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Jeffrey Epstein appears to have pulled strings to secure employment at a prominent New York City think tank for a Russian woman he had an intimate relationship with, newly released documents show.
Emails show Epstein making inquiries about the woman’s career with people connected to the International Peace Institute (IPI), including its former president, Norwegian ex-diplomat Terje Rød-Larsen. They also suggest that he subsidized her salary at one point.
The IPI is a nonprofit that produces policy research and convenes events focused on international cooperation, particularly within the United Nations system.
Rød-Larsen resigned from the think tank in 2020 over other dealings with Epstein, which included accepting a personal loan from him, as well as allowing him to make multiple donations to IPI.
“The notion that IPI would be in any way engaged with such an odious character is repugnant to the institution’s core values,” the IPI board said in a statement at the time, emphasizing that it had been unaware of Epstein’s donations and would engage an auditor to identify them and donate an equivalent sum to charity.
“Although many institutions have decided to keep some or all of these donations, the IPI Board takes the strict view that every dollar should be re-donated,” the statement said.
It is unclear whether the board was aware that Epstein was involved in discussions about the woman’s work at the organization, and appears to have subsidized at least some of her earnings there. IPI did not respond to a request for comment. A lawyer representing Rød-Larsen, John Christian Elden, said that he had never been involved in employment matters at IPI — which he led from 2005 to 2020 — and would not have been involved in the woman’s hiring.
The woman started working for IPI as an intern in 2016. In a series of emails in early 2018, she repeatedly asked Epstein to talk to Rød-Larsen about the possibility of securing a job.
“[L]et me know when y=u talk to Terje,” she asked in one. “So I am in the loop of what’s going on and how I should approach my conversation with people who does all the process with …employment.” Two weeks later, the woman followed up: “Wanted to check if you talked to Terje … as human resources department asked me to come up=to their floor to sign the contract today 😟.”
Emails show she did get a full-time job at the think tank, and IPI’s 2018 annual report lists her as an external relations assistant. (OCCRP has decided not to name women associated with Epstein in the absence of clear evidence of wrongdoing or illegality on their part.)
Her career also came up in text messages between Epstein and former Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajčák, a friend of Rød-Larsen’s and a regular speaker at IPI events. (Lajčák stepped down from his position as an adviser to Slovakia’s president after the release of a huge tranche of emails on January 30 by the U.S. Justice Department revealed that he had exchanged frequent messages with Epstein about young women. Lajčák did not respond to a request for comment.)
“[She] is a woman that works for Terje [Rød-Larsen] at iPi,” Epstein wrote to Lajčák in March 2018. She is educated ( the new school )and works on water issues . Is there a way to get her involved in the water project. I will subsidize if needed.”
The Slovak minister quickly agreed: “I will arrange.”
Epstein forwarded this message to the woman, who replied: “Many many thanks! I will do and kiss whatever you want me to.”
The following month, she wrote to Epstein: “[M]y first piece on water published! :)”. The same day, an article on water diplomacy with her byline was posted on IPI’s Global Observatory blog.
Cash and Connections
Emails and messages between Epstein and the woman in the files make it clear that they had a longstanding personal relationship that involved frequent visits to his house, during which she would give him massages.
She routinely asked for money for rent, bills, food, hair and beauty treatments, and clothes. The emails also show that Epstein paid for some of her schooling, gave her a credit card to use, and sent $10,000 to her father in Siberia. He even helped her choose a new suit to wear at IPI.
In emails, she repeatedly thanks Epstein — referring to him by the nickname “Sneaky” — for vacations, connections with influential people, and his presence in her life. She also introduces him to other women she thinks he would like.
In February 2019, IPI’s vice president, Adam Lupel, sent Rød-Larsen a summary of the woman’s earnings at the institute. Rød-Larsen forwarded it to Epstein.
The summary explained that she had started out as an intern before becoming a full-time employee with an annual salary of $45,000 plus benefits. Later, due to visa issues, she stopped working — but the email recommended that she be hired again for a part-time role “under Gunbat’s sponsorship.” (It is unclear who “Gunbat” refers to, and IPI did not respond to questions on this, or whether it was common practice at the think tank for donors to sponsor employment.)
Upon receiving the email, Epstein forwarded it to the woman herself — but not before adding a note to the end of Lupel’s message, pretending it had been written by him: “I wonder if it ok if I have sex with her, she is sooo sexy”.
She responded to Epstein, asking why IPI had included her internship earnings in the summary, as she only started to get paid “from the funding you gave me in January 2018.”
Then, it appears, she read to the end of the message and saw the lewd note. She wrote back to Epstein: “You such a sneaky dog!!!hahahaha Adam would never say that and I would never have a sec with him.”
Karin Kőváry Solymos (ICJK), Kevin Hall (OCCRP), Eiliv Frich Flydal (VG), and Nikita Kondratyev (iStories) contributed reporting.
