Big Tech Helped Elon Musk Meet Jeffrey Epstein Four Times After Conviction
Despite what they claim, Silicon Valley’s most powerful founders knew they were meeting, dining and emailing with a convicted sex offender and were told to keep quiet about it, reports Nafeez Ahmed
These repeated encounters – during dinners at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse, and at Musk’s own SpaceX facility – took place within a closed network of Silicon Valley which were concealed with instructions to maintain “radio silence” and keep events “off the search engines”.
Correspondence relating to Musk’s meeting with Epstein at his townhouse in 2012 appears to also show personal services being arranged for the tech mogul through Epstein’s operation.
There is no suggestion that any of the technology executives named in this investigation engaged in criminal activity or had direct knowledge of, or involvement in, Epstein’s offences. However, the newly released emails firmly contradict the position that Big Tech did not knowingly engage with Epstein.
The Network
On 23 June 2009, Edge Foundation President John Brockman – a literary ‘superagent’ representing many of the biggest names in science and technology – sent an email to some of the most powerful Silicon Valley founders in the world.
The founders of Amazon, Google, eBay, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, Microsoft and Tesla – and senior executives from other major firms – were all invited to a masterclass on synthetic genomics. Among the guests was Jeffrey Epstein. His name was not concealed in the ‘Bcc’ field but listed openly for all recipients to see. Elon Musk would host the first session at SpaceX.
Almost exactly a year earlier, Epstein had pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from girls as young as 14, making international headlines. By June 2009 he had barely finished serving his 18-month jail sentence, commuted to 13 months, and had begun his one-year house arrest.
While Epstein stayed at home, Musk turned up for the July event and led the Edge group on a tour of SpaceX’s manufacturing facility.
About a month later, Brockman sent an email to a select group concerning the career of Harvard physicist Lisa Randall, addressed to: “Nick, Elon, Danny, JE, Larry, Salar, Nathan, Charles, Jeff, Pierre, Sean.”
Epstein was addressed informally as “JE”, listed fourth among the recipients, alongside Musk, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, then YouTube acting chief executive Salar Kamangar, eBay founders Pierre Omidyar and Jeff Skoll, Facebook’s founding president Sean Parker, as well as former Microsoft executives Nathan Myhrvold and Charles Simonyi.
Hyatt Development Corporation chairman Nicholas Pritzker responded by joking that “with a board of advisors of this caliber, Lisa could be in REAL trouble!!” Musk replied: “I agree.” At this time, Epstein was still under house arrest for his child sex offence conviction.
The Edge Foundation, run by Brockman, had long publicly celebrated Epstein as its largest donor and a “science philanthropist”. Newly released emails show that Epstein continued to fund the Edge Foundation every year as late as 2018.
March 2011: The Billionaires’ Dinner
The first confirmed occasion on which Musk dined with Epstein after the latter’s conviction took place on 1 March 2011, at an Edge Foundation dinner in Long Beach, California. When the dinner first came to light in 2019, multiple attendees told BuzzFeed News that “they did not know him then, or do not remember his presence now”. Byline Times can now exclusively confirm that this was false: the attendees did so having been informed in advance of Epstein’s presence among them.
A few days earlier on 28 February 2011, Brockman sent a ‘Final Details’ email to the full confirmed guest list of 27 people. Epstein was openly copied in and listed seventh, described as a “Money Manager & Science Philanthropist”. Confirmed attendees included Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, Apple iPod designer Tony Fadell, and Twitter co-founder Evan Williams.
Brockman instructed: “Please don’t even ask about bringing additional people. And please keep quite [sic] about the dinner.”
This email is the clearest documentary evidence yet that Silicon Valley’s most prominent founders knew they would be dining with the convicted sex offender.
Elon Musk and all the other founders named in this story were approached for comment, but did not respond by the time of publication.
Still Dining with the Devil
Four months later, Brockman invited Epstein and many of the same Big Tech founders – including Musk – to an Edge Foundation science dinner at Spring Mountain Vineyard in Napa, California.
When Brockman updated Epstein on likely attendance on 2 June 2011, he revealed internal tensions, noting that “a year and a half ago” Larry Page and former Sun Microsystems chief scientist William Joy had expressed “unhappiness about certain other friends of yours” – an apparent reference to the entourage of young women Epstein often brought to events.
Epstein did attend, along with Stewart Brand who later founded the Long Now Foundation (one of whose prominent members was Jeff Bezos), Tony Fadell, Nobel Prize winning economist Daniel Kahneman, Facebook president and co-founder Sean Parker, and Evan Williams, who has since gone on to co-found Medium.
By February 2012, Brockman sent Epstein a message marked “CONFIDENTIAL” regarding a dinner for 21 guests in a room with 20 chairs. He instructed: “Please show up alone” and requested Epstein “cooperate by maintaining radio silence” about the event.
The final confirmed guest list included Amazon’s Bezos, Google co-founder Brin, his wife Anne Wojcicki, Larry Page’s wife Lucy Southworth, CEO of YouTube Salar Kamangar, Microsoft’s Nathan Myhrvold and Craig Mundie, Tony Fadell, Evan Williams, Facebook platform architect Dave Morin, and publisher Tim O’Reilly.
Epstein and the Musk Party
As previously, Elon Musk had been invited to that dinner, but did not attend on this occasion. Instead, he met Epstein at his New York townhouse in September. Musk has previously downplayed this encounter, telling Vanity Fair: “Several years ago, I was at [Epstein’s] house in Manhattan for about 30 minutes in the middle of the afternoon with Talulah, as she was curious about meeting this strange person for a novel she was writing. We did not see anything inappropriate at all, apart from weird art”.
However, the emails released by DOJ offer a vastly different portrait of a far more involved entanglement involving Epstein, Elon Musk and his brother Kimbal.
On Friday 21 September, Epstein received an invitation from Kimbal Musk to his birthday party for the following night at the Four Seasons hotel – he asked for names from the convicted sex offender to add to the guest list: “Let Jeffrey and his friends know they are invited tomorrow night.”
Minutes later, Epstein emailed Nick Pritzker: “The Musk boys told me you are in town… come see me, sat sun? Anytime.” They confirmed to meet on Sunday at Epstein’s home for lunch.
On 20 September, two days before Kimbal Musk’s birthday party, an associate identified in the files as Kira Dikhtyar emailed Epstein offering to “send Talia Shvedova to see you”, describing her as “lots of fun, very pretty”. Shvedova was a Russian model who had moved to New York in 2010. Dikhtyar was also a Russian model whose name appears multiple times across the documents. She had moved to the US, where she was represented by MC2 — an agency founded by the late child sex-trafficker Jean-Luc Brunel with financing from Epstein. In other emails in the files, Dikhtyar promised Epstein “30 girls” and, in a separate message, described a “FANTASTIC” girl from Minsk before noting that the “problem” was “she is 18 on Sep 29”. She returned to Moscow in 2022.
The following evening, on Friday 21 September, Dikhtyar and Epstein exchanged a further series of messages. She asked whether he was free that night, mentioned that Talia was “already a fan”, and confirmed she could arrive within ten minutes. Epstein told her to come at 10.30pm.
The following morning – Saturday 22 September, the same day as Kimbal Musk’s birthday party – Epstein sent a message to a redacted recipient noting that Elon Musk was coming to lunch at his house. A reply sent in the early hours of Sunday morning, which the documents suggest came from Dikhtyar, referred to being at “the party” on 27th Street, to plans involving “the girls”, and to a brief encounter with someone the sender called “elan” – apparently a reference to Elon Musk – before describing plans to move on to Electric Room, a nightclub in Manhattan.
Separately, that same Saturday morning, a further email thread appears to show Epstein attempting to arrange a massage for Musk through Dikhtyar and Shvedova. After receiving a message from Shvedova, Epstein replied with two words – “Elon MUSK.” Dikhtyar responded approximately an hour later, saying she would arrange everything once told “exactly” what Musk wanted. That afternoon, Epstein wrote that he had called Shvedova and left a voicemail, asking whether a redacted individual wanted to proceed with the massage.
A further message sent to Epstein late that Saturday night urged him to contact Shvedova, adding a derogatory comparison to someone referred to as “shrimp” – a term Epstein used elsewhere to dehumanise the women around him. In a separate exchange with a former diplomat, he wrote that women were “like shrimp; you throw away the head and keep the body”.
The documents do not allow a determination of precisely what Epstein was attempting to arrange. Neither Shvedova nor Dikhtyar responded to requests for comment.
Epstein and the Musk Lunch
By Sunday morning, Elon Musk sent a further email to Pritzker and Epstein asking if he could bring Hollywood screenwriter Jonathan Nolan – writer of Memento, co-creator of the Dark Knight trilogy, and later the showrunner behind Westworld and Fallout – to the 1pm meeting at Epstein’s townhouse.
“You can bring anyone you like,” Epstein replied. Nolan’s name has not previously been reported in connection with Epstein. Nolan did not respond to a request for comment sent through his agency representative.
Pritzker followed up with an email to Epstein’s assistant Lesley Groff, confirming the attendees: “Lesley: I believe it’s Elon, Talulah, eons [sic] friend Jonah Nolan and me for tomorrow at 1, but not Kimbal.”
On 24 September, after the meeting, Musk emailed Pritzker and Epstein: “That was indeed a very enjoyable conversation!”
The same thread shows Epstein writing: “Tell Elon that the blonde that walked with me is a friend of his mothers [sic] – that tried to set her up with him. Her name is Yfke Sturm.” Sturm is a well-known Dutch model.
Separately, other emails show that Epstein engineered an intimate relationship between Kimbal Musk and a woman in his network around this time. Kimbal Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
SpaceX
In the weeks and months that followed the townhouse meeting, Epstein leveraged the connection. In October 2012, Epstein asked Musk whether his cousins’ company SolarCity would consider “electrifying the Caribbean island” or “New Mexico ranch”. Musk promised to “send them a note”. He obliged by contacting his cousin, SolarCity executive (Musk’s cousin) Peter Rive, asking: “Are we in New Mexico?” – and forwarding the message to Epstein.
Just four months later in February the following year, Musk arranged to meet Epstein in person at his SpaceX facility in Long Beach. An email sent directly to Musk from Epstein’s assistant on 19 February described the SpaceX meeting as Musk’s own idea. Several other emails chronicle their efforts to confirm the logistics for the meeting, and a message alert confirms that the Epstein-Musk lunch at SpaceX took place on 25 February 2013.
The following day, Epstein emailed Musk: “thanks for the tour, you would have had fun at xmas” – a reference to Musk’s unsuccessful efforts to visit his island. (In November 2012, he had asked Epstein: “What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?”)
Musk replied: “I see 😊”.
Five years ago – before the publication of these emails – Musk had denied Epstein’s visit to SpaceX: “To the best of our knowledge, he never toured SpaceX. Don’t know where that comes from.”
But by March 2013, Epstein appeared to believe his relationship with Musk was such that he could request Musk to arrange a SpaceX tour for Epstein’s “NY money people” from the Milken Conference, including financier Leon Black. Musk agreed, with conditions.
By September 2013, Epstein invited Musk to visit during UN week, telling him: “The opening of the General Assembly has many interesting people coming to the house.”
Musk declined, commenting that it “would be an unwise use of time”. Epstein replied: “Do you think I am retarded? Just kidding, there is no one over 25 and all very cute.”
Concealment and Inclusion
By 2014, the Edge Foundation gatherings were growing increasingly restrictive, with explicit instructions designed to conceal Epstein’s participation from public view.
A Vancouver gathering during the TED conference in March attended by Epstein was organised with the instruction to keep the event “under the radar” and “off the search engines”. Confirmed attendees alongside Epstein included Bezos, Page, Brin, Kamangar, Fadell, Russian-Israeli billionaire Yuri Milner who had invested heavily in Facebook and Twitter, and eBay founding president Jeff Skoll.
By June 2015, Epstein emailed Brockman about a masterclass later that month. “Last year, at the last minute the women said no Epstein”, he wrote. “… am I going to have the same issue again.”
Brockman assessed each confirmed participant by name, concluding that most would have “no problem” with Epstein’s presence, but warned that “the founders of the big companies” would be “unhappy if they got the Prince Andrew treatment by the press in terms of photos and reportage”.
Musk had been invited to these but sent regrets. Instead, he dined with Epstein again at a more intimate gathering. At the end of July, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman booked out an entire restaurant for a dinner with Epstein, Musk, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Palantir’s Peter Thiel.
Also confirmed were three senior MIT directors, Joi Ito, Desiree Dudley and Ed Boyden – and Navaid Farooq, one of Elon Musk’s closest friends. Farooq is not a significant figure in tech, suggesting that his inclusion in the group was arranged at Musk’s request. The dinner went ahead on 2 August 2015 as planned.
Three years later, Epstein received an email from Landon Thomas Jr, then a financial reporter at the New York Times and a trusted confidante of the convicted sex offender over many years.
His colleagues at the paper were writing a story about Musk. Thomas Jr. told Epstein: “your name has come up – a lot… they have heard that you have… spent lots of time with him. And I am just now realising that you must have come to know him through The Edge, via Nathan M., Brockman, Minsky and others.”
Around this time, Epstein had been counselling a top advisor to Elon Musk on taking Tesla private through backchannel conversations.
“It is incorrect to say that Epstein ever advised Elon on anything,” a spokeswoman for Musk had told the New York Times in 2019 when Epstein’s earlier claims about the advice came to light.
Tesla has since denied that Musk knew of Epstein’s contact with the Tesla advisor.
Yet taken together, the newly released DOJ emails confirm Elon Musk’s sustained engagement with Jeffrey Epstein across at least four confirmed private meetings after his conviction.
These were not anomalous – but part of Big Tech’s secretive embrace of the child sex offender for a decade after his 2008 imprisonment.
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Really useful analysis, thanks!