Exclusive | Epstein, his Hong Kong academic friend and their interest in ‘psychics’

A Hong Kong academic had a relationship with late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, with correspondence revealing a proposed collaboration that he deemed was “a good rebrand” for an island owned by the disgraced American financier where he hosted parties.

The exchange of emails also showed Epstein became interested in the academic’s pursuit of finding people with so-called special abilities such as mind reading and other “psychic activities”.

These discussions led to Epstein giving the Hong Kong academic tens of thousands of US dollars.

Among the 3 million pages of documented evidence released in late January by the United States Justice Department on Epstein, more than 1,000 related to correspondence with the academic who was working at Polytechnic University at the time but has since retired.

Epstein, who died in his jail cell in 2019 after being arrested on federal sex trafficking charges, was a well-known financier who leveraged his wealth and connections to embed himself in the worlds of elite politics, academia and science.

Although thousands of names appear in the documents, Epstein’s close confidant Ghislaine Maxwell was the only other person to be convicted of conspiring to sexually abuse minors in the case.

The South China Morning Post made repeated attempts to contact the scholar via email and phone about his relationship with Epstein, but he did not respond.