Terje Rod-Larsen

Epstein's internal terminology for his exploitation of Rod-Larsen's diplomatic network was the "Oslo play" -- a phrase that appears in communications with multiple Epstein associates and captures the transactional nature of the relationship. In April 2017, Epstein wrote to Tom Pritzker: "lots of middel east pols around for the oslo play, any specific country interest?" ⁶. To Jabor Al Thani, a Qatari contact, he asked: "Are you coming to Oslo play on 5th" ⁷. The term functioned as shorthand for IPI's annual events in Oslo and New York, which Epstein treated not as diplomatic conferences but as networking marketplaces where he could broker introductions between Gulf state officials, Western political figures, and his own financial contacts.

The access Rod-Larsen provided was not abstract. On June 3, 2018, Epstein hosted a dinner at his townhouse with Miroslav Lajcak, the sitting President of the UN General Assembly, arranged through Rod-Larsen ⁸. Five months earlier, on January 31, 2018, Lajcak had dined at the same address alongside Brad Karp (chairman of Paul Weiss) and Michael Wolff ⁵. Rod-Larsen co-hosted formal dinner invitations through IPI with his wife Mona Juul ⁹, lending institutional legitimacy to what were effectively Epstein salon events. He shared UN Security Council briefings directly with Epstein -- forwarding the full text of his October 2013 briefing on the implementation of Resolution 1559 concerning Lebanon, noting he "thought [it] might be of interest" ⁴. Rod-Larsen also forwarded Middle East intelligence to Epstein, including "Notes on the Middle East" from Omar El Okdah in October 2014 ¹⁰, while IPI staff member Richard Nawrot channeled SAMA/Saudi Aramco intelligence through the Rod-Larsen-to-Epstein pipeline.

Epstein leveraged this diplomatic access to serve other network members. He introduced Steve Bannon to Rod-Larsen at a dinner on March 15, 2018 ¹¹. He brought Borge Brende, then president of the World Economic Forum, to his townhouse for a sushi dinner on June 13, 2019 -- exactly one month before his arrest ¹². Rod-Larsen had forwarded Brende's contact details to Epstein's staff as early as May 2016 ¹³. Brende co-chaired an IPI commission and dined at 71st Street with Wolff on September 25, 2018. The pattern of dinners Rod-Larsen facilitated appears to have functioned less as casual socializing than as a structured mechanism through which Epstein positioned himself as a broker between diplomatic, financial, and political worlds.

The financial relationship between Epstein and Rod-Larsen escalated steadily over at least six years, with each documented transaction reflecting deeper entanglement. The documented sequence begins in June 2013, when Richard Kahn of HBRK Associates -- Epstein's financial manager -- emailed Rod-Larsen requesting a bank routing number, account name, and "ability to sign promissory note for this 6 month loan" ¹. This $130,000 personal loan was structured with formal documentation requirements, suggesting awareness of its regulatory sensitivity. Whether the promissory note was ever executed, and whether the loan was ever repaid within the six-month term, remain open questions now under Okokrim investigation.

In December 2015, Epstein wired $250,000 to Rod-Larsen's account at the UN Federal Credit Union (UNFCU). The mechanics are documented in EFTA02477238: Rod-Larsen forwarded his UNFCU account details to Epstein via his assistant Fabrice Aidan, and Epstein instructed Kahn with the single word "250k" alongside the bank transfer details. The purpose of this payment has not been established. Its routing through UNFCU -- an institution serving UN staff and their families -- raises the question of whether the payment was structured to exploit the credit union's limited reporting infrastructure compared to major commercial banks.

The largest documented financial transaction was the 2018 purchase of Drammensveien 42, an apartment in Oslo purchased by Rod-Larsen and Mona Juul at roughly half market value. Epstein's instructions to lawyer Kare I. Moljord of Arntzen de Besche Advokatfirma laid out the structure: "craft purchase for 18 million to be held for 3 to 4 weeks terje will put up 4 m, m puts up 4 and terje borrow 10m" ³. "M" refers to Morits Skaugen, the shipowner who sold the property and later described the sale as "not voluntary." Moljord handled the transaction as intermediary, corresponding with Epstein under the subject line "Our mutual friend" ¹⁴ and negotiating the release of Skaugen's DNB mortgage of MNOK 18. Skaugen signed the purchase agreement on June 22, 2018 ¹⁵, and Moljord forwarded the executed documents to Epstein ¹⁶. Three weeks before closing, on April 29, 2018, Epstein told Skaugen "I funded" ¹⁷, confirming he directly provided capital for the transaction. The final element -- Epstein's $10 million bequest to the Rod-Larsen children Edward and Emma -- meant that the family's financial ties to Epstein would persist beyond his death.

Epstein's control over the Rod-Larsen family extended beyond financial transfers to direct involvement in Edward Rod-Larsen's educational and professional trajectory, a pattern consistent with creating deeper personal obligation. In July 2017, Epstein had David Stem work on Edward's curriculum vitae ¹⁸. By September 2017, Edward was working at "the bank" -- an unidentified financial institution -- from which he sent Epstein a "formal apology for my absence from work" ¹⁹, a communication whose formality suggests Epstein held authority over Edward's position there.

In July 2018, Epstein arranged Edward's placement in Christie's Chairman's Programme, an elite internship. Edward wrote afterward: "I concluded my week at Christies yesterday afternoon. It was absolutely great. So much useful advice and information. Just wanted to thank you again for this great opportunity" ²⁰. By October 2018, Epstein was personally editing Edward's NYU application essays, instructing him to "change next to the last sentence. Similarly...to I look forward to accessing the cultural resources in New York in order that I" -- to which Edward replied "will do" ²¹. In January 2019, Epstein connected Edward to Rita Hauser for an NYU admissions recommendation. Hauser told Edward: "I will speak to the Admissions Office on Tuesday and recommend you for early admission" ²².

The scope of Epstein's involvement in Edward's life -- CV preparation, bank employment, Christie's internship, essay editing, university admissions -- suggests involvement that went beyond casual mentorship. The documented record is consistent with Epstein functionally managing the career trajectory of a diplomat's son, creating obligations tied to the family's most personal concerns. The documented record shows the entire Rod-Larsen family drawn into the relationship. On May 6, 2011, Epstein arranged a private jet flight from Teterboro, New Jersey, to Bermuda for all four family members -- Terje, Mona Juul, Edward, and Emma -- booked through Flight Options under the AIRGHN2 account on a Beechjet/Hawker 400XP ²³. All four passport details were on file with Epstein's staff ²⁴. The family vacation, the career management, the property purchase, and the testamentary bequest together illustrate the breadth of the entanglement.

The International Peace Institute, headquartered at 777 UN Plaza in New York, served as the institutional platform through which Rod-Larsen's diplomatic network was made available to Epstein. Rod-Larsen served as IPI president until 2020, and during his tenure the organization functioned simultaneously as a legitimate multilateral policy institute and as the formal host for Epstein's diplomatic access operations. IPI events in New York and Oslo provided the venue and pretext for the gatherings Epstein called the "Oslo play." Formal dinner invitations were sent on IPI letterhead with Mona Juul as co-host ⁹, lending institutional credibility to events that served Epstein's networking objectives.

Epstein's influence over IPI extended to its operational details. Rod-Larsen forwarded internal IPI staffing memos to Epstein, including a February 2019 employee costs memo from Adam Lupel. Epstein also ghostwrote letters on Rod-Larsen's behalf to Bill Gates, using IPI as the institutional frame. In June 2015, Epstein drafted a "Dear Bill" letter inviting Gates to keynote an IPI pandemic conference, which Rod-Larsen reviewed and returned with "I made a couple of minor edits in the below -- is this ok?" ²⁵, confirming Epstein authored the letter. A second ghostwritten letter followed in January 2019, celebrating "years of cooperation with the Gates Foundation" ²⁶. The June 2015 letter was sent after the Gates Foundation had already formally rejected IPI's pandemic conference proposal in March 2015 ²⁷, suggesting Epstein was attempting to bypass Foundation staff by appealing directly to Gates -- using Rod-Larsen's name and IPI's reputation to do so.

ProPublica 990 filings document IPI's subsequent financial decline. The filings show the organization peaking at $11.87 million in revenue and $16.37 million in assets in 2014. After Epstein's arrest in 2019, revenue fell to $9.33 million against expenses of $10.09 million -- already deficit spending. The COVID year of 2020 brought revenue down to $3.93 million while expenses remained at $7.62 million, a $3.7 million deficit. A brief recovery in 2021 ($10.77 million revenue) was followed by continued decline: $6.66 million in 2022, $5.04 million in 2023. Total asset base dropped from $16.37 million to $6.91 million, a 58% loss. A KPMG review confirmed $650,000 in Epstein-related donations to IPI between 2010 and 2020, plus $14,158.88 in reimbursement for a Lawrence Summers flight. The decline extended beyond reputational damage. Analysis suggests IPI also lost access to the donor and speaker networks that Rod-Larsen's Epstein-facilitated connections had helped build.

The documented record indicates Rod-Larsen functioned as the primary conduit through which Epstein accessed Norwegian political and diplomatic elites, a dynamic that has produced what Norwegian media describe as a major corruption investigation. The documented introductions include Thorbjorn Jagland, former Prime Minister and Secretary General of the Council of Europe, whom Rod-Larsen invited to see Epstein in Paris in June 2018 ²⁸. Jagland appeared in Epstein's contacts and guest lists and met Epstein on September 24, 2018. In February 2026, Okokrim found "reasonable grounds" to investigate Jagland for aggravated corruption, examining "gifts, travel and loans" connected to his official positions. Norway's Foreign Ministry requested the revocation of Jagland's immunity from the Council of Europe.

Borge Brende, who served as Norwegian Foreign Minister before becoming president of the World Economic Forum, was introduced to Epstein through Rod-Larsen. Rod-Larsen forwarded a letter to Brende copied to Epstein ²⁹, and Brende co-chaired an IPI commission. The deepening relationship is visible in the dining calendar: a September 25, 2018 dinner at 71st Street with Michael Wolff ³⁰, and the June 13, 2019 sushi dinner -- one month before Epstein's arrest. After the EFTA document releases, Brende acknowledged "several business dinners" and "a few mails and SMS messages" with Epstein during 2018-2019, while claiming he was unaware of Epstein's criminal history. The WEF launched an independent review of Brende. A recurring pattern is visible in the documents: Rod-Larsen made the introduction, Epstein cultivated the relationship, and gifts and access deepened the connection.

The Okokrim investigation, announced in February 2026, charged Mona Juul with aggravated corruption (grov korrupsjon) based on her position at the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, and Rod-Larsen with aiding and abetting aggravated corruption (medvirkning til grov korrupsjon). Okokrim chief Pal Lonseth described the probe as "comprehensive and by all accounts lengthy." The investigation found "significant deficiencies" in Norwegian government oversight of IPI grants, including weak oversight and lack of conflict of interest assessments. The scandal's scope -- touching a former Prime Minister, a former Foreign Minister who leads the WEF, a former UN Special Envoy, and a sitting ambassador -- has produced international coverage across fourteen or more countries. Rod-Larsen's lawyer has stated he is "confident the case will eventually be dropped." The O-1 visa allegation -- that Rod-Larsen wrote visa recommendation letters claiming visa-qualifying credentials for young Russian women in Epstein's circle who were often models without academic backgrounds -- represents, if confirmed, a specific instance of diplomatic authority being used to facilitate Epstein's personal operations.