How the thread of relations between the famed Rothschild family and the convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein unravels.
Let us take things from the beginning.
The Edmond de Rothschild Group was facing serious problems.
It was late 2015, and after months of turmoil, the Swiss private bank, owned by a branch of the Rothschild dynasty, was approaching a multimillion dollar settlement with the United States Department of Justice over its role in helping wealthy Americans conceal their assets.
Behind the scenes, the French head of the group, Ariane de Rothschild, had assigned Jeffrey Epstein and the lawyer he introduced to her, Kathy Ruemmler, to finalize the deal.
“45 million?” de Rothschild asked Epstein in an email exchange in December 2015.
He replied that, accounting for 10 million dollars for the lawyers involved and 25 million for himself, “I believe you will see that all together it is less than 80, quite good.”
“Thank you very much for your wonderful help,” de Rothschild replied.
A few days later, the United States Department of Justice announced a 45 million dollar settlement with Edmond de Rothschild, according to a report by the Financial Times.
Relations with the baroness
The critical and lucrative role Epstein played in the Department of Justice settlement is just one example of the deep ties he developed with the baroness, who had married into the Rothschild family but now ran a financial group that in 2024 held 184 billion Swiss francs in assets in private banking and assets under management.
During the six years of their relationship from 2013 until shortly before his arrest in 2019, Epstein became both a personal adviser and a key business adviser, gaining a privileged position of influence at the center of one of Europe’s most powerful banking families.
“I know that Baroness Ariane de Rothschild is VERY important,” wrote Epstein’s assistant, Lesley Groff, in 2014.
In Geneva, Edmond de Rothschild occupied a unique position, neither a universal bank like UBS nor a pure boutique, but a historic private bank with deep roots in the city’s wealth management ecosystem.
At the beginning of 2015, when Benjamin de Rothschild handed operational control of his father’s bank to his wife, the bank was in crisis.
Ariane de Rothschild later told the Financial Times that “it was not my goal to become chief executive of Edmond de Rothschild,” insisting that she agreed to take the role only to demonstrate the family’s commitment as shareholders during the Department of Justice investigation and the broader restructuring.
However, she had discussed the move with Epstein in advance.
“I had a long discussion with him [Benjamin].
He agrees, he leaves all subsidiary boards and remains at the Holding, Geneva, Paris, me as interim CEO with a committee,” de Rothschild wrote in December 2014, weeks before the announcement.
“Good,” Epstein replied.
“Next discussion about the estate plan.”
Benjamin de Rothschild remained chairman of the group until his death from a heart attack in 2021 at the age of 57.
The behind the scenes role
But from the moment Ariane assumed the presidency of the executive committee in January 2015, it was clear she was at the helm.
After securing the settlement with the Department of Justice, in the following months de Rothschild led efforts to restructure the bank’s activities, consolidated her internal power, and launched a lawsuit against her husband’s cousin, David de Rothschild, over who could use the family name, all while Epstein advised her behind the scenes.
In 2023, de Rothschild described her relationship with Epstein to the Wall Street Journal, stating that she had sought his advice “on a few occasions.”
However, the hundreds of emails and other messages released by the Department of Justice show a different picture, with the French banker sharing personal and confidential details with Epstein.
“I am going crazy and I am afraid I will not cope with the job,” de Rothschild wrote in February 2015, shortly after taking over leadership of the bank.
“You never need to hide from me, I can listen, advise or just listen, there is nothing you can tell me that would shock me,” he wrote in another message in May of that year in response to comments about difficulties in her marriage.
There were gifts, visits, and dinners.
Benjamin de Rothschild
The tobacco fields in Cuba
They exchanged lifestyle advice, contacts for her daughter’s university admission, vacation ideas, and snapshots of daily life, from the trivial, de Rothschild had “a fabric person” for furnishing Epstein’s home and gardeners she could send him, to the eccentric.
“Do you know anyone in Cuba who can help me buy tobacco fields?” de Rothschild asked Epstein in 2015.
They even exchanged personal emails from the London patriarch of the family, Lord Jacob Rothschild, amid the sensitive dispute over who could use the family name for banking activities, with messages signed “With love, Jacob.”
de Rothschild and Epstein also discussed concerns about Benjamin de Rothschild.
In several emails to Ariane de Rothschild, Epstein suggested that private investigators were looking into her husband’s alleged substance abuse and pressured her to further sever corporate ties.
“I believe you should prepare a guardianship petition against Benjamin, and give him the choice of you filing it or his resignation,” Epstein wrote in April 2015.
“He is out of control and a danger to you and the family.”
Benjamin de Rothschild remained in his position.
Jes Staley
In the course of her duties
Ariane de Rothschild met Epstein “in the course of her normal duties” at the bank, the Edmond de Rothschild Group told the Financial Times.
“Ariane de Rothschild was the only one at that time who understood the seriousness of the issue with the Department of Justice,” it added, and Epstein “was compensated for providing strategic advice and support for the development of the bank’s business.”
“Specifically, he provided strategic advice on managing the dispute resolution process” with the Department of Justice, Edmond de Rothschild said.
Its representatives stated that de Rothschild had no knowledge of Epstein’s personal conduct or the accusations against him.
“She unequivocally condemns these behaviors and the crimes he committed.
She naturally deeply regrets not knowing all of this,” they said.
Epstein helped de Rothschild navigate another period of turmoil for the private bank, which included reshaping the management hierarchy, a police raid, and a 9 million euro fine from Luxembourg regulators for failures in anti money laundering controls linked to the Malaysia scandal.
“The situation is getting out of control,” he wrote to her in 2016.
Epstein had his own ideas about restructuring the Swiss family group.
Deal contacts and executive proposals
He encouraged contact with UBS in 2015, arranged initial talks with Rockefeller & Co in 2016 and with Julius Baer in 2017, and proposed senior executives.
(Julius Baer said the talks brokered by Epstein were preliminary, did not progress in depth, and the plan was soon abandoned.)
He proposed to de Rothschild the idea of hiring Jes Staley, then chief executive of Barclays and another frequent Epstein correspondent, at the Swiss bank.
In an email exchange in 2015, Epstein pushed de Rothschild to permanently hire Ruemmler, who was then a partner at Latham & Watkins and had previously served as counsel in the White House under the Obama administration.
Neither Staley nor Ruemmler was hired at Edmond de Rothschild.
Ruemmler is now general counsel at Goldman Sachs.
You need HELP
“It kills me to see you spending your amazing talents as part of the working class. I am sensitive to family obligations.
But you need HELP, again and again, I hear that the bank and its reputation, strong, is you, but as a human being, a one person orchestra,” Epstein wrote to her in 2017.
“I know you are absolutely right and I know I must find a way to escape upward.
Also too fragile to be alone,” she replied.
Epstein also directed de Rothschild to another promising American contact, Apollo Global Management, whose co founder Leon Black considered Epstein a trusted adviser.
In January 2016, Epstein arranged a meeting between the two sides at his Manhattan residence.
(de Rothschild representatives said the meetings were part of “standard business activity” and fell under Epstein’s various strategic advisory and business development meetings for the group.
Apollo confirmed that a meeting took place but said Epstein did not attend and never had a business relationship with it.)
Epstein saw the value each side could bring to the other, Apollo with its extensive private equity portfolio and Edmond de Rothschild with a distribution network of wealthy European clients seeking higher returns on American investments.
But he also appeared to present a larger plan, a transformation at Apollo involving Edmond de Rothschild.
Whether Edmond de Rothschild was a potential merger target or simply an idea is unclear from the messages, but the rumored partnership proved unworkable, as did any broader collaboration between Apollo and Edmond de Rothschild.
It involved a tax inversion, a corporate strategy in which a large company relocates its headquarters to another country with lower taxation, usually through a merger or acquisition, in order to reduce corporate tax liability.
“Ariane de Rothschild is fully committed to the unique and independent family model of Edmond de Rothschild,” the company said.
Epstein’s problems surfaced occasionally in the messages.
But largely, the exchanges portray an anxious adviser offering unique solutions and comfort to a CEO in need of a trusted confidant amid a circle of unreliable associates.
At one point in 2015, Epstein consulted the lawyer he had introduced to her, Kathy Ruemmler, about how to provide moral support to de Rothschild without appearing paternalistic.
Ruemmler advised, “Just be her friend.
You are good at that.”
In another exchange that year, de Rothschild reflected on friendship.
“I also have my disappointments with friends who turned out to be lousy,” she wrote to Epstein in 2015.
“It does not matter.”
And that is how the convicted sex offender had the bankers in his pocket.
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