The latest release of Jeffrey Epstein files from the Justice Department indicates that the late sex offender maintained wider and deeper connections in the tech industry than was previously known. The revelations are now causing fractures in the usually clubby world of Silicon Valley.
Emails and other documents show that Epstein was in contact with at least 20 prominent tech executives, investors and researchers, including some current CEOs, according to an NBC News review of a portion of the documents. In emails, they discussed a wide array of subjects, such as startup investments, the prospects of bitcoin, social gatherings, helicopter rentals and, in one case, negotiations over a corporate exit package.
Two tech billionaires, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, have been locked in a social media struggle for days since the documents were released, trading public insults on X as they have accused each other of having exercised poor judgment in connection with Epstein. Both men were already known associates of Epstein, and the documents released Friday included further details about their connections. Authorities have not accused either of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.
On Tuesday night, Hoffman and Musk were still battling online. After Hoffman called for justice for Epstein’s victims, Musk taunted him, “While you’re at it, maybe you can help OJ ‘find the real killer,’” a reference to O.J. Simpson.
Hoffman jabbed back at Musk by posting a screenshot of an email in which Musk asked Epstein in 2012, “What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?”
It has been known for years that Epstein had friendships or business relationships with major tech figures, including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and tech investor Peter Thiel, both of whom are named in the millions of pages in the most recent release. Authorities have accused neither of them of wrongdoing. Epstein also hosted dinners at which scientists and tech entrepreneurs would gather.
But the files include communications with and references to others from the tech sector who had not been publicly associated with Epstein, and they provide more detail about the relationships that were already publicly known.
In some instances, the relationships appear to have been lopsided, with Epstein showing more initiative to stay in touch, but some of the tech figures also eagerly sought Epstein’s advice or help on business or personal matters.
For some tech executives or investors, such as Musk, the documents demonstrate a closer relationship to Epstein than they had previously acknowledged. Musk said last year that he “refused” invitations from Epstein to visit his Caribbean island, but emails from Musk to Epstein included in the files show that Musk asked to visit it in 2012 and 2013.
Hoffman’s ties to Epstein had been revealed in earlier releases of the files. In 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported that Hoffman visited Epstein’s island and introduced Epstein to Thiel. Hoffman and Epstein shared interest in cryptocurrency and appeared to have a close relationship, with Epstein writing in an email exchange with Hoffman that he “miss[ed] talking and seeing” him.
The newly released documents show that Epstein scheduled meetings with Hoffman several times from 2013 to 2018, via email, online Skype calls and in-person meetings laid out in written itineraries.
In an email exchange with Epstein in 2013, Hoffman asked to set up a Skype call to talk to him about when he would be at his island. In another email, Epstein invited Hoffman to his island or his New Mexico ranch to “play.” In an exchange in 2014, Hoffman wrote that he had sent gifts to Epstein’s home in New York, which included ice cream “for the girls” and “something that may strike your funny bone for the island.” It is not clear which girls Hoffman was referring to or what the other gift was; a spokesperson for Hoffman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hoffman said Tuesday on X that he “only knew Jeffrey Epstein because of a fundraising relationship” with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “which I very much regret.” In a separate X reply, Hoffman wrote that he “did not go to the ranch.” He did confirm that he went to Epstein’s island in another reply, writing that he went “with Joi Ito, the Director of the MIT Media Lab, who had asked me to help MIT fundraise from Epstein.”
Ito did not respond to a request for comment. He resigned as MIT Media Lab director in 2019 and published an apology for having associated with Epstein, saying he “never saw any evidence of the horrific acts that he was accused of.”
Hoffman, Musk and Thiel are all former PayPal executives from the company’s early days, illustrating how small the tech sector can be. They have all greatly added to their wealth since then and have been heavily involved in politics — Hoffman for Democrats and Musk and Thiel for Republicans.
Epstein was a registered sex offender who pleaded guilty in 2008 to procuring an underage girl for prostitution. His case got some media attention at the time, and the scrutiny on him ramped up in 2015, after victims began providing more details about their allegations in court records.
Epstein died in a New York jail cell in August 2019 after federal prosecutors charged him with sex trafficking.
Some of those who met Epstein said they did not follow the news about his case. One of the documents in the latest release is an email exchange in 2017 between Epstein and Bryan Johnson, a tech entrepreneur and investor who is focused on slowing the aging process. They were introduced over email by a mutual contact, Alex Klokus, at the time the CEO of the media website Futurism. Epstein and Johnson agreed to a video conference call.
In an email to NBC News, Johnson said he did not research Epstein beforehand, although a basic internet search would have turned up plenty.
“It wasn’t part of my algorithm to run a background check on people introduced to me by acquaintances,” he said.
Johnson, who also posted on X about the experience, said that it was the only time he interacted with Epstein and that he came away from it with a terrible impression of the infamous figure.
“During the call, I was left with a deep unsettling feeling and left the call feeling as though Epstein was the most dark and evil person I had ever encountered,” he said in the email.
Klokus, who introduced them, did not respond to a request for comment.
The latest Epstein documents also reveal that he was an investor in Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2012. He invested about $3 million in the startup — less than 1% ownership, according to Coinbase’s valuation at the time — and emails show that he and Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam tried to meet in person in 2014. It is not clear whether that meeting ever took place. Coinbase declined to comment. Ehrsam’s new company, Paradigm, did not respond to a request for comment.
The release of the documents Friday has set off a scramble as the people whose names appear in the files respond to public criticism on social media or try to avoid the spotlight.
It is still unclear what the eventual repercussions from tech figures’ association with Epstein could be, but some of them have experienced personal fallout. Melinda French Gates, Bill Gates’ ex-wife, told NPR in an interview Tuesday that Gates needed to answer for his behavior with Epstein.
Bill Gates said last year that he had been “foolish” and “quite stupid” to spend any time with Epstein. The latest Epstein documents include a series of emails that Epstein sent to himself in 2013, appearing to suggest that Gates was having an extramarital affair and seeking illicit drugs. A spokesperson for Gates denied those allegations, calling them “completely false” and an attempt by Epstein to “entrap” Gates.
In some cases, the Epstein files raise more questions than answers about why some tech executives or investors appeared to seek out Epstein’s advice so often. Epstein came out of New York’s financial industry and lived primarily in Manhattan, making him on paper something of a stranger to the tech hubs of Northern California and Seattle.
One tech figure who shows up repeatedly in the latest document release is Steven Sinofsky, a onetime protégé of Gates who was the Microsoft executive in charge of Windows before he left the company in 2012 after a disastrous product launch. The files include numerous emails between Sinofsky and Epstein dated soon after Sinofsky left Microsoft as he was negotiating an exit package that included a $14 million retirement payment.
For reasons the emails do not make clear, Sinofsky turned to Epstein to help negotiate the exit package and to navigate the next phase of his career, even though Epstein did not have particular expertise in the software sector. Sinofsky also told Epstein that he planned to share his exit payment with him in exchange for the help, according to the emails, which were reported by The Verge and other outlets.
Sinofsky declined to comment.
In an email exchange with Sinofsky in 2012, Epstein suggested that he was in communication with Tim Cook, who a year earlier had become CEO of Apple. Epstein wrote to Sinofsky that Cook “was excited” by the idea of meeting Sinofsky, who at the time was looking for a new job, but according to Epstein, Cook was concerned that Sinofsky might start a new company with a former Apple executive.
Epstein does not make clear whether he spoke to Cook directly or through a third party and does not elaborate on whether or how well he and Cook knew each other. Apple, where Cook remains CEO, did not respond to a request for comment.
In another document in the most recent release of the Epstein files, Google co-founder Sergey Brin emailed with Epstein’s girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, about meeting up with Epstein during a trip to New York in 2003, well before Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea. “Let me know what works for you and Jeffrey,” Brin wrote.
Larry Page, Brin’s Google co-founder, also appears in the files, including in a 2010 email from a redacted sender. The sender says Page’s personal pilot wants to use Epstein’s helicopter for a vacation in the Caribbean and wants Epstein’s approval. The files do not appear to include a response.
Google did not respond to a request for comment.
Thiel, a billionaire tech investor and former Facebook board member known for his early support of Donald Trump in 2016, appears in thousands of the new Epstein documents, some of which are duplicates. He appears in emails arranging for lunches or other meetups in 2014 through 2017, including at least one lunch at Thiel’s San Francisco office.
A representative for Thiel did not respond to a request for comment.
One document from the latest Epstein files is an email exchange between Epstein’s assistant and the chief of staff for Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The exchange is from 2015, when Zuckerberg’s company was still called Facebook. Epstein’s assistant wrote that Epstein and Zuckerberg had recently attended the same group dinner hosted by Hoffman in Palo Alto, California — a fact that became publicly known in 2019.
“At the party Mark requested Jeffrey send his contact details to him...could you please pass the below on to Mark?” Epstein’s assistant, Lesley Groff, wrote.
“Noted, with thanks,” Zuckerberg’s chief of staff, Andrea Besmehn, replied.
There is no evidence the two men spoke after the dinner, and Meta says they did not.
“Mark met Epstein in passing one time at a dinner honoring scientists that was not organized by Epstein. Mark did not communicate with Epstein again following the dinner,” Meta said in a statement Wednesday, reiterating a statement from 2019.
According to other emails, Epstein attended or planned to attend numerous large group dinners at which prominent tech executives were present, although it is not always clear whether he spoke to them there. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was at an Edge Foundation dinner for billionaires in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2014, according to photos from the event, and Epstein, a donor to the foundation, planned to attend the same dinner, according to emails in the latest release. Another email in 2011 has about 30 confirmed attendees for a planned dinner in Long Beach, California, with Bezos, Brin and Musk among those listed.
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.
