In latest weeks the dealing with (or quite mishandling) of the Trump administration’s launch of the “Epstein information” has splintered his base whereas additionally reviving public curiosity within the acts and historical past of Jeffrey Epstein. Claims have been comprised of figures like Elon Musk, a former ally turned critic after a extremely publicized falling out, that Donald Trump himself is someway implicated within the Epstein information – a time period usually referring to paperwork the U.S. authorities has in regards to the Epstein case that it has but to publicly launch. In the meantime, some allies of Trump in politics and media have come to the president’s protection whereas others stay puzzled in regards to the administration’s actions because of marketing campaign guarantees of releasing these paperwork. Democrats in Congress, who’ve largely prevented discussing the Epstein case a lot in any respect in recent times, appear to scent blood within the water and are actually publicly lobbying for the paperwork’ launch.
Trump, as a political phenomenon, has lengthy been in a position to brush off probably the most scandalous of leaks and recordings of lewd habits which have emerged since he burst onto, and without end modified, the U.S. political scene. Nonetheless, the fallout from the administration’s latest dealing with of Epstein-related info appears to have dented Trump’s status as “Teflon Don.” Given the outstanding position the Epstein case performed in Trump’s 2024 marketing campaign and the administration’s latest communications, it’s value analyzing in larger element a few of the comparatively unknown connections that might have helped form what many are actually calling a cover-up.
On this new sequence from Limitless Hangout entitled “First Mates,” we’ll look at shut associates and associates of the present president who additionally boast appreciable connections to Jeffrey Epstein and/or his greatest recognized confederate Ghislaine Maxwell, together with one who at the moment serves in an necessary submit within the Trump administration. Whereas some have posited that Trump himself could also be considerably implicated within the Epstein scandal – a chance value contemplating – this sequence goals to point out that these long-time Trump buddies is also a part of the motivation for the administration’s dramatic aboutface on the discharge of most Epstein paperwork.
Within the first installment of this sequence, Limitless Hangout examines the Italian businessman Flavio Briatore, typically referred to within the press as “Italy’s Donald Trump” due to his long-running friendship with the present president, and the way his rise to prominence and wealth was fueled by a sequence of seedy associations to the identical community of organized crime and intelligence operatives that additionally aided the rise of Epstein. As detailed within the two-volume guide One Nation Below Blackmail, this community is in the end managed by highly effective monetary pursuits and unaccountable mob-linked oligarchs who’ve made highly effective nation states, together with the U.S., their play factor. This text can even element how Briatore, together with Donald Trump and others, have been as soon as accused by Epstein’s butler Alfredo Rodriguez of being “materials witnesses” to Epstein’s intercourse trafficking crimes. Rodriguez died in 2014 shortly after serving time in jail in relation to his failed efforts to promote the now notorious “black guide” of Jeffrey Epstein.
Nonetheless, first, this text will look at the supermodel Naomi Campbell, who was launched to Epstein by Briatore – her one-time fianceé and subsequently “her mentor.” Campbell later flew on Epstein’s airplane and, shortly after ending her relationship with Briatore, turned romantically concerned with the rapper Diddy, who would stay her shut buddy years after their romantic flame went out. Diddy’s personal intercourse trafficking scandal and trial has been a give attention to media consideration for a lot of the previous a number of months and Campbell has been accused of involvement in Diddy’s alleged prison exercise.
Finally, the image that emerges when taking a look at Briatore’s and Campbell’s connections once more underscores how the Epstein scandal is, in some ways, “too massive to fail” because it dangers exposing a nefarious but wide-reaching energy construction that might lose its grip if broadly uncovered.
The Fashions and Moguls of the “Black E-book”
Naomi Campbell, born in Britain to folks of Jamaican origin, started her modeling profession within the mid-Eighties at age 15. Previous to that she appeared in music movies for Bob Marley and Tradition Membership and within the Pink Floyd movie The Wall. She loved industrial success just a few years later, within the late Eighties, and cemented her standing as one of many world’s most iconic supermodels through the Nineteen Nineties. She first modeled for the Leslie Wexner-owned Victoria’s Secret in 1996, a 12 months after the lingerie model started its as soon as highly regarded televised style exhibits. These exhibits, till they have been suspended within the wake of the Epstein scandal in 2019, attracted “extra viewers than all different style exhibits mixed” and have been run by the Chief Advertising and marketing Officer of L Manufacturers (Victoria’s Secret’s guardian firm) Ed Razek. Razek, who was later accused of inappropriate habits towards firm fashions, together with a few of the model’s prime modeling expertise – together with Campbell – could be discovered within the now notorious contact guide of Leslie Wexner’s long-time fixer and now deceased intercourse trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein.
Campbell, for a lot of her early profession, was represented by Elite Mannequin Administration. Elite had been based by John Casablancas who was open about his sexual desire for “youngster girls” and he had a number of affairs and relationships with 16 and 17 12 months olds. In a now suppressed BBC documentary from 1999, Elite brokers have been depicted “boasting of intercourse and drug exploits with younger recruits.” Elite got here underneath scrutiny just a few years in the past because of Donald Trump’s political fame, as his daughter Ivanka started modeling for Elite at age 15, sporting what the New York Instances described on the time as “attractive outfits,” together with a “see-through white gown,” whereas “nonetheless chubby within the cheeks with child fats.”
Campbell was 17 when she started working for Elite, after Elite purchased out the company that had first signed her in 1987. Elite and Campbell parted methods in 1993, with Casablancas accusing her of being “loopy, irrational and uncontrollable” and mistreating workers. Campbell claimed that she had give up and that, opposite to Casablancas’ claims, she hadn’t been fired. Campbell has been accused of a sequence of assaults and for mistreating workers on a number of events over the previous three a long time. As famous above, just a few years later, she turned a outstanding fixture at Victoria’s Secret style exhibits, showing on the annual occasions from 1996 although 2005.
Jeffrey Epstein tried however in the end failed to amass Elite’s American department within the early 2000s. Nonetheless, one other shut affiliate of Epstein’s, mannequin turned businesswoman Nicole Junkermann, was additionally managed by Elite in 1995 and this can be how she first turned acquainted with Epstein a while between the late Nineteen Nineties and the early 2000s. As might be famous later, that is additionally roughly the identical timeframe during which Campbell claims to have first met Epstein. Junkermann, in 2002, allegedly assisted Epstein in sexually blackmailing two U.S. Senators (the identities of which nonetheless stay unknown) at a Wexner-owned residence in the UK, suggesting that a few of the relationships Epstein cultivated with sure fashions was associated to sexual blackmail efforts.
Epstein started to focus closely on the modeling trade in 1995, a number of years after he teamed up with Wexner. Some proof, nonetheless, means that Epstein had turn into very concerned with recruiting fashions for Victoria’s Secret (or at the least claiming to take action) as early as 1993. Nonetheless, 1995 stays a big 12 months for Epstein within the modeling trade. That 12 months, Epstein first teamed up with Jean Luc Brunel, a controversial mannequin company mogul from France who – very like Epstein – died suspiciously in jail in 2022 whereas awaiting prices associated to the Epstein scandal.
Brunel, who’s believed to have performed a significant position in Epstein’s intercourse trafficking enterprise, had introduced Epstein into shut reference to Religion Kates of Subsequent fashions, “one of the crucial revered businesses within the trade,” who was a former enterprise associate of Brunel’s. Epstein continued to have a detailed relationship with Kates and Subsequent effectively after Brunel and Kates severed their enterprise association in 1996. As beforehand talked about, 1995 was additionally the 12 months that Victoria’s Secret started its fabulously profitable annual style present and it was additionally the time that Epstein efficiently started to painting himself as both being “in control of Victoria’s Secret” or typically as one of many model’s most outstanding modeling scouts. As famous within the guide One Nation Below Blackmail Vol. 2, Epstein used his connections to the modeling trade, significantly his ties to Victoria’s Secret, as a lure to so many aspiring fashions it was later characterised in media studies as “an Epstein-Victoria’s Secret pimp pipeline.”
Some within the trade even referred to Epstein as “one of the crucial necessary folks in modeling” within the late Nineteen Nineties. His reference to the modeling world persevered up till his first arrest in 2007, significantly his ties with Jean Luc Brunel. With Brunel, an condominium complicated owned by an organization run by Epstein’s brother Mark was mentioned to have housed underage and just-of-age women primarily from Jap Europe and South America. Some (and sure many) of the ladies and younger girls had their journey paperwork confiscated by Epstein associates and have been coerced into having intercourse with highly effective males. One of many fashions that flew on Epstein’s airplane and traveled to his island, Ruslana Korshunova – a mannequin for Vera Wang, DKNY and others – jumped to her dying from her ninth flooring condominium roughly two years after her journey with Epstein. The explanation for Korshunova’s suicide stays unknown.
As well as, Epstein’s black guide of contacts confirms that he actually did have affect inside the modeling trade. Except for his aforementioned ties to Religion Kates and Brunel, his black guide consists of listings for Tom Ford, then the artistic director of Gucci, in addition to Ford’s long-time associate Richard Buckley, a “titan of the style media world.” As well as, well-known fashions like Naomi Campbell, Janice Dickinson and Chis Royer additionally seem within the black guide. Campbell will not be solely listed in Epstein’s black guide and likewise owes the Epstein-connected Victoria’s Secret a lot for his or her industrial success, she can also be intimately related to one of many few “untouchable” figures round Epstein that was as soon as flagged by Epstein’s personal butler of getting appreciable information of or involvement in his prison enterprise. His identify? Flavio Briatore.
Epstein’s black guide of contacts, arguably now one of the crucial notorious contact books on the planet, comprises many names, however only some names are circled. The guide, together with the annotations such because the circling of sure names, was initially produced by Epstein’s butler Alfredo Rodriguez, who tried to promote the guide to Epstein sufferer lawyer Brad Edwards for a big sum. Rodriguez made a number of notes within the guide that he mentioned could be necessary to fixing the case, with many of the circled names – except in any other case famous by Rodriguez’s annotations – referring to alleged co-conspirators and “materials witnesses” of Epstein’s intercourse crimes. Edwards, who works alongside profession U.S. intelligence mop-up man and lawyer Stanley Pottinger (who, like Edwards, can also be a outstanding Epstein sufferer lawyer), reported Rodriguez to the FBI. The FBI then arrange a sting operation to acquire the guide from Rodriguez, who was later charged by the federal government with bribery and obstruction of justice. Rodriguez then went to jail and died in 2014, the identical 12 months the black guide was printed by journalist Nick Bryant and Gawker. Bryant informed Self-importance Honest in 2019 that he gained entry to the black guide round 2012 after the FBI had obtained it and in the end printed with Gawker after many outstanding media shops declined to publish his articles in regards to the guide and the Epstein case normally.
Within the black guide, Rodriguez had circled Briatore’s identify, together with the names of Leslie and Abigail Wexner, Jean Luc Brunel, Ghislaine Maxwell, Sarah Kellen (an Epstein assistant and recruiter protected by the so-called “sweetheart deal”), Peter Soros (nephew of the notorious financier George Soros), Glenn and Eva Dubin (shut associates of Epstein with the latter additionally being his ex-girlfriend), Ehud Barak (former Israeli Prime Minister and former head of Israeli army intelligence), Invoice Richardson (former Democratic Governor of New Mexico named by outstanding Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre), Alan Dershowitz (Epstein’s buddy and former protection lawyer) and present U.S. president Donald Trump. Within the case of Trump in addition to the opposite circled names, it’s unknown why particularly Rodriguez singled them out – e.g. have been a few of the names as soon as “shoppers” of Epstein’s intercourse ring? Which have been “materials witnesses,” enablers or direct accomplices?
Finally, apart from Maxwell, Brunel and Epstein himself (one alive in jail and the opposite two discovered useless underneath uncommon circumstances whereas in jail awaiting trial), not one of the different circled names have been meaningfully investigated or pursued by regulation enforcement, Flavio Briatore included.
The Life and (Alleged) Crimes of Flavio Briatore
Flavio Briatore was born in Verzuolo, Italy and, after a failed restaurant enterprise, moved to town of Cuneo. There, he turned the assistant to native financier Attilio Dutto. Dutto was the proprietor of the Paramatti Vernici paint firm, whose earlier proprietor – Sicilian banker Michele Sindona – had laundered proceeds from heroin gross sales for the Gambino crime household. Sindona, along with his intensive mob ties, was additionally an adviser to the scandal-ridden Vatican Financial institution (formally often known as the Institute for the Works of Faith) and a member of the notorious Freemason lodge “P2.” P2, also referred to as Propaganda Due, spawned an enormous political scandal in Italy, as its members included mobsters, highly effective businessmen, well-connected bankers and necessary politicians — many who have been allegedly tied to the CIA’s Operation Gladio. P2 notably overlapped with Permindex-CMC, which Jim Garrison (and several other researchers since) implicated within the conspiracy to kill John F. Kennedy.
In the course of the early Nineteen Nineties, one other member of P2, former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, would turn into certainly one of Flavio Briatore’s longest-standing and closest associates. Berlusconi’s long-time holding firm, Fininvest, is alleged to have made annual funds of 200 million lira to the Silician mafia for an unspecified interval after the corporate was based in 1975. He was later accused by a number of events of continuous involvement with organized crime, typically within the pursuit of enterprise (and later political) favors, all through the Eighties and the Nineteen Nineties. Berlusconi, the topic of quite a few investigations for corruption, is additionally recognized for reportedly having an urge for food for underage women, along with his conviction for hiring an underage “prostitute” whereas Prime Minister of Italy and utilizing his authority to try to hide the crime. His spouse left him because of his “encompass[ing] himself with minors.”
in an undated picture – Supply
The later blossoming of the Berluscioni-Briatore relationship is suggestive that Briatore’s early connection to Dutto helped join him right into a world the place the mafia and different highly effective pursuits blended within the shadows. Creator Paul Williams, who wrote the guide on the notorious Operation Gladio, wrote that Dutto’s predecessor Michele Sindona had been a “lynchpin” between organized crime networks (significantly these involving the Nationwide Crime Syndicate), the CIA and the Vatican, which finally resulted “within the toppling of governments, wholesale slaughter and monetary devastation” in post-war Europe. A number of members of P2 have been implicated within the conspiracy, together with staff and members of the Agnelli household. The Agnellis, years later, would later turn into financially entangled with Jeffrey Epstein.
Sindona was additionally behind one of many greatest financial institution collapses in American historical past, Franklin Nationwide Financial institution. Sindona’s entry into the financial institution had been facilitated by Laurence Tisch, who bought a 20% % stake to the financial institution to Sindona. Tisch would later turn into an necessary, founding member of the so-called “Mega Group” that was based in 1991 by Leslie Wexner and Charles Bronfman. Most of its recognized members share historic and extra present ties to those identical organized crime networks in addition to the broader community that enabled Jeffrey Epstein’s unlawful acts.
Tellingly, Sindona’s successor at Paramatti, Attilio Dutto, was murdered similar to his predecessor. Whereas Sindona had died after consuming a cyanide-laced espresso in jail regardless of being underneath 24 hour police surveillance, Dutto died in a automobile bomb explosion in 1979 – a homicide which nonetheless stays unsolved. Dutto’s then assistant, Flavio Briatore, instantly disappeared from Cuneo following Dutto’s dying. A minimum of one report has claimed that Briatore was charged with wrong-doing after Paramatti collapsed following Dutto’s dying, although it seems Briatore by no means went to trial for something associated to Paramatti.
After Dutto’s homicide, Briatore later reappeared in Milan, working for Finanziaria Generale Italia on the Milan inventory trade. Whereas there, he turned related to the aristocratic Caproni dynasty, who had constructed their fortunes by dominating Italy’s aeronautical trade for a lot of a long time. Specifically, Briatore turned near Depend Achille Caproni di Taliedo, who was accused and tried for monetary crimes in opposition to banks and different firms within the early Eighties by way of a holding firm he managed, Compagnia Generale Industriale (CGI). Notably, throughout this era, Caproni gave management over main facets of that holding firm to Flavio Briatore. Nonetheless, Briatore was not charged for any potential position he could have performed in CGI’s illicit actions or its 1983 chapter.
Along with the Capronis, Briatore additionally turned acquainted with Luciano Benetton, the founding father of United Colours of Benetton clothes firm, throughout this era. That relationship would later show crucial to Briatore’s industrial success. Nonetheless, not lengthy after getting near Benetton, Briatore was charged with a number of counts of fraud ensuing from his ties to unlawful rackets at Milan playing dens. These rackets have been largely orchestrated and operated by successors to the Milan organized crime boss Francis Turatello. Proof used in opposition to Briatore included a web page from his private agenda that listed a New York phone quantity underneath the identify “Genovese.” Based on journalist Gianni Barbacetto, the quantity was registered to the G&G Concrete Company managed by John Gambino, a widely known U.S. organized crime determine. Briatore evaded his jail sentence by turning into a fugitive, touchdown within the U.S. Virgin Islands, later a favourite hang-out of a person who would quickly turn into Briatore’s buddy – Jeffrey Epstein. Notably, Epstein’s principal patron and one other circled identify in his black guide, Leslie Wexner, additionally had alleged ties to the Genovese crime household, in keeping with closely suppressed paperwork initially authored by Ohio regulation enforcement. These paperwork resulted from the police investigation into the “mob fashion homicide” of Wexner’s lawyer Arthur Shapiro, who was because of testify to the IRS shortly after he was killed. Shortly thereafter, Wexner employed Jeffery Epstein to type out his “tangled” funds.
Across the time Briatore was charged and fled Italy for the USVI, he was chosen by Luciano Benetton to turn into “the Benetton Group’s principal consultant in america.” Throughout his time working Benetton’s North American operations all through many of the Eighties, Briatore “ferried backwards and forwards between New York and the Virgin Islands tax haven,” turning into a “flamboyant member of the Italian-American enterprise circles.” His forays into New York noticed him turn into a associate on the most well-known of the Regine’s Disco nightclubs. Regine, born Rochelle Zylberberg, was a European Holocaust survivor whose nightclub empire was initially bankrolled by Man and Edmond de Rothschild of the notorious banking dynasty they usually remained long-time patrons and supporters of her enterprise for many years. Presumably, Briatore met Epstein, in addition to his buddy Donald Trump, throughout this era.
Additionally throughout this identical interval, Briatore was tangentially concerned in one other scandal, one which concerned an alleged effort to promote atomic bombs to Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi. This try to assist make Libya a nuclear energy had notably concerned an notorious Saudi household tied to the BCCI (Financial institution of Credit score and Commerce Worldwide) scandal and cash laundering for drug cartels. The story, by no means totally investigated, goes one thing like this: a big group of shares within the Italian insurance coverage big Assicurazioni Generali (aka the Generali Group) have been handed round as a part of a deal that benefited a small community of figures tied to Libya and/or Saudi Arabia with hyperlinks to arms smuggling and cash laundering. This specific group of shares “mysteriously left Italy” earlier than returning to the nation as collateral for “opaque worldwide transactions” involving Libya, the Italian state oil firm ENI and the smuggling of American-made weapons that traveled a serpentine path to in the end find yourself in Libya regardless of the U.S. embargo.
The primary figures concerned on this memory-holed scandal included Anthony Tannoury (typically spelled Tannouri), a French-Lebanese arms seller with shut ties to Libya; Mazed Pharaon, a rich sheikh and the brother of the notorious BCCI investor and cash launderer for drug cartels, Saudi “financier” Ghaith Pharaon; and Florio Fiorini, former supervisor of the Italian oil firm ENI who had made vital, previous offers with Libyan oil firms. An organization that Fiorini managed, Sasea, in the end purchased the shares, which have been managed by Tannoury, Pharaon and two of their associates. Tannoury and Pharaon had beforehand tried to collaborate on a covert effort to promote nuclear weapons elements to Libya by route of Venezuela. The trouble was unsuccessful (some studies paint the hassle as a rip-off orchestrated by Tannoury). Tannoury and Pharaon later claimed to have misplaced the $33 million that that they had invested within the failed enterprise. Because it pertains to Briatore, an organization he briefly managed referred to as Finclaus was one of many entities on this close-knit community that held onto the Tannoury-Pharaon-Fiorini group of shares within the Generali Group because it “toured the world.” Notably, the Benetton household, which has long-standing and deep ties to Briatore, are additionally long-standing shareholders of the Generali Group.
Almost a decade after this scandal was lined up, Briatore’s London residence was bombed in 1993, allegedly by the IRA. Briatore survived the bombing and his home suffered minor damages. Notably, the IRA faction mentioned to have been accountable had reportedly been equipped bombs and weapons by Libya. Whereas it’s unclear why the Irish separatist militant group would select to bomb Briatore’s residence, his previous ties to the figures concerned with arms smuggling by the use of Libya could present one clue.
One other chance might be that it wasn’t truly the IRA and one other group offended at Briatore was accountable. The 12 months earlier than the bombing, there was a cellphone name intercepted by Italian officers the 12 months prior between Briatore and Felice Cultrera, a Sicilian businessman. In the course of the name, Briatore had requested about an effort by a mob-connected determine to promote engines to the Briatore-run F1 racing workforce owned by the Benettons (extra on that shortly). The decision was used as proof as half of a big investigation focusing on organized crime by the Italian state and it’s potential that pursuits angered by the investigation might have orchestrated the bombing to intimidate Briatore. Briatore notably turned a significant determine within the sale of engines to F1 racers and it’s unclear if his engine provide chain was ever related to the organized crime networks that had approached him, as specified by his intercepted name with Cultrera.
There’s additionally different proof that, along with the above, suggests Briatore had greater than coincidental ties to the worlds of organized crime, arms offers and cash laundering. In 2015, it was reported that Briatore held 38 accounts totalling $73 million within the non-public Swiss department of HSBC, a financial institution later discovered to have enabled the actions of drug sellers, arms sellers, cash launderers and terrorists. Reviews recommend that Briatore’s accounts on the financial institution have been closed in 2007, the 12 months when the financial institution additionally “weeded out” shoppers who didn’t meet new requirements meant to stop the financial institution from enabling crime. Notably, the HSBC department in query, the place Briatore banked, was created after HSBC acquired a few of the holdings of Edmond Safra after which took Safra’s “rich worldwide shoppers” and moved their accounts to the brand new department. It’s unknown if Briatore was amongst these shoppers that had initially banked with Safra and Safra-controlled establishments, however – given Safra’s connections and Briatore’s personal – it’s believable.
Safra was a world banker whose banking establishments have been dogged by controversy, largely because of scandals involving cash laundering and arranged crime. This consists of people who later shaped the premise of HSBC’s non-public Swiss department the place Briatore banked. Safra was a shut affiliate and buddy of Robert Maxwell – father of Ghislaine Maxwell and Israeli intelligence asset – and likewise seems in Epstein’s black guide, although his final identify is misspelled as “Saffra.” Safra had appreciable ties to Russian organized crime, the state of Israel and the key society of B’nai B’rith, the place he served on the board of overseers alongside Edgar Bronfman and Leslie Wexner’s enterprise mentor Max Fisher. Safra’s banks additionally had vital connections to the networks that operated the intelligence and crime-linked financial institution BCCI.
Whereas weaving himself even deeper into organized crime networks spanning each the Outdated and New World, Briatore additionally turned much more intertwined with Luciano Benetton. The Benetton household had formally entered the world of Method One (F1) racing in 1985, buying an underperforming workforce it re-named Benetton Method Ltd. Briatore was made industrial director of the workforce by Luciano Benetton and later turned its managing director. Briatore is credited with making the workforce aggressive and for its best successes, which occurred through the mid-Nineteen Nineties due to driver Michael Schumacher, who Briatore had recruited to hitch the Benetton workforce and who delivered two back-to-back championships. Schumacher left Benetton to hitch Ferrari in 1996 and Briatore was let go from the Benetton companies in 1997. After the Benetton workforce was bought to Renault in 2000, Briatore rejoined it as government director. His girlfriend on the time, Naomi Campbell, credit herself with establishing “an intervention dinner” with prime F1 figures to influence Briatore to return to the game.
Briatore’s success at Method One was later marred by scandal. A race fixing scandal in 2008 that favored Briatore’s then-star driver Fernando Alonso on the Singapore Grand Prix resulted in Briatore’s supposed lifetime ban from the game. The investigation into scandal, often known as “Crashgate,” discovered Briatore to have been complicit within the conspiracy, regardless of his denials. Nonetheless, Briatore was later allowed again into the game, with the Alpine workforce saying in 2024 that Briatore was becoming a member of as an government advisor. In the meantime, the 2008 “Crashgate” scandal could have repeated itself shortly after Briatore’s return. Final 12 months, a whistleblower claimed that F1 races have been once more rigged final 12 months to learn Fernando Alonso. Briatore continues to be mentioned to be Alonso’s long-time agent.
Along with Flavio Briatore, quite a few different necessary figures from F1 racing seem in Epstein’s guide of contacts, together with Bernie Ecclestone (who has lengthy been very near Briatore), Lawrence Stroll (who additionally has necessary ties to the style trade), and former star drivers Eddie Irvine and Jacques Villeneuve. Ecclestone and Briatore partnered in 2007 to take over the Queen Park Rangers soccer workforce, with Briatore leaving just a few years later. The entry for Stroll, who made most of his fortune due to investments in style manufacturers Tommy Hilfiger and Michael Kors, lists 17 cellphone numbers and two addresses, whereas the entry for Briatore lists – by comparability – 8 cellphone numbers and two addresses. Epstein’s former worker and alleged co-conspirator (who stays shielded from prosecution by the “sweetheart deal”), Sarah Kellen, has ties to the U.S.’ F1 equal NASCAR by way of her husband Brian Vickers. Vickers notably filed for divorce earlier this 12 months. It’s value mentioning that some F1 occasions have been accused of serving as “hubs” for human trafficking and that “younger women” specifically have been focused.
By the mid-Nineteen Nineties, F1 and the Benettons had made Briatore wealthy and spurred his personal ostentatious franchises targeted on the wealthy and well-known after being branded an “worldwide playboy” (a phrase additionally as soon as used to explain Jeffrey Epstein). As an example, in 1998, he opened the “Billionaire” nightclub model, with its first location in Sardinia with others to comply with. He later developed a conglomerate referred to as Billionaire Life, a holding firm for eating places, luxurious resorts and a high fashion style line. “With Billionaire, I didn’t simply create an organization,” Briatore later informed Entrepreneur, “I created a way of life.” Because of Billionaire’s success, Briatore is now more and more referred to within the press as a “hospitality mogul.”
Although Briatore’s Billionaire model has holdings unfold all through the world, spanning Europe, the Center East and Africa, his favourite place to construct Billionaire model companies is now in Dubai. Briatore has developed a number of profitable enterprise ventures within the UAE in addition to in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh. One other developer who has lengthy made main hospitality investments within the Persian Gulf, with extra allegedly on the way in which, is Briatore’s shut buddy, U.S. president Donald Trump.
The Briatore-Trump Relationship
Briatore and Donald Trump first met through the late Eighties, although Briatore has declined to provide an actual date. Briatore’s introduction to Trump was allegedly associated to the truth that the 2 males – on the time – have been attempting “to begin their careers after the inventory market crash with the ‘Black Monday’ in 1987,” in keeping with an interview Briatore gave on the Past the Grid podcast that was later the topic of a report by Motorsport. Per Motorsport, “It isn’t stunning that their paths crossed. The scene of playboys who needed to get wealthy shortly was manageable even in New York on the time. You knew one another.” The 2 different New York-based “playboys” closest to Trump throughout this time have been Jeffrey Epstein and Tom Barrack of Colony Capital, who nonetheless maintains shut ties to Trump (now serving as U.S. ambassador to Turkey) and likewise to Briatore. On the time, Epstein was simply starting to work for Leslie Wexner and had spent a lot of the early to mid-Eighties “hiding and discovering stolen cash” for highly effective folks. It appears probably that Briatore first met Epstein both by way of Trump (who broke ties with Epstein a long time later over their competing efforts to buy a Florida mansion) or Barrack, who can also be listed in Epstein’s black guide. Nonetheless, in contrast to the listings for Briatore and Trump in that guide, Barrack’s identify was not circled by Epstein’s former butler Alfredo Rodriguez. Tellingly, Briatore has – to this date – by no means been requested about his Epstein relationship regardless of granting quite a few interviews since Epstein’s 2019 arrest and dying, making it tough to know who first launched them and the extent of their relationship.
Briatore said that he grew even nearer to Trump after officiating a gathering between the true property mogul and Briatore’s then-boss Luciano Benetton. The assembly, which occurred a while between 1991 and 1992, occurred on the Plaza Resort in New York, the location of Victoria’s Secret annual style exhibits, and whose suites have been as soon as utilized by a bunch of organized crime-linked figures to sexually blackmail highly effective figures in authorities. Trump’s mentor and lawyer Roy Cohn, an organized crime affiliate, had been intimately concerned in these blackmail efforts and Trump, after he purchased the Plaza, was accused of internet hosting events in Plaza lodge suites “the place younger girls and women have been launched to older, richer males” during which the ladies have been allegedly exploited and unlawful medication have been broadly accessible. Round this time, Trump had additionally taken a controlling curiosity in Resorts Worldwide, an notorious mob-linked CIA entrance firm that had previously been often known as the Mary Carter Paint firm. Briatore claims to have launched Benetton to Trump “as a result of I used to be positive it was potential to do one thing collectively.” It’s unclear what, if any, settlement Benetton and Trump could have reached throughout or after the assembly.
Nonetheless, Briatore claimed that, after arranging this assembly, Trump provided him a job. Briatore elaborated that he had almost turned down a proposal from Benetton to deepen his involvement within the household’s F1 racing workforce due to the provide from Trump. “I needed to return to New York. I had a proposal from Donald Trump to work for him in America,” Briatore informed Tom Clarkson in 2020. In that very same interview, Briatore additionally specified that the provide had been associated to “the industrial facet of his [Trump’s] new on line casino in Atlantic Metropolis.” Notably, Trump’s determination to amass management over the mob and intelligence-linked Resorts Worldwide had largely been motivated by his efforts to develop Resort’s on line casino pursuits in Atlantic Metropolis, specifically the Taj Mahal, which formally opened in 1990. A number of years later, Trump bumped into main monetary bother and was bailed out by Rothschild banking pursuits.
Although the 2 by no means ended up straight working collectively on any casino-related enterprise, they finally did collaborate on “The Apprentice,” with Briatore starring within the sequence’ Italian language model as Trump’s counterpart. Within the 2020 interview with Tom Clarkson, Briatore mentioned that “I’ve all the time had a superb relationship with him [Trump] […] When he determined to broadcast ‘The Apprentice’ in Italy, he needed me for it. He mentioned: ‘I would like Flavio Briatore.’” Briatore was additionally chosen to star within the latest reboot of the Italian “The Apprentice” and has additionally claimed that Trump personally requested him in 2024 to turn into the sequence’ consultant in Europe. Briatore turned down the provide, citing his dedication to his latest return to F1 racing, and added that Trump, on the time, had additionally requested Briatore go to him in Florida.
Briatore has additionally been very supportive of Trump’s political profession, and has characterised Trump as a political reasonable. In the course of the 2016 election, Briatore had heralded his long-time buddy as an “unparalleled expertise” that common People can determine with extra simply than profession politicians. Briatore additionally has praised Trump’s response to the Covid-19 disaster, specifically the “Going Direct” fiscal coverage pursued by former Treasury Secretary underneath Trump, Steve Mnuchin, with the enter of Trump’s former cash supervisor Larry Fink.
In 2019, Briatore tried to comply with Trump’s trajectory from businessman to politician and launched his personal political motion in Italy referred to as Movimento del Fare. The transfer instantly drew comparisons to Trump, which “honored” Briatore. Briatore’s political celebration initially portrayed itself as a bunch of “profitable businessmen {and professional}[s] that, along with theirs concepts and visions, will assist the nation recuperate, create jobs and appeal to investments.” Nonetheless, it seems to have garnered little success and Briatore has since remained extra targeted on his rising hospitality empire. With respect to the 2024 U.S. election, Briatore reiterated his help for his buddy’s bid to return to the White Home.
Naomi Campbell – The Lady Who Connects Epstein and Diddy
No matter precisely how Briatore and Epstein met and who launched them, the 2 knew one another effectively earlier than 2001, when Briatore launched his then-fiancé, supermodel Naomi Campbell, to Epstein. Nonetheless, given her outstanding roles in Victoria’s Secret style exhibits, a previous assembly is feasible. Certainly, Campbell herself later mentioned that “He [Epstein] was all the time entrance and centre at Victoria’s Secret exhibits.” When interviewed after Epstein’s arrest in mid-2019, Campbell denied information of Epstein’s crimes and mentioned she stood “with the victims.”
Pictures from the event the place Campbell claims to have first met Epstein – her 31st party hosted on Briatore’s yacht – exhibits Campbell and Epstein associates in the identical {photograph}. These pictures are actually quite notorious as additionally they present Epstein’s most outstanding accuser, an underage Virginia Roberts (later Virginia Giuffre after her marriage), attending the celebration and following Epstein’s most infamous confederate – Ghislaine Maxwell – across the occasion. Giuffre died earlier this 12 months in April. There are different footage of Campbell and Maxwell partying collectively within the early 2000s at subsequent occasions, suggesting the 2 turned quite chummy after their preliminary assembly. Giuffre later alleged that Campbell and Maxwell had been “BFF,” i.e. greatest associates.
As well as, Campbell additionally flew on Epstein’s non-public jet 5 instances after she met him, with these flights happening between 2001 and 2003. One of many flights noticed her journey with former president Invoice Clinton. Two of the flights originated from the U.S. Virgin Islands, the place Briatore had main long-standing connections and the place Epstein’s notorious island was positioned. Campbell has not publicly commented on the flights or if she ever visited Epstein’s USVI island residence. Nonetheless, she has mentioned that she “ran in the identical circles” as Epstein however has insisted that the 2 weren’t shut.
As well as, a few of the flights Campbell took on Epstein’s airplane went to Brazil, a spot the place Campbell has mentioned she would exit on the road and recruit teen women for the modeling trade. The Miami Herald reported in 2018 that one lawsuit in opposition to Epstein claimed that he “used a world modeling company [Brunel’s Mc2] to recruit women as younger as 13 from Europe, Ecuador and Brazil.” It’s unknown if Campbell had performed a job in these efforts whereas touring to Brazil on Epstein’s plane. Nonetheless, she was romantically linked to Briatore when many of the flights occurred, and Briatore – as beforehand famous – is a circled identify in Epstein’s black guide. As well as, Campbell was accused of involvement within the intercourse trafficking scandal the place her former boyfriend and long-time buddy, the rapper Diddy, who just lately stood trial for crimes just like these reportedly dedicated by Epstein. One allegation claims Campbell was utilized by Diddy as a “lure” for his victims. If true, these allegations could provide trigger to re-examine her flights on Epstein’s notorious jet.
Moreover, Campbell was additionally accused by Epstein victims of being conscious of his intercourse trafficking operation however doing nothing to cease it. Certainly, whereas Campbell has claimed to have recognized nothing of Epstein’s crimes and to help his victims, Virginia Giuffre tweeted at Naomi Campbell after his 2019 dying, accusing her of understanding what was occurring. “You noticed me at your events, you noticed me in Epstein’s properties, you noticed me on the airplane, you noticed me get my haircut, you noticed me on the streets, you watched me be abused. You noticed me!” Giuffre wrote in early 2020. In one other tweet Giuffre mentioned that “There isn’t any manner in hell that she [Campbell] didn’t know what was occurring in entrance of her personal eyes. They have been all conscious of Epstein and Maxwell’s op – didn’t go at [sic] to cover it both.” Notably, Campbell was additionally talked about within the testimony of Epstein accuser Johanna Sjoberg.
Campbell started courting Briatore in 1998 and the pair dated for 4 years, ending their relationship in 2002. Some studies characterize their relationship as “on and off.” Throughout this identical interval, Campbell was mentioned to even have been courting rapper Diddy, with that relationship allegedly happening within the 12 months 2001, shortly after Diddy ended his relationship with Jennifer Lopez. That very same 12 months, in its October concern, the British version of Vogue featured Diddy and Campbell on its cowl with the headline “Naomi and Puff: The Final Energy Duo.” Some studies state they dated in 2002. Images additionally present Flavio Briatore partying with Diddy within the early and mid-2000s.
One interview Campbell gave to The Guardian in 2006 reported that Campbell “has all the time been drawn to older males, mentor figures.” The article added that “typically they’ve been boyfriends, typically she’s adopted them instantly as her dads.” With respect to these claims, Campbell was quoted as saying “I’ve acquired my dad Chris Blackwell. My dad Quincy [Jones]. I’ve acquired Flavio [Briatore]. And I’ve Mr. [Nelson] Mandela, my grandfather.” She later said that she appears for “father figures” as boyfriends. Campbell later said of Flavio that he was her boyfriend however had since turn into “her mentor.” They nonetheless keep a pleasant relationship.
Shortly after his cut up with Campbell in 2002, Briatore started courting one other supermodel fixture at Victoria’s Secret style exhibits who can also be by the way in Epstein’s black guide – Heidi Klum. Klum had been beforehand related to Ghislaine Maxwell and Prince Andrew – one other recognized affiliate of Epstein – who have been photographed at her Halloween celebration in 2000. Maxwell was additionally photographed with Donald Trump and his then-girlfriend and later spouse Melania on the identical occasion. Melania had just lately begun courting Trump, and Maxwell later claimed to have launched them. Klum, like Campbell, was alleged by at the least one Epstein accuser to have flown on Epstein’s airplane. Nonetheless, Klum denied the allegations.
Briatore’s relationship with Klum was publicly introduced in early 2003 (although it seems to have begun in 2002) and it resulted in 2004. Regardless of the quick nature of the connection, it offered loads of fodder for tabloids, significantly because the couple cut up shortly after Klum introduced her being pregnant and the 2 argued publicly about the place their youngster needs to be born. Briatore was largely uninvolved within the lifetime of his daughter with Klum, who was later adopted by Klum’s subsequent associate, the singer Seal. Nonetheless, Briatore and his daughter have since been photographed collectively vacationing in Europe. Briatore’s subsequent spouse of 9 years, Elisabetta Gregoraci, can also be a former lingerie mannequin who’s greatest recognized for being the chief mannequin advertising and marketing the Wonderbra. The Wonderbra model was then owned by the Sara Lee Company, which – for a few years – was managed and chaired by members of the organized crime-linked Crown household. The Crowns boast ties to the Epstein-linked “Mega Group” of billionaires and likewise performed a significant position within the hiring of Jamie Dimon to guide J.P. Morgan alongside banking pursuits tied to Leslie Wexner. J.P. Morgan would later be linked to Epstein’s crimes.
Campbell’s subsequent long-term relationship after Briatore additionally deserves a fast point out. Campbell started courting billionaire Vladislav Doronin in 2008 and the 2 cut up in 2013 after Doronin was photographed vacationing with one other lady and embracing one other mannequin that he had met via Campbell. Doronin, a billionaire of Russia origin, made his cash largely via his close-knit relationship with commodity dealer and Mossad asset Marc Wealthy. Wealthy, a long-time fugitive from U.S. authorities with very shut ties to Israeli intelligence, was additionally near outstanding figures within the “Mega Group,” specifically Michael Steinhardt, who, alongside former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, allegedly helped strain former president Invoice Clinton to controversially pardon Wealthy proper earlier than he left workplace. Wealthy additionally had controversial ties to Bruce Rappaport, a transport magnate and banker tied to U.S. and Israeli intelligence, in addition to the prison financial institution BCCI, which – along with banking drug cartels, intelligence businesses and monetary criminals – additionally ran a intercourse trafficking operation the place minors have been abused by the hands of the financial institution’s “VIPs.”
Doronin started his profession working for Marc Wealthy in Switzerland earlier than founding the Capital Group in Moscow in 1991. Capital Group was initially a commodities buying and selling agency that later was an actual property funding firm and allegedly engaged in intensive commodities buying and selling with Wealthy in its early days. One article printed by Enterprise Insider referred to Doronin as one of many folks Wealthy had chosen to mentor. Doronin has since divested from Capital Group. Doronin’s subsequent principal company car, luxurious lodge supervisor Aman, got here underneath hearth for hiring Charles McGonigal as its head of safety. McGonigal, a former FBI agent, was arrested whereas working for Aman for taking secret funds from Oleg Deripaska. Deripaska, certainly one of Russia’s richest males, began – like Doronin – as a commodity dealer, later merging his aluminum mining pursuits with Marc Wealthy’s Glencore. The Rothschild household boasts shut ties to each Deripaska and Glencore.
Who Pulls the Strings?
This text exploring the ties between Briatore, Campbell, Trump and Epstein doesn’t intend to suggest that the Briatore-Trump relationship alone has influenced the present administration’s failure to launch the majority of the so-called Epstein information. As a substitute, the connections between these people reveals that, as Campbell herself as soon as famous, all of them swam in the identical corrupt circles, and that they share vital ties to folks and entities linked to organized crime, corruption throughout varied industries, and intercourse trafficking. The intricacy of those “circles” will solely turn into extra obvious in subsequent entries on this sequence.
Epstein himself was the administration, not the proprietor, of the prison enterprises which have now made him notorious. The tight-knit community of oligarchs that enabled Epstein are transnational as their affect spans a number of international locations. They work to govern international affairs and international finance whereas staying out of the limelight themselves, with extra public-facing “financiers,” moguls and politicians serving as their middle-men. These oligarchs are the actually unaccountable ones, and their recurring presence within the circles round Epstein, Trump, and a few of their long-time, mutual associates seem like the true motive for the mismanagement of the Epstein information’ launch.
Nonetheless, at the least one determine within the Trump administration, apart from Trump himself, could stand to learn from the administration’s failure to launch the lion share of the Epstein-related paperwork within the authorities’s arms. As might be detailed within the second article on this sequence, a detailed buddy of each Donald Trump and Flavio Briatore at the moment performs an outsized-yet-quiet position in Trump administration international coverage along with having unsettling, but largely unknown, ties to the Epstein scandal.
Correction: The unique model of this text misstated that Alfredo Rodriguez was in jail the 12 months he died. He died shortly after serving his sentence and this text has been up to date to replicate that. This text had additionally initially linked to a Fox Information article that said that Rodriguez had died in 2015. Nonetheless, different articles have claimed that Rodriguez died late December 2014, citing his spouse. We’ve determined to go together with these extra detailed studies, now linked on this article, and have listed the 12 months of dying as 2014.
