According to the released emails, Epstein first made plans to attend DEFCON for a few hours in August 2013 to meet with Pablos Holman, who at the time worked on various tech and cyber projects at private equity company Intellectual Ventures. It’s unclear whether Epstein and almost a dozen of his guests obtained tickets to DEFCON or if Epstein attended.
It appears that Epstein and Holman had been in touch since 2010, according to emails. Epstein in 2010 emailed cryptography researcher Ian Goldberg and said Holman “suggested we speak.” Holman also planned to stay in Epstein’s apartment while visiting New York City in 2013 and advised Epstein on how to bury “negative stuff” online.
A spokesperson for the University of Waterloo, where Goldberg works within the School of Computer Science, confirmed to POLITICO that Goldberg turned down the offer from Epstein in 2010 to fund his work at the university. Holman, who currently serves as a general partner at venture capital group Deep Future, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Joi Ito, the current president of Japan’s Chiba Institute of Technology and former director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, appears to have introduced entrepreneur and researcher Vincenzo Iozzo via email to Epstein in 2014, according to the emails. Ito stepped down from his role at MIT in 2019 when previous disclosures revealed Ito had accepted about $1.7 million from Epstein for the lab and his own investment funds. Spokespersons for Chiba Institute of Technology did not respond to a request for comment on Ito’s connections to Epstein. Ito previously apologized for his association with Epstein and stressed that he was “never involved in, never heard him talk about and never saw any evidence of the horrific acts that he was accused of.”
According to the emails, Iozzo, who currently serves as CEO of identity management company SlashID, discussed obtaining tickets for Epstein to attend DEFCON conferences in Las Vegas in 2016 and 2018. Iozzo previously served in roles at cybersecurity company CrowdStrike and as a board member for the annual Black Hat conference. He also planned to meet with Epstein at his New York City home on at least five occasions in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.
One email sent by Epstein to Iozzo ahead of the 2016 conferences noted he wanted to bring guests, including former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, American billionaire Tom Pritzker and “four girls.” It’s not clear if Epstein attended the conference that year or met with Barak, Pritzker or Iozzo.
A spokesperson for Barak told POLITICO that the former prime minister “did not attend DEFCON in 2016,” and further noted that Epstein never asked him to attend. The spokesperson stressed that Barak “has repeatedly and publicly stated that he deeply regrets having any association with Jeffrey Epstein.”