A photo of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk at an intimate dinner—possibly with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein—appeared in the Epstein files released by the Justice Department, further highlighting the accused sex trafficker’s ability to gain access to elite circles in the tech and business worlds.
Key Facts
- The photo, which Epstein emailed to himself in August 2015, appears to show Zuckerberg and Musk around a table—Epstein is not pictured in the photo, but was possibly holding the camera, however there is no clear indication he spoke with either tech mogul.
- In another email later that same month, Epstein mentioned he “had dinner with zuckerburg, mu=k, thiel hoffman, wild”—also mentioning billionaire LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman and Palantir chairman Peter Thiel, though the two were not seen in the photo, in which nine people were visible.
- Several of those, including Musk, appear to be peering toward someone or something out of the shot, to the photographer’s right.
- A past dinner with Musk, Zuckerberg and Epstein was reported by Vanity Fair in 2019—which was reportedly organized by Hoffman in honor of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology neuroscientist.
- A representative for Meta pointed to comments Zuckerberg’s representatives previously told Vanity Fair in 2019: he only met the disgraced financier “in passing one time,” and “did not communicate with Epstein again following the dinner.”
- Representatives for Musk did not immediately return a request for comment, but in an email to Vanity Fair in 2019, Musk said “Epstein is obviously a creep and Zuckerberg is not a friend of mine,” confirming he once met Epstein at his house but denying that he knew him well enough to introduce him to the Meta CEO.
Key Background
The most recent revelations from the Epstein files have highlighted the financier’s deep connections in the business world, and included several exchanges with the billionaire SpaceX and Tesla chief. In the 2019 Vanity Fair story, Musk said Epstein “tried repeatedly to get me to visit his island. I declined.” However, the emails revealed in January as part of a massive tranche of documents released by the Justice Department appear to show Musk repeatedly asking Epstein about visiting Little St. James, Epstein’s private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Musk has never been accused of any wrongdoing and there is no indication he ever visited the island. Despite the emails, Musk has repeatedly denied any close connection to Epstein. “I had very little correspondence with Epstein and declined repeated invitations to go to his island or fly on his ‘Lolita Express’, but was well aware that some email correspondence with him could be misinterpreted and used by detractors to smear my name,” he wrote in a post on X after the file release.
Forbes Valuation
Forbes estimates Musk’s net worth at $844.8 billion, making him by far the wealthiest person in the world, while Zuckerberg is No. 4 with an estimated $226.8 billion fortune and Hoffman has an estimated $2.4 billion net worth, placing him outside the top 1,500 of the world’s wealthiest. Zuckerberg had the largest fortune of the three at the time of the dinner, however: Forbes estimated the Facebook cofounder’s net worth at just under $45 billion in 2016, well above the $10.7 billion net worth of Musk at the time.
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This story was originally published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
