Ehud Barak’s Hacked Emails Show Epstein Setting Up Meetings With Peter Thiel
By Rachel Hurley Updated
A convicted sex offender played matchmaker between Israeli intelligence and Silicon Valley
Emails hacked from the inbox of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak show Jeffrey Epstein playing matchmaker between Israeli intelligence and Silicon Valley royalty. The emails - stolen by Handala, a hacking group with suspected ties to Iranian intelligence, and posted by DDoSecrets in May 2025 - reveal Epstein arranging meetings between Barak and Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and the surveillance contractor Palantir.
In May 2014, Epstein invited Barak to meet Thiel, insisting that Barak “spend real time with peter thiel” and offering to set up dinner. Barak noted he’d met Thiel once before at Davos but speculated Thiel “probably doesn’t even recall it.” Epstein was fixing that.
These weren’t social introductions. In 2015, Epstein loaned Barak $1 million to invest in an Israeli startup called Reporty Homeland Security - now known as Carbyne. The company was co-founded by Pinhas Buchris, former commander of both Israel’s Unit 8200 military intelligence unit and Unit 81, a high-tech intelligence unit. Carbyne’s software lets emergency dispatchers retrieve precise location data and live video and audio feeds from callers’ phones. When you dial 911 in certain American cities, Carbyne can hand dispatchers your precise location - and live video from your phone once you accept their link. Civil liberties groups have raised concerns about whether American citizens’ emergency calls might be swept into international intelligence pipelines.
In February 2016, Epstein pitched Reporty directly to Valar Ventures, a fund co-founded by Thiel. “We’d love to hear more about Reporty,” Valar’s Andrew McCormack wrote back. “Thanks for thinking of us Jeffrey.” That pitch was rejected as premature. But in 2018, Thiel’s Founders Fund joined a $15 million Series B round for the company - now renamed Carbyne.
The same year Founders Fund invested in Carbyne, Epstein was still emailing Thiel invitations to his Caribbean island. House Oversight documents show Epstein writing “Dec visit me Caribbean” to Thiel in November 2018. A Thiel spokesperson later told the New York Times he “never went to Epstein’s Island.”
The financial relationship went deeper than Carbyne. Between 2015 and 2016, Epstein’s Southern Trust company invested $40 million in Thiel’s Valar Ventures fund. By 2025, that investment had grown to approximately $170 million - the largest remaining asset in Epstein’s estate. A Valar spokesman confirmed the investment and said the firm “hopes that the eventual distribution of these investments can be put to positive use by helping victims move forward with their lives.”
Here’s the chain. Epstein invested $40 million with Thiel. Epstein arranged meetings between Thiel and the former head of Israeli military intelligence. Thiel’s fund then joined a $15 million funding round for a surveillance company staffed by Israeli intelligence veterans - one that Epstein had seeded through Barak. And Thiel went on to put $15 million into a super PAC backing JD Vance’s 2022 Senate run - a staggering amount from one person for a Senate race. Vance is now Vice President.
The hacked emails show Epstein wasn’t just collecting what his accusers describe as blackmail material. He was building networks. One email from Epstein to Barak points to “civil unrest exploding in ukraine syria, somolia [sic], libya, and the desperation of those in power” and asks, “isn’t this perfect for you.” Another mentions wealthy Chinese looking to start a personal protection company in Beijing because “kidnapping has begun” - a tip Epstein says came from Prince Andrew.
Women who were inside Epstein’s Manhattan mansion say it was already a surveillance bunker, with hidden cameras watching the rooms - bedrooms included. Add the guy who monetized turning data into power - the co-founder of Palantir, the company helping the US government track its own citizens - and you start to see why Epstein was valuable to elites. He wasn’t just offering money and influence. He was offering leverage.
Even after his 2008 conviction, Epstein was still using his powerful friends to pour money into surveillance tech like Reporty. By the time he died in 2019, his network included the former Prime Minister of Israel, the Vice President’s biggest donor, and investment positions that would generate nine-figure returns for his estate.
The question isn’t whether these people knew who Epstein was. They knew. The question is what they got out of the arrangement - and what he got out of them.
SOURCES
https://reason.com/2025/08/27/inside-jeffrey-epsteins-spy-industry-connections/
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/jeffrey-epstein-ehud-barak-leaked-emails-mongolia-security-deal
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jd-vance-trump-vp-peter-thiel-billionaire/
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/business/jeffrey-epstein-peter-thiel-estate.html
https://stanforddaily.com/2026/02/05/epstein-peter-thiel-a-great-friend/
Correction, September 28th, 2026: This essay’s title first called the hacked emails Epstein’s - they came from Ehud Barak’s inbox. It also said DDoSecrets published them in August 2025 - it posted them in May 2025; misquoted a Valar spokesman and two of Epstein’s emails; said Thiel’s fund put $15 million into Carbyne - $15 million was the whole funding round; and said Thiel gave $15 million to Vance’s Senate campaign - it went to a super PAC backing him.
Update, September 28th, 2026: A few lines now say who says so or add a caveat - women’s accounts of cameras in Epstein’s mansion, the blackmail claims, what Carbyne can see on a 911 call, the one surveillance company Epstein is documented backing, and Thiel’s denial that he visited the island, now linked to what his spokesperson told the New York Times - and a claim that Thiel’s $15 million was the most ever given for a single Senate candidate is gone.