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Jeffrey Epstein left little doubt about the value he placed on a Norwegian diplomat and his ambassador wife to tap a network of officials with ties to the United Nations and the Nobel Peace Prize.
In his will, the pedophile financier bequeathed the couple's two children $5 million each. It was signed two days before his death.
There are thousands of references to "Terje" in the latest cache released by the US Department of Justice that detail an enduring friendship: Epstein helped Terje Rød-Larsen with apartment purchases as well as flights and visits to his private island in the Caribbean. There was also advice and gifts for Rød-Larsen's children - now in their mid-twenties.
Right up to Epstein's suicide in 2019, the files suggest that Rød-Larsen was useful to the disgraced financier by connecting him with dignitaries, bankers and politicians when the Norwegian was at the helm of the International Peace Institute, located just across from the UN headquarters in New York.
Those in Rød-Larsen's orbit include Hardeep Puri, who served as India's ambassador to the UN, and Kevin Rudd, a former Australian prime minister who eventually was elected chair of the IPI board. The paper trail also draws in Norway's elite, to varying degrees: a former prime minister, foreign ministry officials, and even the crown princess. The common denominator linking them to Epstein is often Rød-Larsen.
For example, he put Børge Brende, a former Norwegian foreign minister and president of the World Economic Forum, in touch with Epstein in 2018 after the financier requested a meeting. Brende said in a statement that he was unaware of Epstein's past and criminal activities.
The IPI, the cache shows, offered Epstein a pretext to mingle with senior officials from many countries. He was a generous donor and Rød-Larsen made introductions and organized events.
Puri met Epstein about three or four times over a period of about eight years in New York, his office said in an emailed response to questions. They met as part of official business, his office said. Rudd cannot rule out the possibility that he and Epstein might have attended the same event at some stage but said he never corresponded with Epstein or visited any of his houses, according to a statement by his office.
• Broadway Play
Rød-Larsen, along with his wife Mona Juul, was one of the architects of the 1993 Oslo Accords - the historic but failed peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.
Their role in the Mideast peace process was celebrated in an award-winning play that focused on the couple's human touch and secret back-channeling and had a successful run in Broadway in 2017.
On the international circuit, and in political circles, this afforded Rød-Larsen the kind of fame that meant he was in a position to open doors for Epstein.
The emails are quoted as they appear in the DOJ release, including spelling and grammatical errors.
"Can you ask your buddy Kurtz in Austria. If he would like to meet with bannon," Epstein wrote to a person only identified as "Terje" in May 2018, likely referring to Austria's then-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Steve Bannon, a former advisor to Donald Trump. "Kurtz important. As he will host trump and Putin," Epstein wrote.
A spokesperson for Kurz declined to comment.
Rød-Larsen took on several roles at the UN, including as a special advisor to then-Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and he served briefly in Norway's government under Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland. It was likely during his time at IPI that he came into contact with Epstein.
"Mr. Larsen no longer works for the United Nations and has not for some time," said a UN spokesperson. "As for the ambassador, the former permanent representative of Norway, it's not for us to comment," they said, referring to Juul.
Rød-Larsen resigned from the IPI in 2020 - when Rudd was chair - after it emerged that he had taken a personal loan from Epstein and not disclosed it, and accepted donations from foundations linked to Epstein. At the time, Rudd said he was "blindsided."
The latest cache sheds greater light into the money IPI was accepting under Rød-Larsen's watch. It shows Epstein and his aides emailing about donations and wiring instructions amounting to several million dollars between 2011 and 2017. In addition, Epstein connected IPI with other donors.
A spokeswoman for the IPI didn't respond to three requests for comment sent by email.
Separately, some contributions to the IPI were under scrutiny already in 2021 when Norway's State Audit Office investigated the country's funding to the organization. It found that the Foreign Ministry "did not control how the International Peace Institute spent the money, violated the rules of case management and did not take the issue of impartiality seriously."
The ministry paid around 131 million Norwegian kroner ($14 million) in grants to the institute in the period 1997–2018, the document said. The amount is in line with grants to hundreds of other institutions.
• Gifts
The files also reveal how Epstein tried to ingratiate himself to Rød-Larsen and his family, including with a Bermuda trip in 2011 and presents for his children, Edward and Emma.
In 2016, there is a reference to a gift for Edward sent to his school that assistants discuss by email: "...seems like an exhorbetant amount of money..." In 2018, Epstein arranged for both twins to get Apple watches.
Epstein also set up the son for work experience at London auction house Christie's and gave him advice on personal grooming "to look like a preppy school boy." In the spring of 2019, the son messaged Epstein about art and getting into NYU.
"Neither the children, nor Ms. Juul, had any knowledge of the will written by Epstein. Any interactions they had with him as minors - including attending events - occurred solely because their parents brought them along," Juul's attorney, Thomas Skjelbred, said in an emailed statement.
The files show Epstein had a particular interest in the Nobel Peace Prize, and Rød-Larsen connected Epstein to the right people to discuss it.
In a separate email exchange in September 2012, Epstein tells former Harvard University president Larry Summers about Jagland. He says: "head of the nobel peace prize staying with me , if you have any interest." He also describes him as "not bright , but unique perspective."
The former premier served as head of the Nobel Committee from 2009 to 2015 and as secretary general of the Council of Europe, a human-rights organization, between 2009 and 2019.
In iMessage texts from 2018, Rød-Larsen and Epstein discuss Bannon and connect a "Steve" with Asle Tøje, then member and current vice chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Epstein writes: "Steve and Nobel guy in touch a lot."
Tøje said in response to questions that he has "never met Epstein, or communicated with him. The email in question is between two other people discussing a meeting that never was agreed and never took place."
Bannon declined to comment, as did the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
The Norwegian police has opened a criminal investigation into Jagland for corruption over his ties to Epstein in the years after his premiership ended in the late 1990s. His diplomatic immunity was revoked as part of the probe.
"He takes this matter very seriously, but wishes to emphasize that he believes there are no circumstances that constitute criminal liability," Jagland's attorney Anders Brosveet said in a statement.
Juul is also under investigation for gross corruption, while Rød-Larsen is suspected of being complicit by Norway's economic crime authority Økokrim. Juul resigned this month as ambassador to Jordan and Iraq and said in a statement on Feb. 2 that her contacts with Epstein happened through her husband, but that she "should have been much more careful."
Rød-Larsen, 78, denies the allegations against him. His lawyer, John Christian Elden, said in a statement that "Rød‑Larsen has previously expressed regret for his association with Epstein and has clearly distanced himself from Epstein's actions."
"I ask for calm and human consideration toward Rød Larsen and his family at this time," Elden said. "In particular, his children have endured a burden they have neither been part of nor deserved."
The files released by the DOJ show that there were at least some inside the Norwegian government that were suspicious about the IPI's work practices under Rød-Larsen's stewardship.
There is a reference to "one of the employees of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs" being informed about "very short-term trainees from Eastern Europe" and how they "were all young, beautiful females, and without the education required to work at the think tank."
The file indicates that these girls had their pictures taken and those photos were sent to Epstein. According to the memo, the employee "thought that this was strange."
The slow drip of files has put Norway into an uncomfortable spotlight and tarnished the image of one of its most vaunted brands: the Nobel. The selection committee is already under scrutiny after a hack led to a leak of the Peace Prize laureate MarÃa Corina Machado's name and a Polymarket betting spike.
Meanwhile, Jagland and Rød-Larsen's association with Epstein has caused public outcry in Norway, much like Peter Mandelson's ties with Epstein have reverberated in UK.
On Jan. 20, 2018 came a gushing message to Epstein from Rød-Larsen: "Happy Birthday! You are the best of friends, loyal,wise,compassionate and always vigorously there for your friends- in good times an bad times. May you live forever with all your tender energy!!!"
Both Rød-Larsen and Jagland had dinner with Epstein in Paris in June 2019, weeks before Epstein's arrest in the US on sex trafficking charges.
In August that year, he was found dead in a federal detention center in Manhattan.
Crown Princess Mette-Marit was also found to have had extensive correspondence with Epstein. She has apologized, saying she "showed poor judgment" and regrets the contact which included a stay at Epstein's Palm Beach estate in 2013.
It was, she says, "simply embarrassing."
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