Epstein Arrest Leaves Top Technology Figures Racing to Distance Themselves
The financier accused of child sex-trafficking had strong ties to Wall Street and friends in politics. He also tried to cultivate Silicon Valley.
Untangling the Web of Jeffrey Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein, the financier facing charges of sex-trafficking underage girls, had cultivated a public image over the decades as a benefactor of philanthropic and academic causes. His social circle famously included titans of Wall Street and power brokers in Washington, but his web of contacts also extended to the elite investors and entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley.
Now, the fallout from his July 6 arrest has sent many prominent figures in the technology industry scrambling to distance themselves from even the briefest of encounters with Epstein, many years ago.
Among those who have socialized with the financier—or appear in his infamous, although more-than-a-decade-old, “black book” of contacts—are Google co-founder Sergey Brin; Virgin Group creator and hyperloop investor Richard Branson; angel investor Jason Calacanis; Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates; LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman; Tesla Inc. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk; Intellectual Ventures CEO Nathan Myhrvold; and Facebook Inc. co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Epstein’s moneyed and connected network was partly chronicled in his address book, stolen by a staff member around 2005, and then published by gossip website Gawker in 2015. The book contains the names of hundreds of people. Some, like President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton, are known to have socialized with Epstein. Others who are listed say they met him only briefly or not at all.
Epstein was known to play up his connections to powerful people. According to reports, he had claimed to be a tax consultant for Bill Gates. Gates’ name is not in the book, but according to a Gates representative, he met Epstein in New York at a meeting which other people attended. The Gates representative said the discussion focused on philanthropy, and that Epstein “never provided services of any type to Bill.”
Excerpt