Russian President Vladimir Putin's name is mentioned 1,056 times in more than three million documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier convicted of sexual abuse who was found dead in prison in 2019. Moscow is cited a total of 9,629 times.
Although there is no concrete evidence of a direct link between Epstein and the Kremlin, American investigators consider such a high number of references unusual.
According to American intelligence services, Epstein may have been involved in espionage networks due to his ties to Robert Maxwell, a former Moscow agent in the 1970s and the father of Ghislaine Maxwell, his associate, sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The British newspaper Daily Mail reports that Epstein is suspected of running a vast sexual blackmail operation (“compromise”) on behalf of Russian secret services, recruiting women, including from Russia, for his network of influencers. The documents mention emails and letters that talk about possible meetings with Putin, including communications from 2011–2014.
In a 2014 email, Japanese entrepreneur Joey Ito mentions the possibility of Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, joining a meeting with the Russian president. However, after the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine, the idea was abandoned. In other emails, Epstein refers to the “Putin documents,” without clarifying their contents.
Epstein had built a vast international network of political and financial contacts. He made payments to British political figures and communicated with former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland about meetings with world leaders, including Putin.
According to the documents, Epstein had claimed that he could provide the Kremlin with compromising information about Donald Trump, on the eve of the Helsinki summit in 2018. In other emails, he describes the activities of Robert Maxwell and his connections to foreign intelligence services.
In July 2019, after his arrest in New York, Epstein's lawyers informed the FBI that he was willing to cooperate. Three weeks later, he was found dead in his cell. US authorities ruled the death a suicide, a conclusion that continues to arouse suspicion and debate.