Did Epstein help Israel push for a security deal with Ivory Coast? | Cybersecurity News

The newest tranche of paperwork launched by the US Division of Justice on the convicted intercourse offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein has induced an uproar and a slew of resignations by senior officers and businesspeople throughout the US and Europe.

In Africa, the greater than three million emails, images, and movies launched on January 23 are additionally inflicting some aftershocks as they reveal the extent of Epstein’s connections with outstanding African figures, although showing within the Epstein recordsdata doesn’t mechanically point out a criminal offense or wrongdoing.

In line with the paperwork, Epstein had ties with former South African President Jacob Zuma; Karim Wade, a politician and son of Senegal’s ex-president Abdoulaye Wade; and deceased Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

The brand new recordsdata additionally shed extra gentle on Epstein’s connections to a relative of Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, who appeared to attach the 2 males. This connection reportedly opened the door for a good friend of Epstein’s, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, to suggest a mass surveillance system to Ouattara that might work within the West African nation. It’s unclear if such a system is in place now.

Epstein’s doable fixing function culminated in a proper 2014 safety deal between the 2 nations, though the main points of it are scant.

The revelations, generally, underscore the vary of Epstein’s affect on highly effective figures throughout continents.

Epstein, who was first convicted in 2008 on expenses of intercourse trafficking, was discovered useless by suicide in his jail cell in 2019 whereas awaiting a trial on intercourse trafficking expenses. His ex-girlfriend and co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted and sentenced in 2021.

Right here’s what we all know in regards to the Ivory Coast deal and his ties to Africa’s political elite:

Israel and Ivory Coast: The context

Discussions between Ouattara and Barak appeared to begin in mid-2012, after the Ivorian president travelled to Jerusalem for talks with Israeli leaders, presumably in hopes of hanging a safety settlement. Ouattara met Barak, who was then the Israeli defence minister, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

5 days earlier than the journey, on June 12, 2012, exiled army officers linked to the Ivory Coast’s former president had tried to overthrow Ouattara’s authorities.

Ouattara’s predecessor, Laurent Gbagbo, had refused at hand over energy to Ouattara, and a civil warfare that killed a minimum of 3,000 individuals ensued. The preventing had solely ended a couple of 12 months earlier than when UN and French forces intervened and arrested Gbagbo.

Ouattara’s son, Dramane, and niece, Nina Keita, additionally met Epstein in New York on the identical day, in keeping with the Epstein recordsdata. It’s unclear what the events mentioned.

Keita, a former mannequin, was mates with Epstein and travelled commonly on his non-public jet, in keeping with the paperwork. She appeared to have linked Epstein along with her uncle, in addition to different extremely positioned Ivorian politicians, in keeping with the paperwork.

The recordsdata confirmed that on September 12, three months after Epstein met Ouattara’s son, he once more met Keita in New York.

He met Barak instantly after in a personal assembly on the Regency Lodge in New York, in keeping with a schedule printed within the recordsdata. It’s not recognized what was mentioned.

In November, Drop Website Information reported that Epstein referred to a visit to the Ivory Coast, Angola and Senegal in a observe to his assistant, however that there are not any flight data to verify the travels.

What did Israel suggest to Ouattara?

A month after Ouattara’s journey to Jerusalem, an Israeli delegation visited Abidjan.

On the conferences, Ouattara reportedly requested about Israeli defence techniques to overtake safety in his nation, in keeping with reporting by Calcalist, an Israeli publication that lined the exchanges on the time.

In late 2012, Ivorian Inside Minister Hamed Bakayoko travelled to Tel Aviv for a gathering with Barak, the place they mentioned a cybersecurity deal, Drop Website Information discovered.

Then, in spring 2013, Barak, who had now left workplace as defence minister, travelled to Abidjan himself to converse with Ouattara in what can be their second assembly.

Barak offered an costly safety defence plan to the president, Calcalist reported. The $150m proposal encompassed border safety, military coaching, and strategic army consulting, the publication mentioned.

Drop Website Information, in an investigation in November, added that the proposal included a cellular and web surveillance centre, in addition to a video monitoring centre.

The publication cited two units of paperwork: an archive of leaked emails launched by the Handala hacking group and hosted by nonprofit whistleblower web site, Distributed Denial of Secrets and techniques, in addition to earlier Epstein-linked paperwork launched by the US Home Oversight Committee in October 2025.

Barak’s surveillance centre was to be developed by the French-Israeli non-public safety firm, MF-Group, which specialises in surveillance techniques, and was to be positioned in Abidjan, Drop Website Information reported.

Electronic mail logs confirmed Epstein launched Barak to Ouattara’s chief of workers later in September 2013, and deliberate a gathering in New York the place the 2 males met.

Though Ouattara was happy with the plan, he in the end didn’t signal the deal due to the value tag, Calcalist reported.

Barak, in a response to Calcalist on the time, denied that he provided to construct the Ivory Coast an intelligence equipment. “The claims about establishing an intelligence equipment and value presents are incorrect. These are non-public conversations, and the general public has little interest in them,” he was quoted as saying.

What was the ultimate settlement?

Though the plan seemed to be rejected, each nations continued to forge pleasant ties.

In June 2014, then-Israeli Overseas Minister Avigdor Liberman was welcomed in Abidjan on a state go to.

Liberman had travelled to the nation together with 50 Israeli businesspeople who have been excited by investing within the Ivory Coast.

In a information launch on the time, the Ivorian authorities mentioned two agreements have been signed: “One regarding common consultations between the 2 nations and the opposite on defence and inside safety.”

No particulars have been offered. It isn’t recognized if Abidjan is utilizing Israeli surveillance safety techniques.

However, the Israeli-Ivorian safety relationship has continued, with the latter shopping for army vessels, plane, and armoured tanks from Israeli weapons firms.

In 2016, a United Nations report discovered that Israeli agency Troya Tech Defence had bought weapons and evening imaginative and prescient goggles to Ivory Coast in 2015, violating a UN arms embargo that was in place on the time.

In 2018, an investigation into Israeli spy ware Pegasus, developed by the NSO Group, revealed that the malware had focused journalists’ telephones within the Ivory Coast. Pegasus, believed for use by governments, was discovered to be working in 45 nations.

In March 2023, privately owned Israel Shipyards, which builds naval vessels, delivered two offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) to Abidjan.

Critics of President Ouattara say the Ivory Coast has slid farther from democracy underneath his rule and level to incidents just like the Pegasus scandal, amongst different points.

Did Epstein and Barak strategise about different African nations?

Barak additionally tried to leverage the Boko Haram disaster in Nigeria for a safety deal, in keeping with Drop Website Information, citing the brand new paperwork.

Epstein was conscious of Barak’s enterprise offers and suggested him on doing enterprise in Nigeria between 2013 and 2020, in keeping with electronic mail exchanges.

Each noticed the escalating violence within the West African nation not as a humanitarian disaster, however as a enterprise alternative, the publication discovered.

In June 2013, Barak attended a cybersecurity convention in Abuja, which organisers mentioned privately was a pretext to satisfy Nigeria’s then-President Goodluck Jonathan.

It got here after Nigeria awarded Israeli agency, Elbit Methods, a controversial contract to surveil digital communications within the nation. Public outrage induced Jonathan to contemplate cancelling the challenge, however the authorities by no means introduced that it was withdrawn.

Barak continued leveraging his entry in Nigeria to advertise Israeli services. In 2015, he facilitated the sale of Israeli biometric surveillance tools to a personal Christian college in Nigeria, Drop Website Information discovered. The college, in an announcement, denied the sale.

In 2020, the World Financial institution chosen Barak’s intelligence agency, Toka, and the Israeli Nationwide Cyber Directorate to advise Nigeria on designing its nationwide cyber-infrastructure.

Epstein, in the meantime, additionally facilitated high-level entry for Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, ex-chairman of the Emirati agency DP World. In 2018, Epstein linked bin Sulayem with Jide Zeitlin, then-chair of Nigeria’s sovereign funding fund, for discussions on securing port ownerships in Lagos and Badagry.

Bin Sulayem, final March, visited Nigeria and proposed that DP World set up industrial parks at Nigerian ports. The proposal has not been permitted.

Which different African leaders had hyperlinks to Epstein?

Jacob Zuma

The brand new recordsdata revealed that Epstein had some relations with former South African President Jacob Zuma, who led the nation from 2009 till 2018.

Epstein appeared to rearrange a “small dinner” on behalf of Zuma in March 2010 on the Ritz Lodge in London.

It’s unclear what the aim of the dinner was, however emails launched as a part of the Epstein recordsdata appeared to point out {that a} Russian mannequin was invited. The mannequin was advised her presence would “add some actual glamour to the event”, in keeping with emails despatched by Epstein’s planner, whose title was redacted within the recordsdata.

In a special electronic mail, Epstein appeared to share that data with British politician Peter Mandelson, who’s now underneath investigation for his hyperlinks to Epstein. A bunch, whose title was redacted “is having dinner for zuma tomorrow evening on the ritz„ i’ve invited a lovely russina named (redacted) to attend,” he wrote.

It’s unclear if Mandelson responded.

After the dinner appeared to have taken place, one electronic mail sender whose title was redacted wrote to Epstein: “(Redacted title) was a delight final evening and enchanted all these she met…By the way in which, Jacob Zuma was far more spectacular and fascinating than I assumed he can be!”

Karim Wade

Politician and son of Senegal’s ex-President Abdoulaye Wade, Karim Wade’s title appeared 504 occasions within the launched recordsdata.

Wade, underneath his father, was a minister with an open-ended portfolio, and was so highly effective that he was nicknamed “minister of heaven and earth”.

His relationship with Epstein started in 2010, in keeping with an investigation by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Challenge (OCCRP), which cited the newly launched recordsdata.

In an electronic mail to an unnamed contact in November of that 12 months, Epstein wrote: “the President of Senegal is sending his son to see me in paris,” the publication famous. Through the years, they deliberate journeys in Africa together with Emirati businessman, bin Sulayem. Additionally they mentioned enterprise concepts, the recordsdata confirmed.

In 2015, after Wade was convicted on corruption expenses by a brand new administration, data present Epstein approaching Norwegian chief of the Council of Europe, Thorborn Jagland, to ask about presumably submitting an enchantment on the European Courtroom of Human Rights. Wade’s attorneys commonly up to date Epstein on efforts to free him, in keeping with OCCRP.

Senegal pardoned Wade in 2016, after which he went into exile in Qatar. Keita, niece to Ivory Coast’s President Ouattara, who appeared to play some function within the efforts to free Wade, texted Epstein: “Thanks for all the things you have got executed for him!!!!”

Robert Mugabe

The Epstein paperwork revealed that the intercourse trafficker deliberate to satisfy then-President Mugabe to suggest a brand new forex for Zimbabwe amid that nation’s hyperinflation disaster.

In electronic mail exchanges again in 2015, Japanese financier Joi Ito really useful to Epstein that they each strategy Mugabe to debate the forex after the Zimbabwean greenback misplaced its worth. It’s unclear if the assembly ever passed off.

Launched together with the emails have been FBI paperwork from 2017, which appeared to point out unverified testimony from a “confidential supply” who mentioned Epstein was a wealth supervisor for Russian President Vladimir Putin, in addition to Mugabe.