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Revelation Of Epstein Investment Tied To Peter Thiel Adds To Growing Concerns About Palantir

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by blueapples
Thursday, Jun 05, 2025 - 11:00

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Following a scathing report from The New York Times implicating Palantir Technologies at the core of an expanding US surveillance stated enhanced with the power of Artificial Intelligence powered by the company, the PR nightmare for co-founder Peter Thiel continues. The NYT continued its offensive against him by publishing another exposé revealing previously unknown ties between Thiel and "diseased" serial sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. According to the NYT report, Epstein funneled $40 million into another firm founded by Thiel named after The Lord of the Rings lore: Valar Ventures.

According to the report, Epstein made the $40 million contribution to 2 separate funds managed by Valar Ventures between 2015-2016. Since making the contribution, the return on that investment has seen it grow to nearly $170 million. That $170 holding now stands as the single largest asset of the over $200 million still belonging to the Epstein estate almost 6 years following his supposed demise. 

Epstein's previously unknown investment managed by the venture capital firm is far from the first instance of his ties to Thiel. According to The Wall Street Journal, Epstein scheduled multiple meetings with Thiel in the run-up to the 2016 Presidential Election. The WSJ report went on to reveal that Epstein attempted to arrange meetings between Thiel and real-estate mogul Thomas Barrack with former Russian United Nations Ambassador Vitaly Churkin. Thiel also scheduled several meetings with Epstein at his New York home around that time.

The meetings arranged for Thiel by Epstein coincide with the Palantir co-founder's most visible entry into the American political discourse when he made his support for then Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump known. Since 2016, Thiel has remained one of President Trump's most influential supporters. That support has led to the expansion of Palantir within the Trump administration, as conveyed by the growing list of federal contracts the technology firm has been awarded since the President's return to the White House for his second, non-consecutive term. To date, Palantir has been awarded over $900 million in federal contracts by the second Trump administration. The bulk of that total came less than 2 weeks ago when the Department of Defense awarded Palantir an enormous $795 million contract.

Despite the funds invested in Valar belonging to the Epstein estate, it is unlikely any of that $170 million will end up in the hands of victims of the disgraced sexual predator. In the terms of settlement agreements negotiated by victims of Epstein's, they waived their right to bring future claims against his estate. When prosecutors did not pursue civil forfeiture claims against Epstein, the federal government decided to forgo the opportunity to seize his remaining assets like his holdings with Valar Ventures which could have been paid out to victims.

Attorney David Boies, who represented many of Epstein's victims in those settlements, chastised federal prosecutors for their lack of judgment in failing to pursue civil forfeiture against his estate. “While we are grateful for the government’s prosecution of Epstein and Maxwell, the truth is that, both before and afterwards, the government was largely asleep at the switch,” Mr. Boies said. Federal prosecutors contend their decision was made in the interest of not delaying settlement payments to Epstein's victims.

Although the scope of Epstein's investments into Valar Ventures was previously unknown, his connections to the firm have been known for longer than a decade. Aaron Curtis, a spokesman for the venture capital firm founded by Thiel, defended the decision of a representative of Valar to meet with Epstein in 2014. In a statement issued by Curtis, Valar justified their meeting with Epstein under the pretense that he was a “well-known adviser to world leaders, top universities and philanthropic organizations.”

Representatives for Thiel declined to comment on the revelation of Epstein's holdings with Valar following outreach by the NYT. While Thiel remains mum on the latest controversy involving his relationship to Epstein, he has not remained silent about the controversy surrounding his former associate's supposed suicide. Thiel wrote an OpEd for The Financial Times in January on the heels of President Trump's second inauguration titled A Time for Truth and Reconciliation. In the opinion piece, Thiel highlighted the public's skepticism of the official story that Epstein killed himself as a watershed moment marking a shift in the Overton Window to where public perception was no longer confined to the parameters set forth by narrative makers he referred to as the "Distributed Idea Suppression Complex," a term he credits to his "friend and colleague" former managing director for Thiel Capital, Eric Weinstein.

Thiel has also remarked that he was first introduced to Epstein years after his well-known 2007 arrest for sex crimes by fellow venture-capitalist Reid Hoffman, member of the Bilderberg Group and Council for Foreign Relations, in 2014. Like others tied to Epstein, notably billionaire co-founder of Limited Brands Les Wexner, Thiel remarked that his introduction to Epstein was on the basis of seeking financial guidance from the pedophile. Thiel contends that he was convinced of Epstein's expertise and sought "tax advice" from him following their introduction facilitated by Hoffman. Epstein previously served as Wexner's financial manager for 20 years until 2007. Wexner also served as the main client of the money-management firm founded by Epstein, ultimately signing power of attorney over to the serial sexual predator.

Like many of the powerful and influential figures caught in Epstein's web of malfeasance, Thiel has deferred to the trite excuse that his relationship with the sex trafficker was nothing more than the product of their intersection of mutual interests. From Harvard to Bill Gates to fellow private equity investor Leon Black of Apollo Global Management, among others, Epstein's presence among the political and social elite was common knowledge even if the impetus behind it has remained shrouded in mystery.

That enigma remains unsolved thanks in part to a dereliction of duty from the Trump administration's Department of Justice on delivering the President's promise to answer the lingering questions about Epstein's criminal operation. The latest revelation on the extent of Epstein's ties to Peter Thiel is another piece in a jigsaw puzzle too far from completion to have any idea about the full picture it will show upon its completion. That uncertainty is paralleled by the mounting concerns over Thiel-connected enterprises like Palantir and the inner machinations that drive them. The coalescence of Palantir and the Trump administration conveyed by the company's increased presence within the federal government at the President's behest fuels further concern about the motives converging their interests and raises even more doubt over whether the truth behind Epstein and his associates will ever be brought to light.

Contributor posts published on Zero Hedge do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Zero Hedge, and are not selected, edited or screened by Zero Hedge editors.
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