The Epstein class

(Photo by Martin BUREAU / AFP via Getty Images)

The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) release of millions of files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein included thousands of mentions of prominent billionaires.

Epstein “talked about the kind of intimate relationship he had with a lot of billionaires, particularly Wall Street billionaires,” Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates told the staff of his foundation on Tuesday. Gates made the comment while apologizing for his association with Epstein.

The files show numerous oligarchs in regular contact with Epstein. In many cases, the communications occurred after 2008, when Epstein was convicted for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

Thomas Pritzker

Thomas Pritzker, the hotel magnate with an estimated net worth of $6.2 billion, announced that he would retire as executive chairman of Hyatt Hotels after the files revealed the extent of his relationship with Epstein. Emails between Pritzker and Epstein show that they remained in contact after Epstein’s 2008 conviction and exchanged emails “until at least shortly before Epstein’s arrest in 2019,” Forbes reported.

Epstein also appeared to “have stayed at Hyatt hotels through Pritzker’s connections” and asked Pritzker to help get a job for a girl “that you met at my house.” Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most prominent victims, claimed in a deposition that she had sex with Pritzker while she was being trafficked by Epstein. Pritzker has denied the allegations.

In a statement, Pritzker said he “exercised terrible judgment in maintaining contact with” Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and “condemn[ed] the actions and the harm caused by Epstein and Maxwell.”

Leon Black

In 2021, Leon Black, who has an estimated net worth of $12.6 billion, announced he was stepping down as CEO of Apollo Global Management after an internal review found that he “paid Epstein $158 million for advice on tax and estate planning and related services between 2012 and 2017.” Black was Epstein’s “greatest source of income after 2012,” according to the New York Times.

The report found that Black had a “social relationship” with Epstein from the “mid-1990s to 2018,” Forbes reported. The files also show that Epstein was Black’s “do-it-all fixer.” According to Bloomberg, Epstein “arranged family portraits” for Black and “helped the billionaire leverage up a vast art collection.”

The review did not find evidence that Black was involved in Epstein’s criminal activity.

According to the New York Times, Epstein introduced Black to “several young women,” some of whom later accused Black of abuse. The files reveal that prosecutors looked into “allegations from at least four women” who accused Black “of sexual assault and other misconduct,” but did not bring charges against him. Black has “faced multiple lawsuits alleging he raped women and girls,” including one where he allegedly attacked a teenager during a massage at Epstein’s home. (Two of the lawsuits were “withdrawn or dismissed with prejudice.”)

Black has denied the accusations.

Reid Hoffman

Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn with a net worth of $2.4 billion, sent Epstein gifts and offered him public relations advice, according to the files.

Hoffman visited Epstein’s private island in November 2014. The next month, Giuffre alleged in an anonymous affidavit that “Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell had sexually trafficked her as a minor to powerful men, including Prince Andrew.”

In January 2015, Hoffman offered to help Epstein navigate the fallout. “Been giving a bit of thought to how I can help with the recent press fu,” Hoffman wrote in an email. “Mostly looking for help on the on-line front.”

Around the same time, Hoffman sent Epstein ice cream “for the girls” and a sculpture of a monster.

On X, Hoffman said he met Epstein “because of a fundraising relationship with MIT, which I very much regret.” He also admitted maintaining contact with Epstein through 2018, after previously stating the relationship ended in 2015.

Les Wexner

Ohio businessman Les Wexner, the former CEO of the retail conglomerate behind Victoria’s Secret and other brands, has a net worth of $9.2 billion. Wexner’s relationship with Epstein began in the 1980s. For many years, Epstein acted as Wexner’s financial advisor and money manager.

Epstein also allegedly used his connection to Victoria’s Secret to recruit women and girls, posing as a company talent scout. One Epstein survivor has claimed she was assaulted by Epstein at an Ohio property owned by Wexner, who has denied knowledge of the incident.

The files show that, in 2019, Wexner was among several people that the FBI considered to be Epstein co-conspirators.

This revelation resulted in Wexner being deposed by the House Oversight Committee. During his hearing, Wexner denied knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.

Wexner, who said he cut ties with Epstein in 2007, also alleged that Epstein had “misappropriated vast sums of money from me and my family.”

Peter Thiel

Palantir cofounder Peter Thiel, who has an estimated net worth of $24.5 billion, also appears in the Epstein files. Thiel and Epstein communicated from 2014 to around 2019. Between 2014 and 2017, the pair were scheduled to meet “at least eight times,” Forbes reported. On April 5, 2016, Thiel emailed Epstein and asked him what he was “up to on Friday,” stating, “Should we try for lunch?”

In 2018, Epstein invited Thiel to visit him in the Caribbean, but a spokesman for Thiel said that he “never went to Epstein’s island.” In 2015 and 2016, Epstein also invested “$40 million into two funds managed by Valar Ventures,” a venture capital firm cofounded by Thiel, the New York Times reported.

Ronald Lauder

Emails show that multiple meetings were scheduled between Epstein and Ronald Lauder, heir to the Estée Lauder Companies who has an estimated net worth of $4.9 billion, by their staff in 2017. Epstein also “coordinated the creation of a legal vehicle in 2014 that allowed” Lauder and Black to “share ownership of a $25 million painting,” Bloomberg reported.

Mark Zuckerberg

Newly released files include a picture of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at a dinner. Zuckerberg, who has an estimated net worth of $219.2 billion, is shown seated around a table in a group photo that Epstein sent to himself, though Epstein himself is not in the picture. In another email, Epstein said that he “had dinner with zuckerburg, mu=k, thiel hoffman, wild.” In a separate email, Epstein’s assistant wrote, “At the party Mark requested Jeffrey send his contact details to him…could you please pass the below on to Mark?”

Meta referred the Wall Street Journal to a statement from 2019: “Mark met Epstein in passing one time at a dinner honoring scientists that wasn’t organized by Epstein. Mark did not communicate with Epstein again following the dinner.”

Elon Musk

The files revealed new details about Epstein’s relationship with Elon Musk, who has a net worth of $843.5 billion. In December 2012 — four years after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution — Musk emailed Epstein asking, “What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?”

On Christmas Day 2012, Musk followed up, telling Epstein, “I really want to hit the party scene in St Barts or elsewhere and let loose.”

“Understood, I will see you on st Barth,” Epstein replied.

In a subsequent email, Musk wrote that he would not be able to make it. In 2025, Musk said in a post on X, “Epstein tried to get me to go to his island and I REFUSED.”

In 2020, Musk posted on X denying reports that he gave Epstein a tour of the SpaceX headquarters. However, emails between Epstein and Musk suggest otherwise.

“Thanks for the tour, you would have had fun at xmas,” Epstein wrote to Musk on February 26, 2013.

Richard Branson

Richard Branson is the founder of the Virgin Group, which includes companies such as Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Galactic, and has a net worth of about $2.8 billion. The files revealed details about Branson’s relationship with Epstein.

In 2013, Epstein wrote to Branson, “Nice seeing you, thanks for your hospitality” and thanked Branson for his “public relations thoughts.” Branson replied, “Any time you’re in the area would love to see you. As long as you bring your harem!”

A spokesperson for Branson told the New York Times that Branson’s comments referred to three adult women.

Later in the exchange, Branson wrote, “I think if Bill Gates was willing to say that you’ve been a brilliant advisor to him, that you slipped up many years ago by sleeping with a 17 ½ year old woman and were punished for it, that you’ve more than learnt your lesson and have done nothing that’s against the law since and, yes, as a single man you seem to have a penchant for women. But there’s nothing wrong with that. Anyway something along those lines.”

“Any contact Richard and Joan Branson had with Epstein took place on only a few occasions more than twelve years ago, and was limited to group or business settings,” a representative for Branson said in a statement. “Richard believes that Epstein’s actions were abhorrent and supports the right to justice for his many victims.”

Bill Gates

Although the files did not include any correspondence from Gates, there were several notes about Gates that Epstein drafted and sent to himself. Gates has a net worth of about $107.5 billion.

The notes, written shortly after Epstein failed to secure a lucrative deal between the Gates Foundation and JPMorgan Chase, alleged that Epstein had helped arrange multiple extramarital affairs for Gates. In one of the notes, Epstein wrote that he had helped Gates acquire drugs to “deal with consequences of sex with Russian girls.”

A spokesperson for Gates called the notes “absolutely absurd and completely false.”

In a recent interview, Gates said that he met Epstein in 2011 — when Epstein was already a convicted sex offender — and attended several dinners with him in hopes of meeting potential donors to the Gates Foundation.

Gates told the staff of his foundation on Tuesday that he had two affairs with Russian women but did “nothing illicit.”

Glenn Dubin

Glenn Dubin, co-founder of Highbridge Capital Management, has a net worth of $2.9 billion. Dubin, the husband of former Epstein girlfriend Eva Andersson-Dubin, continued his association with Epstein after his 2008 conviction.

In a 2011 deposition, Epstein said he was the godfather to one of Dubin’s children and described both Dubin and his wife as “friends.” Epstein invested millions of dollars in Highbridge and eventually helped secure a deal for JPMorgan Chase to purchase the firm in 2004.

Dubin was listed by Giuffre as one of the men that Epstein forced her to have sex with in a 2016 deposition that was unsealed in 2019. Dubin denied these allegations.

A spokesperson for Dubin and his wife said that the couple condemns Epstein’s crimes. “Had they been aware of Epstein’s vile and unspeakable conduct, they would have cut off all ties long ago and certainly never allowed him to be in the presence of their children,” the spokesperson said.

However, Dubin continued to associate with Epstein even as he was on house arrest for his 2008 conviction. Emails show that during that time, Epstein arranged for Dubin to visit palaces and official government residences in London.