By Ariane Luthi and Tommy Reggiori Wilkes
ZURICH/LONDON, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Ariane de Rothschild, head of the family-owned Edmond de Rothschild Swiss private bank, corresponded dozens of times with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and agreed to multiple meetings over about five years before his 2019 arrest and jailing, U.S. Justice Department files show.
The documents, released by the U.S. Justice Department on Friday, do not appear to contain any sign of criminal wrongdoing. But they raise questions
about an earlier characterisation by the bank of their relationship, cited by the Wall Street Journal in 2023, which said she met with Epstein as part of her normal duties at the bank.
Reuters could not independently confirm the purpose of their meetings.
The correspondence shows the two arranged multiple meetings over several years at Epstein's homes in New York and Paris and that he invited de Rothschild to stay at his apartment.
On March 19, 2019, about four months before his arrest, Epstein wrote to de Rothschild, informing her he was in Paris. She responded: "Are you really ?!! I'm here as well. When would you be free?"
"its been much much too long," Epstein replied, before they arranged to meet the following day. Reuters could not establish if they met as planned on this occasion or on previous ones as the correspondence suggests.
The disclosure of the previously unknown familiarity between the late financier and the banking executive adds de Rothschild to the growing list of prominent figures revealed to have been in Epstein's social circle, following the release of documents under pressure from victims and members of Congress.
A spokesperson for the bank told Reuters that Epstein was a business acquaintance of de Rothschild from 2013 to 2019.
De Rothschild had no knowledge of Epstein's conduct and "unequivocally condemns his behaviour and the crimes which he committed," the spokesperson said in an emailed statement, without responding to several requests for comment on specific exchanges between the two.
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl and served 13 months in a Florida prison.
The de Rothschild-Epstein emails largely date from the mid- to late-2010s. In July 2019, he was charged with sex trafficking minors, including sexually exploiting and abusing dozens of girls, in New York and Florida between 2002 and 2005. He pleaded not guilty.
Reuters reviewed a sample of the more than 4,400 times de Rothschild's name appears in the Justice Department's online search. Many of the files included are duplicate references to the same emails.
In a 2016 exchange, de Rothschild told Epstein she was sick with the flu and wouldn't be staying with "B," whom she did not identify.
Epstein, in response, invited her to stay at his apartment, saying: "...it would be private. no one the wiser".
De Rothschild, who is now 60, thanked him but said she would stay with someone else, who will "play my mom." She said B was a "disaster" and she was "tired of handling him". Her husband, Benjamin de Rothschild, died in 2021.
The bank spokesperson declined to comment on any specific emails.
De Rothschild, a member of one of Europe's most famous banking dynasties after her marriage in 1999, has since 2023 been the CEO of Geneva-based Edmond de Rothschild, which oversees 184 billion Swiss francs ($236.8 billion) in assets.
'IT'S BEEN MUCH TOO LONG'
Email exchanges -- some via assistants -- released by the Justice Department carry de Rothschild's name in the signature. They are redacted and her address is partially blacked out.
In a 2016 exchange, Epstein's assistant arranged to return a hoverboard to de Rothschild's daughter.
In 2015, de Rothschild and Epstein exchanged messages about candles she had helped create for him. Epstein writes: "Candles??? Can't wait to smell. Thanks"
De Rothschild replies: "Your favorite mathematical formula is written on it and the smell is made for you only. It fits with your island". Epstein owned a private Caribbean island that was alleged to have been the site of sex trafficking of underage girls.
In 2018, de Rothschild emailed Epstein, "incredible sunrise this mrng" as they arranged to talk over the weekend after her arrival in Paris.
Epstein died by suicide on August 10, 2019, in a Manhattan jail cell aged 66.
De Rothschild became the first woman to run a Rothschild financial institution in a banking dynasty that dates to 18th-century Frankfurt, Germany.
Todd Blanche, the U.S. deputy attorney general, said the release of documents on Friday marked the end of the Trump administration's actions under a law calling for all Epstein-related files to be made public.
($1 = 0.7769 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Ariane Luthi and Tommy Reggiori Wilkes; Editing by Elisa Martinuzzi, Cynthia Osterman and Alexander Smith)
