Peter Mandelson offered Jeffrey Epstein help getting a Russian visa via a billionaire oligarch with links to Putin, files reveal
Peter Mandelson offered to help Jeffrey Epstein obtain a Russian visa through a billionaire oligarch with close ties to Vladimir Putin.
The pedophile financier planned to use the visa to travel to Moscow to meet young women, according to documents released by the US Department of Justice.
On November 9, 2010, Epstein emailed the disgraced former Secretary of Labor, who had left the government six months earlier, asking if he could help obtain a Russian visa.
Epstein emailed Lord Mandelson and said: ‘I don’t have a visa for Russia, it’s a public holiday in Paris… I have an idea how to get a visa.’
The emails suggest Lord Mandelson responded hours later to indicate he was willing to help Epstein, who was released from prison nearly a year ago after serving 13 months for molesting a minor.
The next day Lord Mandelson emailed Epstein again and said an employee could ‘obtain a visa through teaching’; this is thought to be a reference to Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska, who was sanctioned by the UK after the start of the Ukraine war.
A few hours later Lord Mandelson told Epstein: ‘The teaching office is assisting with visas. she told him [should] I meet you and of course he wants to. ‘He’s traveling right now.’
There is a known connection between Lord Mandelson and Deripaska. In 2008, then EU trade commissioner and shadow chancellor George Osborne was embroiled in controversy after attending a party on the oligarch’s superyacht in Corfu.
Peter Mandelson’s picture and name appear many times in published Epstein files
In this photo, Peter Mandelson is standing in white underwear, talking to a woman in a bathrobe.
Nor was this the first time Lord Mandelson had offered to help with official documents. In 2001, he had to resign from Tony Blair’s cabinet after an Indian businessman interfered with his passport application.
On the same day that he asked Lord Mandelson for help with the visa, Epstein exchanged emails with a woman in Russia, where they discussed finding “someone very nice for you soon.” The email adds: ‘I have about 10 friends I’m working on at the moment.’
Three days later, Epstein asked the woman if she had ‘any luck’ and she said she had found a ‘gorgeous’ woman who ‘really cared’. The woman added that ‘they told him everything and he was completely fine’.
But emails show the trip to Moscow was ultimately canceled due to delays in obtaining Russian visas.
Lord Mandelson has been approached for comment. There is no suggestion that she knew why Epstein wanted the visa, and she has consistently denied knowledge of any sexual misconduct or Epstein’s crimes.
The files also suggest Lord Mandelson helped an investment banker friend of Epstein’s broker a deal with the Government to buy an energy trading business partly owned by crisis-hit RBS.
The sale followed a meeting between Epstein and investment banker Jes Staley, then-prime minister Alistair Darling and Lord Mandelson, then business secretary.
In February 2010, the Government announced that an agreement had been reached to sell the business to JP Morgan for $1.7 billion (£1.2 billion).
The emails also show that, despite this, JP Morgan disdained Lord Mandelson as he sought employment after leaving office.
Lord Mandelson previously said: ‘I can say frankly that I regret knowing Epstein. It was a mistake to believe Epstein, swallow his lies after his conviction, and then continue my relationship with him. ‘I deeply regret doing this and publicly apologize to the women and girls who suffered.’
Mandelson has been approached for comment. There is no suggestion that she knew why Epstein wanted the visa, and she has consistently denied any knowledge of sexual misconduct or Epstein’s crimes.
