Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Jeffrey Epstein and the Early Bitcoin Power Network (Part 2) (9/22/26)

Transcript

Jeffrey Epstein and the Early Bitcoin Power Network (Part 2) (9/22/26) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up everyone and welcome to another episode of the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're going to pick up
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: where we left off with the Miami Herald article that
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: was headlined, Bitcoin's a Trump ally and a pitch for
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Putin inside Epstein's secret crypto ties. This article was authored
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: by Sherso Dasgupta. How Epstein Saved Bitcoin In late August 2014,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Epstein had a meeting with the U.S. Treasury Department According
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: to an email he later sent to Joy Ito, Japanese
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: entrepreneur and then director of the MIT Media Lab. Not
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: very bright, very opinionated, Epstein wrote about his impression of
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: the agency officials. Not worried about Ponzi or pump and dump,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: worried about nuclear proliferation payments, drug cartel transfers, and arms shipments.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: In October that year, Epstein was scheduled, along with Ito,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: to have another meeting with Treasury officials on MIT's Bitcoin project,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: and how virtual currencies could evolve over time. Would this
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: do that involved in crypto? Talk about giving me the ick.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Because you know that Epstein's not the only one. How
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: many of his confidants, how many of his people, were
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: involved in this bullshit? A Treasury Department spokesperson declined to
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: comment on the meetings, stating that the agency cannot provide
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: information on what happened under a prior administration. What does
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: that even mean? What, do we have some kind of
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: kings and queens? We can't find out what happened previously
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: that our tax dollars paid for? Like, how did they
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: square that one away? Less than a year later, Bitcoin's
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: development was in trouble. The Bitcoin Foundation, the non-profit that
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: had been paying three of the five core developers, went bankrupt.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Ito and the MIT Media Lab came to the rescue,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: snapping up the developers. Well, isn't that nice? one of
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein's favorite universities, MIT, coming in to save the
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: day for the crypto clowns. Now it's starting to make
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: sense as well why so many of the crypto idiots
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: have so many stupid opinions. Have you heard these people
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: talk about world events? It seems like each one's stupider
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: than the next. This is a big win for us,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Ito wrote in an April 2015 email to the university's
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: marketing department. MIT's famed Media Lab has become the principal
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: home and funding source for the small team of developers
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: responsible for maintaining and improving Bitcoin's core software. So at
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: the end of the day, as far as I'm concerned,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: the whole entire thing is just a computer program, right?
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: And there's somebody out there, probably somebody close to Epstein,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: who has some kind of backdoor into the whole entire blockchain. Now,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: I know people will say that's not true, and there's
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: no evidence of that, And that much is true. There
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: is no evidence of it that I know of. But
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: do you really think that you have these kinds of
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: people creating the software, core software for it, and there's
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: no back doors? I have a hard time believing that.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: The same evening, he forwarded the message to Epstein, who
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: had poured hundreds of thousands of dollars underwriting many of
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: the Media Lab's projects. used gift funds to underwrite this,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: which allowed us to move quickly and win this round,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Ito wrote, thanking the financier. You mean the pedophile, right?
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Ito had also introduced Epstein to Rubin, the student who
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: had kickstarted the Bitcoin experiment in the university's campus. Rubin
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: was aware of Epstein's reputation. In 2009, Epstein had been
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: released from the Palm Beach County Stockade after serving less
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: than 13 months of his 18-month sentence. on the prostitution
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: solicitation charges. Yeah, you mean the child that he solicited?
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: The child that he assaulted? The child that can't be
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: called a prostitute because, well, she's a child? That's what
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: everybody wants to hang their hat on? Eh, look, come on,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Epstein wasn't that bad. Well, okay, I guess. Unless it
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: was your fucking daughter. Some people don't like certain associations,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: deservedly or not. Is your name good with the CFTC,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Commodity Futures Trading Commission? He asked Epstein in a 2016
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: email proposing an investment in Bitcoin options, exchange LedgerX. Two
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: years later, Epstein and Rubin discussed ways to get the financier, pedophile,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: on a due diligence call regarding Bitcoin infrastructure company Layer
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: 1 without revealing Epstein's identity. This is what's been happening
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: for years and years and years when it comes to Epstein.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Not just Bitcoin, everywhere. This man had his fingers in
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: so many pies. that it's disgusting. And just about every
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: single one of those pies has to do with a
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: power position, whether it's in finance, whether it's in politics,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: or elsewhere. I'm concerned otherwise potential investments googling your name
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: might get spooked, Rubin wrote in an email with the
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: subject line FundOptics. They planned on Epstein using a pseudonym
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: or identifying himself as just Jeff. Like what? Isn't that fraud?
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: I mean, aren't you defrauding people who are investing by
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: saying that this guy's just named Jeff and not giving them,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: you know, the full accounting of who they're dealing with,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: who's involved? Because if I was investing in that, I'd
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: want to know everybody who's in a leadership position, right?
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Rubin did not respond to the Herald's request for comment.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: He'd previously posted on X, formerly Twitter, acknowledging his engagement
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: with Epstein and wishing that the victims receive justice. Oh,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: isn't that nice? You know, I wish that the victims
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: received justice, as he swims around in his millions like
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: fucking Scrooge McDuck. The Herald was not able to find
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: contact information for Joyito. He recently stepped down from his
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: public positions, including that of the MIT Media Lab. He
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: apologized for associating with Epstein, but denied knowing about the
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: financier's crimes. And that's the rub, right? Unless you have
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: extraordinary evidence, you can't prove that anybody knew anything. But
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: you have to be really stupid to think that all
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: these smart people had no idea, especially after the first
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: time around. Up until that first time around, you can
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: make the argument that you had no idea. And while
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: I don't believe you, it's still an argument that can
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: be made. After the fact, sorry, I don't want to
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: hear it. Moscow to the Middle East. In 2014, Epstein
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: started pitching a new idea to his political connections. State-issued
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: digital currencies. Huh, don't we have that already now? Interesting.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Their first mention in the released records dates back to
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: January 2014 in an email to Thorborn Jagland, former prime
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: minister of Norway. You'd explain to Putin that there should
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: be a sophisticated Russian version of Bitcoin, Epstein wrote to Jagland,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: days before the Norwegian was scheduled to meet with the
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: Russian president. Later that same year, in a message to
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Sergei Belikov, a graduate of the Academy of Russian Intelligence
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Officers and then the country's Deputy Minister of Economic Development,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Epstein made another pitch for the Kremlin to start its
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: own virtual currency. Well, because he knew he'd get some
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: dough out of it. He knew he'd be involved. He
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: knew he'd get in on the ground floor. And he
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: knew he'd make a bunch of dough. He suggested that
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: the Russians create a bank modeled after the World Bank,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: but lend nine times its reserves. The World Bank typically
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: lends up to roughly five times its reserves and the
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: capital contributed by each member nation. It's unclear whether Jagland
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: or Beliakov discussed Epstein's plan with Putin or any member
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: of the Kremlin's inner circle. The Herald sent questions to
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Jagland's attorney but did not receive a response. Russia does
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: not have a state-issued digital currency. And that, of course,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: is the opaque nature of Jeffrey Epstein in general. And
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: that's why it's so frustrating and confusing... to try and
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: figure out what this dude was up to. There's no
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: documented record, so you have to piecemeal it all together
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: and do the legwork. In the fall of 2017, Epstein
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: pitched the idea of Sharia-compliant virtual currency for Muslim countries
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: and worked his Qatari contacts to secure meetings with scholars
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: of Islamic law to hear their opinions about his idea.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Hell of a Mossad agent, that Jeffrey Epstein, huh? Boy, really, really, really,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: enjoying that Mossad position, as he works with a bunch
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: of Muslim countries, as he builds a fucking mosque on
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: his island, as he gets one of the most sacred
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: items from Islam. But sure, tell me some more about
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: how Jeffrey Epstein is the Jewish James Bond. That year,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Epstein also pitched the idea of Sharia-compliant cryptocurrency to the
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Saudis and sought to discuss it with Crown Prince Mohammed
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: bin Salman, popularly known as MBS. The Muslim world will
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: rejoice and its uses will be for the future, Epstein
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: wrote in a letter that he wanted to send to
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: the Saudi royal to mark a year since he had
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: traveled to the country and met with them. He pitched
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: the same idea to his longtime friend, Sultan Ahmed bin Suleiman,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: the then head of the Dubai-based multinational logistics company DP World.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: Dubai should back the digital currency and beat the rest
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: of the world, Epstein wrote in a July 2017 missive
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: to the Emirati businessman. Bin Suleiman was enthusiastic, saying he
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: totally agreed, and asked Epstein for more information that he
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: could relay to Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed al-Maktoum, the Crown
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: Prince of Dubai. Bin Suleiman did not respond to the
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Herald's request for comment. Well, of course not. Look, all
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: these dudes have been pantsed, and everybody knows just how
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: close they were to Epstein now, even if they don't
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: want to admit it still. Saudi Arabia does not have
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: a digital currency. Qatar and the UAE's version are still
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: in the early stages. It's unclear whether Epstein's pitches to
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: their ruling monarchs had any influence on their decisions to
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: issue sovereign cryptocurrencies. Renaissance in Puerto Rico In the weeks
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: leading up to his 2019 arrest, In New York, Epstein
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: was in discussions about an investment in Medici Bank, a
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: San Juan financial institution. Lorenzo de Medici founded the bank
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: in 2016. He describes himself on his website as a
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: prince and a descendant of the Medicis of Florence. Ah,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: what could possibly go wrong? Epstein with the Medicis? Talk
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: about a tag team made from hell. You folks think
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: the Rothschilds are bad. Do some research on who the
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: Medicis are. The records indicate that Medici Bank was raising
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: funds at the time and its main aim was to
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: serve as the bankers for crypto companies. The bank is
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: registered in the U.S. territory as an international financial entity,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: licensing records the Herald obtained from Puerto Rico show. The
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: specialized institution typically offers favorable tax incentives but are not
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: allowed to have customers in the territories in which they
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: are established, effectively making them offshore banks on U.S. soil.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: When I tell you about the dark money pumping through
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: the American system, I'm not kidding you guys. It's a
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: big problem, and it needs to be addressed. Epstein had
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: experience with this kind of financial entity. He owned one
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: of them, likely the first in the U.S. Virgin Islands,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: through which he moved around $ 20 million at the same
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: time he was in discussions with Medici Bank. Epstein had
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: at least one meeting with Medici leadership, the records suggest,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: but was left unimpressed with Lorenzo DiMedici. Silly, he's an artist,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: knows zero about money, Epstein wrote in a text message
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: about Medici on May 19, 2019. DiMedici said in a
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: statement to the Herald that he had only corresponded with
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: the financier a few times about an art purchase, but
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: did not proceed with any deal. Federal agents arrested Epstein
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: on sex trafficking charges of minors on July 6, 2019.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: The financier was found dead in federal custody on August 10, 2019.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: I mean, at this point, we have to ask ourselves,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: is there anything that Jeffrey Epstein wasn't involved in, especially
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: when it comes to finance? And the sad truth is,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Epstein might be gone, but the system that built him,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: that supported him, and that maintained his bullshit still remains.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: And that blueprint is just waiting for the next Epstein-like
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: scumbag to come along and do the same shit. And
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: once again, the cycle will continue. Meet the new scumbag.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Same as the old one. All the information that goes
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: with this episode can be found in the description box.