Jeffrey Epstein told a reporter he saw Silicon Valley notables doing drugs and 'arranging for sex'

Reuters

Jeffrey Epstein claimed to have dirt on prominent people in the tech industry.

• Jeffrey Epstein told a reporter for The New York Times last year that he had damaging information about notable Silicon Valley figures.
• He said he had witnessed tech leaders doing drugs and "arranging for sex," according to an article published Monday.
• The article doesn't name any names.
• Epstein died Saturday by suicide.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who died by suicide in jail on Saturday, told a reporter last year he had dirt on some of Silicon Valley's elite.

The stereotypical tech entrepreneur is a nerdy guy who works all the time. But according to what Epstein told The New York Times' James B. Stewart, the truth was much different, according to what Stewart recounted in an article published on Monday. Epstein said he had seen prominent tech figures doing drugs and "arranging for sex," according to the article.

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"They were hedonistic and regular users of recreational drugs," Stewart reported, paraphrasing his Epstein.

Stewart doesn't name any particular people whom Epstein said he witnessed doing illicit or hedonistic things.

The article focuses on Epstein's claim that he was asked by Tesla CEO Elon Musk to help him find a new chairman for the electric-car company. Epstein told Stewart that Musk had authorized him to help find a new chairman after Musk got in trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission last year over an ill-advised tweet about having "funding secured" for the company to go private.

In a statement to Business Insider, a spokesperson for Musk said it is "incorrect to say that Epstein ever advised Elon on anything."

Stewart later reflects on "how little information Mr. Epstein had actually provided" in the interview. "While I can't say anything he said was an explicit lie, much of what he said was vague or speculative and couldn't be proved or disproved," Stewart continues.

Epstein had asked Stewart to keep the interview on background, meaning that Stewart couldn't attribute any facts to or quote Epstein in a subsequent article about what they discussed. With Epstein's death Stewart considered that agreement ended.

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• What to know about British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's alleged madam who could become the new focus of his conspiracy case
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• Department of Justice will pursue Epstein co-conspirators despite his suicide in jail, Attorney General William Barr says