There's reason to think Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's contact with Jeffrey Epstein was more extensive than he has publicly suggested. Newly released files show the two men were co-investors in a company as late as 2014—years after Epstein's 2008 sex-crimes conviction, CBS News reports. Contract documents dated Dec. 28, 2012, list Epstein's Southern Trust Co. and a Lutnick-linked LLC, CVAFH I, among nine shareholders in Adfin, a now-closed advertising technology company, with their signatures on adjacent pages.
The files also include emails indicating social and business contact: arranging calls and drinks in 2011, a planned family visit by Lutnick to Epstein's private island in 2012, and a Christmas Eve lunch invitation days before the Adfin deal was signed. A source close to Lutnick told CBS he was a small, minority investor and would not have known who the other investors were. Lutnick's spokesperson reiterated he had "limited interactions" with Epstein, has never been accused of wrongdoing, and ignored a 2013 document Epstein sent regarding Virgin Islands casino legislation. The records also show that Epstein donated $50,000 in 2017 to a dinner honoring Lutnick and that the pair discussed a New York museum expansion as late as 2018.
Lutnick told the New York Post in 2023 that he and his wife ended their relationship with Epstein entirely after a visit to Manhattan townhouse in 2005, the Daily Beast points out. In that interview, Lutnick called Epstein "a disgusting person." He and his wife would "never be in the room with him again," Lutnick added. "Nice seeing you," Epstein's assistant emailed Lutnick around the time of the Adfin signing.
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