Epstein-linked email sketched plan to tap Libya’s frozen billions

A newly released document shows that an associate of the late US financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein once outlined a plan to pursue access to Libya’s frozen state assets, including by sounding out potential backing from former British and Israeli intelligence figures.

The material, released on Friday by the United States Department of Justice, includes an email sent to Epstein that lays out what the sender described as financial and legal opportunities emerging from Libya’s political and economic turmoil at the time.

The email is dated July 2011, several months after a NATO-backed uprising began against then Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi, who was later killed by Libyan rebels in October that year. In that context, the sender wrote that roughly $80bn in Libyan funds were believed to be frozen around the world, including about $32.4bn held in the United States.

“And it is estimated that the real number is somewhere between three to four times this number in sovereign, stolen and misappropriated assets,” the email states, adding that “if we can identify/recover 5 percent to 10 percent of these monies and receive 10 percent to 25 percent as compensation we are talking about billions of dollars”.

The message also claims that certain former members of Britain’s foreign intelligence service, MI6, and Israel’s external intelligence agency, Mossad, had expressed a willingness to help identify and recover what were described as “stolen assets”.

Beyond asset recovery, the email framed Libya as a major future market. It argued that the country would need to spend at least $100bn on reconstruction and economic recovery, presenting what the sender described as a longer-term commercial opportunity.

“But the real carrot is if we can become their go-to guys because they plan to spend at least $100 billion next year to rebuild their country and jump start the economy,” the email said.

The sender also pointed to Libya’s energy reserves and relatively high literacy rates as advantages for prospective financial and legal initiatives, and said discussions had already taken place with some international law firms about working on a contingency-fee basis.