Epstein Presented Himself to Indian Tycoon as a Trump White House Insider

Anil Ambani, one of India’s most prominent businessmen, was eager in the early days of the first Trump administration to figure out where India might fit into the new president’s national security strategy.

In 2017, that led him to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender whose fat Rolodex of politicians, diplomats and policymakers allowed him to present himself to Mr. Ambani as a White House insider and guide, according to a review by The New York Times of hundreds of messages exchanged by the men over a two-year period.

“Will need ur guidance on dealing wth white house for india relationship ad defense cooperation,” Mr. Ambani wrote to Mr. Epstein soon after their online introduction, according to exchanges released this year by the Justice Department. Mr. Epstein promised to get Mr. Ambani some “inside baseball.”

The exchanges, riddled with typos and shorthand, show the global reach of Mr. Epstein and the reputation he had built among the world’s wealthiest people as a power broker able to operate in the shadowy world of back-channel diplomacy. While the line between braggadocio and influence was blurred, Mr. Epstein shared with Mr. Ambani nuggets of information on foreign policy and Trump appointments before they became widely known. Whether he just got lucky or not, his messages indicated he sought and received accurate information from unnamed people about the White House’s thinking in response to Mr. Ambani’s questions.

In March 2017, for example, Mr. Ambani asked Mr. Epstein if David Petraeus, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and his preferred candidate for U.S. ambassador to India, would be appointed to the role.

“I’ll ask,” Mr. Epstein responded.

Not long after, Mr. Epstein said he had been “told” that Mr. Petraeus was not on the “front burner.” The role went to Kenneth I. Juster, a business executive and former government official, that November.

And in July 2017, Mr. Epstein told Mr. Ambani that John R. Bolton, a longtime Republican hawk, would replace Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster as national security adviser. General McMaster “was not long for the position” and Mr. Bolton was “next,” he wrote. Although hawkish conservatives had called for the general’s ouster that summer, Mr. Trump had defended him. But eight months after Mr. Epstein’s message, the information proved true: Mr. Bolton replaced Mr. McMaster.

Mr. Epstein also offered to introduce Mr. Ambani to individuals known for their proximity to the president, including Stephen K. Bannon and Thomas J. Barrack Jr., who served as the chairman of Mr. Trump’s inaugural committee in 2017. Mr. Epstein also suggested to the two men that they might find it useful to meet Mr. Ambani.

For his part, in India, Mr. Ambani presented himself as politically connected and a conduit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. He once wrote that “leadership” had asked for Mr. Epstein’s help in arranging meetings for him with Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, and Mr. Bannon.

Mr. Ambani did not respond to requests for comment. He has not faced any accusations of criminal or improper behavior toward women. Mr. Bannon and Mr. Barrack did not respond to requests for comment. A White House representative directed The Times to recent comments from Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, reiterating Mr. Trump’s frequent denial of any wrongdoing in connection with Mr. Epstein.

Sprinkled among Mr. Epstein and Mr. Ambani’s discussions of financial arcana and political strategy, rendered in texting patois, were out-of-context references to having “dessert.” Although the digital trail supplies innuendo, it leaves few real clues about the use of the word, which was often mentioned alongside “fun.”

The messages provide a partial view into the dealings between the two men, who also spoke on the phone and used encrypted messaging platforms like Signal and Telegram, where Mr. Ambani, 66, went by the handle “Armani A.” Their conversations came years after Mr. Epstein was registered as a sex offender, having served jail time after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to a charge of soliciting prostitution from a minor.

In his exchanges with Mr. Epstein, Mr. Ambani, the younger brother of Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, appeared to be looking to bolster his global reputation. After their father died without a clear will for the empire he founded, Reliance Industries, their mother in 2005 divvied up the businesses, which ranged from telecommunications to oil refining, between the siblings.

But the younger Mr. Ambani’s fortunes plummeted to $1.7 billion in 2019 from an estimated net worth of $45 billion in 2007, while his brother’s soared to around $100 billion now, according to Forbes.

Pick for Ambassador

Mr. Epstein and Mr. Ambani were connected by Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, who stepped down in February as chairman and chief executive of DP World, a Dubai-based ports company, after his ties to Mr. Epstein were revealed.

Mr. Epstein at one point asked Deepak Chopra — the lifestyle guru who fell into disrepute after his connections to Mr. Epstein were revealed — about Mr. Ambani. “V rich V much wanting to be noticed V celebrity conscious,” Mr. Chopra replied.

Mr. Ambani and Mr. Epstein’s messages about who would become the next U.S. ambassador to India were some of the earliest conversations they had. Mr. Ambani was interested in defense policy because he had landed a parts manufacturing deal in 2016 for Rafale fighter jets. Critics accused the Modi government, which had agreed to buy the jets from France, of favoring Mr. Ambani, which it denied.

The U.S. ambassador pick for India was “key” for him, Mr. Ambani wrote. He said he wanted a “strong person” like Mr. Petraeus “to deal wth” Pakistan and other neighbors.

When Mr. Epstein told Mr. Ambani that Mr. Petraeus was an unlikely choice, he said he was told that although “Donald liked him,” the Pentagon was “wary,” adding that his use of “tradecraft email sticks in their craw,” without explaining.

During the back-and-forth, Mr. Ambani asked Mr. Epstein: “Who do u suggest?”

“A tall Swedish blonde woman to make it fun to visit,” the disgraced financier replied within seconds.

“Arrange that,” Mr. Ambani said.

Mr. Epstein used the opportunity to ask if there was an actress or model “that represents your proclivity.” He said he would be “of no good” if Mr. Ambani liked Meryl Streep.

Mr. Ambani replied that he had “better taste,” mentioning that Scarlett Johansson was starring in a movie backed by one of his companies.

In 2017, as plans were being made for Mr. Modi to visit the United States, Mr. Trump was already trying to isolate Iran and wanted countries to embrace Israel more. In some messages included in the files, Mr. Epstein appeared to advise Mr. Ambani that India’s buying more weapons from Israel might make the White House view the country more favorably.

“What i am told is that discussions re israel strategy were dominating modi dates,” he wrote on March 29.

Mr. Modi traveled to Washington for his first sit-down with Mr. Trump in late June. Soon after, he became the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel, signifying a shift from the South Asian country’s neutral stance on Middle East politics.

Afterward, Mr. Epstein wrote to “Jabor Y” — identified elsewhere in the Epstein files as Jabor Yousef Jassim Al Thani, a businessman and member of the Qatari royal family — that Qatar should “stop kicking and arguing,” and that it needed to “come out against terrorism.”

At the time, Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies, backed by Mr. Trump, had accused Qatar of supporting terrorism because of its friendly relations with Iran and blockaded it. Mr. Epstein used Mr. Modi as an example, saying that he “took advice” and “danced and sang in Israel” after meeting the U.S. president. “IT WORKED,” he wrote.

India agreed to buy weapons and intelligence equipment worth roughly $2 billion that year, The New York Times Magazine reported in 2022.

After Mr. Modi’s name surfaced in the trove of Epstein documents released in January, India’s external affairs ministry called the messages “trashy ruminations of a convicted sex offender.”

Think Tank Ambitions

Mr. Ambani’s aspirations to bolster his recognition on the international stage run through his exchanges with Mr. Epstein. When the latter asked him if he belonged to any U.S. think tanks, Mr. Ambani bragged about how he was the “only Indian” on the Atlantic Council advisory board, and invited Mr. Epstein’s opinions on other organizations.

Mr. Epstein offered to introduce Mr. Ambani to William J. Burns, who was then the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Thomas J. Pritzker, the chairman of the board of trustees at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. (Mr. Pritzker stepped down as executive chairman of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation in February, citing his ties to Mr. Epstein. In 2023, Mr. Burns said he “deeply” regretted meeting Mr. Epstein.)

Mr. Epstein also invited Mr. Ambani to dinners at his house, where he could mingle with politicians and other leaders, including Terje Rod-Larsen, a Norwegian former diplomat known for his work on Middle East peace negotiations. Mr. Epstein told Mr. Ambani that he had asked Mr. Rod-Larsen, who ran the International Peace Institute, to be his “sherpa.” Mr. Larsen stepped down from the think tank in 2020 after his financial ties to Mr. Epstein were discovered.

Financial Troubles

Mr. Ambani communicated frequently with Mr. Epstein in 2019 as his business struggled; he required a bailout from his brother, Mukesh, to pay $79 million after a court order over an unpaid debt.

Mr. Epstein sent sympathetic messages, telling Mr. Ambani to stay “mentally strong.” He repeatedly offered advice, but underscored that he was acting only as a friend.

When Mr. Ambani asked if Mr. Epstein could help raise U.S. corporate financing, the financier suggested options like creating bankruptcy-proof vehicles, but pointed out tax implications.

The messages provide no indication that Mr. Ambani offered to pay Mr. Epstein for advice, but on April 20, 2019, Mr. Epstein wrote: “No money for me. I have enough.” Around two weeks later, Mr. Epstein received an email from a sender named Anil. “Dear Jeffrey,” it read. “Transaction done. Will come to say Hello and have coffee.”

In that interaction from early May, Mr. Epstein offered to “devote as much time as needed” on May 23, the day of India’s general election results when the two planned to meet in New York, “again, only as a friend.”

Mr. Ambani visited Mr. Epstein at his Manhattan mansion at 4:30 p.m., according to multiple emails, before Mr. Modi’s landslide electoral win was announced.

The next day, Mr. Epstein suggested to Mr. Bannon that he meet Mr. Modi, and offered to set up a meeting. Mr. Modi’s “guy” had told him that the Indian prime minister’s main challenge was China, he told Mr. Bannon, noting the two had a shared interest.

On July 3, 2019, Mr. Epstein checked in with Mr. Ambani to ask if he was taking “rest time.” When Mr. Ambani responded that he was working, Mr. Epstein sent an old-school smiley face, “:),”

Three days later, Mr. Epstein was arrested on charges of the sex trafficking of minors.