By the summer of 2016, Jeffrey Epstein wasn’t just a well-heeled fixture working the back rooms in the corridors of power—he was a screaming red flag, a multiple convicted sex offender whose dodgy 2008 plea deal for procuring underage girls had already damaged his brand across elite political and financial circles. But not all elite circles. In fact, he was still a go-to partner for the very highest echelons of global power. While digging deeper into the voluminous Epstein Files, a stunning email emerged— to one of Europe’s most formidable bankers, Ariane de Rothschild, the steely head of the Edmond de Rothschild Group. Jeffrey was laying out fiduciary advice as if he were her personal oracle. This correspondence wasn’t the sterile back-and-forth of distant professionals. Rather, it was more like old confidants navigating a epic storm together.
On July 20, 2016, Epstein fired off a link to an article about the erupting 1MDB scandal in Malaysia, where billions had been siphoned from the sovereign wealth fund into a vortex of luxury yachts, Hollywood films, and shadowy international bank accounts. He didn’t just share the news—he provided her with a link to a New York Times article about the 1MDB scandal, before dispensing advice, warning her how American prosecutors might scrutinise her every move in relation to this massive scandal.
Ariane, typing from Luxembourg amid a tense board meeting with lawyers, shot back with raw urgency: “If I don’t go, I die. What do DOJ guys prefer?”(EFTA02456252). It was the cry of a woman cornered, turning not to her army of high-priced attorneys but to a man whose own history reeked of exploitation and evasion.
Hellbound and Down 