Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Jeffrey Epstein, Treasury Officials, and the Early Cryptocurrency Questions Around Iran (Part 2) (5/13/26)

Transcript

Jeffrey Epstein, Treasury Officials, and the Early Cryptocurrency Questions Around Iran (Part 2) (5/13/26) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

0:00
Speaker 1: What's up everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
0:03
Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're going to pick up
0:06
where we left off with the article from drop site
0:09
News that was authored by Murtaza Hussein and Ryan Grimm.
0:15
Epstein's involvement with national security officials during the negotiations with
0:19
Iran coincided with his own deepening interest in the software
0:23
engineers researching cryptocurrency. Oh, I wonder, why can you imagine
0:29
a guy like Jeffrey Epstein with crypto at his disposal.
0:35
You thought it was hard to find his money previously. Boy,
0:38
you have no chance when it comes to crypto. Bitcoin
0:42
was originally launched in two thousand and nine with the
0:44
goal of building a payment system that could operate outside
0:47
the reach of central banks and state financial intermediaries. Satoshinakamoto,
0:54
the pseudonym created of bitcoin, retired on April twenty six,
0:58
twenty eleven, ceasing communication with developers and effectively disappearing. The
1:04
next day, Gavin Andresen, bitcoin's lead maintainer, announced plans to
1:09
discuss bitcoin at CIA headquarters. Oh. I'm shocked, very shocked
1:14
that the CIA was involved, and I'm very shocked that
1:16
Jeffrey Epstein was probably the liaison. Epstein wanted to meet
1:23
Andresen and other members of the Bitcoin team ahead of
1:26
the CIA meeting. With the help of venture capitalist Jason Kalakanis,
1:31
Epstein contacted Amir Taki, a British Iranian hacker. Soon after
1:37
Taki's launch of Britcoin, the first cryptocurrency exchange in the UK.
1:41
On June twelfth, twenty eleven, Epstein email Taki o warning Amir,
1:47
the bitcoin idea is brilliant, Epstein wrote, but I suggest
1:51
some serious downsides, as I'm sure you're aware. Epstein later
1:55
met with Taki's business partner to discuss fraud and crime
1:59
on crypto exchanges. Well, Jeffrey Epstein's favorite word next to
2:03
molestation was fraud. So that doesn't shock me. The potential
2:09
illicted uses of cryptocurrency quickly materialized. In twenty eleven, American
2:15
hacker Ross Ulbrick launched silk Road, a dark net marketplace
2:20
that used bitcoin to facilitate anonymous drug trafficking and other
2:24
illegal services. Ulbrick was arrested in the science fiction section
2:30
of the San Francisco Public Library on October first, twenty thirteen,
2:35
after investigators linked his pseudonym dread pirate Roberts to his
2:39
personal email. The FBI sees the Silk Road domain and
2:43
shut down the website the day after Olbrick's arrest. And
2:47
we know that Olbrick has been pardoned by Trump. But
2:50
that whole investigation was a bit tilted. And I think
2:54
that Ross Ulbrick caught a bad deal. He should have
2:57
did some time, no doubt about it. But the things
2:59
that were trying to accuse him of they didn't make
3:02
that case to me. Epstein in his circle of friends
3:07
were closely following the Silk Road investigation. Boris Nikolitch, chief
3:11
adviser to Bill Gates, sent the news to Epstein shortly
3:15
after Olbrick's arrest. So sad that he made such a
3:17
stupid mistake, Nikolach wrote, a lot of people are going
3:21
to get indicted, Epstein replied, or not, I mean nobody big.
3:25
Of course, Ross Olbrick ended up going to prison, but
3:29
that was pretty much where it ended. A few months later,
3:32
Epstein began brainstorming with Italian hacker Vincenzo Iazo about how
3:37
to make digital currency palatable to banks and governments while
3:41
preserving the privacy of crypto transactions. That's what it's all about.
3:46
Epstein was looking for ways to avoid taxes, to avoid
3:49
paying any money, to avoid giving back the money he stole. Basically,
3:56
so everything about him was a hustle, a scheme, a plot,
3:59
and a maneuver to try and do that. The moment
4:04
that you remove anonymity from bitcoin, there is a significant
4:07
privacy problem, Iazo warned Epstein, meaning that now everyone knows
4:13
that you buy and sell through Bitcoin, its advertisers, among others.
4:17
Sweetest dream, but probably who wors nightmare. An FBI informant
4:22
later alleged that Iaso was Epstein's personal hacker who sold
4:26
cyber weapons to terrorists and governments alike. Iaso did not
4:30
respond to a request for comment. Epstein was a lone predator. Guys,
4:35
come on, all this talk about other people that were
4:38
helping them, assisting them around them, nothing more than noise,
4:44
just a bunch of nonsense. Imagine trying to pitch that
4:48
to people with a straight face. Imagine trying to tell
4:52
people that this is a hoax. It is just absurd,
4:56
and I have no idea how they're getting away with it.
5:00
Before meeting with Treasury State officials in August of twenty fourteen,
5:04
Epstein notified various leaders in tech and finance about his
5:08
upcoming trip, including Brock Pierce, co founder of Tether, a
5:12
stable coin whose value is pegged to the US dollar.
5:15
Tether was launched one month prior to Epstein's visit, originally
5:19
named real Coin, as a cryptocurrency token purportedly backed one
5:24
to one with fiat currency reserves. Look, I don't know
5:27
anything about any of that, tell you the truth. All
5:30
sounds like a hustle to me. Why don't we just
5:34
back up our currency with gold, you know, like we
5:38
always have. But sure, let's get creative, right, And they'll
5:42
tell you that you know, it's for the betterment of mankind,
5:44
but really it's for the betterment of them. Tether, whose
5:49
market capitalization was estimated at one hundred and eighty seven
5:52
billion as of late twenty twenty five, has grown to
5:55
become structurally important to the global economy, surpassing bitcoin as
6:00
the most traded cryptocurrency in the world and powering global
6:04
financial network that also supports money laundering and organized crime,
6:09
to a Jeffrey Epstein's other favorite things, by the way,
6:15
As Turan seeks to escape the stranglehold of US sanctions regime,
6:19
which restricts Iranian entities from accessing dollars for international trade.
6:24
The Iranian government has accumulated huge quantities of Tether, hundreds
6:29
of millions of dollars, of which were targeted for seizure
6:32
this April by the Treasury Department as part of its
6:35
ongoing economic fury pressure campaign. Like all this pressure on Iran,
6:42
all these talks, all this bombing, and what's been accomplished.
6:47
The same wild people are still running the country talking
6:50
the same wild shit. And here we are paying six
6:53
bucks a gallon for gas. I mean, we just filled
6:55
the car up yesterday and it was like eighty five bucks.
6:59
And I mean, if if you work far away from
7:01
where you live, you're talking about spending three hundred, three
7:04
hundred and fifty dollars on gas. And for what what
7:09
did we get out of it? Geopolitically speaking, so far?
7:11
Not much? And it makes you wonder what exactly was
7:15
the motivation behind the whole entire operation. That same month,
7:21
as a launch of Tether, Epstein began investing in Bitcoin's
7:25
core infrastructure. On July fifteenth, Epstein and Itto made a
7:29
five hundred thousand dollars seed investment in Blockstream after inviting
7:33
the blockchain startup co founders to Little Saint James Island.
7:37
Blockstream helped shift the Bitcoin ecosystem from peer to peer
7:41
electronic cash as originally envisioned in Knakamotos two thousand and
7:45
eight white paper, to a global reserve currency and settlement
7:49
layer for tokenized financial assets like stable coins. One Epstein
7:53
invested in Blockstream, one bitcoin traded at roughly six hundred dollars.
7:58
So basically what we're saying here, folks, is that bitcoin
8:01
was created for the Epstein class. And look, there's no
8:04
doubt some regular people have been along for the ride.
8:07
But the whole entire idea was to make sure that
8:09
this money stayed in the shadows. And if there was
8:11
a way to hide money, if there was a way
8:13
to launder money, Epstein was going to find it, whether
8:16
it was high end art or bitcoin. Four days after
8:20
his Treasury visit on August twenty fifth, Epstein helped coordinate
8:23
in October follow up meeting between An Sheer A Wallwork,
8:28
Senior Counselor for Strategic Policy in the Office of Terrorist
8:31
Financing and Financial Crimes, and mits EDO. Epstein wanted EDO
8:37
to loop him in to the MIT Treasury talks, and
8:40
he coached Edo to inform the Treasury officials that he
8:43
and Epstein share one mind on their views of crypto regulation.
8:48
And when we talk about enablers and people that helped
8:50
build Epstein, people like Edo are exactly who I'm talking about.
8:54
Do you think these doors open for Epstein without people
8:57
like Itto? Of course not. What it does is it
9:00
gives Epstein a veneer of respectability, and that opens the door.
9:06
I also shared information with Epstein to help him prepare
9:09
for the talks with Treasury officials, sending him an example
9:13
of the Treasury Department seizing money from Denmark to Germany
9:16
for a batch of Cuban cigars under the Terrorist Finance
9:19
Tracking Program on the grounds that the transaction violated the
9:23
US embargo against Cuba. Think about the endless possibilities for
9:28
practical jokes in this area, Iazo wrote, Let me translate
9:32
that for you. What he means is the world as
9:35
an oyster and it's ready to be plucked. Epstein had
9:41
a key and eye for downstream political implications of new technologies,
9:45
and he surrounded himself with key figures in the fields
9:48
of artificial intelligence and genetic research. Recognizing promising opportunities in cryptocurrency,
9:54
he activated many of the same political, academic and research
9:58
networks to take early advanceanage of blockchain based financial channels.
10:03
In September twenty fourteen, Tether Holdings Limited was formally incorporated
10:08
in the British Virgin Islands. Weeks later, shortly before the
10:12
Treasury follow up call, Epstein emailed his US Virgin Islands attorney,
10:17
Eric Kellerhall's, asking her to amend banking certificates so that
10:21
we can bank bitcoin. Epstein's fingerprints are all over it.
10:28
It's pretty disturbing, and when you look at all the
10:31
people that were involved in the creation of bitcoin, it
10:34
makes me want to run even that much further away
10:37
from crypto. After a conference call between Epstein and Itto
10:43
and Wallwork on October fifteenth, Iaso wrote an email remarking
10:47
on the irony that Epstein, an expert at hiding money,
10:50
was pushing for more regulation and Treasury for more openness.
10:55
The conversation reminded Iazo of an old Soviet joke about
10:58
two propaganda newspaper Vipers and Pravda truth. There is no
11:02
news in Vestia News, there is no truth. Look The
11:07
fertile ground where Epstein operated was confusion. That's where he
11:11
was at his best, and that's where he did his
11:14
most dangerous work. The first tether stable coins were issued
11:18
that same month, and Epstein quickly got to work cultivating
11:21
Pierce's project. On October twenty eighth, he helped connect Peers
11:25
to Larry Summers, Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton, an economic
11:29
advisor to the Obama administration, to assist with setting up
11:33
the dollar token rail. A few days later, on November two,
11:37
he connected Somers to ETO to support the Bitcoin initiative
11:40
at MIT. It's all connected. And if you were wondering
11:44
why they didn't want rico folks, how much more evidence
11:47
do you need. The FBI seizure of Silk Road Marketplace
11:55
was followed by a regulatory crackdown in China, blocking Yuwan
11:59
deposits to crypto exchanges. In early twenty fourteen, Mount Cox,
12:04
the biggest bitcoin exchange in the world at the time,
12:07
halted trading and withdrawals. The company claimed that over eight
12:11
hundred and fifty thousand bitcoins had been stolen, worth more
12:14
than one hundred billion at bitcoin's peak last year. The
12:18
convergence of crisis caused the bitcoin price to collapse. Yeah,
12:22
it dropped like a rock, right, and now I know
12:26
it's back up to what seventy something thousand, but it's
12:29
pretty volatile. Epstein in his circle took advantage of the
12:35
crisis to push for a friendly regulatory regime for digital currency.
12:39
After the fall of Mount Cox, Coinbase, a regulated US
12:43
crypto exchange, differentiated itself as a secure compliant intermediary. In
12:49
December of twenty fourteen, Pierce invited Epstein to join a
12:53
fundraising series for Coinbase, describing the investment opportunity as the
12:58
most platinum plated deal in the space. Pierce also introduced
13:02
Epstein a Coinbase co founder, Fred Ursum, and they made
13:06
plans to meet. Epstein ultimately invested three million in Coinbase
13:10
Series C round through a Virgin Island's entity. By twenty fifteen,
13:15
the network Epstein had connected was crystallizing into real institutional
13:20
collaboration while Work invited Eto to a January twenty fifteen
13:25
virtual currency event at Treasury jointly hosted by the Office
13:29
of Domestic Finance and the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
13:34
The private event was designed to educate senior government officials
13:37
about virtual currency and identify areas of regulatory uncertainty as
13:42
the industry matured. Oh, they've done a great job at that. Huh.
13:46
What they really mean is how to find loopholes so
13:48
they can benefit. The crashing bitcoin price created an existential
13:54
crisis for the Bitcoin Foundation, a nonprofit industry body created
13:58
to fund development on the core bitcoin protocol and give
14:02
the currency institutional legitimacy with regulators and the press. The
14:07
Foundation held much of its reserve in bitcoin and do
14:10
a di rectless spending. Ran out of money during the
14:13
twenty fourteen crash. As the Bitcoin Foundation wrestled with insolvency,
14:19
ETO larned the Bitcoin protocol engineers to MIT, including Andresen.
14:24
In April twenty fifteen, Pierce was named chairman of the
14:28
Foundation's board. Days later, three leading bitcoin developers left the
14:32
Foundation and joined MIT's Media Lab new Digital Currency Initiative.
14:38
MIT is a better place to support the development, Pierce
14:41
told the Los Angeles Business Journal, blessing the handoff, they
14:44
have much deeper pockets than we do. That means Epstein
14:48
has much deeper pockets. That's what that means. MIT Media
14:53
Lab received five hundred and twenty five thousand in gifts
14:55
from Epstein between twenty thirteen and twenty seventeen to support
15:00
Eto's work. Epstein's contributions helped EDO step into the vacuum
15:05
and swiftly recruit the core Bitcoin team to the media
15:08
lab Itedo reported to Epstein on April twenty fifth, sharing
15:12
news of the successful coup. Used gift funds to underwrite this,
15:16
which allowed us to move quickly and win this round. Thanks.
15:20
Of course, it always comes down to money, and Epstein
15:23
shared a lot of that. Nobody's ever told us where
15:27
he got it, but you know, he shared a lot
15:29
of it. A decade later, cryptocurrency industry regulatory issues have
15:35
not been solved, while its political role continues to expand
15:39
in legal gray area. In early April twenty twenty six,
15:43
Amid Husseini, a spokesperson for Iran's Oil, gas and Petrochemical
15:48
Products Exporter Union, told journalists that Iran would be implementing
15:52
a new gated control over the Strait of Horror moves.
15:56
Once the email arrives and Iran completes its assessment, vessels
16:00
are given a few seconds to pay in bitcoin, ensuring
16:03
they can't be traced or confiscated due to sanctions Hostsani explained,
16:09
Iranian authorities are reportedly using an office on Kashum Island
16:13
to convert payments to reals or route them to foreign
16:16
accounts to protect funds from seizure, and everything's going as planned.
16:22
That's exactly what this stuff is used for. And when
16:26
it comes to situations like this, it's a whole new world. Right.
16:31
If Iran is not using the banking system and they're
16:34
using workarounds, this is certainly a good way to do it,
16:37
and having the currency in bitcoin or crypto makes it
16:40
a lot easier to do that. Meanwhile, the Treasury Department's
16:46
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and Office of Foreign Assets Control
16:50
has reported that Iran is increasingly using stable coins and
16:54
other digital assets to buy and sell weapons, conduct international trade,
16:59
and transfer funds to other countries and entities banned from
17:03
the US Led Economic Order. The US government has retaliated
17:07
with seizures of digital wallets, including in April twenty fourth
17:11
confiscation of an estimated three hundred and forty four million
17:15
in cryptocurrency the Treasury Department claimed was linked to tron
17:20
So where does that money go? By the way, I'm
17:23
sure somebody's getting their fingers in it, right, not me
17:26
and you, but somebody. I'm sure it's not being used
17:31
for the betterment of the people. How about we seize
17:34
that three hundred and forty four million and use it
17:37
for Oh, I don't know, infrastructure might be a good idea.
17:40
Have you taken a look at the bridges lately? Epstein
17:44
died in August of twenty nineteen, before stable coin became
17:47
an explicit plank of American monetary policy and before Bitcoin
17:51
developed into a tool in this geopolitical game of cat
17:55
and mouse. But this strategy for regulatory capture has kept
18:00
sharing since his death. Dollar peg tokens moved crypto liquidity
18:05
outside the banking system, while stable coin issuers reserve pulled
18:09
the same activity back into dollars and the US Treasury bills.
18:13
It all sounds like a big ass hustled to me,
18:16
and frankly, anything Epstein was involved in I want no
18:20
part of Meanwhile, as the Treasury Department continues to target
18:25
Iran linked cryptocurrency, one close personal contact of Epstein has
18:30
continued to shape cryptocurrency policy in the current White House
18:34
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik, the longtime head of Canter Fitzgerald,
18:39
was Epstein's occasional business partner and next door neighbor in
18:42
New York, Lutnex Firm, a major federal reserve primary dealer
18:47
in US treasuries, has also become a major player in Tether,
18:51
agreeing to take custody of Tethers US Treasury reserves in
18:55
twenty twenty one. So not only has Epstein involved. Huh,
18:58
we got old Howard Nick and Canner boy. I'm going
19:02
to sleep great tonight. By the end of twenty twenty five,
19:08
Tether said its treasury exposure exceeded one hundred and forty
19:11
one billion, and Tether's CTO has claimed ninety nine percent
19:15
of its Treasury bill portfolio was held with Canner. In
19:19
a twenty twenty five interview, Lutnik called Epstein the greatest
19:22
black malar ever and told The New York Post that
19:25
Epstein had extorted money from his rich associates by filming
19:28
them getting massages at his residence. Lutnik claimed that he
19:32
cut ties with Epstein after a two thousand and five
19:35
visit to Epstein's mansion in Manhattan. While that was a lie, huh,
19:40
And I know it's very shocking that Howard Lutnik would
19:42
be telling us falsehoods. But here we are. But the
19:45
good news is everybody left the island with him, his wife,
19:49
his nannies, his kids. Documents published by the Justice Department
19:56
contradict lutinik statements. Lutnik and Epstein maintained correspondence until at
20:02
least twenty eighteen. Lutnik and his family even traveled to
20:06
the US Virgin Islands for a twenty twelve lunch at
20:09
Epstein's private island. Shortly after the visit, the two men
20:12
signed a contract to invest in Adfin, a payments processing platform.
20:17
In January twenty twenty six, the Justice Department published, deleted,
20:21
then restored an undated photograph of Epstein and Lutnick on
20:26
Epstein's island. In a closed door interview with members of
20:29
the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, Lutnick admitted visiting Epstein's
20:33
island in twenty twelve and called his decision to do
20:37
so inexplicable. Oh well, that covers it. You explained it away.
20:43
It's inexplicable, folks, So let's just move on, like what
20:48
you just forgot about that when you were a lying
20:49
to the American people. In July twenty twenty five, with
20:54
guidance from Lutnik and the White House Digital Assets Working Group,
20:57
Lutnik helped passed the Genius Act, which exempted foreign Treasury
21:01
backed stable coin issuers like Tether from audit requirements. In
21:05
the twelve years since it was created, Tether has never
21:08
undergone an independent audit to prove its stable coins are
21:11
fully backed by dollar reserves. Oh, this is a disaster
21:15
waiting to happen. Bookmarked this episode because this is a
21:20
disaster that's waiting to happen, folks. And when it does,
21:23
the whole ass economy is going to come tumbling down.
21:26
And guess who's going to be left to pick up
21:28
the pieces. Not Lutnick, not Trump, not deal you, that's who.
21:35
During his Commerce Secretary nomination hearing, Lutnik was asked about
21:39
a Wall Street Journal report alleging that Tether owner gian
21:42
Carlo Devessini promised to associates Lutnik would use his political
21:46
influence to kill legislation that could hurt the company. Oh,
21:50
I'm sure that never happened, right, because Lutnik is just
21:52
an up and up guy. Lutnik denied the claims, but
21:57
his comments hinted at the critical role that Tether has
22:00
to play in the global economy, telling lawmakers the US
22:03
Congress should be careful not to undermined dollar hegemony on
22:07
blockchain through legislation. In other words, leave us alone and
22:11
let us steal basically what he's saying. And frankly, I
22:15
don't know about you, but I don't think the dollar
22:17
should be tied to this stable coin nonsense, or to
22:21
bitcoin or to anything like it. How about tying it
22:24
to tangible goods, tangible assets, you know, like gold. But
22:30
that would be way too easy, right, and that would
22:33
make it a lot harder for people like this to steal.
22:36
That's what it all comes down to, dirty ass, rotten
22:40
son of a bitch money. And make no mistake, I'm
22:42
talking about your money, not theirs, because it's always us
22:46
that ends up losing out, not them. And when it
22:50
comes to bitcoin, you better believe that that's going to
22:53
be the case. But as far as Epstein being involved
22:56
with the creation of crypto, with the creation or formation
23:01
of the rule system, that shouldn't shock anybody, And neither
23:04
should the fact that all of it's built on a
23:06
foundation of sand. Because when you're dealing with snake oil salesman,
23:10
you shouldn't be shocked when they sell you snake oil.
23:15
All the information that goes with this episode can be
23:18
found in the description box.