Documents released as part of the Epstein Files have revealed that the convicted paedophile and financier was interested in buying property in Spain, likely as a means to expand his trafficking network.
Whether it be admiring the Alhambra, expanding his trafficking network or speculating on property for profit, Jeffrey Epstein’s interest in Spain shows up in the Epstein files several times.
Close examination of the files, released recently by the US Department of Justice, shows that Epstein was even having conversations about buying a Palma de Mallorca property owned by American actor Michael Douglas.
According to one email, in April 2015 Ariane de Rothschild, director of the Swiss private bank Edmond de Rothschild, wrote an email to Epstein: “Michael Douglas’s house in Palma de Mallorca is for sale at Sotheby’s. It is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful properties I have ever seen in the Mediterranean,” she said.
READ: Which Spaniards are in the Epstein files?
“Take pictures,” Epstein later replied.
The mansion, listed for €50 million, had mountain views, vineyards and 100 hectares, something, Spanish media reports suggest, guaranteed the sort of total privacy sought by the sexual predator.
But Catalan daily El Periódico believes this was far from Epstein’s first interest in Spain, having “already established his predatory operation in Spain, using Barcelona as his base of operations — he usually stayed at the luxurious W hotel, opposite the beach — and used the island of Ibiza as a harem that supplied him with young women, mainly models, whom he came into contact with thanks to one of his intermediaries, a Franco-Algerian businessman named Daniel Siad.”
Siad shows up several times in the files, and Epstein was interested in acquiring a property in Spain similar to his mansion in Palm Beach, Florida in order to expand his network of exploitation and abuse of teenagers there.
“Have you found anything cute for me in Ibiza?” he wrote to Siad, his so-called “fixer” in Spain.
“A friend has rented a huge house in Ibiza. He’s here with me with eight gorgeous girls, and he says he’d like to do something with you. Can you come to Ibiza? We have a huge house,” he replied in another e-mail.
In 2018, Epstein entered into negotiations with Canadian billionaire Guy Laliberté, co-founder of Cirque du Soleil, who offered to sell him the two luxury villas he owned in Ibiza.
However, Epstein’s interest in Spanish appears to have extended beyond sex trafficking.
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The former financier also seemed interested in benefiting from Spanish property prices plummeting in the aftermath of the financial crisis.
In an email from 2012 in which the recipient was redacted, Epstein asked: “May I ask you about the properties in Spain? I think you saw that now the prices for the houses are reduced by 50 percent and even more because of the crisis. Do you know where I could try to follow the updates of the future decrease or increase of the prices of the properties?
I am thinking to buy an apartment in Spain involving my parents in this deal and to resell it in 5-7 years hoping to gain money since real estate prices will be increasing at some point, when Spain recovers from the crisis”.
The files also reveal Epstein’s admiration for the Alhambra Palace in Granada and that it could’ve provided architectural inspiration for other properties.
His associate and former partner, disgraced British socialist Ghislaine Maxwell, sent an undated email to a noted Professor of Architecture asking for advice and possible cooperation on recreating the famous Moorish palace.
“I’m building an Alhambra style house in the Caribbean,” Maxwell wrote, “I’d like to know if you’re still practicing architecture and if you’d be interested in visiting the site.”
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Spanish properties are far from the only connections to Spain found within the released documents, however.
Several high profile figures from politics and royalty also appear.
The disgraced former King of Spain, Juan Carlos I, appears in the documents, raising suspicion that the exiled former head of state may have even met with Epstein.
Among other Spaniards mentioned is former President José María Aznar. One email refers to a shipment addressed directly to La Moncloa, the Presidential palace in Madrid.
