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Peter Mandelson sought advice from Jeffrey Epstein on setting up his advisory firm, Global Counsel, including how to target potential new clients such as the Chinese government.
Email correspondence from 2010 released in the so-called Epstein Files has undermined attempts by Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, Global Counsel’s chief executive and Mandelson’s long-standing right-hand man, to distance the firm, which has advised large companies including JPMorgan, Palantir and Anglo American, from the convicted child sex offender.
Global Counsel’s co-founder Wegg-Prosser met Epstein in New York to discuss the business before the firm’s launch and communicated with him about the pricing of a potential deal with Lazard. Wegg-Prosser also messaged Epstein directly on two separate occasions, including asking for the child sex offender’s mobile number to provide a password for Mandelson’s book manuscript.
Last September, after Mandelson resigned as UK ambassador to the US in the wake of leaked emails showing the extent of his relationship with Epstein after his conviction in 2008, Wegg-Prosser emailed directors of Global Counsel insisting “GC has never had any dealings with Jeffrey Epstein”.
In the message, which the FT has seen, Wegg-Prosser also provided a template email for directors to share with clients, which said: “We wanted to write to reassure you that GC has never had any business dealings or relationship with Jeffrey Epstein in any form.”
However, documents in the cache released by the US Department of Justice last week show that Epstein’s relationship with the company’s co-founders was extensive from the start.
Emails show that Wegg-Prosser met Epstein in February 2010 to seek advice on the business plan for Global Counsel. Mandelson said ahead of the meeting, in an email to Epstein: “Ben is coming to NYC to meet you and explain the business plan.”
Epstein was at the time still under probation on house arrest in New York over having spent time in jail for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
A person close to Wegg-Prosser said he had been advised by Mandelson to meet Epstein and the meeting had only lasted for 25 minutes and they did not meet again. Newly released documents reveal that Wegg-Prosser had been in direct communication with Epstein on at least two occasions after that encounter.
Epstein said in an email to Mandelson on March 2, a week after the meeting, that Wegg-Prosser was “media sensitive, good communication instincts” but with “feeble” business acumen.
He added that Wegg-Prosser “can answer the door, see that everyone is kept content, orgainzie [sic] the staff, both upstairs and down, but you need to decide the program”. Epstein urged Mandelson to “turn that substantial mind on helping yourself”.
On August 3 Mandelson set out to Epstein his vision for a new advisory business that would become Global Counsel. “What is the new advisory business offering?” he wrote in the memo. “We are political people providing a service to business . . . Our usp is politics not business . . . We are political advisers not financial advisers or investment bankers.”
In the same memo, Mandelson told Epstein that he wanted to give “pure political advice” to governments and their leaders, suggesting these could include “South Africa, Qatar, China, in time”.
He suggested other potential corporate clients including media giants Universal and Time Warner.
Others he suggested targeting included Sberbank of Russia, which is majority owned by the Russian state, and Essar of India, which was later embroiled in a tax row.
On November 7 2010 Mandelson wrote to Epstein, saying: “Hope you are looking out for rich individuals who need Global Counsel.”
A day later Epstein asks Mandelson “will oleg either be in Paris, thurs till Sunday, or Moscow next week”. The email is forwarded to Wegg-Prosser, who emails Epstein directly “will check”.
A person close to Global Counsel said Wegg-Prosser was acting “almost as a secretary” to Mandelson and only passing on messages to Epstein when he was told to.
On November 14 2010, after Wegg-Prosser emailed Mandelson to inform him he had returned from a trip, Mandelson forwarded Epstein a spreadsheet attachment titled “lead list 12.11.10”.
A Global Counsel spokesperson said: “Global Counsel was founded by Ben Wegg-Prosser with Peter Mandelson and with a founding investment from WPP plc in November in 2010. Epstein never played any role in the establishment or ongoing business of Global Counsel, in any form whatsoever.”
“Like Gordon Brown and many others we are only now being made aware of the full extent of Mandelson’s conduct.”
A person close to the firm said Wegg-Prosser had only been used as an intermediary by Mandelson and there had been a falling-out between the co-founders over Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein, which Wegg-Prosser disapproved of.
However, a person close to Global Counsel said: “He was the CEO. He was not a secretary or just an assistant.”
A second person with knowledge of the matter told the FT: “Ben said he never had any involvement with him [Epstein]. That’s not true. They met to talk about a business plan in 2010, they founded the company later that year.
“I work with some really talented and good people at Global Counsel. I feel for them. They have also been misled.
“Ben should be asked questions by the board — asked to explain what was really going on here . . . Ben was Peter’s enabler for 20 years. Peter is under criminal investigation. What did Ben know? He was coordinating inquiries back in 2011 directly with Jeffrey.”