Emails show Epstein cast himself as Davos fixer

Tuesday 17 - 14:50

By: Dakir Madiha

Emails show Epstein cast himself as Davos fixer

Newly released emails indicate that Jeffrey Epstein portrayed himself as a behind the scenes facilitator at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Switzerland, offering to connect influential figures while privately claiming to dislike the gathering.

The messages, published by the US Department of Justice and drawn from Epstein’s Yahoo account obtained by Bloomberg, show the disgraced financier referring to himself as a “Davos concierge.” In correspondence with contacts, he offered assistance navigating the high profile conference, including securing accommodation in a town where rooms are scarce during the summit and arranging introductions to billionaires and senior government officials.

Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, appeared to leverage the prestige of the World Economic Forum to bolster his own network. It remains unclear how many times, if at all, he personally attended the event. The World Economic Forum declined to comment on the disclosures.

The emails suggest Epstein maintained close ties with individuals linked to the forum’s leadership and prominent participants. In December 2018, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers contacted Epstein seeking an invitation to the Davos meeting. Epstein replied that he had already exhausted his allocation of guest passes. Weeks before his arrest in July 2019, however, he confirmed an invitation for Summers to attend the 2020 gathering.

Other correspondence points to Epstein’s role as an intermediary among high level attendees. During the January 2018 meeting in Davos, former Norwegian diplomat Terje Rød-Larsen sent Epstein a message from the summit asking whether he could arrange a meeting with Bill Gates the following day. In a separate 2010 email from Davos, biotechnology venture capitalist Boris Nikolic told Epstein he had met with Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew and that they had questions related to Microsoft.

The disclosures have also prompted scrutiny of Børge Brende, president and chief executive of the World Economic Forum. According to documents included in the Justice Department’s release of nearly three million files related to Epstein, Brende attended at least three dinners with Epstein between 2018 and 2019 and exchanged roughly 27 messages with him.

In one exchange cited in the documents, Epstein suggested that Davos could effectively replace the United Nations in shaping global governance. Brende responded that a new global architecture was needed. Brende, who has led the forum since 2017, said he had been unaware of Epstein’s criminal conduct and supported an independent review into the matter. The organization stated that he would remain in his role during the inquiry.

The broader release of Epstein related records has had repercussions beyond the annual meeting in Switzerland. Officials in Dubai, Slovakia and the United Kingdom have stepped down following revelations tied to the financier’s network. The disclosures have renewed attention on Epstein’s connections to royalty, political leaders and business executives across multiple continents.