When a Sex Offender and a Former Prime Minister Built a Surveillance Company

Epstein used Ehud Barak to embed himself in the surveillance industry

Yesterday, over 100,000 emails from former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s inbox were leaked by a hacker group called Handala. The emails span 2007 to 2016, covering the years when Barak served as Israel’s Defense Minister and afterward.

Buried in those emails are exchanges with Jeffrey Epstein. Casual, informal exchanges about trips to Epstein’s island, business ventures, and dinners with people like Woody Allen and Peter Thiel.

But what stands out isn’t the socializing. It’s what they were building together. In 2015, seven years after Epstein’s conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor, he partnered with Barak to invest in a security tech startup called Reporty Homeland Security. The company is now known as Carbyne.

Carbyne is a 911 technology platform. It captures location data, caller metadata, and behavioral indicators from emergency calls. By 2018, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund had invested $15 million in it. The company now has contracts with U.S. police departments and emergency services.

Think about that. A company seeded by a convicted sex offender and a former Israeli prime minister ended up embedded in American emergency response systems. Capturing data on every 911 call. Every location. Every emergency.

Epstein wasn’t just dabbling in surveillance tech. The emails show he was actively using Barak to build connections across the surveillance industry. In May 2014, Epstein pushed Barak to “spend real time” with Peter Thiel, co-founder of Palantir, one of the most powerful surveillance companies in the world. Palantir designs software for intelligence agencies to analyze massive amounts of data on civilians and populations.

Barak couldn’t make that first meeting, but Epstein insisted on setting up dinner. Barak later wrote to another associate that he’d have a “first date” with Thiel to talk geopolitics. He didn’t mention Epstein’s role in arranging it.

In 2016, Epstein pitched Carbyne to Valar Ventures, another fund co-founded by Thiel. They passed, calling it “premature.” Two years later, Thiel’s Founders Fund joined that $15 million funding round. Epstein wasn’t listed as an investor by then, but the connections he’d built were paying off.

This wasn’t random networking. Epstein was systematically positioning himself at the intersection of money, power, and surveillance technology. The emails show he was also reaching out to Russian oligarchs and officials. He introduced Barak to Sergey Belyakov, a former Russian Deputy Minister of Economic Development. He suggested Barak tell Putin’s advisors that spending time with Epstein would help them “discuss markets.”

He even tried pitching a Chinese personal protection company that Prince Andrew had mentioned to him. The emails reference “wealthy chines looking for to start personel protection co in beijing, kidnapping has begun.”

What you’re seeing here is someone building an international surveillance network while maintaining a social circle that included prime ministers, tech billionaires, and royalty. Someone who had already been convicted of sex crimes involving minors and was actively using those same connections to embed himself in the infrastructure of public safety and intelligence.

Barak’s emails also reveal something else. In January 2014, Barak wrote to Epstein about trying to avoid taking his security detail to Little Saint James, Epstein’s private island. “I’m still trying to arrange that the security guys will NOT come with us to the island,” Barak wrote. “Does this works for you?”

Epstein responded by arranging a helicopter pickup from St. Thomas. The emails don’t say whether the security team came or not. But Barak was clearly comfortable enough with Epstein to plan trips to an island where, according to multiple victim testimonies, trafficking was happening.

Barak has denied any wrongdoing. He said he never participated in “any party or event with women or anything like that.” In 2019, after Epstein’s arrest on federal sex trafficking charges, Barak said he’d ended their business relationship. One month later, Epstein was found dead in his jail cell.

But the emails show that in 2011, an assistant forwarded Barak news articles about Virginia Giuffre’s accusations against Epstein. That means Barak knew about the allegations years before he claims he ended the relationship. And he kept investing with Epstein anyway.

Here’s why this matters beyond the obvious. Epstein’s Manhattan mansion was already wired with cameras in every room. Bathrooms, bedrooms, massage rooms. Victims have testified they were asked to describe encounters with clients. They were coached to ask questions about jobs and secrets. Everything was documented.

That’s not casual blackmail. That’s systematic intelligence gathering. And when you see Epstein pouring money into surveillance companies after his conviction, when you see him connecting tech billionaires with foreign officials, when you see him embedding his investments into American emergency services, a pattern emerges.

Epstein wasn’t just collecting compromising material through sexual exploitation. He was building the infrastructure to collect data at scale. He was connecting the people who build surveillance tools with the people who fund them and the governments who deploy them.

Carbyne captures emergency call data. Palantir analyzes intelligence data for governments and corporations. Both companies are tied to people Epstein cultivated relationships with. Both companies deal in information about people’s locations, behaviors, and vulnerabilities.

And Barak was the key to making those connections in Israel. Carbyne is based in Tel Aviv. Multiple people involved in these startups have ties to Unit 8200, Israel’s signals intelligence division. The emails show Epstein connecting Barak with the former director of Israeli signals intelligence as part of the Reporty investment.

This is bigger than one sex offender networking with powerful people. This is about how surveillance infrastructure gets built. Who funds it. Who profits from it. And who has access to the data it collects.

The leaked emails also show another company Epstein was connected to: Levitection, which developed AI-driven threat detection technology. That company’s tech ended up in U.S. Homeland Security programs. Again, Israeli military technology, funded through networks that included Epstein’s money, embedded in American security systems.

None of this happened by accident. Epstein was leveraging his wealth and connections to insert himself into an industry where information is currency. Where knowing someone’s location, their call history, their emergency contacts, their behavioral patterns has value.

And he was doing it after being convicted. After everyone knew what he was. After the world had decided he was a predator who should be isolated from power.

Instead, he used his relationship with a former prime minister to build surveillance companies that now have contracts with American police departments. He used his social network to connect Silicon Valley’s most powerful surveillance tech founder with Israeli intelligence figures. He positioned himself as a broker between Russian officials and American markets.

The Barak emails are important because they document how this actually worked. Not speculation. Not conspiracy theories. Actual emails showing actual investments, actual meetings, actual business partnerships between a convicted sex offender and people at the highest levels of military intelligence and technology.

Epstein wasn’t just some wealthy pervert. He was someone who had spent years building connections across intelligence communities, surveillance industries, and political networks. Someone who had demonstrated he could position himself at the nexus of money, power, and information.

He had credibility because he’d built infrastructure. He had access because he’d invested in the tools that create access. He had leverage because he’d positioned himself at the center of industries that run on leverage.

That’s what makes the Barak emails so significant. They show the mechanism. They show how money, intelligence, technology, and sexual exploitation were all part of the same operation. Not separate scandals. One systematic network.

And a lot of that network is still operating. Carbyne still has those government contracts. Palantir is still one of the most powerful surveillance companies in the world. The connections Epstein built didn’t disappear when he died. They’re embedded in the architecture of how data flows and who has access to it.

That’s the real scandal. Not just that a sex offender had powerful friends. But that he used those friendships to build surveillance infrastructure that’s still in use. Still collecting data. Still connecting intelligence agencies with tech companies with foreign governments.

The question isn’t just what Epstein knew. It’s what the systems he helped build now know. And who controls them.

#ratcclips

FACT CHECK

Ehud Barak Emails Leaked

Over 100,000 emails from Barak’s inbox (2007-2016) were leaked by hacker group Handala yesterday, August 26, 2025. Published by DDoSecrets. Confirmed by Reason, Straight Arrow News, and multiple outlets.

Reporty Homeland Security / Carbyne Investment

Epstein and Barak invested in Reporty (now Carbyne) in 2015. Confirmed in leaked emails first reported by Reason magazine, August 27, 2025.

Peter Thiel Connections

May 2014: Epstein pushed Barak to meet with Thiel. Confirmed in leaked emails. 2018: Thiel’s Founders Fund invested $15 million in Carbyne Series B round. Confirmed by multiple sources including Reason.

Barak Island Trip

January 2014 email from Barak to Epstein: “I’m still trying to arrange that the security guys will NOT come with us to the island.” Confirmed in leaked emails reported by Straight Arrow News and other outlets.

2011 Virginia Giuffre Articles Sent to Barak

Assistant forwarded Barak news articles about Giuffre’s accusations in 2011. Confirmed in Holly Aguirre’s Substack analysis of leaked emails, September 2, 2025.

Epstein’s First Conviction

Pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor in Florida in 2008. Served approximately 13 months in detention. Well-documented public record.

Russian Connections

Epstein introduced Barak to Sergey Belyakov, former Russian Deputy Minister of Economic Development. Email suggested Barak tell Putin’s advisors about Epstein. Confirmed in Reason reporting on leaked emails.

Carbyne U.S. Contracts

Carbyne has contracts with U.S. police departments and emergency services. Company based in Tel Aviv. Confirmed by multiple tech industry sources.

Epstein’s Manhattan Mansion Surveillance

Multiple victim testimonies describe cameras throughout Epstein’s properties. Documented in court records and victim statements from criminal cases and civil lawsuits.

Unit 8200 Connections

Multiple people involved in Israeli surveillance startups have ties to Unit 8200 (Israeli signals intelligence). Widely reported in tech and intelligence industry coverage.