Eps-tein tried to use a Swiss Rothschild-run private bank to raise money for Israeli cyberweapons projects, according to leaked emails from former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak’s inbox. The emails came from a hack published by Distributed Denial of Secrets and show Eps-tein leveraging his relationship with Ariane de Rothschild to open doors for Barak and Israeli tech figures.

The leaks place these efforts around 2015 in New York and Israel, where Eps-tein acted as a go-between, pushing funding ideas and relaying messages as Barak and former Israeli intelligence officers explored cyberweapons concepts inspired by NSA research. They suggest Eps-tein believed his personal ties to de Rothschild could secure investment for these intelligence-linked ventures.

Beyond the funding attempts, the documents also show Eps-tein and Barak working with Israeli intelligence to shape security systems in several African countries. They link Eps-tein to the financing of Barak’s startup, now known as Carbyne, through his Southern Trust Company. These revelations sit alongside Eps-tein’s long record of criminal accusations, his 2019 arrest and disputed death in custody, Maxwell’s conviction, and the ongoing fallout surrounding the powerful figures tied to him, including newly highlighted links between Eps-tein and Donald Trump.