Hey Everyone,
I was about to write up an account of today’s interview with the host of Narrativ, Zev Shalev, when I saw he’d already done an excellent break-down on his newsletter.
So, with apologies to Zev, I am saving time and copying and pasting his below. But please, do also go to his newsletter, Narrativ, and see the excellent deep dives he’s put together, particularly this one about Robert Maxwell, which spurred me to re-listen to Chasing Ghislaine, my 2020 podcast series about Ghislaine Maxwell, her father, and Epstein. I discovered that certain things leapt out at me this time, that I hadn’t thought much about five years ago:
Here’s Zev’s write-up of our conversation, that you can also watch above:
“In an explosive interview on Narativ today, investigative journalist Vicky Ward revealed a bombshell that connects the final dots in the Epstein financial mystery: Jeffrey Epstein claimed Vladimir Putin was his client.
This revelation, which Ward learned from the late journalist Ed Epstein (no relation), transforms our understanding of where Epstein's billions came from. "He definitely went to have tea with Epstein in New York," Ward told me, "and Jeffrey Epstein claimed that Vladimir Putin was a client of his."
The timing is extraordinary. As Ghislaine Maxwell sits in a minimum-security prison where she can leave for daily work trips—an arrangement that defies logic for someone convicted of sex trafficking—Putin is preparing to meet Trump on American soil this Friday.
The Douglas Leese Connection
Ward and I compared notes on Steven Hoffenberg's revelations about Douglas Leese, the MI6-connected British arms dealer behind the Al-Yamamah scandal. Hoffenberg told both of us independently that Leese was desperate to place Epstein at Towers Financial in 1987, where $2 billion a year was flowing through—not the $450 million prosecutors claimed.
When Ward asked Epstein directly about Douglas Leese, she got a telling response: "Douglas who?" followed by sudden amnesia. The same happened when I asked Ari Ben-Menashe. They're all protecting the same secret—the 1980s planning stage for the handover from Maxwell to Epstein.
Following the Concentric Circles
Ward's revelation about Putin adds a crucial layer to what we already knew:
Epstein was surrounded by Russian operatives, including at least one confirmed SVR agent
He had connections to a deputy minister in the Kremlin who appeared to be his handler
Russian model Kira Diktyar, close to Epstein for his last decade, trained under Alina Kabaeva—the mother of Putin's children
As I told Vicky, "The work you've done and the work I've done, completely independent, keep coming back to the same things. It tells you there is something very real going on here."
The Art and Arbitrage Money Machine
Ward revealed another piece of the puzzle: Leon Black's $150 million payments to Epstein involved art purchases that went through Epstein. "Art is one of those completely opaque, unregulated... it's a fantastic way to launder money," Ward noted. The same pattern appeared with Wexner.
But the real genius was Epstein's arbitrage scheme. He would tell billionaires to take billion-dollar loans in Japanese yen, buy overvalued bonds, wait for the yen to depreciate, then sell—making $250 million. Do this at scale, Ward explained, "and you can move markets."
The Oliver North Dinner Party
In perhaps the most stunning detail, Ward revealed that when her friend Christopher Mason met Ghislaine Maxwell in New York in 1991—supposedly as a "broke heiress"—one of her dinner guests was Oliver North. The Iran-Contra architect, dining with Maxwell's daughter just as she was taking control of her father's intelligence empire.
This wasn't a refugee fleeing scandal. This was a deployment.
The Queen's Money
Both Ward and I have heard the same bizarre claim from our sources: Epstein boasted he managed the Queen's money. Given his relationship with Prince Andrew during Andrew's time as British trade envoy, given Maxwell's shocking familiarity with the Queen (breaking protocol at the 1986 Commonwealth Games), this isn't as insane as it sounds.
Ward suggests these intelligence operations hide in plain sight. Maxwell bought the New York Daily News. "That's not subtle," she observed.
Why This Matters Now
As Ward asked me during our conversation: "What is the political climate like right now for Trump about this?"
The answer: The media has gone silent. Mentions of Epstein have dropped 90%. But September 13th is coming, when Epstein victims may testify before Congress—possibly including Katie Johnson.
The question Ward and I keep returning to: If Ghislaine Maxwell holds the answers to where Epstein's money came from, why is she in a minimum-security prison she can walk out of daily?
The answer might lie in those concentric circles of intelligence, organized crime, and state power that all intersect at one point: the greatest heist in history is still ongoing.
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