A fresh tranche of material unsealed by the US Justice Department exposed previously unseen correspondence linking the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to individuals in Lithuania and Latvia, according to regional media investigations. 

The disclosure follows a court order compelling the release of roughly 3.5mn pages tied to Epstein’s activities. Much of the archive is obscured by redactions, but emails, payment records and personal notes point to contacts with several Baltic figures.

The newly released files refer extensively to Latvia and its capital, Riga, Latvian Television reported. Latvia appears more than 500 times across the documents and Riga more than 800 times, often in contexts suggesting recruitment of young women, Latvia’s public broadcaster LSM.lv said.

The papers list Latvian models, modelling agencies and personal correspondence between Epstein and Latvian girls. Some women are described as assistants. Travel records include passports, airline tickets and hotel bookings in Riga, with the Grand Palace Hotel featuring in dozens of entries.

One 2011 email from a person described as a scout comments on Latvian women in response to an Epstein query asking, “how is riga estonia?” The earliest reference dates back to 2001, when an associate of Epstein claimed to have received a personal invitation from Latvia’s then prime minister Andris Berzins. Berzins later told Latvian Television he knew nothing of any such contact, suggesting the claim was exaggerated, LSM.lv said.

Many entries cluster around 2007 and onwards and mention casting sessions and agency visits, including a reference to the 2B Riga agency. Some correspondence implies Epstein may have travelled to Latvia himself, although no firm evidence has yet emerged.

Jean-Luc Brunel, a long-time associate of Epstein and an agent for foreign modelling agencies, also served for several years as a judge at the Baltic Beauty modelling contest organised by the Natalie agency, which accepted participants aged 14 and above. As early as 2011, Latvian Television’s De facto programme reported an investigation into whether Brunel had supplied underage girls to Epstein. At the time, Natalie agency head Eriks Meisans denied any knowledge of wrongdoing, LSM.lv said.

Close personal ties 

Lithuania’s investigative outlet 15min.lt reports that the files include exchanges with businessman Valdas Petreikis, model Dite Antanaityte and violinist Justina Auskelyte.

According to the documents, Petreikis was introduced to Epstein through his wife, Simona. In a 2017 email, she described her husband’s long-running cultural projects in Lithuania and asked whether Epstein might invest. She also referred to her close personal ties with him, crediting his financial support with transforming her education and career.

Financial records show that a foundation linked to Epstein and registered in the US Virgin Islands transferred €75,000 in 2017 to a Vilnius company, Fors projektai, then wholly owned by Petreikis. Further payments went to Baleto Teatras, an organisation he leads – $18,000 in April 2018 and a further $10,000 that September.

Epstein’s 2019 will, signed two days before his death, also left $3mn to Simona Petreike.

Petreikis told 15min.lt that his relationship with Epstein had been purely social and professional and that he had been unaware of his crimes at the time.

“Although people close to me were not harmed by his actions, that does not change my assessment – Epstein’s actions are grave and unjustifiable. I unequivocally condemn them,” Petreikis said, 15min.lt reported.

He added that accepting the inheritance was unthinkable in light of the offences.

Other Lithuanian correspondence shows Epstein claiming Lithuanian ancestry. Emails from 2010 indicate that Antanaityte sought to connect him with fashion designer Juozas Statkevicius, while also containing remarks that suggest she may have been aware of aspects of his sexual conduct, 15min.lt reported.

The same cache indicates that Auskelyte met Epstein, received funds from him to cover mortgage payments on her family’s flat and on at least one occasion requested cash to avoid tax liabilities. Journalists also identified emails in which photographs of Lithuanian women were sent to Epstein and their appearance discussed, though the sender remains unknown.

“riga estonia?”

By contrast, Estonia appears only fleetingly in the newly released Epstein material, with no clear evidence so far of structured activity comparable to that documented in Lithuania or Latvia.

Mentions of Estonia are sparse and largely incidental, most notably in a 2011 email in which an Epstein associate responded to a query about “riga estonia?”, conflating the two neighbouring states. The reference offers no indication of concrete links to Estonian individuals, organisations or recruitment networks.

Epstein, who was jailed for sexually abusing minors, died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.