Journalists digging through the recently-released documents linked to infamous sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have found extensive connections to Silicon Valley. TechCrunch’s Sean O’ Kane revealed connections between Epstein and multiple electric vehicle startups, including Faraday Future, Lucid Motors, and Canoo.
A “mysterious” businessman named David Stern had reportedly pitched these startups to Epstein after building a relationship with him.
O’Kane mentioned on TechCrunch’s “Equity” podcast that he found the connections while looking into the funding of EV startups, many of them with ties to China. There was one company in particular called Canoo, whose funding remained “mysterious” for a while.
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O’Kane mentioned Canoo — which is now bankrupt and out of business — with a mysterious set of investors. While they were not initially upfront about it when they came out of stealth mode in 2018, the investors turned out to be a Chinese businessman, a Taiwanese magnate, and David Stern. On probing further, O’Kane discovered Stern’s connections to Prince Andrew, who became infamous for his association with Jeffrey Epstein. This raised suspicions that Stern may have had ties to Epstein as well.
“And that was the case here, more so than I could have imagined, because this guy Stern turned from an enigma or a ghost into someone who was present through all this dealmaking 10 years ago, where we see him pitching, in the span of about a year and a half, investments in Faraday Future, trying to convince Epstein to maybe throw a couple hundred million dollars into that company, trying to buy the 30% stake that Faraday Future’s founder had bought or acquired in Lucid Motors arrival at the time, which I feel is an overlooked dynamic [in] how those companies grew around then — and then also in Canoo,” O’Kane said on the podcast. However, he added that Epstein never actually invested in those companies despite the proximity.
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“We get this sweep of a decade of relationship that Stern had with Epstein from approaching him initially in 2008, kind of hat in hand, and introducing himself and saying, ‘Hey, I want to invest in China. Will you throw in some money?’ to being someone who was seemingly very close to him by the end,” O’Kane added. He also mentioned Stern asking Epstein about fundraising with Morgan Stanley.
This comes as news about Epstein and his high-profile connections continue to shock the world. Several people in high positions are facing flak for their links to the infamous sex offender.
Recently, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick admitted to visiting Epstein’s island in 2012 with his family. Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, the long-time chief executive of DP World, has stepped down after his name surfaced in the Epstein files.