The Epstein Files Don’t Spare South Asians
From Deepak Chopra to the Ambanis, we scoured millions of files to trace how the region and its people tapped into elite power circles.
“Have you heard the saying: when you meet an Indian and a snake, kill the Indian first!” Thus wrote Terje Rod-Larsen, a Norwegian diplomat and politician who resigned as president of the International Peace Institute in 2020, after his connections to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein came to light.
But this sentiment isn’t even the worst of it. The U.S. Department of Justice released an additional 3.5 million pages of the Epstein Files on Friday, January 30. These documents include images, videos, and millions of emails and texts. Being present in the Epstein Files doesn’t imply obvious wrongdoing, but highlights a dense nexus of connections. The Epstein Files show how many of the world’s richest and most powerful know, track, and meet each other, even if it wasn’t on Epstein’s island. Indeed, what happened off that island is equally troubling — from geopolitical meetings, to mentions of women who are “innocent and smart,” to discussions of preferring the ambassador to India to be a blonde like Scarlett Johansson, not Meryl Streep. We spent hours combing through the archives to share some of the most significant findings involving global South Asians. This is a developing story.