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An email correspondence reveals that two prominent Nigerians, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II, were proposed as key guests for an “out of the box” dinner gathering with Jeffrey Epstein in 2018.
The email is dated 21 May 2018, a year before Mr Epstein’s arrest and death.
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The emails were released on Friday as part of about 3.5 million files related to Mr Epstein, an American financier and convicted sex offender who died in jail in 2019.
The heavily redacted documents reignited public debate, particularly because they reference interactions with prominent individuals.
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The documents, obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, also raise questions about selective redactions and the disparity between the number of files released and the total volume held by the US Department of Justice.
The US Department of Justice admitted to collecting about 6 million pages but released only 3.5 million.
Among the released records is an email thread between Mr Epstein and Nigerian-American business executive and investor, Jide Zeitlin.
Mr Zeitlin is an influential business executive who was Chairman and CEO of Tapestry, Inc., the New York-listed parent company of luxury brands Coach, Kate Spade, and Stuart Weitzman.
In the thread simply titled “Re:” Mr Epstein had requested a list of “two or three people that think out of the box” to gather for a “fun dinner” in June of that year.
To this, Mr Zeitlin placed two prominent Nigerian figures at the centre of what seemed to be a global power-broker circle.
Names of suggested guests
Mr Zeitlin, in his list, suggested Mrs Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s former finance minister and current Director-General of the World Trade Organisation and Mr Sanusi, also a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (2009-2014).
Mrs Okonjo-Iweala only resumed as head of the WTO in 2021 and had left office as Nigeria’s finance minister in 2015. She, however, held several international positions in 2018, including Chair of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Mr Sanusi was Emir of Kano in May 2018.
Mr Zeitlin also suggested Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist and a controversial figure in global right-wing politics; Tony Blair, former UK prime minister; and Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the younger brother of the Qatari Emir, who also served as the secretary to the emir for Investment Affairs.
He further mentioned Tony Marx, the president and CEO of the New York Public Library (NYPL) and former president of Amherst College, alongside Niall Ferguson, a prominent and often controversial British-American historian and author.
Mr Zeitlin described Mr Marx as an “independent thinker, brilliant, fun,” and characterised Mr Ferguson as a “broad and well-informed thinker.”
He noted that the names represented “different levels of originality,” and added that he considered Mr Sanusi a particularly interesting choice for the gathering.
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He referred to Mr Sanusi as “probably the most out of the box name” on the list.
Mr Zeitlin also suggested adding creatives to the mix, but did not name specific persons in this category.
However, it remains unclear what ultimately became of the party, as the correspondence does not confirm that invitations were formally extended to the dignitaries or that the proposed dinner took place.
Paul Nwabuikwu, media adviser to Mrs Okonjo-Iweala, stated that the WTO Director-General never had any interaction with Mr Epstein, either in relation to the proposed dinner or on any other matter.
He told PREMIUM TIMES that Mrs Okonjo-Iweala was unaware of, and did not receive, any invitation to attend Mr Epstein’s dinners or social gatherings.
“She was definitely not aware of it. She didn’t know him and had no contact with him. Epstein was a high-level influence peddler, and names were always floating around him,” Mr Nwabuikwu said.
Bashir Jentile, the spokesperson of the Kano emir, also said that he was unaware of any invitation to the emir to attend Mr Epstein’s dinner events.
Epstein’s Parties
The troves of documents detailing Mr Epstein’s activities showed that he organised numerous high-profile social events and gatherings, often involving influential figures from politics, business, and academia.
These gatherings were reported to have been attended by a rotating circle of influential and well-known figures, including Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Mr Bannon, Howard Lutnick, and others.
Key African figures also attended some of his gatherings.
The BBC reported that the newly released tranche of the document revealed that former South African President Jacob Zuma attended a dinner organised for him by Mr Epstein in London in 2010.
The emails also suggest that a “beautiful” Russian model attended the event.
A history of legal cases
While presence in these gatherings does not imply knowledge of or involvement in Mr Epstein’s crimes, his ability to convene such high-profile guests despite his conviction has been at the centre of public scrutiny.
Documents also show that even after Mr Epstein served time for procuring underage girls for prostitution in 2009, he hosted and received invitations to exclusive dinners with Silicon Valley’s most famous billionaires.
In 2005, police in Palm Beach, Florida, opened an investigation into Mr Epstein after a parent reported that he had sexually abused her 14-year-old daughter.
Police later received additional allegations from underage girls who said he sexually abused them at his mansion, with encounters often beginning as massages. Federal officials identified 36 girls whom Mr Epstein had allegedly sexually abused.
In 2008, Mr Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from girls as young as 14 and received an 18-month sentence.
Over the years, many allegedly exploited underage girls have accused him of abusing them at his homes in Manhattan, Palm Beach, Florida, and on a famous private island near St Thomas.
The island, called Little St James, is a 72-acre property located about two miles off the coast of St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, in the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, in 2015, British socialite and Mr Epstein’s longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, was found guilty of facilitating the abuse of underage girls at the hands of Mr Epstein.
Mr Epstein, in the 1990s, posed as a friendly older sister and won their trust before forcing them into engaging in sexual acts.
Ms Maxwell was also accused of being present and even participating in some of the encounters.
In 2019, Mr Epstein was arrested again. He was then charged in the Southern District Court of New York with one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors.
Mr Epstein committed suicide in his prison cell while awaiting trial.
