FT: Jeffrey Epstein’s network: ‘Life among the lucrative and louche’

Key topics:Epstein’s emails reveal ties to politicians, financiers, and media figures.Documents show his influence over Prince Andrew, Leon Black, and Summers.PR strategies aimed to manage scandals and protect high-profile allies..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By Chris Cook, Paul Caruana Galizia and Peter Andringa in London.A fresh cache of files from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate sheds light on a network of men in politics, media and finance bound by power and access.More than 20,000 pages of documents disclosed on Wednesday by members of the House oversight committee include emails between Epstein and influential figures including ex-Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers, Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon and billionaire financier Leon Black.The tone is often jocular, sometimes vulgar, and always confident. The contents underscore the late sex offender’s efforts to leverage his relationships with high-profile contacts, many of whom continued the correspondence long after Epstein’s first conviction for sexual offences in 2008.The release illustrates how Epstein coped with his growing notoriety through the 2010s, as legal cases were brought against him.Trump, who was in his first term as president for some of the period in which the emails were written, is a frequent subject of the exchanges, though not an interlocutor..Lawrence Summers.In one email exchange from 2017, Epstein asked Summers about Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund conference. “Was there. Spoke well”, Summers said, before asking the sex offender: “How is life among the lucrative and louche?”Summers, a former president of Harvard University, said that at the conference he “yipped about inclusion”, adding: “I observed that half the IQ In the world was possessed by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of population.”He described Trump, who had recently won the 2016 US election, as the “world s luckiest guy in terms of opposition”.In an exchange with Summers from 2018, Epstein called Trump “borderline insane”.In a separate email exchange that year with Landon Thomas, then a New York Times journalist, Epstein described Trump as “evil beyond belief” and said that his handling of an alleged sexual encounter with porn actress Stormy Daniels was “lies after lies after lies”.Summers, who has been contacted for comment, has previously stated that he regrets his relationship with Epstein..Leon Black.The emails provide insight into what Epstein actually did for his clients — a topic that has long been the subject of speculation.A series of emails from 2014-16 shows the late sex offender closely intertwined in the affairs of Black, advising the billionaire on art purchases, tax affairs and the management of art publishing house Phaidon Press, which Black acquired in 2012.Epstein wrote: “Leon, As you are well aware, There is little I won’t do for you, or at least try to do as a friend, and a great deal that I have already done (both known and some things that will need to remain unknown.)”“Our arrangement was for me to architect sophisticated structures that would be beneficial to you,” he added.Epstein was also critical of staff in Black’s family office, suggesting that the billionaire should replace an existing manager, whom he called “kind but goofy”, and make Epstein himself the ultimate authority.“Your family office needs a daddy. children with good intentions are running around, sniping, nitpicking with little direction.” He proposed a new chief executive. “Everyone would report to him . . . He would however work for me.”Epstein demanded regular payments in the tens of millions of dollars from Black for his assistance.“To help out, I’m keenly aware of your current cash position,” Epstein wrote in a 2016 message, “so I will consider an in-kind payment real estate (Miami), art, financing of my new plane (allows you to spread over years) or of course the preferred cash.”“Of course re any non-financial issues, I am always there for you and will continue to be the best friend I can be,” he added.Susan Estrich, a lawyer for Black, said an investigation four years ago by the law firm Dechert had found that he had “no knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activities”, and that Black had paid the late sex offender “only for tax and estate planning advice”..Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.The emails show how the relationship between Epstein and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, had become a problem in both men’s lives.The then prince’s ties to the sex offender had hurt his public image, while the press interest in Mountbatten-Windsor had in turn fuelled the attention on Epstein.The two men compared notes on how to deal with the media. In 2011, Mountbatten-Windsor asked Epstein in an email how he planned to respond to an inquiry from the Mail on Sunday newspaper, including allegations that the former prince had sex with a 17-year-old girl, Virginia Giuffre.Epstein said: “Im not sure how to respond, the only person she didn’t have sex with was Elvis.”Mountbatten-Windsor then emailed Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime friend of the former prince and Epstein who is now serving a 20-year sentence for conspiring to traffic minors, in a separate chain, saying: “Hey there! What’s all this? I don’t know anything about this! You must SAY so please. This has NOTHING to do with me. I can’t take any more of this.”Epstein appears to endorse Mountbatten-Windsor’s position to other media. In an email exchange with Thomas from the New York Times, he called the story: “Total horseshit, the daily mail paid her money, they admitted it, with the statement that it took money to coax out the truth.”But Epstein does appear to confirm the veracity of a photograph of Mountbatten-Windsor holding Giuffre by the waist in 2001. “Yes she had her picture taken with Andrew, as many of my employees have,” he wrote.Mountbatten-Windsor suggested in a 2019 interview with the BBC that the photograph may have been doctored as he had “absolutely no memory of it being taken”.In an email from 2016 to Lord Mandelson, whose association with Epstein would later cost him his job as British ambassador to Washington, the sex offender writes: “You were right about staying away from andrew.”In his reply, Mandelson notes: “Yes, without Andrew it would not have gone nuclear.”In 2022, Mountbatten-Windsor paid a settlement to Giuffre, who died by suicide earlier this year. Mountbatten-Windsor has been approached for comment.Mandelson told the FT that he had no comment to make, but noted that “no one and no email has suggested wrongdoing on my part or knowledge of wrongdoing”..The press advisers.As the pressure grew on Epstein, he contacted press advisers — some formal, some informal — as he sought to quell the growing public clamour that ultimately led to his reimprisonment.Osborne and Partners, a PR firm, advised Epstein in June 2011 that “since it is an unambiguous objective of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday to take down Prince Andrew, it is disastrous for you to be seen in any way to facilitate his lifestyle, or to help with his well documented issues”.In July of that year, Epstein wrote to Peggy Siegal, an entertainment publicist whom he had approached for help, suggesting a plan of action that could help the prince.“The girl who accused Prince Andrew can . . . be proven to be a liar. I think Buckingham Palace would love it,” he said. “You should task someone to investigate the girl that has caused the Queens son all this agro. I promise you she is a fraud. you and i will be able to go to ascot for the rest of our lives.”The latest cache also reveals that Michael Wolff, a prominent New York journalist, offered advice to the disgraced financier. The two men discussed both Epstein’s PR and that of their mutual acquaintance Woody Allen, the film director who denies allegations of sexual abuse made against him by his daughter.In April 2019, responding to a journalism prize won by the Miami Herald for its exposé of Epstein’s behaviour and his judicial treatment, Wolff said: “Look at the judges on this thing: the right-thinking establishment to a tee.”Wolff has been approached for comment. The FT has tried to contact Siegal..© 2025 The Financial Times Ltd.

FT: Jeffrey Epstein’s network: ‘Life among the lucrative and louche’

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