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Jeffrey Epstein sent thousands of pounds to Lord Peter Mandelson’s husband, Reinaldo Avila da Silva, according to emails published by the US Department of Justice, raising fresh questions about the friendship between the disgraced financier and the former UK ambassador to Washington.
The emails published on Friday show da Silva emailing Epstein in September 2009, asking for £10,000 to fund an osteopathy course and other related expenses. “I will wire your loan amount immediated’y [sic],” Epstein replied that day.
A few days later, da Silva sent Epstein an email saying “thank you for the money which arrived in my account this morning”.
Mandelson married da Silva in 2023 after a relationship of three decades.
At the time of the first payments Mandelson was business secretary and de facto deputy prime minister, serving in that role until May 2010.
Epstein was in prison from 2008 until July 2009 after pleading guilty to charges of soliciting prostitution.
In one email released by the DoJ, Epstein forwarded Mandelson a discussion of fees for da Silva’s osteopathy course. Three minutes later, Epstein received a reply from a redacted sender saying: “So what’s my share of the bounty, then?” Epstein responded: “Was that a misspell for booty”.
In April 2010, da Silva messaged Epstein again, sharing his bank details, the emails show. Epstein forwarded the email to his accountant, adding: “send 13k dollars”.
In subsequent correspondence, Epstein instructs his accountant to “send 2k per month to reinaldo”. His accountant, Rich Kahn, asks if this is “in addition to the 13k” and to confirm the currency is US dollars. Epstein replies that “after rethinkoing [sic] send 4000 dollars only”.
In a September 2010 email Epstein advised Mandelson in jest to move to China “for two years”.
The reply the same day said: “And meet a nice rich chinaman and live happily ever after…talking of which, have you permanently stopped the Reinaldo sub ?! I may have to put him out to work on the streets.”
The FT was first told about payments from Epstein to da Silva by an individual who claimed to have knowledge of the matter last year.
In September a person close to Mandelson described the allegation as “inconceivable”, adding there had been “no relationship” between da Silva and Epstein, and that the pair had not liked each other. The person denied that Mandelson had ever received money from Epstein, either directly or via his husband.
At the time da Silva did not reply to an FT request for comment asking him whether — and if so why — he had accepted money from the convicted paedophile.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was forced to sack Mandelson from his most recent role as US ambassador in early September last year after revelations that he had called Epstein his “best pal” in a 50th birthday tribute book.
The emails released by the justice department reveal other aspects of the Mandelson-Epstein relationship, including the UK politician asking for advice on purchasing an apartment in Brazil.
In March 2011, when Mandelson was running Global Counsel, a London advisory company, he wrote to the financier about a scheme to minimise tax, involving setting up an offshore company in Panama that would partner with a new Brazilian company managed by da Silva.
In November 2011, Mandelson asked Epstein: “Need a Lord on the board?” Epstein replied: “An interesting visual.”
Mandelson did not respond directly to the publication of the emails but said he “was never culpable or complicit” in Epstein’s crimes.
Matt Vickers MP, deputy chair of the Conservative party, said:
“Yet further evidence of the total lack of judgment and weakness of Keir Starmer . . . A prime minister with a backbone would now disassociate himself from Mandelson. Instead there are rumours Starmer is plotting how to bring him back into his government.”
One Labour MP said: “It’s time he was suspended, put on a disciplinary and then expelled.”
Additional reporting by Kieran Smith and Cynthia O’Murchu
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