Epstein told Ehud Barak to give Mandelson Israeli energy company role
Convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein told former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to task former British minister Lord Peter Mandelson with selling Israel's largest fuel company in 2013.
Newly released files reveal that the notorious paedophile emailed Mandelson on 2 August 2013 saying "I asked ehud to call you re paz in israel".
Paz Oil Company held 30 percent of the Israeli fuel market in 2012. In 2020 it would be listed on the United Nations list of companies operating in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Barak, who was Israeli prime minister from 1999 to 2001, served as its defence minister from 2007 to 2013 under the governments of Ehud Olmert and Benjamin Netanyahu.
He left office in March 2013, just months before Epstein's email to Mandelson.
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The email came around five years after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008.
Mandelson replied on 3 August saying: "Paz ? He [Barak] hasn't called me."
Epstein explained that Paz was an Israeli oil business "that will need to be sold".
He added: "i told him to give you the task".
Later that month Mandelson said: "Am interested in Paz. Also in how Israel is planning to transport its offshore field gas to Europe and elsewhere."
Epstein and Mandelson
Paz Oil Company was not sold in 2013 but its controlling shareholder Zadik Bino sold shares worth NIS 300 million ($97m) that year after new regulations meant he had to reduce his holding in the business.
It is not known whether Barak contacted Mandelson about the oil company or whether the British politician became involved in the business.
MEE has contacted Mandelson's office for comment.
The correspondence reveals new details about Epstein's relationship with both Mandelson and Barak.
In September 2013 Mandelson asked Epstein to consult Barak on what he thought of an Israeli political consultant called Asaf Eisin.
At that point Mandelson was chairman of a lobbying firm called Global Counsel.
It was revealed over the weekend that as business secretary in Gordon Brown's Labour government, Mandelson suggested to Epstein that the head of the investment bank JP Morgan should call and "mildly threaten" the British chancellor.
He has since told the Financial Times: "Every UK and international bank was making the same argument about the impact on UK financial services. My conversations in government at the time reflected the views of the sector as a whole, not a single individual."
However Brown has urged an investigation into Mandelson's apparent leaking of highly sensitive government information to Epstein.
A photo has also been released as part of the Epstein files apparently showing Mandelson standing in his underwear in one of Epstein's homes talking to a woman wearing a white bath robe.
According to the Daily Mail, a source close to Mandelson said the peer had no recollection of the photograph and had no idea where it was taken.
Mandelson resigned from the Labour Party this week. He served as Britain's ambassador to the US, having been appointed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, until late last year.
On Monday Starmer called for Mandelson to be stripped of his status as a peer.
Epstein and Israel
Former Israeli Prime Minister Barak sought Epstein's assistance as a financial adviser and fixer on numerous occasions.
He has previously acknowledged having a business relationship with the paedophile.
In February 2013 Epstein advised Barak to look into working with controversial tech company Palantir, according to audio released by the US Department of Justice.
Palantir, which specialises in AI-powered military and surveillance technology, would open a headquarters in Tel Aviv in 2015 and has played a vital role in many of Israel's military operations in the occupied territories and neighbouring states.
A declassified FBI memo from the Epstein files also says that "Epstein was close to the former Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Barak, and trained as a spy under him".
Epstein and Barak had a decade-long relationship. Barak, who was also a senior Israeli military intelligence figure earlier in his career, visited Epstein’s New York town house more than 30 times between 2013 and 2017.
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