(TMU) — In the days following the arrest of high-profile financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, mainstream media pundits began asking questions about Epstein’s history and which of his high-profile friends might have known about his habit of coercing teenage girls into performing sexual acts.
The late-to-the-party corporate media is finally asking questions that independent and alternative media journalists have been asking all along: Where did Jeffrey Epstein’s money come from? Is it true he was an intelligence agent of the U.S. or Israeli government? Did any of his famous friends know about his alleged sex rings and trafficking of young girls from his mansions to his island?
I plan to answer these questions in a series of articles about Epstein, his history, and his friends. Let’s start with the claim that Jeffrey Epstein may either be an intelligence asset or work for someone else under the direction of an intelligence agency. A recent report from The Daily Beast has reignited the conversation around the possibility that Epstein is working for intelligence. The report mentions that during his confirmation hearings, recently resigned Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta stated that he was told Epstein was above his pay grade. “I was told Epstein ‘belonged to intelligence’ and to leave it alone,” Acosta said at that time. Is there any truth to this rumor? Is there any credible evidence to suspect the involvement of intelligence agencies? I believe so.
Here are the pieces of the puzzle that I believe illustrate Epstein’s connections to an intelligence agency:
Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine Maxwell and The Mossad
It has been widely-reported that Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend and secretary, Ghislaine Maxwell, was also his personal procurer of girls to satiate his daily need for masturbating in front of young girls. Maxwell is currently in the spotlight as a result of Epstein’s July 8 arrest. What we know for certain is that numerous witnesses describe Maxwell as being integral to Epstein’s sex ring operation. It is without a doubt that she is one of the unnamed co-conspirators who were allowed to go free under the 2008 “sweetheart deal” which allowed Epstein to serve a short 13 months in jail, with the freedom to leave for 16 hours a day for “work release.” The deal allowed all of the unnamed criminals to go free.
Ghislaine Maxwell’s involvement with Epstein is important because her father, Robert Maxwell, has long been suspected of being an undercover agent working for the Israeli Mossad, the national intelligence agency of Israel also known as HaMossad leModiʿin uleTafkidim Meyuḥadim. Robert Maxwell was a British media mogul, owning a majority share in Israel’s second biggest newspaper, Ma’ariv, and invested heavily in Israeli publishing, pharmaceutical and computer firms. It was reported that Maxwell had “become close with Israeli leaders, particularly in the ruling Likud Party, and helped facilitate the immigration of Jews from the Soviet Union”.
In 1991, veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh released the book The Samson Option which reported on Maxwell’s close connections to Israeli intelligence. Hersh also claimed that Nicholas Davies, foreign editor of the Daily Mirror at that time, was involved in selling Israeli weapons to Iran and kidnapping a nuclear technician. Maxwell adamantly denied having any connection to the Mossad and sued Hersh and his publisher for libel. Hersh counter-sued and a court battle began. Maxwell would die shortly afterwards in a yacht accident that some researchers still suspect was a hit job from an unknown party in response to Maxwell’s newfound publicity. After Maxwell’s death, Hersh said that he knew “much more about him than I wrote”.
By August 1994, the NY Times reported that Seymour Hersh and his publisher won substantial damages and an apology as a result of the libel suit filed by Robert Maxwell before his death. “In yesterday’s proceedings, a lawyer for the Mirror Group, which was controlled by Mr. Maxwell before his death in November 1991, said it acknowledged that Mr. Hersh ‘is an author of excellent reputation and of the highest integrity who would never write anything which he did not believe to be true and that he was in this instance fully justified in writing what he did,’” the Times wrote.
In 2002, the book Robert Maxwell: Israel’s Superspy was released by researchers Gordon Thomas and Martin Dillon. The book claimed that Maxwell worked as a double agent for the Israeli Mossad and Britain’s MI6, and also had connections to organized crime in Eastern Europe. The authors also wrote that Maxwell had been murdered by the Israeli Mossad because he was apparently threatening to expose Israeli secrets.
Now, to be clear, just because it appears Robert Maxwell was involved in clandestine intelligence activities does not automatically indicate that his daughter, Ghislaine, was or is involved in similar action. However, based on what we know from the testimony of Epstein’s victims, Ghislaine was in fact a part of the sex ring operation which reportedly involved filming sexual encounters between young girls and Epstein’s high-profile circle. In court documents the victims describe being “debriefed” by Epstein after performing sexual acts. The victims claim that Epstein wanted to know everything he could about the fetishes and desires of the men. This is reminiscent of the concept of a “honeypot” where a law enforcement or intelligence agency will set a trap for would-be criminals. If Epstein is working for an intelligence agency under the direction of Ghislaine, the reports of sex rings, rape, and trafficking could be an effort to blackmail powerful people in all sectors and industries.
Leslie Wexner, The Limited, Victoria’s Secret, and the Mafia
What is the source of Jeffrey Epstein’s wealth and is his financial relationship with entrepreneur, philanthropist, and owner of the Limited Brands, Leslie Wexner significant? Over the years some reporters have examined the Wexner-Epstein connection and found that Wexner may have been Epstein’s only financial client and that they had an intriguing relationship that no one could quite figure out. What we do know for certain is that the two men were close associates at one point in the not-too-distant-past and understanding Leslie Wexner can help explain the potential intelligence connections to the Israeli Mossad.
Wexner was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1937. After graduating from Ohio State University, he borrowed $5,000 and opened his first The Limited Store in Columbus, Ohio in 1963. Wexner’s wealth has been estimated at over $2 billion. He is involved in a number of charitable causes and has even founded his own organizations, The Wexner Foundation and the Wexner Heritage Foundation. By the 1980’s Epstein had joined investment firm Bear Sterns after a stint as a school teacher and was quickly making connections in the New York finance world. Around this time Leslie Wexner and Jeffrey Epstein became acquainted. By 1995, Wexner gave Epstein his 45,000-square-foot eight-story mansion on East 71st Street in New York City.
Wexner was considered to be one of the most prominent Jewish philanthropists for his role in rallying support for Jewish philanthropic efforts. One of these efforts includes organizing what was sometimes known as the “Study Group”, but more commonly known as the “Mega Group.” The Wall Street Journal reported in 1998 that the Mega Group was a “group of elite Jewish philanthropists” that was “formed in 1991 and developed as an effort to conduct a high-minded philanthropic discussion about the pressing issues of the Jewish people. The group motivated a number of individual and collaborative philanthropic initiatives that, arguably, would not have otherwise occurred, including the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education, Birthright Israel, the upgrading of national Hillel, and more.”
The group was founded by Wexner and Charles Bronfman of the Seagram company. Other prominent members and attendees included director Steven Spielberg, former hedge-fund manager Michael Steinhardt and Seagram Chairman Edgar Bronfman Sr. The Mega Group met twice a year for two day seminars to talk about philanthropy and “Jewishness.” (Coincidentally, members of the Bronfman family have recently been found guilty of participating in the NXIVM sex cult.) The group has been described as “a loosely organized club of 20 of the nation’s wealthiest and most influential Jewish businessmen.” While the Mega Group no longer exists, many of the original members have gone on to create new groups and have continued to work on the same causes they once planned in the group.
Wexner’s ties to Israel and Mossad were further exposed in 2003 after a document entitled “Wexner Analysis: Israeli Communication Priorities 2003” was leaked. The document outlined a public relations campaign promoting the Iraq war invasion, demonizing Saddam Hussein, and encouraging an alignment of U.S. foreign policy interests with the foreign policy interests of Israel. The document was funded by the Wexner Foundation and produced by the public relations firm The Luntz Research Companies and The Israel Project. The “Essential Conclusion” section of the report offers 10 recommendations, including “you should be invoking the name of Saddam Hussein and how Israel was always behind American efforts to rid the world of this ruthless dictator and liberate their people.”
Columbus Free Press previously reported that “lobbying groups like the Mega Group and government insiders like Wolfowitz and Richard Pearle are engaged in a systematic campaign to identify Israeli national security interests with U.S. military and security interests. The Wexner Analysis merely documents this extensive, often covert campaign, that deserves public debate and democratic discourse, not secret PR campaigns. “
Wexner’s support for Israeli causes was so great that President George W. Bush invited him to Israel in 2008 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the nation.
In addition to the suspected intelligence connections, Jeffrey Epstein’s only client was also suspected of ties to mafia crime families in Ohio. The allegations of ties to the mob revolve around the death of a well-known Columbus, Ohio attorney named Arthur Shapiro who was reportedly killed in a “mob-style murder” in 1995. Shapiro was shot multiple times, including two bullets in the head. The attorney had served with the Columbus law firm Schwartz, Shapiro, Kelm, and Warren and represented corporations like Leslie Wexner’s The Limited Brands. Shapiro reportedly managed the Limited Brands account.
Following Shapiro’s death, an investigation was ordered and a report was produced. The report, Shapiro Homicide Investigation: Analysis and Hypothesis, was apparently hidden from the public and destroyed by former Columbus Chief of Police James G. Jackson. The Columbus Free Press reports that the Columbus Police Department’s Organized Crime Bureau began researching and writing the report in early 1991. By June 1991, Chief James Jackson ordered the public record of the report to be destroyed. Chief Jackson stated that he destroyed the report because it contained “half-baked theories” that implicated prominent people and could expose the city to “possibly billions of dollars in damages if the document ever became public.” However, a copy of the report was saved and shared with the local media at the time.
The report alleges that Leslie Wexner was connected “with associates reputed to be organized crime figures.” The so-called “Shapiro report” relied on information from Columbus Police Intelligence summaries, reports from the Organized Crime Bureau, information from the Pennsylvania Crime Commission and the New Jersey Crime Commission, news reports, and intelligence data from MAGLOCLEN—a law-enforcement database that gathers reports on organized crime. The report also discovered “unusual interactive relations between the following business organizations,” including the Major Chord Jazz Club, The Limited; Walsh Trucking Company; the re-named Schwartz, Kelm, Warren and Rubenstein law firm; Omni Oil Company; the Edward DeBartolo Company of Youngstown, Ohio; and local developer John W. Kessler. According to the Shapiro report, DeBartolo and Walsh had previously been identified as associates of the Genovese-LaRocca crime family in Pittsburgh.
The report states:
“From the predicate facts presented, it appears that Les Wexner had established contact with associates reputed to be organized crime figures, one of whom was a major investment partner and another was using The Limited headquarters as a mailing address.
It is not known whether there are other such figures among Wexner’s associates, but it can be hypothesized that the Genovese/LaRocca crime families might consider Wexner a friend.”
Before Shapiro was executed, he was involved in an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) after failing to file income tax returns for seven years. His murder took place one day before he was scheduled to appear in front of a Grand Jury for the IRS investigation. There were allegations that Shapiro was killed because he may have revealed information about certain parties and one of those parties may have been Leslie Wexner and/or his mafia partners.
This piece only skims the surface of the web of connections surrounding Jeffrey Epstein. Stay tuned for part two in this series as we look deeper into the sources of Jeffrey Epstein’s wealth.
