, who is loved by the tech right but dismissed by most geneticists), Epstein had a fascination with eugenics. In 2012, he incorporated Southern Trust Co. in the Virgin Islands, which was reported to be a biotech DNA data-mining service. It is possible that this company was incorporated purely for tax purposes and never engaged in any biotech work. However, the company did make over $200 million in revenue. Epstein associates are also closely involved with biotech start-ups, including Editas Medicine. This DNA start-up was founded by a close friend of Epstein, biologist George Church, and was fundraised for by Boris Nikolic, the executor of Epstein’s will.
JEFFREY EPSTEIN: THE CRYPTO BRO
While no concrete connection can be made between Epstein and cryptocurrency, there are things that suggest a link exists. Epstein’s existing interest in offshoring and shadow banking aligns with the crypto ethos. Furthermore, he was actively investing in the fintech space and had spoken positively about cryptocurrency. In 2011, Epstein hosted the Mindshift Conference and invited Brock Pierce to give a speech. Brock Pierce was the future co-founder of the stablecoin Tether, rumoured to be the favoured currency of criminals and terrorists. At the time, cryptocurrency was extremely novel, so Epstein was showing interest early in its incarnation.
Epstein also donated significant amounts to MIT Media Lab, and to its director, Joi Ito personally (whom he had met at the 1999 billionaires dinner). Given his reputation, MIT was not supposed to accept donations from Epstein, so millions of dollars were donated anonymously in 2014 and 2015, or through his clients and friends, like Bill Gates and Leon Black. He was also a frequent guest at the Lab. The Media Lab was also actively trying to broker Epstein investment deals with start-ups in the program, with Lightning Labs claiming to have rejected an offer.
At the time, the Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) was being run out of the MIT Media Lab. Many bitcoin developers joined the Initiative in 2015, when the cryptocurrency was facing significant obstacles. Members of the DCI have gone on to work on large cryptocurrency projects, including Meta’s Libra. It is important to note that the DCI, while housed at MIT, was funded. Details of donations and funding are provided in part.
It was revealed this year that Epstein made a significant investment ($40 million) in 2015 to Peter Thiel’s venture capital firm, Valar Ventures. Valar Ventures is focused on investing in financial technology companies. Today, Epstein’s investment is worth $170 million.
CONCLUSION
I understand that writing a piece like this inevitably leads to some people thinking you are conspiratorial and detached from reality. I am aware that what is suggested in this piece is pure speculation. My point is that it cannot be anything more with the information available. In the same way that the Biden Administration allowed the Senate Finance Committee access to the Treasury records related to Epstein, the current government should not stand in the way of a proper investigation. Particularly given that transparency related to the Epstein files was a campaign promise. If justice is to be denied to the many hurt by Epstein’s operation, the least we can ask for is that nobody profit.
NB: I have not covered Leslie Wexner sufficiently in this article. I am aware of the considerable impact he had on Epstein’s financial standings. Given the dealings of Wexner himself, I found the information extremely complex to disentangle without further information. It is worth noting that Wexner severed ties with Epstein in 2007, claiming that $46 million had been stolen from his estate.
NB2: I also can’t help but wonder if it is Ghislene, and not Jeffrey, who is at the centre of all of this. Ghislene often referred to herself as an “internet operator” but was extremely secretive about her professional life. Her siblings have all worked in Silicon Valley, with the family being centrally linked to the PROMIS software that sits at the base of intelligence technology. This is my pet theory, and the subject of an article that will probably never exist.
