Is it true that Mikhail Khodorkovsky appears on the list of celebrities involved in the Jeffrey Epstein case?

At the end of January 2024, documents appeared on the Internet allegedly indicating a connection between a Russian public figure and an American financier who was convicted of sexual exploitation of minors. We have verified the authenticity of this evidence.

On January 27, 2024, several Telegram channels published documents allegedly proving Khodorkovsky’s participation in sex parties with underage girls hosted by Epstein. Pro-Kremlin blogger Alina Lipp reported that the former co-owner of YUKOS was brought into the case thanks to the testimony of one of the victims, Joanna Sjoberg (she allegedly saw him personally at the event). According to the TGStat service, in three days this news on Telegram received more than 3 million views. A political scientist wrote about Khodorkovsky’s connection with Epstein in their channels Dmitry Evstafiev (355,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), host of “Soloviev Live” Sergey Karnaukhov (274,000) and presenter of Channel One Ruslan Ostashko (104,000). The news was picked up bloggers, Media and privates users social networks.

Vladimir Solovyov spoke about Khodorkovsky’s connection with Epstein twice: first January 28 in his Telegram channel (250,000 views), and two days later on air on the Rossiya 1 TV channel. Discussing with the guests of his talk show the possible participation of Boris Nadezhdin in the presidential elections of the Russian Federation, the TV presenter recalled that the collection of signatures in support of the candidate was supported, among others, by politician and blogger Maxim Katz - he, according to Solovyov, thereby “served the interests of this old pedophile [Khodorkovsky], who showed up on Epstein’s island in 2002” (mark 05:15).

In early January 2024, the New York court published previously classified court documents in the case of financier Jeffrey Epstein and his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who were recognized guilty of pedophilia, sex trafficking and organizing meetings between influential people and minors. Documents in which are mentioned more than 150 people associated with Epstein. Among them are British Prince Andrew, producer Harvey Weinstein, former US President Bill Clinton, singer Michael Jackson, actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Bruce Willis, Kevin Spacey, Cameron Diaz and Cate Blanchett. Most of them are not accused of any crimes - only saidthat they were in contact with a convicted financier (he himself committed suicide in prison back in 2019).

The publication of court documents provoked the emergence of new waves conspiracy theories about the “Epstein list” - the politicians, businessmen and artists allegedly appearing on it are part of a secret network of pedophiles. As a result, many fakes appeared on the Internet about celebrities who were allegedly associated with the financier. In a number of cases, evidence of stars' involvement in sex parties with the participation of minors was falsified - this happened, for example, with publications about physics Stephen Hawking, actor Tom Hanks and comedian Jimmy Kimmel.

According to Russian Telegram channels, Epstein’s contact list also includes the name of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The first declassified piece of evidence purporting to prove their connection is the passenger manifest of Epstein's private jet flying from New York to Palm Beach on June 8, 2002. On a Boeing 727, which the media nicknamed "Lolita Express", the financier often delivered his guests to Florida, where in his mansion arranged sexual encounters with underage girls. According to the passenger manifest, Khodorkovsky was allegedly flying in the company of Epstein himself (in the document designated initials JE), his assistant Sarah Kellen (SK) and three women. How noted Some bloggers, “given the specifics of Epstein’s activities, one can only guess about the age of the ‘women’.”

IN documents, declassified by an American court on January 3, 2024, “Verified” discovered original the mentioned list. On page 11 it is clearly visible that Khodorkovsky’s name is not among the passengers on that flight: only Epstein and his assistant Kellen are listed there. Obviously, Khodorkovsky's name, as well as the mention of three women, was added later in the photo editor.

The second evidence of Khodorkovsky’s involvement in Epstein’s criminal activities is an excerpt from the 2016 testimony of Joanna Sjoberg, one of the victims. Transcript The court also declassified the interrogation at the beginning of 2024, and there is no mention of Khodorkovsky in it, while the last 18 pages of the document, from 162 to 179, are painted over in black. Russian bloggers claim, that Sjoberg’s memories of the ex-owner of YUKOS were present on page 171 until it was “covered with a black square.” From such statements it follows that Telegram channels had an unedited version at their disposal three weeks after the documents were declassified, but the bloggers did not specify how they gained access to it.

The fact that the passage of testimony mentioning Khodorkovsky is a fake is indicated by one detail. In the fictitious text of the interrogation, screenshots of which were published on Telegram, Sjoberg says that she met actor Kevin Spacey at Epstein’s house and this happened the same summer as the meeting with the Russian businessman. And on page 111 of the original transcript, Sjoberg claims that at the time of the interrogation on May 18, 2016, she had never met Spacey.

Fabricated transcript:

Question: You mentioned Kevin Spacey. Actor Kevin Spacey?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Was he among the guests that evening?
Answer: No. No, but I met him that same summer. I'm not sure if it was before or after that day.

Genuine transcript:

Question: Kevin Spacey? I may have already asked you, have you ever met Kevin Spacey in person?
Answer: No.

The third evidence of Khodorkovsky’s connection with Epstein is a photo of them together. Image analysis using the service Forensically revealed signs of photo editing. Using a reverse image search on Google, we found out that the collage was assembled based on a photograph of American billionaire Jeff Bezos with Canadian scientist and entrepreneur Adam Bly, taken in 2007. Overlaid on top of their faces in the photograph were the faces of Epstein and Khodorkovsky, taken from various sources.

For the first time, news about Khodorkovsky’s connection with the Epstein case appeared on January 27 in publications English-language publication The Islander under the headline “Soros-linked Russian billionaire Khodorkovsky visited Epstein’s infamous island?” The founder of the publication is Chey Bowes, an Irish correspondent for the Russian state channel. RT. Within a few hours, this story began to spread on Telegram, where blogger Alina Lipp spoke about the sensation. 

It is noteworthy that among those who shared the fake news among the first was Timofey Vasiliev (Timofey Vi). In the summer of 2023, the European Union turned on him to its sanctions list for running the “War on Fake” Telegram channel, which mimics for a fact-checking project. Vasiliev works for the non-profit organization Dialogue, which is close to the Kremlin - investigative journalists discoveredthat she is responsible for spreading propaganda and fake news about Ukraine and Western countries on the Internet. A few hours after the publication about Khodorkovsky, Vasiliev, unlike most of his neighbors on Telegram, nevertheless admitted that this story turned out to be a fake: “And I fell for it. I was too lazy to look for the original source.” At the same time, the blogger calls himself as an international expert on combating disinformation and conducts trainings and lectures on how to check information for accuracy.

Thus, all the evidence of Khodorkovsky’s connection with Epstein turned out to be fabricated: his name was added to the list of passengers using the financier’s plane with the help of a photo editor, the transcript of the interrogation of the victim, who recalls communicating with the ex-owner of YUKOS, was forged, and the joint photograph of the Russian and American businessmen was a photo collage.

Cover photo: Telegram

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Politico. Pizzagate, QAnon and the ‘Epstein List’: Why the Far Right Is Obsessed with Sex Trafficking
2. "Jellyfish". Social networks publish fakes and offensive memes about celebrities’ connections with financier Jeffrey Epstein, accused of human trafficking.
3. "Novaya Gazeta". "The List" by Jeffrey Epstein. What do Bill Clinton and Donald Trump have in common?
4. "Snob". Why is the “list” of billionaire pedophile Epstein being discussed online again, where is his island located, and what does Stephen Hawking have to do with it?