With connections to global movers and shakers, he was more than a sex\noffender.<\/p>\n
By Toh Han Shih<\/p>\n
The mystery surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, after the release by the FBI\nof 3.5 million pages of emails, text messages and court records\npertaining to him and connections to hundreds of people, is how a man\nconvicted of procuring an underage girl for prostitution in 2008 was\nable to amass such an astonishing inventory of influential people. They\nweren\u2019t all hunting for nubile flesh, as presumably the likes of former\nPrince Andrew might have been.<\/p>\n
Epstein, who was found dead in his New York prison cell on August 10,\n2019, was like Jekyll and Hyde. While men turned to Hyde for ugly sexual\ndiversion involving underage girls, there appear to have been many\nseeking out Jekyll for legitimate business reasons, including in Asia.\nEpstein was a member of the Board of Directors of the New York Academy\nof Art, the Santa Fe Institute, the Trilateral Commission, the Council\non Foreign Relations, the board of trustees of the Interlochen Center\nfor the Arts and the university council of Rockefeller University, among\nmany others.<\/p>\n
He seems never to have stopped making these connections. Donald Trump\nwas one of his early acquisitions, whether by Hyde or Jekyll.\nLinguistics professor Chomsky, author Deepak Chokra, IT titan Peter\nThiel, Barack Obama\u2019s White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, former\nIsraeli prime minister Ehud Barak, supermodel Naomi Campbell, physicist\nLawrence Krauss, Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin and former French\npresident Nicolas Sarkozy are among those all presumably trying to\nexplain how they knew him.<\/p>\n
Asia connections<\/p>\n
In Asia, Epstein\u2019s connections included Indian minister and former\ndiplomat Hardeep Singh Puri, the Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, a\nstill-unnamed Hong Kong academician to whom he gave thousands of\ndollars, and many more, including a gaggle of top Chinese businessmen\nand officials. Epstein\u2019s partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, discussed an\naborted investment proposal with the late Hong Kong socialite David\nTang.<\/p>\n
Epstein emerges as an archetype of the feral wheeler-dealer whose\nability to connect billionaire A to politician B to banker C to country\nsatrap D to counterspy E was his stock in trade, offering intelligence,\ngossip, whispers, scandal, financial advice, military intelligence and\nusing that information to make himself rich. He somehow knew, for\ninstance, as Asia Sentinel reported on February 1, that Anwar Ibrahim,\ninstead of being Encik Reformasi, intended to \u201cclean up\u201d if he got to be\nprime minister, and he knew to pass that information on to former JP\nMorgan banker James Edward \u201cJes\u201d Staley.<\/p>\n
Despite the slippery odour about him, he was apparently a vital asset\n\u2014 nichs hiyoni to the Israelis, \u91cd\u8981\u8cc7\u7522 in Hong Kong, viktig ressurs to\nthe Norwegians, ressource vitale to the French, essential resource to\nthe British. Staley, who was dismissed as Barclays chairman for his ties\nto Epstein, declared to Epstein in an email that he was one of his few\n\u201cprofound\u201d friends, after his first conviction of a sexual offence in\n2008.<\/p>\n
British police are investigating Andrew and former UK minister Peter\nMandelson for their associations. Norwegian police said on February 9\nthey had launched a corruption investigation into a political leader and\nclimate spokesperson for Norway\u2019s Det Konservative Folkeparti, and her\nhusband Terje Rod-Larsen, a former diplomat, over the couple\u2019s links to\nEpstein.<\/p>\n
The Norwegian parliament has agreed to set up an independent\ncommission to investigate the ties between Epstein and others including\nCrown Princess Mette-Marit and Jagland, a former chair of the Norwegian\nNobel Committee. The French foreign ministry has been in turmoil since\nlinks were revealed between diplomat Fabrice Aidan and Epstein. The US\nis undergoing a political earthquake because of him.<\/p>\n
Epstein was not only allegedly procuring girls for rich and powerful\nmen but playing an active role in transnational business deals,\nincluding in Asia through his concupiscent regal playmate the royally\ndowngraded Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who forwarded to Epstein reports\nof his trips to Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shenzhen. British\npolice are investigating the former prince for potentially violating the\nconfidentiality of his trip to these Asian destinations, according to\nmedia reports.<\/p>\n
In an email on July 21, 2011, David Stern, a German businessman who\npreviously worked for Andrew, told Epstein that Lord Jacob Rothschild, a\nmember of old British Jewish money, was travelling to Beijing to raise a\nUS$750 million private equity fund from Chinese investors. Stern told\nEpstein, \u201cThis topic keeps moving fast, its a massive opportunity. I\nwill keep low profile\/no action as instructed until you give me the\ngo-ahead.\u201d It\u2019s unknown whether Epstein got involved in Rothschild\u2019s\nChinese fund, but the email indicates Epstein was a decision maker\nbehind this China deal.<\/p>\n
In an email on March 7, 2012, Ian Osborne, a British investor living\nin Hong Kong, told Epstein, \u201cWe dropped the Brazilian deal on YOUR\nadvice after you told me at the island not to waste effort on a $1.5\nmillion investment.\u201d Through Osborne, Epstein made edits and inputs in\ndocuments related to the establishment of an investment firm, Hedosphia\nInvestments, Asia Sentinel reported on February 9. The initial\nshareholders of this now defunct company included Hong Kong tycoon Li\nKa-shing, his business partner Solina Chau and the family of Robert\nKuok, Malaysia\u2019s richest man.<\/p>\n
Men have engaged procurers to obtain women for sex, but don\u2019t usually\nmake business decisions based on a procurer\u2019s advice. Li, Chau and\nmembers of the Kuok family probably never met Epstein and there is no\nevidence they partook of Epstein\u2019s sexual activities. But he had worked\nbehind the scenes through Osborne on a deal with the Kuoks and Li, an\nindication that he was secretly a player in deals with such\nheavyweights, whose integrity is not in doubt.<\/p>\n
Government connections<\/p>\n
One 2012 email has Epstein telling Osborne that he was in government\nmeetings all day, without specifying the nationality of the government.\nThe well-connected Osborne answered: \u201cJust back from dinner with the\nPrime Minister. His team still want to come and visit you & Woody in\nParis.\u201d Normally, pimps don\u2019t attend government meetings and a team of\nany prime minister of any nation wouldn\u2019t publicly consort with a pimp,\nan indication of how Epstein\u2019s connections went beyond sex to the\npolitical.<\/p>\n
In a July 25, 2012 email, Epstein told Osborne, a former public\nrelations executive, that the Financial Times\u2019 then chief editor Lionel\nBarber could \u201ctalk to\u201d Staley, then a senior JP Morgan executive, \u201cabout\ncolour on what he will do.\u201d But, Epstein said, \u201cunder no circumstances\nlet it out of the bag.\u201d Barber was an editor of undoubted integrity, and\nthe Financial Times is a respected newspaper. It is normal for public\nrelations executives to arrange for journalists to interview newsmakers.\nBut here was Epstein arranging for the Financial Times to interview\nStaley while keeping an unknown matter secret.<\/p>\n
Diplomats and spooks<\/p>\n
Epstein\u2019s friendships extended from businessmen to diplomats and\nspies. An American calling himself \u201cMelvyn Kohn\u201d and claiming links to\nUS intelligence alleged Epstein previously had \u201cexposure\u201d to North\nKorean and Chinese intelligence, Asia Sentinel reported on January 7. In\nan email on June 26, 2015, Epstein told Peter Thiel that he had spent \u201ca\ngreat deal of time\u201d with his China advisers. Emails in September 2014\nshow Epstein introducing William Burns, then US Deputy Secretary of\nState and later CIA director, to Thiel. According to an FBI document on\nOctober 19, 2020, an unnamed source alleged Epstein trained as a spy\nunder former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. The Epstein files\ncontain many emails exchanged between Barak and Epstein, as well as\ninformation on Barak visiting Epstein at his house. Epstein pulled\nstrings behind fixers like Osborne. Epstein and his partner Maxwell, now\nin a US prison for perjury and sex trafficking of children, are Jewish\nand the documents provide indications Epstein was helping the Israeli\ncause.<\/p>\n
He funded Israeli groups including Friends of the Israeli Defense\nForces, and the settler organisation the Jewish National Fund and was\ntied to members of Israel\u2019s overseas intelligence services. Was he a\nspy? The files don\u2019t give a definitive answer. But given the breadth and\ndepth of Epstein\u2019s connections to spies, diplomats, tycoons and\ngovernment officials of various nations, he certainly had plenty to pass\non to spies.<\/p>\n
His friend Woody Allen produced Zelig in 1983, a movie featuring a\ncharacter defined by his ability to morph into the personality,\nappearance, and mannerisms of whoever he was around. In Epstein\u2019s case,\nit seemed also to include the ability to offer not just intelligence or\nfinancial advice but proximity to underage girls. A huge number of the\nrich and famous are paying for that now.<\/p>\n
Toh Han Shih is a Singaporean writer in Hong Kong and a regular\ncontributor to Asia Sentinel.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/epstein-scandals-fallout-in-asia-1771587304", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }