How Jeffrey Epstein Used Reid Hoffman to Court Silicon Valley’s Elite
Emails suggest a closer and longer relationship than previously known between the LinkedIn founder and the disgraced financier.
Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn.
Photographer: Jason Alden/BloombergReid Hoffman has defended his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein as limited to “fundraising,” via a handful of calls, emails and in-person meetings that ended in March 2018. But documents recently released by the US Justice Department suggest a longer and more personal relationship that’s drawing scrutiny to a major Democratic Party donor.
The LinkedIn Corp. co-founder and venture capitalist first met Epstein through fundraising work with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, five years after Epstein pled guilty to procuring a minor for prostitution and served time in jail. Over the years they exchanged gifts — dumbbells for Hoffman, a metal surfer statue for Epstein — with Hoffman staying at both Epstein’s Caribbean island and his townhouse on New York’s Upper East Side.