Jeffrey Epstein Spent Years Building Ties To Well-known Hackers

Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for years communicated with experts in the cybersecurity community and expressed interest in attending two of the largest hacker conventions in the world, according to documents released by the Justice Department.

It’s unclear if Epstein ever attended either DEFCON or Black Hat, where thousands of hackers and researchers gather annually in Las Vegas to discuss the latest cyber vulnerabilities and trends. According to his emails with several prominent researchers and business people, his interest in cybersecurity and cryptography appeared to be widespread, ranging from discussions about removing information about himself from online search engines to network security.

Jeff Moss, founder of both the Black Hat and DEFCON conferences, told POLITICO in a statement that it’s unlikely Epstein actually made it to the conferences. “As far as we can tell, he wanted to attend, but never did,” Moss said of Epstein. “It looks like there were a lot of plans and I’m just waiting for some sort of evidence that he followed through on them.”

According to the released emails, Epstein first made plans to attend DEFCON for a few hours in August 2013 to meet with Pablos Holman, who at the time worked on various tech and cyber projects at private equity company Intellectual Ventures. It's unclear whether Epstein and almost a dozen of his guests obtained tickets to DEFCON or if Epstein attended.

It appears that Epstein and Holman had been in touch since 2010, according to emails. Epstein in 2010 emailed cryptography researcher Ian Goldberg and said Holman "suggested we speak." Holman also planned to stay in Epstein’s apartment while visiting New York City in 2013 and advised Epstein on how to bury “negative stuff” online.

A spokesperson for the University of Waterloo, where Goldberg works within the School of Computer Science, confirmed to POLITICO that Goldberg turned down the offer from Epstein in 2010 to fund his work at the university. Holman, who currently serves as a general partner at venture capital group Deep Future, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Joi Ito, the current president of Japan’s Chiba Institute of Technology and former director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, appears to have introduced entrepreneur and researcher Vincenzo Iozzo via email to Epstein in 2014, according to the emails. Ito stepped down from his role at MIT in 2019 when previous disclosures revealed Ito had accepted about $1.7 million from Epstein for the lab and his own investment funds. Spokespersons for Chiba Institute of Technology did not respond to a request for comment on Ito’s connections to Epstein. Ito previously apologized for his association with Epstein and stressed that he was “never involved in, never heard him talk about and never saw any evidence of the horrific acts that he was accused of.”

According to the emails, Iozzo, who currently serves as CEO of identity management company SlashID, discussed obtaining tickets for Epstein to attend DEFCON conferences in Las Vegas in 2016 and 2018. Iozzo previously served in roles at cybersecurity company CrowdStrike and as a board member for the annual Black Hat conference. He also planned to meet with Epstein at his New York City home on at least five occasions in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.

One email sent by Epstein to Iozzo ahead of the 2016 conferences noted he wanted to bring guests, including former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, American billionaire Tom Pritzker and “four girls.” It’s not clear if Epstein attended the conference that year or met with Barak, Pritzker or Iozzo.

A spokesperson for Barak told POLITICO that the former prime minister “did not attend DEFCON in 2016,” and further noted that Epstein never asked him to attend. The spokesperson stressed that Barak “has repeatedly and publicly stated that he deeply regrets having any association with Jeffrey Epstein.”

Separate spokespersons for Hyatt Hotels — where Pritzker serves as executive chairman of the board of directors — and for the Pritzker Organization did not respond to a request for comment.

Epstein again discussed attending DEFCON in 2018, which Iozzo also offered to procure tickets for, according to the emails. Ahead of the 2018 convention, Epstein requested to meet with “founder” of Black Hat, but Iozzo wrote in an email that this person had turned down the meeting due to “what’s out there online” about Epstein. The founder, however, was “happy” to provide Epstein with tickets to the event, Iozzo wrote. It’s unclear if Epstein was referring to Moss or someone else.

Moss told POLITICO in a statement that he “turned down Vincenzo’s badge request” for Epstein, and “advised Vincenzo to stay clear” of the disgraced financier. Moss noted that it’s possible Iozzo bought passes to the conference separately.

An FBI file released by the Justice Department — first reported by TechCrunch — suggested that Epstein had a “personal hacker” who developed “offensive cyber tools” that were sold to several unnamed governments. It’s unclear if the information provided by the unnamed informant to the FBI is accurate.

The name of the hacker is redacted in the file but a description of the person — including that they had a company that was acquired by CrowdStrike in 2017 and found vulnerabilities in Blackberry and iOS devices — matches Iozzo.

Iozzo strongly denied that he was the so-called personal hacker for Epstein and issued a lengthy statement to POLITICO refuting the claims made by the FBI informant, including his alleged past work for foreign governments.

Iozzo said that his interactions with Epstein “were limited to business opportunities that never materialized, as well as discussion of the markets and emerging technologies.”

“The latest release of files contains a document with fabricated claims made about me to an FBI agent over eight years ago,” Iozzo said, noting that neither the FBI nor any other government agency ever contacted him about the file. “These accusations are false and defamatory. For the avoidance of doubt, it should go without saying that I have never been involved in any illegal or unethical activity.”

Iozzo also said that he did not provide Epstein with “exclusive access” to the DEFCON and Black Hat conferences and did not know if Epstein actually attended either event.

“I unfortunately knew Epstein for professional reasons,” Iozzo said. “I wish I did not. We were introduced by people whom I trusted and admired when I was 25 fundraising for my startup in 2014. Because of this, I failed to ask the right questions — questions that, in retrospect, seem obvious. I foolishly accepted the narrative that was presented to me by others that greatly minimized the magnitude of his horrific actions.”

“I regret the past association and take full responsibility for not exercising greater judgment at the time,” he added.

Epstein’s interest in the Black Hat and DEFCON conventions began years after he had been convicted of and jailed for soliciting sex from minors in 2008. Following his incarceration, Epstein reportedly took steps to scrub references to his conviction from the internet with the help of cyber professionals.

Epstein was again arrested and charged with sex trafficking minors in 2019, though the federal case was formally dismissed in August 2019 following his death by suicide in jail while awaiting trial.