As the widely anticipated Ghislaine Maxwell trial kicks off over the unspeakable crimes against children that she and her former partner Jeffrey Epstein are alleged to have committed opens today, we thought it would be good to dig up a little bit about some of the lesser known people who’ve been connected with the pair in the past, especially those in the financial sector.
Everyone who’s not been hiding under a rock for the last year or so by now already knows of some of the big names who have been linked with Epstein (who may well not have killed himself of course), but few know of some of those who have been heavily involved in finance and banking, so we thought it would be nice to make sure they weren’t forgotten about.
All the information here comes from widely publicised mainstream sources. We make absolutely no comment on the alleged guilt or innocence of any individual whatsoever, and simply are presenting information that’s already in the public domain, should anyone care to go and look.
Glenn Dubin
Glenn Dubin formed New York-based Engineers Gate in early 2014, and previously he had co-founded Highbridge Capital Management, a hedge fund and private equity manager which was eventually bought by JPMorgan Chase & Co. The firm’s investments are run by a team of portfolio managers, including veterans of quantitative trading strategies at SAC Capital Advisors, the former hedge fund firm owned by top investor Steven Cohen of course our very own Ken Griffin.
Dubin, and his wife, Dr. Eva Andersson-Dubin apparently had a close relationship with Epstein, both personally and financially, and Mrs Dubin had previously dated Epstein, according to Vanity Fair magazine.
Dubin was named by Virginia Giuffre, in her deposition against Ghislaine Maxwell. In the 2016 deposition, Giuffre claimed Dubin was the “first” powerful man she was sent to have sex with after her “training.”
Five months after Epstein’s death, prosecutors in the Virgin Islands filed a lawsuit alleging his use of two private islands to traffic and abuse girls. Just over a week later Dubin announced he was retiring as CEO from Engineers Gate.
Dubin of course disputes the allegation, and his spokesperson told Reuters he was “outraged” by the “false and defamatory” allegations, claiming he had flight records and other evidence that “definitively” disproved them.
Joi Ito
Joichi (Joi) Ito was head of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who resigned after revelations that he had attempted to conceal financial contributions from Epstein.
The New Yorker reported that Ito and MIT Media lab had accepted donations from Epstein even though the financier was on the university’s “disqualified” donors list, and he attempted to keep the source of the funds a secret.
Ito penned one message that said: “Make sure this gets accounted for as anonymous” and the publication further reported that the links to Epstein were widely known in the lab…and he was known as Harry Potter villain Voldemort, “he must not be named,” among staff.
Ito himself later disclosed that he had accepted $525,000 from Epstein for the lab, as well as $1.2 million for his investment funds.
It is further alleged that Epstein appeared to serve as an intermediary between the lab and other wealthy donors, soliciting millions of dollars in donations from individuals and organizations, including Bill Gates and Leon Black.
In fact, when Gates made a $2 million contribution, Peter Cohen, the lab’s then Director of Development and Strategy reportedly said in an MIT email:
“This is a $2M gift from Bill Gates directed by Jeffrey Epstein For gift recording purposes, we will not be mentioning Jeffrey’s name as the impetus for this gift.”
A spokesperson for Gates denied that Epstein had a role in directing any funding by the Microsoft billionaire. But then again, Bill Gates isn’t knee deep in the shit around Epstein at all, is he, having met with him multiple times over the years.
Leon Black
Leon Black was the former CEO of private equity firm Apollo Global Management. He stepped down from his role in March 2021 after reports about his financial involvement with Epstein were made public.
The New York Times reported in October 2020 found that Black had transferred at least $75 million to Epstein between 2012 and 2017 for advice and services, despite telling investors that the pair’s relationship was “limited.” Although according to eye-witnesses, this limited relationship included getting cosy invites to Epstein’ palatial townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
A subsequent review commissioned by Apollo’s board found that the actual figure was as high as $158 million.
Although Black told investors that he “deeply” regretted having ever been involved with Epstein, the media attention resulting from the scandal led him to resign earlier than planned.
Jes Staley
The former Chief Executive of Barclays Bank previously admitted he developed a professional relationship with Epstein in 2000, and furthermore he maintained contact for seven years after Epstein was convicted of soliciting prostitution involving a minor in 2008. Staley said their contact began to taper off from 2013, when he left JP Morgan, but he visited Epstein’s private island in 2015.
At the start of this month, yes, this month in which the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell is starting, Staley announced his departure from Barclays.
The bank made a statement saying it was made aware on 29th October 2021 of the preliminary conclusions of regulators “into Mr. Staley’s characterisation to Barclays of his relationship with the late Mr. Jeffrey Epstein and the subsequent description of that relationship in Barclays’ response to the FCA.”
“In view of those conclusions, and Mr. Staley’s intention to contest them, the board and Mr. Staley have agreed that he will step down from his role as group chief executive and as a director of Barclays.”
Wilbur Ross
Wilbur Ross served as the 39th United States secretary of commerce from 2017 to 2021 and was previously chairman and CEO of WL Ross & Co. Before this, Ross ran the bankruptcy restructuring practice at N M Rothschild & Sons in New York from the late 1970s until 2000.
Ross was known for acquiring and restructuring failed companies in industries such as steel, coal, telecommunications, and textiles, later selling them for a profit after operations improved, a record that had earned him the moniker “King of Bankruptcy“. Ross has also been the chairman or lead director of more than 100 companies operating in more than 20 different countries.
Ross was tipped by Bloomberg Markets as one of the 50 most influential people in global finance. He was also appointed by President Bill Clinton (who’s notably also on the hook for numerous flights aboard Epstein’s ‘Lolita Express’) to the board of The U.S. Russia Investment Fund.
It’s also worth noting that in August 2018, Forbes reported that some of Ross’s business partners and staff had accused Ross of illicitly siphoning off (or, as we like to call it, stealing) a total of $120 million. A case was brought by a fund manager called David Storper, and just before the start of a trial, Ross and Storper agreed to a confidential settlement, whose existence has never been reported and whose terms remain secret. But if even half of the accusations were legitimate, this United States Secretary of Commerce could rank among the biggest grifters in American history.
Keep up with the Ghislaine Maxwell trial
Want to keep up with the Ghislaine Maxwell trial? We strongly recommend following these twitter accounts:
You might also want to see the full indictment against Maxwell, so we’ve helpfully linked to it here.
Apes Army present this publicly available information for entertainment purposes only, and it is reproduced in its entirety from an article which appeared on our sister site KenGriffinLies which you can see here. Nothing in this article is an accusation of any wrongdoing by any individual, but is information which has been collated from other publicly available media sources.
