Jeffrey Epstein with a woman whose face is redacted. Photo / Department of Justice
Jeffrey Epstein ordered staff to install hidden cameras in his home after being told “the Russians may come in handy”, The Telegraph can disclose.
Emails released in the latest tranche of Epstein files confirm for the first time that the paedophile made secret recordings in his property empire.
Epstein asked Larry Visoski, his pilot, to buy “three motion-detected hidden cameras, that record”.
Visoski, who also worked as a technician and general handyman across Epstein’s properties, replied, confirming that he had already purchased the surveillance cameras and started “installing them in Kleenex boxes now”.
In an email to Epstein on February 5, 2014, Visoski said he had bought the cameras from a spy shop in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the day before, and was “figuring out how they work as we speak”
On the same day as the hidden camera purchases, Epstein received an email from someone else, whose name has been redacted, saying: “Remember what we spoke about if you want to put cameras in the house. It will have to be very discreetly done. The Russians may come in handy.”
There is no further discussion of Russians in the email traffic relating to the hidden cameras.
Some have claimed, including Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, that Epstein may have been working with Russia’s intelligence services to collect so-called kompromat with which to blackmail the rich and famous.
Some of the women exploited by the paedophile were Russian. However, there is no clear evidence that he was a Russian asset himself.
Victims of Epstein have speculated that he made secret recordings, but it has never been confirmed before.
Epstein’s credit card statements, obtained by The Telegraph, corroborate the purchases of the hidden cameras.
The paedophile’s American Express account, to which members of staff are understood to have had access, shows two purchases at a surveillance store called RNMC in Fort Lauderdale on February 4, 2014. The purchases total more than US$1000 ($1654).
RNMC describes itself as a specialist in “surveillance technology, including camera installation, bug sweeping, and private investigation work”.
A billboard outside the building on West Oakland Park Boulevard in Palm Beach reads: “SPYSHOPS SECURITY SUPERSTORE.”
In his emails, Visoski said: “It’s amazing how small they are, the size of a thumbnail drive, 64-hour recording, motion sensor … I’ll bring them by later today.”
Motion cameras are activated when someone walks in front of them and many can record clearly in complete darkness. Other emails unearthed by The Telegraph suggest they were installed at Epstein’s mansion on El Brillo Way in Palm Beach, Florida.
It is the strongest evidence to date suggesting that Epstein may have collected kompromat on high-profile figures who entered his orbit.
There has long been speculation that Epstein compiled material to blackmail people who visited his properties.
These claims have largely revolved around the sheer number of rich and powerful individuals in Epstein’s circle, and suggestions that his treatment of women and girls was something of an “open secret”.
Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, Bill Clinton, the former US President, and Donald Trump – who had visited Epstein’s Florida property many years earlier – are among those known to have socialised with him. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing on their behalf and no suggestion that they were blackmailed.
Both the US Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation said last July that there was “no credible evidence” that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals or that he possessed a “client list”.
Victims of Epstein have claimed they believed the paedophile installed hidden cameras throughout his properties to record covert footage, both for his own sexual gratification and for potential blackmail purposes.
Virginia Giuffre, who became Epstein’s most prominent accuser and took her own life last year, said in her diary that the sex offender taped her being “abused by other men” to use for blackmail.
She accused Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor of sexually abusing her on at least three separate occasions when she was a teenager in 2001. The former prince denies the claims.
The Telegraph has seen an email sent to Epstein in 2015 linking to a media report that alleged hidden cameras could have recorded compromising photos of Mountbatten-Windsor.
The email sender appeared rattled by the suggestion of hidden surveillance technology, saying: “What hidden cameras in guest room walls?”
Another woman, identified only as Jane Doe in court filings and who said she was 17 when Epstein started to abuse her, said she believed nude photographs of her found in Epstein’s Palm Beach property were “taken with hidden cameras set up throughout his home”.
Maria Farmer, another Epstein victim, said he once told her that he kept secret recordings in his safe. The artist told CBS News in 2019 that she was shown into a “media room” at Epstein’s home in New York, filled with computer screens, where she believed he monitored the footage.
Epstein died by suicide in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. He had served 13 months in Palm Beach County Stockade jail from 2008 to 2009 after soliciting a minor for prostitution.
The Telegraph has seen one video from Epstein’s estate that appears to have been filmed using a secret camera.
It is a mundane and grainy video of someone hoovering, filmed in black and white.
It is likely to raise questions over whether the full scale of video footage seized from Epstein’s estate has been released by the DoJ.
Dozens of photographs of floppy disks, CDs and photo albums were published in the first tranche of Epstein files, suggesting he had an obsession with documenting his life and those around him.
Photos of his New York home taken by US authorities following his death also show the property contained a room with seven screens stacked in a tower.
It is possible that the secret cameras that Epstein ordered his pilot to purchase in 2014 were used for security reasons, rather than to gather covert recordings.
Separate emails reviewed by The Telegraph show he had asked for security cameras to be installed across his properties two years earlier, and that staff updated these when new technology became available.
An email from January 2012 released in the latest Epstein files cache said: “Hey Scott. JE mentioned he would like to get security cameras for all the houses which he can access through the web. He said to ask you for recommendations of brands, etc.. Do you have any good info on this sort of thing?”
Further emails show Epstein purchased Nest security cameras for his Manhattan property in 2019, although these appear to have been much larger than the ones described by Visoski.
The camera models described in these emails appear to match those installed in the corners of some rooms in Epstein’s New York townhouse, according to pictures of the property taken by US authorities in 2019.
Epstein denied having hidden cameras in his house. In an email sent to himself in 2006, while he was preparing a defence against the first high-profile allegations of sexual abuse against him, the billionaire said reports of covert cameras found in his properties were “misleading”
“Police colleagues had helped to install these very same cameras and were fully aware of their existence – and their innocent explanation,” the email said.
Visoski was approached for comment.
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