“Say Hello to Jeffrey”

One is Ukrainian-born British American billionaire Leonard Blavatnik, who recently became responsible for the most expensive home purchase in Hamptons history after buying an 8.5-acre mansion on Long Island’s south shore. Blavatnik, who is worth around $30 billion, maxed out to Hochul in 2022 with $69,700, according to campaign finance data from OpenSecrets.

Emails show Blavatnik was also connected to Epstein and his social circle. As early as July 2009 — a year after Epstein started serving a prison sentence for the crime of child prostitution — Epstein requested that his friend, Hollywood publicist Peggy Siegal, get in touch with the billionaire and see if he could find a job in Moscow for an unnamed woman he knew.

“[T]ell him she is a friend of [G]hislaine [Maxwell],” he wrote, while instructing her to “[l]eave my name out of it.” More than a decade later, Maxwell would be charged and convicted as Epstein’s coconspirator.

“Len Blavatnik had no business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, was not a close friend, and they did not socialize, and any suggestion otherwise is false,” a spokesperson for Access Industries, Blavatnik’s investment firm, told Jacobin.

Blavatnik was invited to several of Epstein’s infamous gatherings, including a September 2010 party that Epstein threw for a visiting Ehud Barak, then serving as the Israeli defense minister — a fact that Epstein’s assistant specifically cited in her invitation to Blavatnik. “[I]t seems like i will not be able to be there. many thansk [sic] and say hello to Jeffrey,” Blavatnik told her.

“I know him well,” Epstein said about Blavatnik that month to a mutual friend, British fixer Peter Mandelson, who was arrested last month over misconduct revealed in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) release. “I am sure you have much in common. . . ,”  replied Mandelson, then attending the launch of an Oxford University school founded by Blavatnik.

Blavatnik and Barak’s names also appeared on the guest list for a dinner party Epstein appeared to be planning in May 2014. Three years later, one of Epstein’s investor friends suggested to Barak that Blavatnik could be a potential investor in one of Barak’s private sector ventures: an Israeli intelligence–linked cybersecurity firm that was eventually backed by billionaire Peter Thiel. (The friend was German Countess Nicole Junkermann, head of investment firm NJF Capital, who seems to have had a strangely intimate relationship with Epstein.)

One document shows an email from Blavatnik in Epstein’s Yahoo email account inbox dated to 2005. When an unnamed person asked Epstein in 2017 if he knew “any adequate Russian oligarchs,” Epstein named Blavatnik. In an August 2014 email to Bill Gates, Blavatnik is part of a long list of billionaires Epstein offered to introduce the Microsoft founder to — a list that included at least four other of Hochul’s billionaire donors.

Some of the documents point to allegations that are significantly more serious than the references to other Hochul donors in the files. These revolve around the alleged indiscretions of private equity billionaire Leon Black, who paid Epstein $170 million over six years for services that seemingly included helping pay off women Black had been involved with or otherwise making them go away.

In a transcript of a recorded conversation between Black and one of these women, Guzel Ganieva, then trying to extract $100 million from him in exchange for her silence about their affair, she accused Blavatnik of being part of a group of billionaire friends who defamed her and ruined her reputation. In another document — the FBI’s summary of a May 2021 interview with a different woman who accused Black of rape and of introducing her to Epstein’s network for sexual purposes — an accuser appears to allege that Blavatnik tried to silence her.

“After the rape, Len Blavatnik calls [redacted] and asks how’s she feeling,” the FBI document states. “Blavatnik talks about poisoning and it’s a good thing to stay out of New York and to never go back.”

“A Select Group of Influential People”

Other documents mention several other Hochul billionaire donors. It’s often unclear what exactly Epstein’s relationship was to these figures; the documents that have been released often do not feature them personally corresponding with Epstein, and the late pedophile was known to try to ingratiate himself to those with wealth and influence. Thus, simply because Epstein was emailing or made mention of someone does not mean that the person had a strong relationship with them.

A page of Epstein’s telephone message records from April 2005 feature a reminder about an upcoming lunch with Nelson Peltz and a reminder to call Barry Diller. Peltz and Diller both appear elsewhere in the files, including among the billionaire list Epstein sent to Gates. In different email exchanges, Epstein made reference in 2008 to a prior conversation he had with Peltz about ponzi scheme operator Bernie Madoff and suggested to his friend that she drop Peltz’s name to the office of a famous gynecologist he was recommending her to. “If you hve [sic] to tell htme [sic] that Nelson Peltz asked that we call,” Epstein instructed.

Peltz has previously given Hochul $50,000. There are no emails in the DOJ release that show Peltz himself corresponding with Epstein.

Same goes for Diller. “He has been to the island many times,” Epstein said of the billionaire businessman, who is listed in Epstein’s computer’s address book, in a December 2010 email to a mutual friend trying to arrange a meeting. In an email seven years earlier, Epstein’s assistant appears to pass on a message to Maxwell that “Barry Diller would like to take a hike on the island” and to “please organize.”

In an April 2013 email, someone whose identity is redacted asks Epstein for a professional reference, recalling “what nice things you offered to both John Sykes and Barry Diller on my behalf years ago.” Diller’s name also appears in a court filing by a human trafficking expert about JP Morgan’s complicity in Epstein’s crimes, which quotes an exchange between two of the bank’s executives referencing Epstein’s predilection for young women.

Writing about couples he saw at a concert (at which Epstein does not appear to have been present), “The age difference between husbands and wifes [sic] would have fit in well with Jeffrey,” Jes Staley, a longtime Epstein associate accused of rape and other sexual misconduct, emailed.

“Apparently Barry Diller has eight assistant [sic], one is more beautiful than the other (even though he’s gay). Anyway, lots of comparisons to JE,” the other replied.

Diller and his wife, Diane Von Furstenberg (he does not identify as gay), have previously given Hochul a combined total of nearly $105,000 from 2021 to 2022.

Bloomberg L.P. cofounder Tom Secunda and his wife gave Hochul a combined sum of nearly $95,000 in 2022. Among the files is a 2018 invitation presented as being from Secunda for a fundraiser for Stacey Plaskett, the Democratic congresswoman for the Virgin Islands who was nearly censured by the House of Representatives last year for texting with Epstein during a congressional hearing — though it’s not clear where exactly the invitation, actually came from or if Epstein attended, as such invitations are sometimes sent by the congressional offices themselves.

Also in the files is a 2017 text exchange with then–Virgin Islands Governor Ken Mapp, in which Epstein connected him to Secunda for assistance in the wake of two back-to-back hurricanes that hit the US territory. “Tom Secunda waiting for your call. St. John. My crew no phones,” Epstein texted Mapp.

“Spoke with and met Tom Secunda and his team. They will make a tremendously positive difference to our recovery efforts,” Mapp replied the next day. A representative for Secunda declined to comment.

Another billionaire hedge fund manager, Paul Tudor Jones, gave Hochul $50,000 during the 2023 cycle. Epstein received $13.5 million from a hedge fund run by Tudor Jones, and in one email told a friend he had “agreed to fund” a man who served as Tudor Jones’s advisor to the tune of $10 million. Epstein was also involved in a joint effort with Bill Gates to start a “donor-advised fund,” an effort that saw Gates offer to pitch it at a dinner with Tudor Jones. Years earlier, Epstein told Gates’s advisor, Boris Nikolic, that “wee [sic] should talk” before the Microsoft founder sat down with Tudor Jones in a different meeting.

“Financial Trust Company invested in a Tudor fund in February 2001, like hundreds of entities before and after. The investment was redeemed in full in July 2014, and subsequently paid out in August 2014. Mr. Jones and senior Tudor personnel did not know Mr. Epstein personally, did not have any direct interaction, and did not have any communications or other business with him,” a representative for Tudor Investment Corporation told Jacobin.

In emails, Epstein appeared to present himself as knowing Tudor Jones. In 2011, an Epstein associate and Senegalese minister sent the sex trafficker a link to the luxury safari Singita game reserves in southern Africa and told him he “would like to meet ur friend” in order to offer him management of a separate set of game reserves and hotels in Senegal, and asked Epstein to “confirm that [his friend] is the owner of the Singita Group.”

“Paul owns it, Sing [sic] manages it,” Epstein replied. Other emails show Epstein at this time asking Dubin’s wife, Eva, if Tudor Jones owned the Singita lodge in Tanzania, with her replying that “he owns it and they manage it.” (In reality, Tudor Jones had bought into and partnered with the luxury safari company in the early 2000s.) The emails suggest Epstein at least presented his relationship to Tudor Jones as one of friends.

Real estate billionaire Jeff Greene gave Hochul $15,000 in 2022. The DOJ files show Epstein at various times appearing to recommend the partly Palm Beach–based real estate magnate to Gates’s advisor as a potential partner for Gates, texting with Greene to try and physically meet up, and having his girlfriend, on Epstein’s behalf, cancel their plans to watch a movie together and suggest they meet up for breakfast instead. Previously reported emails also have Epstein’s longtime pilot relaying Greene’s interest in buying Epstein’s helicopter. Greene has previously said he only met Epstein once, that he could not remember the texts he exchanged with him, and that it may have been his staff who communicated with Epstein instead.

Grocery store billionaire John Catsimatidis and his wife, Margo, have together given Hochul $94,000. Epstein’s inbox was packed with what looked to be mass emails from the former’s New York City mayoral campaign when he launched his run in 2013: sending complimentary theater tickets, offering a lunch meeting, and inviting the pedophile to what the campaign called a “friendraiser,” which the email stated had been sent to “a select group of influential pepole [sic],” including, apparently Epstein. Though Epstein later told someone he did not know Catsimatidis, the Catsimatidises sent Epstein a Christmas greetings email that, they wrote, they hoped “reaches all our new and longtime friends.”

Assorted Connections

Others on the list of Hochul’s billionaire donors had more incidental connections to Epstein. Hedge fund billionaire John Paulson, who gave Hochul $50,000 in 2021, was name-checked early on by Rep. Thomas Massie — the Republican congressman who coled the charge on releasing the DOJ’s files on Epstein — as an Epstein-connected billionaire who emerged as the largest donor to a Super PAC trying to unseat him. Paulson, whose contact details are listed in Epstein’s “Black Book,” is referenced in numerous emails that show Epstein seemingly boasting of his connection to the billionaire and attempting to reach out to him. Paulson’s representative strongly denied that the two had any kind of relationship.

“Mr. Paulson never had any business or social interactions with Epstein, never attended a party, never went to any of his homes, never went on his plane or to his island, never exchanged emails, text messages or phone calls,” Paulson’s representative told Jacobin. “Along with thousands of other people, Mr. Paulson worked for a few years in the mid 1980s at the same large firm where Epstein worked but they had no interactions. In other words, Mr. Paulson had zero to do with Epstein.”

Some of the emails Paulson is referenced in include Epstein advising then–New York Times reporter Landon Thomas to talk to Paulson, listing Paulson among the billionaires he implied he could put Bill Gates in touch with, and instructing an assistant to ask Paulson “if he would like to stop by.”

Epstein received a generic email that was presented as being from Paulson and two others to attend the American Jewish Committee’s honoring of businessman Matthew Bronfman in 2013. In another series of emails from September 2017 revolving around setting up a “phone date” with Paulson, Epstein’s assistant relayed that the outreach went unreturned after she “called twice asking to set up a call” and had told Paulson’s assistant that Epstein had a helicopter and was sending supplies to the Virgin Islands “in case he needed any assistance there” after the hurricanes. Two months later, Epstein kicked $50,000 to a benefit for now–Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, instructing his accountant to send the check through Paulson, before emailing the billionaire. “50k from me, hope pr is ok,” Epstein wrote to Paulson.

“The email [from Paulson] you reference came from an automated account run by the [UJA-Federation of New York], not from a personal email from Mr. Paulson,” Paulson’s representative told Jacobin. “The same email went to the UJA’s entire list as part of a fundraising campaign that Mr. Paulson supported, so it was not personal in any way. Mr. Paulson did not respond to any emails that came to this automated account from Epstein or anyone else.”

Though not a New York resident, a billionaire Hochul donor who is particularly well-represented in the files is LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, who maxed out to Hochul in 2021 with a donation just shy of $70,000. Though Hoffman claimed last month that he “only knew [Epstein] because of a fundraising relationship with MIT” and met him a handful of times, emails show the two were much closer: Hoffman visited Epstein’s island and his other properties; he befriended the pedophile despite being explicitly informed about Epstein’s stint in prison, and he even offered to help him manage the bad publicity that stemmed from his crimes. Hoffman spoke to him frequently, sent him gifts (in one case ice cream, “either for yourself or for ‘the girls,’” Hoffman wrote), and invited Epstein to a now-infamous dinner with other tech oligarchs, after which he gushed that the pedophile was “the most conversational of the high intellects.”

Another tech billionaire and past donor, Eric Schmidt — the former executive chairman of Google and, later, its parent company Alphabet, who likewise maxed out to Hochul — appears to have been in Epstein’s social circle, at least for a time. In one 2003 email exchange, Maxwell refers to Schmidt by his first name (“Eric may come too”) and corrects the claim that Schmidt is the “founder of Google” (“Actually Eric is the CEO”).

Whatever relationship there was appeared to have soured by the following decade. When hedge fund manager Todd Meister asked Epstein in 2013 if Schmidt was “a good friend of yours,” the sex offender replied that he had “not seen him fro [sic] quite a while,” but had recently tried to “set up a lunch or dinner with Eric,” describing him as “ver [sic] very smart and as boring.” Soon after, emails indicate that Epstein tried to schedule the Google CEO for one of his dinners with various heavy hitters, though Schmidt politely declined. A month later, Meister was emailing Epstein that he had a “plan on Eric Schmidt to fix the misperception. . .” and that he “will get it fixed.”

No More Epsteins

Two of the biggest debates in New York right now revolve around taxing the rich and the Epstein files. The nature of Epstein’s social circles shows how the two are related. Those who show up in the Epstein files are predominantly the same class of people who will benefit from Kathy Hochul’s refusal to tax high earners — and in a number of cases, they also turn out to have donated to her campaigns.

Understood this way, Hochul’s refusal to tax the state’s superrich will do more than put a continued strain on New York’s state and city budgets. It will be a boon for ultrawealthy New Yorkers who were connected to Epstein, and will perpetuate the exact kind of inequality that he thrived on.