Following the passage of laws final 12 months, the U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ) needed to reluctantly publish a substantial quantity of its Jeffrey Epstein-related paperwork, colloquially referred to as the “Epstein Recordsdata.” These information, estimated by some to characterize as little as 2% of the Division’s Epstein-related documentation, don’t provide an entire image of Epstein’s actions as they’re largely centered on emails from a single Gmail account utilized by Epstein: jeevacation@gmail.com. The e-mail tackle seems to be primarily related to Epstein’s actions whereas he was staying at his personal island, Little Saint James, situated within the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI). Nevertheless, the launched emails include many fascinating revelations about key elements of Epstein’s actions in addition to his connections to outstanding individuals who have been intimately concerned in his USVI operations.
On this last installment of First Associates, a collection that has examined figures with appreciable overlaps between Jeffrey Epstein and the Trump household, a key nexus of Epstein’s actions, particularly within the USVI, has been illuminated by the current doc releases. It includes Epstein, the Emirati elite Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem (Sultan bin Sulayem or bin Sulayem within the the rest of this text), and New York businessman Andrew Farkas. Sultan bin Sulayem is greatest recognized for controlling a major portfolio of Emirati government-owned property, notably in freight and the maritime trade, with essential holdings in logistics globally in addition to main actual property holdings in the USA and past. He just lately turned the topic of nationwide media scrutiny when his title was redacted by the DOJ in an change with Epstein, whereby Epstein advised him he “liked the torture video” that Sultan bin Sulayem had despatched him. The DOJ has supplied no additional details about the “torture video.”
Sultan bin Sulayem is the long-time and shut enterprise affiliate of Andrew Farkas, a New York businessman whose household’s ties to Epstein date again to the Nineteen Eighties. Farkas has in depth ties to fraud that was, and certain nonetheless is, rampant within the Division of Housing and City Improvement (HUD) in the course of the Nineteen Nineties. He later cultivated sturdy ties with the previous HUD Secretary who as soon as pursued him, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. After Cuomo left HUD, Farkas arguably turned his most essential supply of marketing campaign financing whereas additionally using Cuomo within the personal sector in between his stints in New York state and native authorities. As might be explored on this article, Farkas launched his pal Sultan bin Sulayem to outstanding figures in New York actual property, similar to Donald Trump, and boasts extraordinarily shut enterprise ties to Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and to the Kushner household’s enterprise pursuits. Importantly, Farkas and bin Sulayem appear to have performed a key function in forging the Trump household’s preliminary ties to the UAE, whose authorities has come below scrutiny for its questionable investments in Trump-linked firms lately.
How Epstein first encountered Andrew Farkas and Sultan bin Sulayem is unclear, however they have been first photographed collectively in 2005, sooner than beforehand reported. This text will present that Epstein and his broader community, together with offshore monetary establishments tied to the Maxwell household, seem to have labored to allow UAE enterprise pursuits to take over key elements of American maritime infrastructure. This later resulted in a nationwide safety scandal that concerned prime officers within the George W. Bush administration. Within the years after, Farkas helped Epstein develop key elements of the infrastructure he used and abused within the USVI to facilitate his trafficking actions, with bin Sulayem additionally providing help to assist Epstein cowl his tracks in main USVI actual property purchases. The proof contained on this article makes it clear that Farkas and bin Sulayem warrant additional investigation relating to Epstein’s trafficking and different unlawful actions. Nevertheless, given the DOJ’s willingness to redact bin Sulayem’s id on at the least one disturbing e mail, and the shut ties of Farkas to the Trump and Kushner households, who even have main Emirati enterprise pursuits, it appears clear {that a} federal investigation of those two figures and their ties to Epstein is unlikely.
A Farkas Household Affair
Andrew Farkas was born right into a rich New York household, together with his grandfather having based Alexander’s division retailer, and he attended the elite Trinity College. There, in keeping with the New York Occasions, he fashioned “a detailed circle of buddies – a lot of them scions of different New York enterprise households.” With classmates from Trinity, he based his first firm, which targeted on database administration, at age 16. He later attended Harvard College, the place he spent his summers working for the London Metals Alternate in addition to Salomon Brothers, which he joined full-time shortly after graduating. He left comparatively quickly after to start constructing his actual property empire, which began together with his founding of Metropolitan Asset Group in 1984 after he secured a $60,000 mortgage together with his household’s assist. Farkas had pitched his imaginative and prescient for Metropolitan to his household, describing that the concept “was to place the household’s assets into securitized actual property transactions after which attract different individuals the household knew who already have been investing in actual property however have been having to pay excessive charges.” Farkas later described Metropolitan as “an actual property funding banking agency that makes a speciality of working with distressed restricted partnerships.” By 1987, Metropolitan claimed to handle over $250 million (over $715 million right now) “on behalf of itself and its associates.” By 1989, the corporate had accomplished practically $750 million of asset restructuring.
Over the subsequent few years, Farkas set his sights on U.S. Shelter, a significant condo administration firm and participant in a wide range of actual property markets. Farkas’ curiosity was publicly reported in 1990 alongside reporting detailing U.S. Shelter’s vital monetary troubles, because it was estimated to have hemorrhaged $52 million over the earlier 4 years. This was largely as a result of 1987 downturn, which pummeled actual property markets. Even Farkas’ agency Metropolitan fell into monetary hassle, however Farkas later claimed to have “caught it out” to change into a “white knight” within the Nineteen Nineties. In actuality, Farkas’ “sticking it out” was solely potential because of the $5 million he acquired from his rich household, which he used to create the Metropolitan-associated Insignia Monetary Group in 1990. True to his preliminary imaginative and prescient for Metropolitan, Farkas’ household not solely backed his agency but additionally introduced 65 to 70 different households with them. Farkas would use this community of his household and their buddies to realize “entry to the very best echelons of administration at nearly each monetary establishment and experience in securitized actual property.”
Flush with money from his household and their buddies, Farkas created Insignia Monetary Group, with the obvious intention of buying U.S. Shelter. As might be mentioned in higher element within the subsequent part, Farkas’ recapitalization efforts on behalf of U.S. Shelter have been designed to set the stage for his takeover of the corporate not lengthy after. The merger between Insignia and U.S. Shelter was sealed in 1991, a 12 months after Insignia was created. By 1992, the ensuing firm had become “the second largest property administration firm” within the nation. A 12 months later, in 1993, they went public with the assistance of a Lehman Brothers banker named Robert Lieber. Lieber later went on to be New York’s deputy mayor for financial growth earlier than becoming a member of Farkas’ Island Capital years later.
As time went on, it turned clear that Farkas’ actual curiosity in buying U.S. Shelter through Insignia was to realize entry to a profitable, American taxpayer-subsidized cash spigot: grants and subsidies for low-income housing issued by the U.S. Division of Housing and City Improvement (HUD).
Andrew Farkas already had some connection to HUD, since his uncle, Jonathan Farkas, had served because the government-sector consultant to HUD’s manufactured residence advisory council from 1987 by means of 1988, stepping down a 12 months earlier than the formation of Insignia. Such “revolving door” relations would quickly change into ubiquitous within the fraud-soaked world of HUD contracting, and Farkas, by means of his relationship with U.S. Shelter, turned linked to a cabal of infamous HUD fraudsters.
Wading right into a Cesspool
In its most egregious situations, HUD fraud relied on a dense net of residence constructing firms, actual property funding trusts, and regulation companies. These entities regularly overlapped with the looting of America’s financial savings and loans trade and the questionable monetary practices related to Drexel Burnham Lambert’s junk bonds. A veritable leviathan, the attain of this fraud machine prolonged to the households of highly effective American politicians and the intelligence neighborhood.
One place to begin for tracing this maze is the primary firm Farkas’ Insignia acquired, U.S. Shelter. U.S. Shelter was based in 1972 by N. Barton Tuck, Jr., who additionally acted as the corporate’s longtime president. $10,000 in seed funding had come from Buck Mickel, the pinnacle of a significant South Carolina-based development company referred to as Daniel Worldwide. This monetary relationship cemented a deep interrelationship between U.S. Shelter and Daniel Worldwide, as summarized in a 1987 lawsuit towards U.S. Shelter:
[Buck] Mickel was chairman of Outdated Shelter’s Board of Administrators on the time of the reorganization and have become Chairman of New Shelter’s Board of Administrators when the reorganization was consummated. Mickel was vice chairman of the Board and member of the Workplace of the Chief Govt of Fluor Company. He beforehand served as president and vice chairman of the Fluor Company, a Fortune 500 Firm. He’s additionally a director and former chairman of Daniel Worldwide Company which was acquired by Fluor Company in 1977. Mickel has served on the boards of quite a few companies and universities. He’s energetic in numerous neighborhood actions in Greenville.
In 1977, the identical 12 months that Fluor absorbed Daniel Worldwide, U.S. Shelter crossed paths with a financial institution that will later re-emerge in the course of the BCCI affair. In April of that 12 months, U.S. Shelter acquired H.G. Smithy, a big Washington, D.C.-based actual property administration firm, from Monetary Common Bankshares (FGB). Inside months, FGB turned the topic of a covert takeover by the Financial institution of Credit score and Commerce Worldwide (BCCI), the sprawling, shadowy banking establishment that had been established with the help of the CIA and which moved cash for a seemingly infinite parade of intelligence businesses, terrorists, monetary criminals, and drug traffickers.
Daniel Worldwide’s actual property subsidiary was Daniel Realty Company, which separated from Fluor within the Nineteen Eighties and have become an unbiased firm. Charles Tickle served as an govt for Daniel Realty, each throughout and after Fluor’s management of the corporate. He, too, boasts a collection of intriguing ties. As an illustration, in the course of the Nineteen Eighties, Tickle joined the board of an essential firm, SICO-Curaçao. This was an offshore company automobile and “participant in actual property worldwide” that was, in actual fact, only one node in an internet of subsidiaries, holding firms, and joint ventures cloaked in a pantheon of shell firms. This community of entities was overseen by its dad or mum entity, SICO, the Saudi Funding Company.
Established in 1980, SICO was managed by Yeslam Bin Laden (the half-brother of Osama Bin Laden) and different members of the Bin Laden household. Tickle ended up associating with Yeslam on account of the truth that Daniel and SICO had been working collectively on numerous actual property growth tasks throughout the USA. Steve Colls recounts in his e-book The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Household within the American Century that:
They fashioned offshore companies to function financing autos, with Tickle and Yeslam typically named as administrators. The one actual thriller, Tickle recalled, was whose cash Yeslam was really investing—his, or that of different members of the Bin Laden household, or that of different Saudi traders, or cash from another supply. “That was at all times such a secretive factor,” Tickle mentioned. On the time, as a enterprise concern, “We might have cared much less.” For Daniel Company’s functions, all funding funds have been the identical; Yeslam had entry to various money, and there was no motive for Tickle to consider that it was coming from improper sources.
Regardless of Tickle’s supposed lack of curiosity within the supply of funds for his or her actual property ventures, there are causes to boost questions concerning the cash that SICO and Daniel have been pouring into the USA. SICO’s expansive and convoluted community of firms intertwined with these of BCCI in quite a few methods (making the cross-over between U.S. Shelter, intently tied to Daniel and Fluor, and banks focused by BCCI in 1977 all of the extra intriguing). Different hyperlinks existed between SICO and the monetary networks utilized by the CIA for its covert funding of the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, and to drug traffickers and cash launderers working within the Afghanistan-Pakistan area.
The CIA connection is especially fascinating, because it rapidly turns into obvious that the funding of the Mujahideen was not the one covert operation that SICO had brushed up towards. The company construction of SICO was arrange by the Swiss legal professional Baudoin Dunand, who later served on SICO’s advisory board. Researcher Kevin Coogan discovered that Dunand was concerned in one other entity, Tyndall Belief, which former American tax legal professional Willard Zucker managed. Zucker, in flip, was the person tapped to function the monetary supervisor for “The Enterprise,” the personal intelligence community tied to the CIA and Israeli intelligence that was established to handle the difficult plots and machinations on the coronary heart of the Iran-Contra affair.
Fluor, the development big that had acquired Daniel Worldwide — and which interlocked with U.S. Shelter through Buck Mickel — additionally seems to have been concerned in Iran-Contra actions in some capability. This revelation got here from journalist Gary Webb’s reporting on how the CIA-backed Contras have been concerned within the cocaine commerce and had helped gasoline the explosion of crack in city Los Angeles within the Nineteen Eighties. Of specific curiosity to Webb was Ronald Lister, a former police officer turned “cocaine hauler and cash launderer” for Jose Blandon, one of many right-hand males for Panamanian strongman (and CIA asset) Manuel Noriega between 1980 and 1981.
Across the time he began working with Blandon, Lister fashioned an organization referred to as Pyramid Worldwide Safety Consultants in California, whose goal was to “promote weapons overseas” — notably to the Contras by means of El Salvador. Webb realized that Lister himself had a CIA contact, Invoice Nelson, who had beforehand served because the CIA’s deputy director of operations. Nevertheless, on the time that Nelson was working below a enterprise cowl for the CIA, he had been vice chairman of safety and administration at Fluor.
Lister’s contact with Nelson reportedly befell whereas Nelson was working for Fluor, and the arms trafficker reportedly made frequent visits to the corporate between 1982 and 1983. Nelson, curiously sufficient, had joined up with Fluor in 1977, the identical 12 months that Fluor had bought Daniel Worldwide.
U.S. Shelter, in the meantime, launched into an unimaginable growth — and the event of an more and more difficult company group — within the years after 1977. A string of acquisitions noticed the corporate gobble up smaller property administration firms throughout the USA (similar to Gold Crown Properties in Kansas Metropolis) and dip into banking by shopping for Malibu Financial savings & Loans in California. Subsidiaries have been established, together with U.S. Shelter Belief of Massachusetts, U.S. Shelter Company of South Carolina, U.S. Shelter Company of Delaware, and many others. These have been shuffled round and later merged in numerous combos.
As beforehand talked about, nevertheless, U.S. Shelter was flailing by the late Nineteen Eighties. Struggling below the burden of “dangerous actual property investments and failure to satisfy new capital necessities for a financial savings and mortgage establishment it owns,” the corporate launched into a recapitalization plan. Key to this recapitalization was Andrew Farkas and his Metropolitan Asset Group. The plan ensured that Metropolitan would find yourself with a major chunk of U.S. Shelter inventory alongside Lambert Brussels Actual Property Corp., an American actual property arm of the Belgium-based Groupe Bruxelles Lambert.
Lambert Brussels Actual Property’s chief, Joseph Murphy, was additionally a member of the manager committee of Drexel Burnham Lambert, the key funding financial institution most notorious for being the seedbed for Michael Milken’s junk bond operations. Right here, too, one finds the fingerprints of clandestine actions and covert operations. In line with Ari Ben-Menashe, Drexel was one of many laundering mechanisms for the funds generated by the American and Israeli arms gross sales to Iran that have been central to the Iran-Contra affair. This arms cash, states Ben-Menashe, “added to Drexel’s stature, and Drexel’s share of the income from deposits helped it underwrite big portions of junk bonds.” Some shut Epstein associates, similar to Leon Black, had been prime executives at Drexel previous to its 1990 chapter.
The recapitalization plan didn’t appear to perform effectively sufficient for U.S. Shelter to get well, so a new scheme was put in place. U.S. Shelter would merely stop to exist, and its property (minus its beleaguered California financial savings and mortgage establishment) can be transferred to his new firm, Insignia Monetary Group.
When Farkas and Insignia lastly acquired U.S. Shelter in early 1991, the first objective was to take management of properties that had been owned and managed by A. Bruce Rozet. As soon as described as “one of many nation’s largest house owners of backed housing,” Rozet had been the proprietor of the Related Monetary Company of Los Angeles, California. He was additionally a criminal of the very best order: in February 1990, HUD suspended him from acquiring profitable contracts on account of his involvement in in depth fraud.
Rozet had been diverting HUD funds meant for upkeep and the maintenance of HUD-subsidized properties for private use. In different situations, he tapped HUD funding for empty houses, all of the whereas fudging paperwork to make them seem occupied. A blitzkrieg of lawsuits quickly adopted in Rozet’s wake, including misdeed upon misdeed — insurance coverage fraud, kickback schemes, and the like. In April of 2001, Rozet admitted guilt to numerous fraudulent actions and was fined $10.2 million.
Andrew Cuomo, who served as assistant secretary of HUD from 1993 by means of 1997 and as secretary from 1997 to 2001, described Rozet as “a kind of ‘dangerous landlords who used HUD applications like private ATM machines to counterpoint themselves and rip off the American taxpayer.’” But, Cuomo would quickly work intently with Andrew Farkas, the person who ended up with Rozet’s properties by means of U.S. Shelter.
The HUD Fraud Octopus
When HUD started to unravel Rozet’s machinations, it demanded that the Related Monetary Company (AFC) “flip over the administration of 79 properties to an unbiased agency, initially U.S. Shelter.” This was two months previous to Insignia’s formal acquisition of U.S. Shelter. Nevertheless, as famous above, Farkas was already within the loop. He “consulted” with U.S. Shelter on their impending acquisition of the Rozet property portfolio and have become aware of sure preparations of a doubtful authorized nature that Rozet had engaged in. These concerned a “payback” scheme, initially arrange by AFC and later continued by Farkas, by which a portion of HUD-subsidized administration charges would move again to the property house owners.
The AFC – U.S. Shelter – Insignia payback association was found by HUD inspectors in 1995, resulting in a joint HUD/Workplace of Housing/Division of Justice investigation into the businesses, their monetary preparations, and properties below administration. What they found was that HUD funds had not been used to keep up the properties, which had fallen into an excessive state of disrepair. Cuomo would later inform the Village Voice that the properties’ situations have been “despicable.” The Voice additionally reported that, when Cuomo visited one in all these properties, he “’noticed a damaged pipe actually spewing human waste on the youngsters’s playground.’ He mentioned he noticed kids taking part in in it.”
In 1997, a lawsuit was filed towards Insignia for “paying $7.6 million in kickbacks to the house owners of 17 federally backed tasks that Insignia managed.” Farkas paid an preliminary $5 million to HUD for diverted administration charges, and in March 1998, Insignia paid one other $2.4 million however declined to confess guilt. It then bought its residential items for a whopping $910 million. Not lengthy after, in August of 2001, Insignia started making vital contributions to Andrew Cuomo, who had left HUD and was now working for governor of New York.
Cuomo misplaced the race. He first labored for the regulation agency of Fried Frank earlier than taking a place at Andrew Farkas’ post-Insignia firm, Island Capital, in 2003. There, he was paid an annual wage of $1.2 million.
This was not the primary time a Cuomo had intersected with a Farkas. Because the Village Voice recounts:
They [the 2001 contributions] have been hardly the primary Farkas contributions to a Cuomo; different members of the Farkas household, which used to personal the Alexander’s division retailer chain, had contributed to the campaigns of Cuomo’s father, Mario, when he was governor. Mario Cuomo really appointed Farkas’s father to the board of the state’s highly effective Dormitory Authority in his last 12 months in workplace in 1994, and Robin Farkas [Andrew Farkas’ father] turned its chairman in 1995.
Farkas had different political ties past the Cuomo household. By means of Insignia, his ties prolonged to the highly effective actual property administration firms and funding trusts that additionally drew on the HUD cash spigot, and which had connections to that notorious American political dynasty, the Bush household.
In March 1998, proper as Insignia was forking over tens of millions in reference to Cuomo’s HUD lawsuit, Farkas was making main enterprise strikes. With the multimillion-dollar price of fines on the horizon, Insignia unloaded its condo portfolio to Residence Funding & Administration Firm (AIMCO), a Denver-based actual property funding belief managed by homebuilder and actual property supervisor Terry Considine. Across the identical time that AIMCO was shopping for up Insignia’s portfolio, the corporate additionally discovered itself in sizzling water with HUD over its plans to repurpose HUD-subsidized properties to cater to higher-end clientele, thereby displacing lower-income renters.
Notably, Denver itself was a hotbed of HUD fraud. As investigator and journalist Rodney Stich recounted in his e-book Defrauding America:
A serious phase of the HUD fraud was centered within the Denver space and dedicated by a bunch of intently associated individuals and corporations, who had shut ties to the Reagan and Bush administrations. Quite a few HUD officers left authorities to work for the Denver group that defrauded the American individuals of billions of {dollars}, a lot of which is hidden away in both offshore monetary establishments or in secret places all through the USA. Philip Winn was one of many kingpins within the Denver group. He was a former HUD assistant secretary who joined the MDC group in Denver and have become a key participant within the HUD and financial savings and mortgage scandals.
A 1996 article by the Denver paper Westword confirms a lot of what Stich wrote, noting that former HUD assistant secretary Philip Winn “was a part of what turned referred to as the Winn Group, a set of former company officers turned builders who acquired greater than $160 million in federal tax breaks and subsidies from HUD.” The article additionally notes that Winn was working in the identical enterprise and social circles because the heads of MDC Holdings, owned by “mega-developer” Larry Mizel. MDC had been a part of a complicated “daisy chain” operation that concerned Silverado Financial savings, Charles Keating’s Lincoln Financial savings, Drexel Burnham Lambert, and numerous different crooked monetary establishments. The entire operation notably boasted exceedingly shut ties to the Bush household, notably to Silverado, the place Neil Bush was a director.
To carry this full circle, Mizel employed Terry Considine — the proprietor of AIMCO, the corporate that bought Insignia’s condo portfolio — to run actual funding trusts managed by MDC.
There may be additionally the case of NHP Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based condo administration and actual property firm that, within the early Nineteen Nineties, was one of many largest within the nation. The corporate had additionally constructed itself up by means of questionable actions involving HUD. Just some brief months earlier than AIMCO bought the Insignia condo portfolio from Farkas, it bought NHP, its actual property property, and an related firm.
Shepherding the NHP sale to AIMCO was Michael Eisenson, the board member who represented the pursuits of NHP’s then-dominant shareholder: the Harvard Administration Firm, an funding firm owned by Harvard College and the supervisor of the college’s endowment. One other curious place the place Eisenson turned up as a board member — on account of a big funding by Harvard Administration — was Harken Power. This obscure power firm counted George W. Bush as a significant shareholder and board member. Through the interval when Bush was affiliated with the corporate, Harvard Administration invested about $50 million in it.
In addition to George W. Bush, Harken had vital ties to the intelligence neighborhood. Main shareholders within the firm (predating Bush’s arrival) included an investor syndicate led by Alan Quasha, a New York legal professional. Alan’s father, William Quasha, had been a licensed legal professional within the Philippines, the place he had shut ties to figures concerned within the notorious Nugan Hand Financial institution. Nugan Hand, run by a number of CIA and ex-military personnel, was deeply concerned within the clandestine commerce of arms and medicines.
Whereas these components might sound tangential to the world of HUD fraud that Farkas discovered himself entangled inside, they might assist clarify a wierd collection of occasions by which Farkas made an look: the story of Catherine Austin Fitts and her firm, Hamilton Securities. A veteran of Dillon Learn & Co, Fitts had been recruited by HUD Secretary Jack Kemp in 1989 to function the Federal Housing Administrator. Her mandate was to reform “the scandal-ridden, fraud-plagued company.”
After her stint at HUD, Fitts fashioned Hamilton Securities to filter waste, redundancy, and financial abuse within the federal housing applications. Particularly, Hamilton was employed to assist oversee HUD’s mortgage gross sales program, which was set as much as shift delinquent mortgages from the federal government company to non-public traders. What made Hamilton completely different is that, amongst different instruments, the corporate applied a web-based database and bidding software program that helped set up an open marketplace for the defaulted mortgages. By clearing some of these mortgages off their books, HUD would have been capable of unencumber cash that might then be used to decrease the prices in different areas of its housing actions.
Such a scheme inevitably upset insiders who had been taking part in HUD for unsavory functions for years. As Fitts would put it:
Hamilton’s efforts stood in the best way of the “monetary coup d’etat” – of engineering a mortgage bubble utilizing federal mortgage fraud, of “disappearing” billions from federal accounts, and of a brand new wave of gentrification which would come with the event of personal jail firms financed with federal contracts.
Early opposition got here from Michael Eisenson, the Harvard Administration govt who sat on the Harken board (alongside George W. Bush) and was concerned with HUD by means of NHP. He advised Fitts that NHP disliked Hamilton as a result of they “favor[red] a bid course of the place we are able to win by ‘gaming it’ as a result of we’re ‘smarter.’”
One other opponent of Hamilton was Andrew Farkas. Along with the mortgage gross sales program, Hamilton was introduced in to seek the advice of with HUD on its “project-based subsidy” program — that’s, subsidies for buildings that move to the property house owners and constructing managers. On the time, these subsidies have been expiring, and HUD was deciding whether or not to resume this system or change to a tenant-voucher method, which points vouchers to tenants to assist them entry low-cost housing and transfer with out shedding help.
Within the midst of this debate, Farkas contacted Fitts at Hamilton and advised her that “it was important that each one subsidies go to the house owners of the properties within the type of ‘project-based’ help,” as a result of tenants would use the voucher program to one way or the other “purchase medication.” The implications of Farkas’ assertion are clear: his contact with Fitts would have coincided with the time when Insignia was embroiled within the payback scheme the corporate had willingly (and deliberately) inherited when it took over U.S. Shelter. Farkas merely didn’t need the HUD spigot to be turned off.
In October 1997, HUD fired Hamilton, sparking a protracted battle that dragged Fitts and her firm by means of the courtroom system. Trumped-up prices and burying Hamilton in authorized paperwork — a well-oiled and time-tested technique — turned the secret.
Is it a mere coincidence that inside a 12 months, each NHP and Farkas’ Insignia can be consumed by AIMCO in Denver, an organization firmly entrenched in a fancy community of HUD and financial savings and mortgage fraudsters linked to the very best ranges of American political energy? Whistle-blower Stewart Webb, a person with vital information of those white-collar felony networks in Colorado, prompt that Fitts and Hamilton had been a “direct menace to the ‘Denver Boys’ — the Bush Crime Household’s cash laundering operations based mostly in Denver.” The HUD cash spigot, in keeping with Webb, was “a large covert income stream for them.”
Who had been the one that fired Hamilton? The identical man who had first investigated after which later went to work for Farkas: Andrew Cuomo. But, even earlier than that, the primary lawsuit had been filed by an organization run by John Ervin, a former NHP worker.
Journalist Lucy Komisar has prompt that Farkas in the end selected to again Cuomo so strongly as a result of he benefited from Cuomo’s insurance policies towards the tip of his time period as head of the Division of Housing and City Improvement below Clinton. She singled out Cuomo’s resolution to fireside Hamilton Securities Group, run by Catherine Austin Fitts, although Hamilton had diminished fraud and helped create insurance policies that had been applauded for benefiting householders and taxpayers. One of many largest beneficiaries of Cuomo’s resolution was Farkas’ Insignia. After firing Hamilton, Komisar notes, Cuomo’s HUD misplaced observe of $17 billion, which was blamed on an organization deeply tied to Clinton and then-Bush’s IRS Commissioner, Charles Rossotti. Subsequently, Rossotti was employed by the Bush family-connected Carlyle Group in 2002.
Farkas Goes to Dubai
Across the time Farkas started financing Andrew Cuomo, he additionally started forging ties abroad that will be essential not solely to his profession however to his future dealings and friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. In 2002, Farkas was launched to Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, then head of the Dubai Port Authority (DPA). A couple of years later, in 2005, DPA merged with different Dubai-controlled logistics firms to type DP World, which bin Sulayem managed and which later turned Dubai World.
Farkas and bin Sulayem have been first launched by Sol and Howard “Butch” Kerzner, father and son lodge/on line casino magnates from South Africa. Mr. Farkas later advised the Observer that “I used to be taken to Dubai by Butch [Kerzner] with an incredible diploma of frequency. Sultan and I turned quick buddies. We got here to know one another very, very effectively.” A 12 months after assembly bin Sulayem, Farkas bought Insignia and created Island Capital with the cash from Insignia’s sale and different sources. He rapidly started utilizing his new firm to develop marinas in Dubai “hand-in-hand with Mr. Sulayem,” per the Observer. Additionally in 2003, Farkas helped flood Dubai’s actual property market, by which Sulayem-controlled entities performed an essential function, with mortgage-backed securities (mentioned in higher element later on this article).
The Kerzner dynasty, chargeable for introducing Farkas and bin Sulayem, was a controversial bunch. Sol Kerzner, as soon as referred to as “an unforgettable and essential brick within the wall of [South African] apartheid,” had an extended observe document of accusations of bribery, monetary crime, and utilizing “apartheid to advance his enterprise pursuits.” The Kerzners additionally owned Paradise Island, previously a crown jewel of the mob and CIA-linked firm Resorts Worldwide. They purchased the island in 1994 from what remained of Resorts Worldwide after it was taken over by Merv Griffin, whose acquisition of the controversial firm was fueled by the felony financial institution Drexel Burnham Lambert and its junk bonds.
Kerzner additionally seems as “Sol Kersner” in Epstein’s “black e-book,” as does Gerard Inzerillo, who was COO of Kerzner’s Solar Resorts from 1991 to 1996 and president of the Kerzner Leisure Group from 1991 to 2011. Within the early 2000s, Inzerillo served as a founding advisory board member of the Clinton AIDS initiative, which Epstein helped launch, and was later put in control of the Diriyah Gate Improvement Authority by Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (MbS), who was additionally recognized to have been very near, and certain suggested by, Epstein.
Sol Kerzner was additionally very near New York actual property developer Donald Trump, now U.S. president. Kerzner as soon as advised the Ahead that Trump “is a superb pal” and “helped me at a time when South Africans weren’t effectively acquired.” Trump was keen on each Sol and his son, “Butch,” calling Butch a “nice visionary” and “one of many few sons who was capable of get up by way of expertise to an incredible father.” Trump, as a significant determine in the true property scene, has lengthy boasted shut ties with Andrew Farkas, as he as soon as did with Jeffrey Epstein, who was as soon as generally referred to in press reviews as a New York-based “property developer.”
It appears that evidently one of many fundamental causes Sultan bin Sulayem was fascinated with Farkas is that he might assist join Emirati pursuits to the elite New York circles that Farkas had lengthy inhabited. In line with Muneef Tarmoom, the previous CEO of Istithmar — an funding agency owned by Dubai World — Farkas was “the connections man.” Tarmoom added that “He knew everybody in New York. No matter introduction he did, he normally would get a lower on it.” After assembly bin Sulayem, Farkas would introduce him to Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein, bin Sulayem, and Farkas are all pictured alongside Leslie Wexner within the entrance row of the 2005 Victoria’s Secret annual televised vogue present, with Farkas and bin Sulayem clearly being Epstein’s VIP friends for the star-studded occasion. This was roughly three years after the primary assembly between Farkas and bin Sulayem. Additionally it is the earliest documentation of the connection between the three males. For each bin Sulayem and Farkas, their relationships with Epstein would show extremely vital.
Along with Epstein, Farkas additionally launched bin Sulayem to Kerzner’s pal Donald Trump. Trump subsequently turned concerned in a three way partnership with the Dubai World-owned actual property developer Nakheel on Dubai’s The Palm, the world’s largest man-made island, and later labored once more with Nakheel to construct the Trump Worldwide Lodge and Tower in Dubai. Within the planning part, Trump remarked on what would have been his household’s first enterprise within the Center East and that the Nakheel growth was the perfect actual property funding in your complete area, stating that “After I take a look at potential websites for actual property funding, I think about ‘location, location, location’ – and that is the perfect location not solely in Dubai however the entire of the Center East.”
Nevertheless, the Nakheel three way partnership was rebranded as a Nakheel-owned challenge that includes solely Trump household branding in July 2008, after Nakheel started reeling from points associated to the 2008 financial disaster (extra on that quickly, as Farkas seemingly performed a task in Nakheel’s troubles). Oddly, within the midst of that disaster, Trump however hosted a big, celebrity-studded occasion at his Los Angeles property, saying the Nakheel-developed Trump Tower in Dubai in August 2008. The lodge and tower plans have been additionally ultimately canceled in 2011 on account of Nakheel’s dire monetary state of affairs, although Nakheel promoted it up by means of 2013. Nevertheless, plans to construct it have been relaunched simply final 12 months, this time with a Saudi-based actual property developer. Although the preliminary ventures with Nakheel have been delayed and later canceled as a result of 2008 financial disaster, the Trumps seem to have maintained ties to Sultan bin Sulayem, who attended Trump’s inaugural ball in 2017 alongside Farkas. Sultan bin Sulayem’s son was additionally in attendance.
Farkas, the person who initially introduced Trump’s enterprise pursuits to the Gulf, maybe deserves appreciable credit score for the shut ties cast by members of Trump’s household to the UAE, which have confirmed very profitable through the years, together with throughout his second time period. They’ve additionally featured prominently in allegations of pay-to-play and conflicts of curiosity throughout his presidencies.
One specific member of the Trump household who has clearly benefited is Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The Kushners, and Jared particularly, additionally notably boast long-standing ties to Farkas. As an illustration, Jared Kushner and Farkas have been pictured collectively in 2011 at a “Masters of Actual Property” occasion, and in 2009 on the 80th anniversary occasion of the Montauk Yacht Membership, which Farkas owns. Within the 2009 image, Jared, his spouse Ivanka, and Farkas are pictured with Andrew Cuomo, whose gubernatorial marketing campaign funds have lengthy been intently linked to Farkas, as famous beforehand.
In subsequent years, the Kushner household would come to rely closely on entities managed by Farkas for essential actual property offers. In a 2017 Bloomberg article titled “Kushners’ New York Metropolis Buildings Are Principally Owned by Others,” it was famous {that a} key supply of funding for the Kushner household’s actual property offers in New York was Farkas’ C-III Capital Companions. One instance given was a 2015 deal for 16 condo buildings, which was credited to the Kushners although the vast majority of the funds for the buildings’ acquisition had come from C-III. Additionally in 2015, Farkas turned an essential investor in Cadre, an actual property start-up co-founded by Jared and his brother Josh. A couple of years later, in 2018, a Farkas-controlled agency once more supplied monetary backing to the Kushners, this time for the $102 million buy of two New Jersey condo buildings. At the moment, Jared Kushner was one of many key figures for UAE relations within the first Trump administration. As famous above, Farkas had attended the inaugural festivities for Trump a 12 months earlier alongside his “frequent enterprise companion” Sultan bin Sulayem and his son.
In 2023, Kushner turned even extra entangled with UAE enterprise pursuits, notably through his agency Affinity Companions, which raised greater than $200 million from a UAE sovereign wealth fund. He and Steve Witkoff, whose household has its personal doubtful conflicts of curiosity with the UAE, have change into the important thing level males for Center Jap affairs within the second Trump administration.
Along with the Trumps and Jared Kushner, one other Farkas-brokered connection for Dubai World was to the Drexel Burnham Lambert-linked company raider Carl Icahn. Icahn subsequently satisfied Dubai World to take a position billions in Time Warner throughout a failed takeover try. Throughout this era, the Kerzners additionally partnered with Dubai World’s Istithmar to construct an Atlantis resort on The Palm. Istithmar later helped lead the consortium that took Kerzner Worldwide personal and in the end ended up with 30% of the Kerzner household empire.
Preying on Ports
For DP World, and later its successor Dubai World, Farkas was way more than a “connections man.” He served as a significant adviser and dealmaker for the conglomerate and likewise for different highly effective figures within the UAE. He, together with Andrew Cuomo, whom he employed in 2003 to work at his agency Island Capital, suggested builders in Dubai, together with these tied on to Dubai World, each within the UAE and overseas, with a selected concentrate on the USVI. The extent of Farkas’ ties to the USVI, in addition to the extent of his direct ties with Epstein, is detailed in a later part of this text.
As beforehand famous, the 12 months earlier than Cuomo joined Island Capital, Farkas had been one in all Cuomo’s prime fundraisers for his unsuccessful gubernatorial bid in 2002, with Farkas subsequently taking part in the function of Cuomo’s prime “cash man.” Farkas’ involvement in Cuomo’s marketing campaign financing can be a recurring theme all through their long-lasting relationship.
Through the Bush period, with Cuomo alongside him, Farkas additionally made vital property offers with Dubai World’s Istithmar, amongst others. As an illustration, Farkas partnered with Istithmar on a number of Manhattan actual property purchases in addition to USVI marinas. Istithmar in the end purchased a 29% stake in Farka’s marina growth and administration firm Island International Yachting, which owns American Yacht Harbor –– the marina that Epstein would later co-own with Farkas.
Inconveniently for Farkas and his Emirati affiliate, Dubai World’s port-focused subsidiary, DP World, turned the main target of a significant nationwide safety controversy from 2005 to 2006. In 2005, DP World moved to amass the British firm, Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. (P&O), which owned or leased terminals in lots of world ports, together with six main U.S. ports: Baltimore, Houston, Miami, New Orleans, Newark, and Philadelphia. Nevertheless, DP World’s makes an attempt to amass key U.S. infrastructure have been much more in depth than these six ports, as additionally they sought to acquire a foothold within the Port of Tampa, Florida, and key infrastructure close to the Port of Charleston, South Carolina.
The P&O shares that facilitated DP World’s takeover try have been systematically bought off in the course of the Nineteen Nineties and up till DP World’s profitable acquisition in 2005. Many of those shares have been by the way bought off in reference to a cash laundering scheme tied to Epstein-connected pursuits, notably the household of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s long-time affiliate and confederate. This P&O share sell-off is notably on the heart of a just lately filed lawsuit focusing on HSBC, Barclays, and an “Epstein-linked Belief.”
The story of those P&O shares begins with a person named John Dick, who was linked by journalist Pete Brewton to the Denver-linked cash laundering community mentioned earlier on this article. Particularly, Brewton linked Dick to the looting of the Denver-based Silverado Financial savings & Mortgage, the place Neil Bush (brother to George H.W. Bush) served on the board and whose misappropriated funds have been allegedly used to finance clandestine CIA actions. Brewton additionally linked Dick to different S&L frauds in Florida and Texas, notably these involving the intelligence-linked Robert Corson, who additionally boasted shut ties to George Bush Sr. When the cash spirited out of those S&Ls was traced to the tax haven of Jersey, it was additionally revealed that Dick had been dwelling in Jersey since at the least the mid-to-late Seventies.
In line with a duplicate of the criticism of the aforementioned lawsuit supplied to Limitless Hangout, one of many trusts arrange for Dick’s kids, however from which John Dick was explicitly excluded at his spouse’s behest, included a significant place within the firm European Ferries. In 1995, one of many trustees — Barclaytrust, a Jersey-based belief division of Barclays — retired, transferring management to a different Jersey firm referred to as La Hougue Boete. La Hougue was fashioned in 1984, and the corporate’s final helpful proprietor was none aside from John Dick. That is even supposing he was meant to be totally excluded from the belief’s administration. Sadly for Dick’s kids, La Hougue was a cash laundering enterprise and, although their father was on the helm, this firm would quickly strip their belief of its property, together with their main place in European ferries.
When European Ferries was acquired by after which merged with P&O, a deal finalized in 1987, the inventory in European Ferries within the Dick kids’s belief turned P&O inventory. In line with a supply with direct information of the authorized case in query, the John Dick-controlled La Hougue used a Jersey-based shell firm referred to as Cannon Nominees to progressively dump this P&O inventory, with not one of the proceeds from these gross sales flowing again to the trusts in query. This sell-off created the opening that DP World later exploited to take management of P&O.
Whereas the lawsuit introduced by one in all Dick’s kids focuses on La Hougue’s actions associated to P&O inventory, La Hougue and its shell firm Cannon Nominees have been intimately linked to the funds of the Maxwell household, particularly Kevin and Ian Maxwell. La Hougue facilitated a number of murky transactions on behalf of the Maxwells, a lot of which concerned shares in Kevin Maxwell’s firm Telemonde. UK press articles have famous that after the demise of his father, Robert Maxwell — a brazen monetary felony and spy — Kevin sought to change into his “father reincorporated” and continued elements of his espionage-tinged actions. Through the interval when Kevin and Ian have been tied to La Hougue, Kevin served as director of 81 firms, solely 32 of which survived, whereas Ian — in 2001 — was the director of 31 firms, 4 of which confronted insolvency.
A key determine within the Maxwell household’s actions relating to La Hougue was George Devlin, a British lawyer and personal investigator whose authorized purchasers included the organized crime figures, the Kray twins, and Lord Lucan. Lucan was a member of the infamous Clermont Membership, a playing enterprise with shut associations to Robert Maxwell, British intelligence, and arranged crime. Lucan infamously disappeared within the mid-Seventies after coming below suspicion for the homicide of his kids’s nanny and the tried homicide of his spouse. Devlin created the UK property firm Chelsfield alongside his shut pal, Elliot Bernerd, which engaged in joint ventures with P&O. Maybe extra fascinating is that Kevin Maxwell served as a entrance for Elliot Bernerd in at the least one deal, revealing the interconnectedness of this specific group.
Notably, the Epstein-focused investigation of U.S. Congressman Ron Wyden (D-OR) has additionally led to scrutiny of La Hougue, as it’s one of many establishments (#20) on the listing of people, entities, and banks which might be the main target of Wyden’s invoice, the Produce Epstein’s Treasury Information Act.
The important thing takeaway from this authorized case, because it pertains to this text, is {that a} Maxwell/Epstein-linked cash laundering enterprise immediately facilitated the sell-off of P&O inventory that enabled DP World’s takeover of P&O. That is notably related on condition that, as might be mentioned shortly, Epstein was first photographed in November 2005 with DP World’s then-chair bin Sulayem whereas its acquisition of P&O was nonetheless being finalized.
Though the involvement of La Hougue within the DP World takeover of P&O was not recognized on the time, the acquisition led to a significant public outcry. These considerations have been centered across the UAE’s ties to 9/11 cash flows and the turning over of the possession of the USA’ most essential ports to a international nation at a time when the Battle on Terror, and its propaganda machine, was nonetheless on full tilt.
The preliminary outcry quickly turned frenzied when it was revealed that the Bush administration had accredited the deal in “secret” proceedings, led by then-Treasury Secretary John Snow. These proceedings supplied no justification for the deal’s approval. Members of Congress have been additionally irate that the DP World deal had been given authorities approval. One notable instance got here from Thomas Kean, the previous governor of New Jersey, who had co-led the 9/11 fee. Kean advised The Occasions of New Jersey that the deal “shouldn’t have occurred” as a result of there was “no query that two of the 9/11 hijackers got here from there and cash was laundered by means of there.” He added, “From our standpoint, we don’t need foreigners controlling our ports.” Kean’s views have been echoed by then-Congressman from New York, Peter King, who mentioned that Kean “is aware of as a lot as anybody how dangerous it’s to cope with the United Arab Emirates. This simply proves that no actual investigation [into DP World] was ever performed” as a part of the deal. The UAE responded by hiring a high-powered group of lobbyists, led by former Senator Bob Dole, to salvage the deal.
It seems that no investigations into DP World or the deal have been made by the Bush administration in any respect. In truth, main figures within the administration had advised DP World and its head, Sultan bin Sulayem, that no U.S. authorities investigation of the deal was required, waiving it totally. Lawsuits filed afterward alleged that this was not true and in violation of a statute requiring that such an investigation happen when possession of an organization by a international government-controlled entity might influence U.S. nationwide safety. The figures within the Bush administration who had waived an investigation included Secretary of the Treasury John Snow, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Protection Donald Rumsfeld, and Legal professional Common Alberto Gonzales. All have been members of the Committee on Overseas Investments in the USA on the time.
Experiences quickly appeared noting that Snow, earlier than becoming a member of the Treasury Division in February 2003, had been the CEO of CSX, an organization that had bought its worldwide ports enterprise to DPW a 12 months after Snow joined the Bush administration and roughly a 12 months or so earlier than Snow “secretly” led the approval of DPW’s acquisition of P&O ports. The Bush administration claimed that Snow had not been personally concerned within the CSX port sale to DPW in 2004, although Snow was nonetheless receiving pension funds from the corporate in addition to $8 million in deferred compensation from CSX the 12 months of the deal’s approval. It was additionally famous that, previous to being given the highest job on the Treasury, Snow had overseen the beginnings of the sale of one other main CSX subsidiary to the Carlyle Group, which boasted deep ties to George Bush Sr., former Secretary of State James Baker (an Epstein affiliate from at the least 1992 if not earlier), and the bin Laden household. The sale was formally cemented in late 2004 when Snow was the secretary of the treasury. Snow at present works for Cerberus Capital Administration, whose long-time head, Steve Feinberg, is at present the deputy secretary of conflict within the second Trump administration.
Moreover, a former prime CSX govt who had labored below Snow, David Sanborn, had joined DPW as director of operations for Europe and Latin America. A month earlier than the controversy across the DPW acquisition of P&O reached a boiling level, in January 2006, Sanborn was appointed to run the Maritime Administration of the Division of Transportation. The Bush administration claimed Sanborn had been nominated, not due to his ties to CSX and DPW, however due to his “expertise and experience.”
Along with the obvious battle of curiosity associated to John Snow’s CSX connections, the UAE had given the Bush administration $100 million, ostensibly for Hurricane Katrina reduction, not lengthy earlier than the deal was accredited. Nevertheless, the State Division denied any connection between the 2 occasions, regardless of the bizarre timing and the truth that the UAE’s donation was a number of instances bigger than that of another nation. Notably, billions in Katrina reduction funds have been wasted (and probably looted) by federal businesses and contractors.
Issues about these conflicts of curiosity additional intensified when President Bush threatened to veto any regulation handed by Congress geared toward blocking DP World’s acquisition of the U.S. ports in query. When Congress garnered sufficient votes to thwart a possible presidential veto, DP World bought off its U.S. property to American Worldwide Group (AIG) for an undisclosed sum. As famous in One Nation Underneath Blackmail, AIG was interwoven into a fancy net of organized crime and darkish cash networks that have been linked to the Iran-Contra affair and likewise boasted ties to the Bush household. As well as, AIG’s chairman on the time, Hank Greenberg, had longstanding ties to the CIA, even practically main it below Ronald Reagan. Greenberg additionally served alongside Jeffrey Epstein on the Council on Overseas Relations (CFR) and the Trilateral Fee throughout this era.
An Emirati Hyperlink to the Sweetheart Deal?
As beforehand talked about, Bush’s Legal professional Common Alberto Gonzales had been a part of the group of prime Bush officers who had waived an investigation into the DPW deal. Notably, in keeping with journalist Nick Bryant, both Gonzales or former President Bush was chargeable for telling former U.S. Legal professional Alex Acosta to “stand down” with respect to prosecuting Epstein after his first arrest in 2007. The last word results of this resolution to “stand down” was the affirmation of Epstein’s infamous “sweetheart deal.” Congress subpoenaed Gonzales in August of final 12 months to testify as a part of the investigation into Epstein’s actions. Gonzales, nevertheless, didn’t testify, as an alternative providing a sworn assertion that seems to not have been made public.
It’s price contemplating that a part of Gonzales’ or Bush’s reasoning in pressuring Acosta might have been the identical rationale they each tried to pressure by means of the DP World deal. Certainly, there’s a chance that the 2 occasions are linked, as Epstein might have performed a task in brokering the “secret” approval of the DP World deal. As an illustration, throughout the identical time the DPW deal was taking form in 2005, Farkas and bin Sulayem have been photographed sitting within the entrance row of the Victoria’s Secret vogue present with Jeffrey Epstein. The lingerie model’s proprietor and Epstein’s long-time benefactor, Leslie Wexner, was additionally within the entrance row. That vogue present befell on November 9, 2005. Notably, bin Sulayem’s DP World had made contact with the Bush administration about his intentions to amass P&O’s U.S. ports a month prior, and negotiations have been effectively underway.
Have been bin Sulayem and Farkas assembly with Epstein about bin Sulayem’s most urgent concern in the USA on the time –– the DP World deal? It appears extremely possible that it was introduced up, if not the principle motive behind their assembly. Epstein would have been able to influencing these occasions to a point –– he already boasted ties to former President Clinton and influential officers from the earlier Clinton administration; he was well-connected to influential Israeli politicians who had a observe document of pressuring U.S. presidential decision-making (e.g., Ehud Barak’s function in securing the presidential pardon of Marc Wealthy); he had long-standing and in depth ties to darkish cash networks connecting the Gulf nations (together with the UAE) to the darkish underbelly of the U.S. nationwide safety state, which –– once more –– boasted ties to the Bush household.
Additionally it is price noting that Epstein was intently linked to key figures on the Carlyle Group throughout this era, which had shut ties to CSX, the UAE, and the Bush household concurrently. Carlyle has, notably, lengthy been regarded as “the CIA of the enterprise world – omnipresent, highly effective, just a little sinister,” because the Washington Put up as soon as said.
Epstein was a member of the Rockefeller-created Trilateral Fee when David Rubenstein, co-founder of the Carlyle Group, joined the group. Additionally they served collectively on the Council of Overseas Relations (CFR). Epstein possible gained membership in these organizations by means of his obvious affiliation with the Rockefellers, as claims that he managed “Rockefeller cash” had circulated within the press effectively earlier than his first arrest within the mid-2000s (Epstein additionally sat on the board of Rockefeller College throughout that interval).
Rubenstein was additionally linked to Epstein’s monetary community, sitting on the Nationwide Advisory Committee of JP Morgan, which –– on the time –– was intimately linked to the Wexner household’s pursuits in addition to Epstein’s USVI actions, together with those who intersected with Andrew Farkas (mentioned intimately in a subsequent a part of this text). Nevertheless, the clearest ties emerge from the shut relationship between Rubenstein’s spouse from 1983 to 2017, Alice Rogoff, and Ghislaine Maxwell, together with organizations tied to Maxwell (e.g., TerraMar), and Maxwell’s “secret” husband Scott Borgerson.
Nevertheless, one other determine at Carlyle Group who was arguably nearer to Epstein was former Secretary of State James Baker. Baker labored for Carlyle from 1993 till his retirement in 2005, throughout which period he helped increase Carlyle abroad, together with into the UAE. Previous to that, he was secretary of state below the administration of George Bush Sr. Baker had a longtime but murky relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, as confirmed by Epstein’s lawyer Jeffrey Schantz. Epstein’s relationship with Baker, as revealed in paperwork associated to later litigation between the State Division and Epstein, enabled Epstein to lease a big State Division property in Manhattan, starting in 1992, whereas Baker was nonetheless serving as secretary of state till 1997. Connections between Epstein and prime figures on the Bush-linked Carlyle Group counsel one other potential motive the Bush administration intervened in Epstein’s 2007 courtroom case, as detailed above.
Reporting from Drop Web site Information final 12 months revealed that bin Sulayem labored to rearrange a gathering with Epstein in November 2006, roughly a 12 months after they have been pictured collectively on the Victoria’s Secret vogue present with Farkas. Drop Web site notes that the e-mail correspondence between the 2 males was within the aftermath of the DP World scandal and that Epstein was keen to satisfy Sultan bin Sulayem, urging him to “come sooner.” The article additionally notes that within the following 12 months, which noticed Epstein’s first arrest and the Bush administration’s intervention to dealer the “sweetheart deal,” Epstein suggested bin Sulayem on an anticipated IPO for DP World and reviewed the then-unpublished e-book manuscript of Dubai’s ruler, Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. Additionally, in a number of 2007 emails, the 2 males crudely mentioned ladies, enterprise technique, and organized holidays on Epstein’s personal island. In a March 2007 e mail to bin Sulayem cited by Drop Web site Information, Epstein advised him that he had “the three largest personal fairness individuals within the states,, [sic] enthusiastic about visiting dubai” and requested about “boat plans” and if they might “go to turkey” collectively in April 2007. It appears nearly sure that one of many “largest personal fairness individuals” in the USA Epstein referenced was David Rubenstein or one other prime govt on the personal fairness big, the Carlyle Group. That is particularly possible given Rubenstein’s and Carlyle’s connections to Epstein, famous earlier on this article.
Notably, a number of months after Epstein despatched this e mail to bin Sulayem, Carlyle introduced in September 2007 that it might promote a 7.5% stake in its operations, price $1.4 billion, to an funding arm of the UAE authorities, particularly Mubadala. Mubadala had additionally dedicated $500 million to an funding fund Carlyle managed as a part of the deal, below an settlement brokered earlier that 12 months by Carlyle executives and UAE officers. One of many Carlyle executives in query was Rubenstein. This change once more lends additional credence to the chance that connections between Epstein, the UAE, and Bush-connected companies like Carlyle influenced the Bush administration’s dealing with of the 2007 felony case towards Epstein.
One other fascinating wrinkle is that as Carlyle (and Rubenstein) launched into a visit to Dubai, apparently with Epstein’s direct involvement, Dubai Aerospace made a deal to buy Landmark Aviation from the Carlyle Group in August 2007 as a part of a $1.9 billion settlement. Notably, Landmark Aviation had, by that time, been concerned in extraordinary rendition flights on behalf of the CIA. Its board additionally included figures similar to former CIA head James Schlesinger and former Pentagon comptroller Dov Zakheim. Landmark Aviation, together with the Epstein-connected Lane Aviation, was one of many two personal terminal operators at Port Columbus in Ohio at Rickenbacker airport. They took over that function from the CIA-linked airline Southern Air Transport, which had moved to Rickenbacker due to lobbying efforts intently tied to Leslie Wexner and Jeffrey Epstein.
As famous in One Nation Underneath Blackmail, 2011 lobbying efforts linked to Wexner led to rule modifications that allowed U.S. customs officers to clear personal planes on the personal terminals managed by Lane and Landmark as an alternative of the principle terminal. Provided that Rickenbacker airport, notably from the Southern Air Transport period and onward, was suspected of smuggling and hyperlinks to organized crime, together with by Ohio state officers, Wexner-led authorized efforts counsel that the CIA contractor Landmark Aviation was probably concerned in these actions. As within the case of DP World and U.S. ports, there was authorities resistance to a Dubai-based firm taking up the administration of those personal terminals, which ultimately compelled Dubai Aerospace to dump a few of Landmark’s U.S.-based property. The Carlyle Group then moved to reacquire Landmark in 2012 for an undisclosed sum.
Additionally it is price noting that Epstein, in addition to the broader community of intelligence and felony pursuits he served, would have been fascinated with creating shut ties to DP World and lengthening its community into the USA on account of his historical past in arms trafficking and smuggling networks. Certainly, Epstein had a fame for smuggling weapons within the Nineteen Eighties into the Nineteen Nineties, overlapping together with his aforementioned involvement within the relocation of the CIA-linked Southern Air Transport on Wexner’s behalf within the mid-Nineteen Nineties. Throughout a lot of this era, he was linked to BCCI, the CIA-linked financial institution utilized by intelligence businesses, mobsters, and drug cartels. Amongst its many monetary crimes, the financial institution additionally engaged in a intercourse trafficking operation the place pre-pubescent ladies have been trafficked to UAE elites who have been “VIPs” of the financial institution. The intercourse trafficking operation, as described within the U.S. Senate report on BCCI, bears exceptional similarities to the intercourse trafficking operation by which Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell would later interact.
Epstein’s recognized ties to Gulf nations, notably Saudi Arabia, have been first cast throughout this era, as evidenced by the journey stamps on Epstein’s Austrian passport found in the course of the 2019 raid on his New York residence. Drop Web site notably particulars how, in the course of the Nineteen Eighties, when BCCI and the UAE have been at their closest, bin Sulayem turned the chairman of the Jebel Ali Free Zone Affiliation. This group managed Dubai’s largest “free commerce” port, which –– because the authors observe –– didn’t report cargo information to the United Nations and allowed companies to maneuver cargo by boat or aircraft with out customs inspections. The end result below bin Sulayem’s watch was that “free zones” within the UAE like these bin Sulayem managed (he later led the Dubai Port Authority) turned “common transit factors for illicit items touring to and from Africa.” Lots of the items smuggled by means of UAE ports below bin Sulayem have been the very “arms, medication and diamonds” that Epstein beforehand bragged to journalist Vicky Ward as having allowed him to amass a fortune.
From Dubai World to Debt World
One more layer of connective tissue fleshing out the Epstein–bin Sulayem–Farkas connections may be discovered throughout this era. This specific connection includes the 2008 monetary disaster and the way it introduced Dubai World to the brink, largely as a result of actions of Farkas and Epstein-linked bankers, and probably, Epstein himself.
In 2003, Farkas helped create the Emirates Nationwide Securitisation Firm (ENSeC), which was “created particularly to facilitate the event of a secondary mortgage system in Dubai, much like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the USA.” Initially, a partnership of Dubai Islamic Financial institution, the bin Sulayem-controlled Istithmar, Bahamas-based Pender Ltd., and Farkas’ Island Capital, ENSeC issued business mortgage-backed securities to “create ample liquidity within the mortgage financing for the true property sector.” Farkas served as its govt vice chairman. Later reviews credited Farkas with “assist[ing] Dubai arrange a Sharia-compliant mortgage trade.”
One report from Might 2005 revealed {that a} appreciable quantity of ENSeC’s actions have been performed by ENSeC Residence Monetary Pool I Ltd., a Cayman Islands-registered particular goal automobile (SPV). The report additionally famous that, in 2005, this Cayman-linked entity issued $350 million in bonds linked to $350 million in mortgages for properties at The Palm, Jumeirah. Per the report, demand for the bonds exceeded $4 billion. The usage of the Cayman Islands right here is fascinating, on condition that these islands, in addition to different Caribbean offshore tax havens, have been utilized by main banks within the lead-up to the 2008 monetary disaster to maneuver poisonous mortgage property off their steadiness sheets by parking mortgage-backed securities with Cayman Islands monetary establishments.
Quickly after its launch, Bear Stearns and Citigroup additionally turned concerned with ENSeC as placement brokers. ENSeC was created in 2004 within the lead-up to the worldwide monetary disaster in 2008, largely pushed by the explosion of mortgage-backed securities. On the time, Epstein was intently linked to Bear Stearns, notably Bear Stearns’ poisonous mortgage-backed securities. On the time, Citigroup was chaired by Robert Rubin, the previous Treasury Secretary who helped decontrol the banking sector, thereby serving to create the 2008 financial disaster. Rubin was additionally the official on the Clinton White Home who’s believed to have first invited Epstein to the president’s official residence in 1993, and his deputy and later successor, Larry Summers, was courted by Epstein and flew on Epstein’s personal aircraft whereas serving within the Treasury’s prime submit. Throughout that interval, Summers oversaw the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, creating the fashionable Citigroup, and laid the groundwork for the next 2008 disaster. In just lately launched emails, Summers refers to his shut pal Jeffrey Epstein as “Mr. Cash.”
Epstein was immediately concerned with poisonous and dangerous mortgage-backed securities as chairman of the $6.7 billion firm Liquid Funding from 2001 till at the least March 2007. Bear Stearns, Epstein’s former employer, had a 40% stake in Liquid Funding. It’s unknown whether or not any of the mortgage-backed securities created by the Farkas-linked ENSeC ended up being held by Liquid Funding, however given the connections between Epstein, Farkas, bin Sulayem, ENSeC, and Bear Stearns, it appears possible. That is much more possible on condition that Epstein was pictured with Farkas and bin Sulayem shortly after ENSeC was created, in addition to Epstein’s recognized ties to bin Sulayem and the UAE after 2005 — to not point out the truth that Epstein was thought of a foremost knowledgeable within the actual kind of financing by which ENSeC, Bear Stearns, and others have been concerned. As an illustration, Epstein was infamously described as the inventor of derivatives by figures like Reid Hoffman. Because of this, it’s possibile that Epstein had suggested Farkas and bin Sulayem about ENSeC within the lead-up to the 2008 disaster. Including to this chance is a current Bloomberg report, which revealed that Epstein had at the least one checking account within the Cayman Islands that have been reportedly linked to felony exercise.
As well as, after Dubai World suffered from dangerous debt on account of its hyperlinks to ENSeC and the worldwide financial disaster, Epstein tried to search out the struggling firm a purchaser. Extra particularly, Epstein tried to persuade Jes Staley to market Dubai World to the Chinese language in 2009. In November of that 12 months, Staley forwarded Epstein an inside e mail relating to high-level talks with senior officers from the Dubai and Abu Dhabi departments of finance. A couple of days later, Epstein subsequently wrote to Staley, “The primary most elegant deal that you are able to do. is to have China purchase Dubai World Ports. They need turnkey, ops the place they will then use their worldwide development cos for constructing. can be a primary nice deal for the brand new ceo of the IB [investment bank].” Moreover, in December 2009, Epstein tried to schedule a gathering between bin Sulyaman and Staley. Epstein advised Staley that “sultan is laying the groundwork so that you can set up a critical presence. Jpm [JP Morgan] fame within the area is poor.”
Dubai World’s debt disaster was really large, a lot in order that it threatened the UAE’s whole economic system. After traders panicked and the nation’s economic system teetered, Dubai World tried to calm them by stating that solely its actual property developer, Nakheel, which had been intimately concerned with ENSeC, was in peril. Experiences famous that Rothschild banking pursuits, which Epstein was recognized to characterize, have been advising the debt restructuring efforts. Dubai World was set to default on December 14th, 2009, however catastrophe was averted that very morning by a $10 billion bailout from the UAE authorities that very morning. It appears nearly sure, given the timing of his emails, that Epstein was making an attempt to make use of Staley and his financial institution, JP Morgan, to discover a purchaser to repair the intense issues that Farkas, and certain Epstein, seem to have created for Nakheel and its dad or mum firm, Dubai World.
To tie these worlds even nearer collectively, contemplate Limitless Hangout’s earlier reporting detailing the shut ties of Leslie Wexner and different Wexner-linked figures to JP Morgan, which notably swallowed up Bear Stearns after the 2008 monetary disaster, and its present CEO, Jamie Dimon. Shortly thereafter, JP Morgan turned a significant facilitator of Epstein’s monetary crimes and intercourse trafficking operations, per a lawsuit filed towards the financial institution by the U.S. Virgin Islands, with JP Morgan paying $75 million to settle the case out of courtroom in 2023.
Notably, not one of the monetary troubles he had helped create for Dubai World ended up hurting Andrew Farkas. As famous by the Observer:
Earlier than Dubai World revealed its debt troubles, Mr. Farkas bought his [Dubai World-linked] marina pursuits to a Qatari agency, relinquished his pursuits in ENSeC, and bought his fairness stakes in all of his Dubai World joint ventures in New York, save maybe probably the most priceless, the Mandarin Oriental lodge within the Time Warner Middle.
In some way, Farkas knew precisely when it was time to get out. This appears to be a recurring sample for him.
Yacht Havens, Tax Havens
Quickly after Andrew Farkas based Island Capital, he turned intimately concerned within the growth of marinas each in Dubai and elsewhere. The corporate quickly created a subsidiary referred to as Island International Yachting (IGY) within the USVI in 2005. But, earlier than IGY was formally created, Farkas’ first marina challenge, the Yacht Haven Grande in Saint Thomas, USVI, started development in 2004 and opened in 2007. The challenge’s acquisition allegedly dates again to 2001, years earlier than Farkas based Island Capital. In truth, in June 2003, the Yacht Haven properties have been nonetheless owned by Farkas’ Insignia earlier than being transferred to “CEO Andrew Farkas’s Island Fund I LLC,” an obvious precursor to Island Capital.
Andrew Farkas acquired one other USVI harbor, American Yacht Harbor, in January 2007 for an undisclosed sum. Farkas gave half of the marina’s possession to Jeffrey Epstein. Additionally it is unknown how a lot Epstein paid, if something, for his stake within the marina. Epstein had developed a presence within the USVI lengthy earlier than, buying Little Saint James island in 1998 for an estimated $8 million. Nevertheless, as just lately launched emails reveal, Epstein and Farkas deliberate the acquisition of American Yacht Harbor collectively, regardless of Farkas beforehand denying it.
Having already established that Farkas and Epstein knew one another by November 2005, the truth is that the 2 males possible turned acquainted earlier, on condition that Farkas’ personal uncle, Jonathan Farkas, met Epstein in the course of the 1982 recession and have become a long-time pal. Jonathan Farkas later claimed that he was enthralled by Epstein upon assembly him, notably by his “absolute certainty that he knew the place the economic system was going.” Jonathan remained near Epstein from that point on, as evidenced by him infamously begging Epstein in 2017 to inform him if his mistress was “a hooker.” A couple of years earlier, Jonathan Farkas had additionally admitted to visiting Epstein when he was below home arrest following his first authorized case involving minors. As might be famous shortly, Andrew Farkas additionally visited Epstein often throughout this era.
Jonathan Farkas’ spouse, Somers Farkas, was additionally keen on Epstein, stating in a 2010 e mail, “I do know Jeffrey, and I like him. You wouldn’t suppose I’d, however I do.” Somers Farkas is at present serving as U.S. ambassador to Malta and was appointed to the place by Trump after she donated $300,000 to his marketing campaign. Oddly, her mother-in-law, Ruth Farkas, had paid the identical sum to the 1972 Nixon marketing campaign many years earlier. Testimony from the Watergate hearings revealed that she knew the cash would lead to her receiving an ambassadorship. Apart from Jonathan Farkas, one other chance for who might have first linked Farkas and Epstein is Donald Trump, who knew each males effectively previous to 2005. Nevertheless, in the course of the Nineteen Nineties, each Epstein and Farkas have been deeply concerned in New York actual property, notably “distressed” properties, which can have led them to satisfy by means of these avenues.
A month after Farkas and bin Sulayem joined Epstein on the Victoria’s Secret annual vogue present, in December 2005, Farkas’ IGY partnered with Dubai World’s Nakheel “to design, develop and handle all of Nakheel’s marina properties in Dubai.” One other Dubai World subsidiary, Istithmar, introduced that it held round 25% fairness in Island International Yachting’s tasks in Dubai and Saint Thomas, USVI. Farkas subsequently turned closely concerned in much more UAE marinas, and IGY expanded by buying marinas in numerous nations. IGY’s holdings within the Caribbean grew quickly after it acquired Solar Resorts Worldwide, which had belonged to the Kerzner household. As beforehand talked about, the Kerzners have been the controversial lodge dynasty that had brokered Farkas’ introduction to bin Sulayem in 2002.
Roughly a 12 months later, in November 2006, Farkas emailed Epstein to inform him, “We at the moment are in contract to purchase American Yacht Harbor, the place you retain your tenders.” On the time, Epstein already had a few of his companies registered on the marina. Epstein responded, “I wish to be in on that.” Epstein possible wished to be “in on that” not solely as a result of he had companies registered in that location, but additionally as a result of he had paid $1.2 million in 2004 for the laying of a large underwater fiber-optic cable from close to American Yacht Harbor in Crimson Hook to his personal island, Little Saint James.
Not lengthy after IGY acquired the marina, its different USVI marina, Yacht Haven Grande, was in main monetary hassle and practically went bankrupt till IGY acquired the marina’s $120 million in debt in September 2008. Roughly a 12 months later, in December 2009, Epstein claimed in an e mail to banker Jes Staley that he “owned” each American Yacht Harbor and Yacht Haven Grande. No proof has been supplied formally linking Epstein to Yacht Haven Grande. Nevertheless, Epstein might have claimed possession as a result of he might affect using its amenities by means of his shut relationship with Andrew Farkas. The connection was certainly shut, as new emails reveal, with Farkas often visiting Epstein throughout his 13-month jail sentence between 2008 and 2009. Although Farkas’ title didn’t seem on any customer log, the New York Occasions just lately reported that Farkas would meet his “expensive pal” Epstein in the course of the day, when Epstein was allowed to go to his Palm Seashore workplace for a 12-hour “workday.”
In 2009, after his launch from jail, Epstein modified his main residence to his personal island within the USVI. From then on, Farkas and Epstein often utilized after which reapplied for particular tax breaks with the Virgin Islands authorities, particularly its Financial Improvement Authority. The Occasions highlighted one e mail change the place Farkas advised Epstein in August 2009, “IGY finance and tax man are going to talk along with your guys to reconcile the tax remedy for you.” Epstein garnered an estimated $300 million in tax incentives from this level up till close to his 2019 arrest. It’s unclear how a lot Farkas financially benefited over that very same timeline, on condition that their tax breaks have been usually coordinated.
A probable motive Epstein modified his main residence to the USVI throughout this time is that he anticipated having fun with different particular privileges there that went far past tax breaks. That was as a result of the USVI’s governor, starting in 2007, was John De Jongh, and Epstein had employed De Jongh’s spouse, Cecile, since at the least the 12 months 2000. Cecile formally labored as an workplace supervisor for Epstein’s Monetary Belief Firm and later Southern Belief Firm, each headquartered at American Yacht Harbor (co-owned by Farkas and Epstein since 2007). Over the course of De Jongh’s time in workplace, the political, financial, and different favors that he and his spouse paid to Epstein have been appreciable.
As an illustration, it was later reported that Cecile De Jongh had helped Epstein get hold of scholar visas for younger ladies who have been visiting the island below doubtful circumstances whereas her husband was in workplace. This occurred the identical 12 months Epstein donated round $20,000 to the college that was named in reference to the visas. She additionally helped handle, and sometimes appeared to direct, Epstein’s donations to USVI politicians whereas additionally serving to affect the passage of laws that helped Epstein waive a number of the necessities he was anticipated to observe as a registered intercourse offender, particularly with respect to his whereabouts and journey.
One other notable instance of Cecile’s function as a conduit for Epstein’s political donations considerations Celestino White Sr., a longtime USVI Senator who helped oversee the USVI airport the place Epstein additionally loved particular privileges (extra on that shortly). As the Miami Herald reported in 2023:
Emails included within the [USVI vs. JP Morgan] lawsuit discovery present that White’s ‘consulting and administration agency’ despatched Epstein a contract for unexplained providers for his island. ‘Senator White signed the contractor’s settlement and the confidentiality settlement …we might want to get him a test for $10,000 by Friday,’ Cecile de Jongh wrote to Epstein. ‘Accredited.’ Epstein wrote again. In 2015, Cecile de Jongh prompt to Epstein: ‘You might wish to contemplate placing Celestino on some form of month-to-month retainer. That’s what will get you his loyalty and entry.’
In change for her providers, Cecile was paid an annual wage of about $200,000, with Epstein additionally paying massive sums to finance the school tuition of her (and the then-governor’s) kids. Different assist was supplied to the De Jongh’s by Epstein after De Jongh turned embroiled in a corruption scandal.
In 2012, the Each day Caller started reporting on a sealed DOJ indictment that named USVI Governor John De Jongh, his Legal professional Common Vincent Frazer, and several other USVI Senators as having taken at the least $20 million in money bribes. De Jongh was ultimately arrested in 2015 in reference to these and different crimes, primarily embezzlement. As famous intimately by Corey’s Digs, the broader scandal by which De Jongh was enmeshed concerned an essential marketing campaign finance “bundler” for the 2012 Obama marketing campaign and a former Clinton official. The case towards De Jongh was later completely dismissed after he paid a $380,000 settlement and “all different corruption appears to have been swept below the rug” (See Corey’s article for extra particulars on this case).
Assist in getting the case completely dismissed might have come from Epstein, who had negotiated a scandalous sweetheart deal for himself in Florida a number of years earlier. In line with the Miami Herald, after De Jongh’s arrest:
Epstein supplied to assist de Jongh by loaning him cash and providing ‘solutions’ to the prosecutor within the case. ‘I’ll play any function on this you guys like,’ wrote Epstein. ‘I can lend John the cash so he immediatly [sic] has it. I’d gladly be on the cellphone (anonymouse[sic]) with …. the prosecutor providing solutions.’
Different emails present De Jongh asking to borrow $215,000 from Epstein to repay a part of his $380,000 settlement.
Throughout this era of apparent quid professional quo between the De Jonghs and Epstein, just lately launched emails present that Epstein’s then-business companion at American Yacht Harbor, Andrew Farkas, was additionally assembly with Cecile whereas her husband was governor. Emails element a deliberate assembly on April 8, 2013, organized partially by Epstein’s assistants and workers between Andrew Farkas, Cecile De Jongh, and “John” at FTC, i.e., Monetary Belief Firm. As beforehand famous, that firm was situated at American Yacht Harbor. Given the extraordinarily shut ties between Epstein and the De Jonghs, in addition to John de Jongh’s recognized corruption with respect to Epstein and different billionaires related to him, it’s completely believable that the “John” referenced on this e mail is Cecile De Jongh’s husband, John De Jongh. Including to the chance that it was the then-governor is the truth that Epstein had additionally brokered an introduction between Farkas and different outstanding USVI politicians who have been on his payroll, like Celestino White.
This era was additionally notably vital for Epstein and Farkas’ enterprise relationship, which grew even nearer. As an illustration, in 2014, Epstein supplied to attach Farkas to Norway’s sovereign wealth fund and additionally funneled donations to Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Institute, which Farkas chairs, a 12 months earlier. In one other instance, just lately launched emails present Farkas changing into a trustee of Epstein-controlled trusts. First, Farkas turned a trustee of “The Jeffrey E. Epstein 2001 Belief One”, which he helped terminate, earlier than changing into a trustee in new belief agreements alongside banker Jes Staley, whose shut connections to Epstein have been a spotlight of the USVI vs. JP Morgan lawsuit. Round this time, Farkas mentioned involving Epstein in some deal (not directly) together with his agency C-III, which — as beforehand talked about — has been a key supply of financing for Kushner actual property offers. Farkas helped Epstein open a USVI checking account, and he exchanged emails with Epstein referring to ladies as “items” in addition to in search of a “masseuse.” Photographs launched by the DOJ present Farkas on a yacht with Epstein, his co-conspirator in trafficking Jean Luc Brunel, and several other younger ladies. One picture reveals Farkas together with his arm round one of many ladies.
In 2012, Farkas and Staley have been additionally listed as Epstein’s references when he created and sought tax breaks for a brand new firm referred to as Southern Belief Firm, which was additionally parked on the American Yacht Harbor places of work alongside Epstein’s Monetary Belief Firm. Nevertheless, Monetary Belief was phased out to keep away from registering with federal securities regulators and stopped managing cash. Cecile de Jongh additionally turned workplace supervisor at Southern Belief the 12 months it was created. The corporate has notably been described in lawsuits as having “fund[ed] Jeffrey E. Epstein’s felony actions.” USVI paperwork describe the corporate as:
specializ[ing] within the interpretation of biomedical and monetary synthetic intelligence and gives market intelligence to firms which function within the monetary, biomedical and pharmaceutical industries. Southern Belief’s main objective is to change into a profitable competitor within the area of synthetic intelligence concentrated in biomedical informatics and monetary informatics and algorithms and expertise. They concentrate on information acquisitions and finding and establishing wide-ranging, all-inclusive biomedical and monetary data databases on servers situated within the USVI.
In line with USVI data, Epstein — a transhumanist and a pedophile — explicitly sought to coach USVI kids and teenagers to run Southern Belief’s servers in addition to develop and handle its algorithms. On the time Southern Belief was being arrange and for a number of years after, Epstein — by means of Southern Belief and likewise by means of its affiliated Jeffrey Epstein VI Basis — donated closely to the USVI Division of Schooling, preschool applications, highschool science festivals, academic charities, and several other “youth initiatives,” together with a number of focusing on disabled kids, “juvenile offenders and under-privileged kids.” He additionally donated “essential funding” to the most important psychological well being clinic within the USVI. In interviews earlier than his demise about his “philanthropy” and funding of scientists, Epstein expressed a particular curiosity in “on the spectrum” youngsters. Given Cecile de Jongh’s obvious facilitation of his trafficking actions through USVI academic establishments (e.g., the scholar visas she helped purchase for Epstein) in addition to her function in Southern Belief, one wonders about her function in serving to Epstein pursue his objective of discovering USVI kids and teenagers to run Southern Belief’s AI servers.
A Closed System
Along with shopping for out the governor and various different key USVI figures, Jeffrey Epstein appears to have been constructing different connections that will have possible allowed him to maneuver gadgets and folks in ways in which have been lower than authorized if he referred to as within the correct favors.
Current reviews famous that Epstein made vital efforts to attach with key customs personnel within the USVI throughout the identical interval he was creating Southern Belief and had the De Jonghs in his pocket. Experiences printed final month detailed how current Epstein releases revealed his in depth efforts to domesticate private relationships with six customs officers within the USVI and Florida. Three of the officers have been based mostly at USVI’s fundamental airport, Cyril E. King Airport (STT), together with one supervisor. Epstein’s relationships with these males concerned providing them free journey, monetary recommendation, items, and employment alternatives. One solicited a “hard-money mortgage” from Epstein in an e mail however denied having ever acquired it when questioned by a journalist final month. Epstein’s relationship with one of many customs officers was so in depth that it was investigated by the FBI in October 2019, a number of months after Epstein’s demise.
The emails additionally present that Epstein regularly sought to find out which customs officers can be on responsibility when he was touring to and from the USVI. He would complain to his “buddies” in customs if he felt he was being slighted or questioned too extensively on the airport. As beforehand famous, Epstein additionally made funds to the USVI politician Celestino White, who served on the board overseeing the airport, demonstrating that he cultivated connections at a number of ranges. Experiences have proven that Epstein clearly loved particular privileges on the Saint Thomas airport when one (or extra) of his customs officer contacts was on responsibility.
Epstein’s manipulations and circumvention of regular procedures at Saint Thomas airport hark again to his previous involvement within the reshaping of Ohio’s Rickenbacker Airport. Officers working for Leslie Wexner’s The Restricted, and with Epstein’s involvement, courted two CIA-linked airways (Arrow Air and Southern Air Transport) that had been immediately concerned in Iran-Contra smuggling operations to run cargo, principally for The Restricted, from Rickenbacker to the Far East in the course of the Nineteen Nineties. This shift at Rickenbacker overlaps immediately with Epstein’s visits to the Clinton White Home, the place he met primarily with Mark Middleton, a central determine within the Chinagate scandal whereby Chinese language arms have been illegally smuggled into the USA in change for entry to delicate U.S. army gear and communication programs. Officers at Rickenbacker brazenly advised native journalists that they believed Wexner and Epstein had ties to intelligence, with one additionally speculating about organized crime connections and that this relationship was a motivating issue behind The Restricted’s efforts to carry Arrow Air and Southern Air Transport to Rickenbacker.
A couple of many years later, in 2011, The Restricted additionally reportedly performed a task in permitting one other CIA-linked airline talked about earlier on this report, Landmark Aviation, to permit the circumventing of regular customs process at Rickenbacker by permitting personal planes (similar to Leslie Wexner’s) to be processed by personal terminals it managed as an alternative of submitting to regular customs checks. Epstein’s previous ties to those actions and his efforts to avoid regular customs procedures are strongly suggestive that his smuggling actions from his previous possible continued into the USVI, the place he smuggled ladies and ladies as an alternative of weapons (and probably extra, per a current Bloomberg report).
Throughout the identical interval when he was cultivating ties with native customs officers, an accountant employed by Epstein arrange a personal communications community between his notorious island and American Yacht Harbor, which Epstein co-owned with Farkas. As found by Corey’s Digs, Jeanne Brennan Wiebracht, a CPA, parked her enterprise — Accounting Methods Group — on the Epstein–Farkas–owned marina on the identical tackle that “a number of of Jeffrey Epstein’s companies resolve to.” As well as, she is listed in Epstein’s black e-book below the itemizing for his USVI Monetary Belief Firm. Jeanne seems many, many instances within the just lately launched Epstein emails and was clearly working for and managing his funds. She was additionally managing the journey of contractors from American Yacht Harbor to Little Saint James. That is related as a result of, as famous by Corey’s Digs, Jeanne’s husband, Matias, is the founder and proprietor of See & Ski Powerboat Leases, additionally situated at American Yacht Harbor, which gives a water taxi service. Provided that Matias is married to Jeanne Brennan, who was one of many fundamental individuals managing journey to and from Little Saint James for Epstein, and See & Ski can be situated on the identical marina, it’s extremely possible that his firm was used to maneuver individuals — workers, contractors, and likewise probably victims — between the marina complicated and Epstein’s island. In different phrases, Epstein— if the best individuals have been working on the Saint Thomas airport — might simply carry individuals (and/or gadgets) into the USVI and onto his island with out correct inspections and doc checks.
Relating to the personal communications community, Brennan is listed because the contact for a microwave industrial/enterprise pool license, and the license is registered to an Epstein-linked entity, VT&T LLC. This license, first uncovered by Corey’s Digs in 2019, covers an 18.7 GHz microwave radio transmission working from Saint Thomas to Little Saint James. It’s a personal communications community, and paperwork from the corporate that helped set up it confer with it because the Southern Belief–Little Saint James community. The system makes use of DragonWave’s merchandise, an organization specializing in video surveillance community options for state and native governments in addition to regulation enforcement. Given what’s now recognized about Epstein’s penchant for bugging his residences with hidden cameras, allegedly for the needs of blackmailing high-profile friends, it appears possible that that is the infrastructure that will have enabled that very same model of digital camera system on the island.
In abstract, the marina co-owned by Farkas and Epstein was a necessary hub for Epstein’s illicit operations on the island, with Epstein firmly controlling the individuals and infrastructure vital to maneuver something, together with minors and trafficked younger ladies, with out too many questions being requested. It’s additionally evident from emails and different paperwork that Farkas was assembly with Epstein on the marina throughout this era and was extensively concerned with him. It’s fascinating to check the extent of Farkas’ connections to Epstein’s USVI community with that of Jes Staley, whose relationship with Epstein was a cornerstone of its lawsuits towards main banks and likewise of lawsuits focusing on Epstein’s property. Staley’s involvement overlapped with Farkas’ significantly and was, seemingly, a necessary a part of Epstein’s USVI operations. One has to surprise why the USVI authorities pursued Staley however not Farkas. That is particularly curious contemplating that current releases embrace images displaying Farkas on Epstein’s boat with younger ladies and Jean Luc Brunel, the deceased modeling mogul and alleged co-conspirator of Epstein’s trafficking actions. It appears Farkas was not solely effectively conscious of Epstein’s actions however intimately entangled within the infrastructure that made it potential.
Epstein and the Sultan
Farkas’ long-time affiliate, Sultan bin Sulayem, additionally stayed extraordinarily near Epstein after their preliminary assembly round 2005. As an illustration, again in 2023, it was revealed that bin Sulayem was scheduled to go to Epstein’s New York townhouse on a number of events from 2011 to 2014 and that he additionally tried to attach him together with his shut affiliate, then-JP Morgan banker Jes Staley. In 2012, Epstein and Tim Zagat, who created an influential restaurant information, developed a plan to entertain “the Sultan” in New York. The “sultan” is believed to confer with bin Sulayem, on condition that he was regularly referenced in Epstein’s calendars throughout that point.
The latest releases have made it clear that the extent of bin Sulayem’s relationship with Epstein was way more in depth and, frankly, disturbing, given a few of the emails. Probably the most disturbing one, which subsequently acquired nationwide consideration, was despatched between Epstein and bin Sulayem in 2009, and by which Epstein wrote, “The place are you? are you okay, I liked the torture video.” Bin Sulayem’s id had been redacted till Congressman Thomas Massie revealed that it was a “sultan” who had despatched Epstein a “torture video.” Deputy Legal professional Common Todd Blanche later confirmed that the sultan in query was bin Sulayem. Nevertheless, the DOJ has declined to elaborate on the referenced “torture video” and what it reveals. Along with the “torture video” e mail, Epstein and bin Sulayem mentioned intercourse with completely different ladies, shared pornography, and made extraordinarily inappropriate statements in a number of emails.
In a single e mail by which Epstein linked bin Sulayem to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Epstein launched him as “the best hand of maktoum,” referring to the then-UAE Prime Minister. Epstein’s relationship with Ehud Barak was in depth, as Epstein launched him to a lot of his contacts, and proof has surfaced through the years pointing to Barak’s obvious involvement in trafficking. Notably, Barak, Trump, and several other others had circled names in Epstein’s notorious “black e-book,” which meant Epstein’s former butler Alfred Rodriguez believed Barak was immediately concerned in Epstein’s trafficking actions. Epstein’s introduction of bin Sulayem and Barak dates again to at the least 2012 and reveals Epstein taking part in a significant, behind-the-scenes function in making an attempt to attach the lads in enterprise ventures. A kind of enterprise ventures was Carbyne, an Ehud Barak-chaired Israeli intelligence-linked firm that now controls a litany of 911 emergency name programs within the US and world wide. Emails present that bin Sulayem meant to put money into the corporate and sought its providers to assist handle DP World-owned port safety.
Along with Barak, Epstein additionally linked bin Sulayem to many different highly effective and influential contacts, amongst them Steve Bannon, Joi Ito of MIT, and Peter Mandelson (then serving as British Secretary of State for Enterprise, Innovation and Abilities). Epstein additionally despatched one in all bin Sulayem’s media interviews to Elon Musk (at bin Sulayem’s request), although it’s unclear if something got here of that change. As well as, different emails have revealed that Epstein additionally had shut ties to different UAE officers except for bin Sulayem.
The connection between bin Sulayem and Epstein additionally introduced the previous to the USVI and, extra particularly, Epstein’s island. Sultan bin Sulayem traveled to Little Saint James a number of instances, spending Christmas there at the least as soon as. In 2016, he additionally helped Epstein buy the adjoining island, Nice Saint James, through the use of his title to cover Epstein’s involvement within the buy. Though an aide to bin Sulayem had beforehand claimed that Epstein used his title with out permission, emails from 2016 present that bin Sulayem knew that 12 months that Epstein, whom he calls a “very expensive pal and a enterprise affiliate of mine,” was the proprietor of the island. In these emails, bin Sulayem was connecting Epstein to the CEO of Artistic Kingdom, which designed the Palm Jumeirah, to assist Epstein “develop a personal resort just for his, his clients and buddies personal use.” On the time of the e-mail, bin Sulayem was attending the 2017 inauguration of Donald Trump alongside Andrew Farkas.
An Unaccountable Oligarchy
After the current releases and the general public scrutiny of the “torture video” e mail particularly, bin Sulayem was compelled to resign his submit as head of Dubai World. Nevertheless, it’s important to notice that in most of his recognized exchanges with Epstein, together with his most annoying one, he managed a significant conglomerate that dominates key elements of worldwide maritime freight site visitors, in addition to main actual property holdings in the USA and past. Right here, one should contemplate not solely Epstein’s historical past of trafficking each arms and younger ladies alongside bin Sulayem’s revealing exchanges and actions with him, but additionally the documented historical past of UAE elites participating in pedophilia in reference to intelligence-linked entities, as famous within the U.S. Senate report on BCCI. There may be additionally the actual fact, as famous by Drop Web site Information, that free commerce zones and ports managed by bin Sulayem within the UAE previous to the formal creation of DP World turned hotbeds for smuggling. Additionally they famous that the actions of arms and contraband, in some instances, have been tied to entities later linked to Epstein, together with BCCI and Southern Air Transport. Sultan bin Sulayem’s resignation is inadequate and doesn’t preclude the necessity for a full investigation into DP World’s ties, together with its apparent and in depth ties to the Epstein community and that community’s smuggling/trafficking actions.
There may be additionally an apparent must make deeper inquiries into the connection between Andrew Farkas and Epstein, notably relating to the American Yacht Harbor marina they co-owned and which was clearly an integral a part of the infrastructure Epstein used to commit his crimes. But, Farkas’ shut ties to the Kushner household, intertwined with the household of Donald Trump, who himself is a pal of Farkas, make the hope of an investigation from this administration extraordinarily unlikely. Additionally it is uncertain that Democrats will ever pursue Farkas, given his longstanding connections to Democratic fundraising and to one of many occasion’s most well-known politicians.
Limitless Hangout has argued for years that the Epstein scandal is indicative of a bipartisan drawback and that it additionally reveals how politicians and different outstanding public figures serve a community of oligarchs. This, after all, consists of Epstein himself, who had ties to oligarch dynasties such because the Rothschilds and Rockefellers. With such highly effective entities so intimately concerned, it’s unlikely there’ll ever be a federal investigation, regardless of the hopes of many People, notably those that have been misled by Trump’s 2024 marketing campaign rhetoric with respect to the Epstein case.
As this collection has endeavored to point out, Trump and his household are enmeshed in these networks, and his administration’s conduct relating to Epstein transparency ought to make it clear that they’re overlaying up key elements of the case, not simply to guard themselves, however to guard their buddies and benefactors.
