In 2014, the enterprise capitalist Peter Thiel was gaining prominence as one among Silicon Valley’s most profitable entrepreneurs and traders. He had made billions of {dollars} as a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, the place he was chairman; and he sat on the board of Facebook, the place he was the corporate’s first outdoors investor.
That made him a really perfect contact for Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted intercourse offender with a knack for cultivating the wealthy and highly effective.
Mr. Thiel apparently had a number of conferences with Mr. Epstein that yr, based on scheduling information of the disgraced financier that have been reviewed by The New York Times.
The information — within the type of emails that Mr. Epstein’s assistant despatched to remind him of upcoming occasions — present that in September 2014 Mr. Thiel was scheduled to satisfy with Mr. Epstein on at the very least three events, both in one-on-one conferences or with others over lunch or dinner. Two different instances, Mr. Thiel was listed amongst greater than a dozen different well-known folks Mr. Epstein ought to attempt to see whereas at his New York mansion.
It’s unclear from the information whether or not all of the conferences with Mr. Thiel came about. Some have been listed as tentative or “TBD” — for “to be determined.”
Jeremiah Hall, a spokesman for Mr. Thiel, declined to remark.
The Times obtained the information by means of a public information request to the legal professional common for the U.S. Virgin Islands, which had sued Mr. Epstein’s property. (Mr. Epstein died in 2019 whereas awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking expenses.) The information counsel that Mr. Thiel could have had a more in-depth relationship with Mr. Epstein than was beforehand recognized.
Even after his 2008 conviction in Florida on a cost of soliciting prostitution from a teenage lady, Mr. Epstein continued to hobnob with high finance executives and traders, scientists, professors, politicians and celebrities.
Mr. Epstein was fascinated with the know-how trade, attending conferences with high-profile trade executives. In 2015, for instance, the LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman invited him to a dinner attended by, amongst others, the Tesla chief govt, Elon Musk; the Facebook chief govt, Mark Zuckerberg; and Mr. Thiel. (The dinner was beforehand reported by Axios.)
The information reviewed by The Times, which start in 2011, should not a complete accounting of Mr. Epstein’s conferences. They don’t cowl each day, and even full years are lacking. (Some of the calendar entries have been beforehand reported by The Wall Street Journal in reference to different people.)
On Sept. 14, 2014, Mr. Epstein was tentatively scheduled to have lunch with Mr. Thiel, the information present. The schedule then modified, with Mr. Thiel listed as having an appointment within the afternoon, adopted by a possible dinner with Mr. Epstein, the director Woody Allen and others. Mr. Thiel was additionally anticipated to have lunch with the financier the following day and the next weekend, the information present.
It’s unclear why Mr. Thiel was assembly with Mr. Epstein. At the time, Mr. Thiel sat on the board of Facebook and oversaw Founders Fund, a high enterprise capital agency. Mr. Thiel was additionally the chairman of Palantir, the C.I.A.-backed knowledge analytics firm, which on the time was looking for outdoors investments.
Two years later, Mr. Thiel was probably the most outstanding Silicon Valley investor to again the profitable presidential marketing campaign of Donald J. Trump.
Mr. Thiel’s identify comes up within the calendar entries far much less usually than different names of well-known folks just like the Wall Street financier Leon Black, who’s listed as having come over ceaselessly for breakfast and lunch.
Source: www.nytimes.com