Before his recent arrest, the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was welcomed in high society — and that includes Silicon Valley.
According to a Vanity Fair report published on Wednesday, the disgraced financier once met Mark Zuckerberg at a dinner organized by Reid Hoffman, the cofounder of LinkedIn, “a few years ago” — well after he went to jail in 2008 on charges including procuring a minor for prostitution.
Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, made the introduction, according to Vanity Fair.
Ben LaBolt, a spokesperson for Zuckerberg, confirmed that the meeting took place and said it was the only time the Facebook CEO and Epstein met. In a short statement, he told Business Insider: “Mark met Epstein in passing one time at a dinner honoring scientists that was not organized by Epstein. Mark did not communicate with Epstein again following the dinner.”
The anecdote illustrates how in the years after his conviction and imprisonment for sex crimes, Epstein was able to continue to move in rarified circles. The 66-year-old multimillionaire was recently arrested on sex-trafficking and conspiracy charges. – READ MORE