Epstein Scandal’s Fallout in Asia
With connections to global movers and shakers, he was more than a sex offender
By: Toh Han Shih
The mystery surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, after the release by the FBI of 3.5 million pages of emails, text messages and court records pertaining to him and connections to hundreds of people, is how a man convicted of procuring an underage girl for prostitution in 2008 was able to amass such an astonishing inventory of influential people. They weren’t all hunting for nubile flesh, as presumably the likes of former Prince Andrew might have been.
Epstein, who was found dead in his New York prison cell on August 10, 2019, was like Jekyll and Hyde. While men turned to Hyde for ugly sexual diversion involving underage girls, there appear to have been many seeking out Jekyll for legitimate business reasons, including in Asia. Epstein was a member of the Board of Directors of the New York Academy of Art, the Santa Fe Institute, the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, the board of trustees of the Interlochen Center for the Arts and the university council of Rockefeller University, among many others.
He seems never to have stopped making these connections. Donald Trump was one of his early acquisitions, whether by Hyde or Jekyll. Linguistics professor Chomsky, author Deepak Chokra, IT titan Peter Thiel, Barack Obama’s White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, supermodel Naomi Campbell, physicist Lawrence Krauss, Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin and former French president Nicolas Sarkozy are among those all presumably trying to explain how they knew him
Asia connections
In Asia, Epstein’s connections included Indian minister and former diplomat Hardeep Singh Puri, the Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, a still-unnamed Hong Kong academician to whom he gave thousands of dollars, and many more, including a gaggle of top Chinese businessmen and officials. Epstein’s partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, discussed an aborted investment proposal with the late Hong Kong socialite David Tang.
Epstein emerges as an architype of the feral wheeler-dealer whose ability to connect billionaire A to politician B to banker C to country satrap D to counterspy E was his stock in trade, offering intelligence, gossip, whispers, scandal, financial advice, military intelligence and using that information to make himself rich. He somehow knew, for instance, as Asia Sentinel reported on February 1, that Anwar Ibrahim, instead of being Encik Reformasi, intended to “clean up” if he got to be prime minister, and he knew to pass that information on to former JP Morgan banker James Edward “Jes” Staley.
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Despite the slippery odor about him, he was apparently a vital asset, nichs hiyoni to the Israelis, 重要資產 in Hong Kong, viktig ressurs to the Norwegians, ressource vitale to the French, essential resource to the British. Staley, who was dismissed as Barclays chairman for his ties to Epstein, declared to Epstein in an email that he was one of his few “profound” friends, after his first conviction of a sexual offence in 2008.
British police are investigating Andrew and former UK minister Peter Mandelson for their associations. Norwegian police said on February 9 they had launched a corruption investigation into Political Leader, Group Chairman and Climate Spokesperson for Norway’s Det Konservative Folkeparti, and her husband Terje Rod-Larsen, a former diplomat, over the couple’s links to Epstein.
The Norwegian parliament has agreed to set up an independent commission to investigate the ties between Epstein and others including Crown Princess Mette-Marit and Jagland, a former chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The French foreign ministry has been in turmoil since links were revealed between diplomat Fabrice Aidan and Epstein. The US is undergoing a political earthquake because of him.
Epstein was not only allegedly procuring girls for rich and powerful men but playing an active role in transnational business deals, including in Asia through his concupiscent regal playmate the royally downgraded Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who forwarded to Epstein reports of his trips to Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shenzhen. British police are investigating the former prince for potentially violating the confidentiality of his trip to these Asian destinations, according to media reports.
In an email on July 21, 2011, David Stern, a German businessman who previously worked for Andrew, told Epstein that Lord Jacob Rothschild, a member of old British Jewish money, was travelling to Beijing to raise a US$750 million private equity fund from Chinese investors. Stern told Epstein, “This topic keeps moving fast, its a massive opportunity. I will keep low profile/no action as instructed until you give me the go-ahead.” It’s unknown whether Epstein got involved in Rothschild’s Chinese fund, but the email indicates Epstein was a decision maker behind this China deal.
In an email on March 7, 2012, Ian Osborne, a British investor living in Hong Kong, told Epstein, “We dropped the Brazilian deal on YOUR advice after you told me at the island not to waste effort on a $1.5 million investment.” Through Osborne, Epstein made edits and inputs in documents related to the establishment of an investment firm, Hedosphia Investments, Asia Sentinel reported on February 9. The initial shareholders of this now defunct company included Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, his business partner Solina Chau and the family of Robert Kuok, Malaysia’s richest man.
Men have engaged procurers to obtain women for sex, but don’t usually make business decisions based on a procurer’s advice. Li, Chau and members of the Kuok family probably never met Epstein and there is no evidence they partook of Epstein’s sexual activities. But he had worked behind the scenes through Osborne on a deal with the Kuoks and Li, an indication that he was secretly a player in deals with such heavyweights, whose integrity is not in doubt.
Government connections
One 2012 email has Epstein telling Osborne that he was in government meetings all day, without specifying the nationality of the government. The well-connected Osborne answered: “Just back from dinner with the Prime Minister. His team still want to come and visit you & Woody in Paris.” Normally, pimps don’t attend government meetings and a team of any prime minister of any nation wouldn’t publicly consort with a pimp, an indication of how Epstein’s connections went beyond sex to the political.
In a July 25, 2012 email, Epstein told Osborne, a former public relations executive, that the Financial Times’ then chief editor Lionel Barber could “talk to” Staley, then a senior JP Morgan executive, “about color on what he will do.” But, Epstein said, “under no circumstances let it out of the bag.” Barber was an editor of undoubted integrity, and the Financial Times is a respected newspaper. It is normal for public relations executives to arrange for journalists to interview newsmakers. But here was Epstein arranging for the Financial Times to interview Staley while keeping an unknown matter secret.
Diplomats and spooks
Epstein’s friendships extended from businessmen to diplomats and spies. An American calling himself “Melvyn Kohn” and claiming links to US intelligence alleged Epstein previously had “exposure” to North Korean and Chinese intelligence, Asia Sentinel reported on January 7. In an email on June 26, 2015, Epstein told Peter Thiel that he had spent “a great deal of time” with his China advisers. Emails in September 2014 show Epstein introducing William Burns, then US Deputy Secretary of State and later CIA director, to Thiel. According to an FBI document on October 19, 2020, an unnamed source alleged Epstein trained as a spy under former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. The Epstein files contain many emails exchanged between Barak and Epstein, as well as information on Barak visiting Epstein at his house. Epstein pulled strings behind fixers like Osborne. Epstein and his partner Maxwell, now in an US prison for perjury and sex trafficking of children, are Jewish and the documents provide indications Epstein was helping the Israeli cause.
He funded Israeli groups including Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces, and the settler organization the Jewish National Fund and was tied to members of Israel’s overseas intelligence services. Was he a spy? The files don’t give a definitive answer. But given the breadth and depth of Epstein’s connections to spies, diplomats, tycoons and government officials of various nations, he certainly had plenty to pass on to spies.
His friend Woody Allen produced Zelig in 1953, a movie featuring a character defined by his ability to morph into the personality, appearance, and mannerisms of whoever he was around. In Epstein’s case, it seemed also to include the ability to offer not just intelligence or financial advice but proximity to underage girls. A huge number of the rich and famous are paying for that now.
Toh Han Shih is a Singaporean writer in Hong Kong and a regular contributor to Asia Sentinel.
As #EpsteinFiles continue to surface worldwide, Asia Sentinel examines how Jeffrey Epstein’s network reached into Asia’s political and business circles. Explore our full coverage here.