Emails reveal a convicted sex trafficker brokering meetings between Trump’s biggest tech backer and Russian state officials — while Thiel shaped the incoming government
On October 3, 2016, Jeffrey Epstein’s assistant Lesley Groff sent him a scheduling email. Subject line: “Churkin? Thiel?”
“Do you wish me to coordinate with Churkin and Thiel appointments for tomorrow?”
Vitaly Churkin was Russia’s Ambassador to the United Nations. Peter Thiel was Donald Trump’s most prominent Silicon Valley backer — Palantir co-founder, Facebook board member, RNC keynote speaker, $1.25 million Trump donor. The email does not state whether Churkin and Thiel were meeting each other or meeting Epstein separately. But it places both names on Epstein’s calendar within the same 24-hour window, five weeks before Election Day.
The Department of Justice emails spanning 2013 to 2016 expose what can be called the Epstein-Thiel node: a pattern in which a convicted sex trafficker brokered introductions between one of America’s most powerful tech billionaires and Russian state-linked figures — while investing $40 million in Thiel’s venture fund through a shell company that moved over a billion dollars in suspicious transactions, including transfers to sanctioned Russian banks.
Reid Hoffman, who introduced Thiel to Epstein — describing him as “mostly fun, very interesting guy, you may find him perverse” — hosted a dinner at Baumé in Palo Alto on August 2, 2015. The guest list: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, and Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein called the evening “wild.” He and Musk had exchanged at least 16 emails in 2012-2013, including plans to visit Epstein’s island and a SpaceX tour where Epstein arrived with “3 girls” whose passports were sent to Musk in advance. After the dinner, Epstein’s assistant emailed Zuckerberg’s chief of staff with Epstein’s contact details — per “Mark’s request.”
What follows is an evidentiary map: who Epstein was introducing to Thiel, how he described them, and what money was moving through his structures while those introductions were happening.
I. The FSB graduate: Sergey Belyakov
The earliest Thiel-Epstein emails center on a man whose biography reads like a Russian intelligence career track.
Sergey Belyakov was born in Moscow in 1973, enrolled in the FSB Academy in 1993, and graduated in 1998. His career was rapid: adviser to aluminum oligarch Oleg Deripaska’s Basic Element by 28, deputy minister of economic development by 39, chairman of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum Foundation by 41, adviser at the Russian Direct Investment Fund — headed by Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev — by 42. The Deripaska connection matters: this is the same oligarch to whom Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort owed millions and through whose network internal Trump polling data ultimately reached Russian intelligence.
Epstein corresponded with Belyakov from at least 2013, pitching Russia as capable of “leapfrogging the global community by reinventing the financial system of the 21st century” through cryptocurrency. By 2014, Epstein held a Russian visa that specifically named Belyakov’s ministry as sponsor. That same year Belyakov wrote: “Our meeting was really interesting for me! I do not know many people like you, who can open new horizons and prospects.”
On June 30, 2015, Epstein introduced Belyakov to Thiel: “My very good friend that I’d organizing innovation conference in Moscow — will be in Palo Alto. Any interest??” He described Belyakov as “out of the finance ministry, young 40s. very organized and can get things done.” No mention of the FSB Academy. No mention of Deripaska.
On July 6, Thiel’s executive assistant coordinated a meeting in San Francisco. The cc line included Belyakov, Thiel, Epstein, and names in Cyrillic script. Within a week, Belyakov reported that meetings with “Thiel and Pritzker” were “very helpful” and he hoped to see both “in Moscow.”
The relationship between Epstein and Belyakov was operational, not social. When Epstein needed information on a Russian woman blackmailing a “powerful biznessman in New York,” Belyakov compiled a dossier within days, reported she was in the “sex and escort” business, and recommended cutting off her U.S. visa. The exchange ran both ways: Svetlana Pozhidaeva, a graduate of MGIMO — the Foreign Ministry academy that trains Russian diplomats and intelligence agents — obtained a U.S. visa through a Belyakov recommendation letter and embedded herself in Epstein’s operation, targeting the American AI and supercomputer network.
The St. Petersburg Economic Forum that Belyakov ran was a known hotspot for Russian escort operations and intelligence-gathering through honeytrap operations. Belyakov provided operational support for Epstein’s network of models, several of whom served dual roles as intelligence assets. In February 2016, he asked Epstein to arrange a meeting with Vincenzo Iozzo, described by FBI informants as Epstein’s “personal hacker.”
An FSB graduate performing intelligence favors, requesting access to cyber capabilities, and personally introduced to Peter Thiel — thirteen months before the election.
II. The Russian Ambassador: Vitaly Churkin
Belyakov was the intelligence channel. Churkin was the diplomatic one.
Churkin was not a private businessman whose FSB connections could be explained away. He was Russia’s Ambassador to the United Nations — a senior Kremlin official. He was also involved in bringing Trump to Moscow in 1987. Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse sat a few blocks from the Russian consulate.
Groff’s October 3, 2016 email is the most striking artifact in the correspondence — not because it proves coordination between Thiel and the Kremlin, but because it normalizes proximity. “Churkin? Thiel?” reads like routine calendar housekeeping.
Churkin died suddenly on February 20, 2017 — one day before his 65th birthday — of an apparent heart attack in his Manhattan office. The same month Michael Flynn was fired for lying about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S.
After Churkin’s death, Epstein emailed Thiel: “My Russian ambassador friend died. Life is short, start with dessert.”
After Trump won, Belyakov emailed Epstein: “Congrats with your President.” Epstein replied: “fun.” Simultaneously, Belyakov’s RDIF boss Kirill Dmitriev texted an associate: “Putin won.”
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Retired, living in the Scottish Borders after living most of my life in cities in England. I can now indulge my interest in all aspects of living close to nature in a wild landscape. I live on what was once the Iapetus Ocean which took millions of years to travel from the Southern Hemisphere to here in the Northern Hemisphere. That set me thinking and questioning and seeking answers.
In 1998 I co-wrote Millennium Countdown (US)/ A Business Guide to the Year 2000 (UK) see https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9780749427917
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