For two decades, the Epstein affair was confined to the realm of sexual scandal. In early 2026, the massive declassification of 3 million pages from the US Department of Justice and European investigations reveal a much darker reality: Operation “Epstein” was merely the tip of the iceberg of a “state capture” and financial destabilization mechanism piloted from Moscow.
Table of Contents
By Joël-François Dumont — Paris, February 4, 2026.
From Social Scandal to Systemic Shockwave
What initially appeared to be an isolated moral failing is now revealed as the linchpin of a Russian espionage operation of unprecedented scale. But the intelligence aspect may have been only the first layer of a much vaster, predominantly financial mechanism.
The stakes have mutated into an attempted “state capture.” Financial flows transiting through JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank no longer threaten just reputations, but the very integrity of the global financial system. If stock markets plummet, it will be because the vaults of the West were opened by keys held by the FSB.
The issue is no longer merely reputational or judicial. It has become systemic.
Europe Breaks the Silence: From London to Oslo
1. United Kingdom: The Resignation of Lord Mandelson
Scotland Yard has opened an investigation into Lord Peter Mandelson, former Labour Business Secretary and British Ambassador to the United States in 2025, for the transmission of confidential information, leading to his immediate resignation from the House of Lords.[01]
This rupture confirms that the political dam has broken and that the declassified documents contain sufficient evidence to bring down major figures of the British establishment.
2. Norway: Revelations Regarding Thorbjørn Jagland
Three days ago, Norway was struck by revelations concerning Thorbjørn Jagland, former Prime Minister (1996-1997), Chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee (2009-2015), and Secretary General of the Council of Europe (2009-2019). This accumulation of strategic roles within European and international institutions makes the implications particularly grave for the integrity of Western decision-making processes.
3. Poland: Donald Tusk Internationalizes the File
Poland is the first country to open an official government investigation into the link between Epstein and Russian services.[02] Prime Minister Donald Tusk is seeking to internationalize the dossier with NATO and the European Union, labeling it a threat to national security.[03] This move marks a turning point: the Epstein affair is no longer being treated as a domestic judicial scandal, but as a hostile operation requiring a coordinated response from Western democracies.
4. Germany: Raids at Deutsche Bank
Raids conducted in Frankfurt and Berlin in January 2026 link the money laundering files of oligarch Roman Abramovich to those of Epstein, utilizing the same Mirror Trading infrastructure.[[04] German authorities have seized documents establishing operational continuity between Russo-Soviet laundering circuits and the Epstein network.
I. The DNA of the Network: From Maxwell to Belyakov
The file, fueled by the 3 million pages declassified by the US Department of Justice, allows us to trace the dynastic lineage of the operation.
1. Dynastic Continuity (KGB > FSB)
The network is a direct legacy of the Cold War. Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine Maxwell’s father, was a strategic asset of the Soviet Politburo.[05] He helped launder Communist Party money via Liechtenstein. Upon his death in 1991, Ghislaine Maxwell transferred this network and the missing funds to the Epstein operation.[06] She did not merely inherit contacts: she modernized the architecture by connecting it to the circuits of global finance.
2. The Handler: Sergei Belyakov
The appearance of Sergei Belyakov, a graduate of the FSB Academy, marks a qualitative shift.[07] From 2014 onwards—precisely at the time of the annexation of Crimea—he became the interface between Epstein, Russian financial circles, and Moscow’s economic authorities. Acting as a logistician between Epstein, the Russian Central Bank, and the Ministry of Finance, he ensured Epstein’s navigation through Moscow’s upper echelons just as Russia began massively externalizing its capital to anticipate sanctions and geopolitical ruptures.
The operational link with modern Russian intelligence (FSB) is established.
II. The Systemic Russian Connection
Documents reveal an infrastructure dedicated to ties with Russia: 1,056 references to Vladimir Putin and 9,629 mentions of Moscow.[08] The US Treasury documents 4,725 wire transfers totaling nearly $1.1 billion from a single account linked to the network.[09] Epstein maintained accounts linked to Alfa-Bank and Sberbank, major Russian banks now under sanctions.
1. The Theory of “Hybrid Kompromat”
The blackmail is not solely sexual: it is financial. By accepting funding or consulting contracts via Epstein’s offshore structures, Western elites became complicit in laundering Russian money.[10] The threat is not just the release of compromising photos, but the revelation of illegal transfers, leading to civil and judicial death.
III. Systemic Banks: From Tool to Vulnerability
1. JPMorgan Chase: The Vault JPMorgan acted as the vault, maintaining ties with Russian banks despite compliance alerts.[11] The hypothesis being discussed is that of a “Deep State” bank (CIA) allowing this to happen in order to monitor flows, before being trapped by the scale of the scandal. The bank is under fire for failing to flag the transit of $1.1 billion linked to the network.
2. Deutsche Bank: The Laundromat Raids carried out in Germany reveal a complex mechanism where “Too Big to Fail” institutions serve as vectors:[12]
- Intensive use of correspondent banking
- Multi-jurisdictional shell companies
- Unsecured loans mimicking legitimate commercial operations
- Fragmentation of flows via mirror accounts
These institutions were not necessarily complicit in the criminal sense. But they served as passive vectors, revealing a more disturbing truth: global finance can be instrumented without any apparent breach of compliance.
IV. Dubai: The Perfect Grey Zone
In 2026, Dubai has become the major receptacle for the migration of Russian capital under pressure. The Maxwell-Abramovich-Epstein system reinvented itself there.
1. “Vault” Real Estate
Transformation of billions of dollars into physical assets (Palm Jumeirah) via local shell companies, out of reach of the SWIFT system.
2. Abramovich Engineering
Use of Free Zones to mask Ultimate Beneficial Owners (UBO) and transfer of trusts to third parties prior to the enforcement of sanctions. Free Zones offer a formidably effective combination:
- Opacity of beneficial owners
- Lack of interoperability with European regulators
- Extraterritorial law preventing any rapid judicial seizure
Roman Abramovich (Wikimedia)
3. Shadow Crypto
Liquidation of Russian assets into dirhams via local platforms for immediate reinvestment, rendering OFAC alerts ineffective. Luxury real estate, local private equities, and crypto circuits in dirhams allow for a definitive exit from the radar of Western central banks. This is no longer evasion: it is organized financial “de-sovereignization.”
V. The Geopolitics of Corruption: France, Israel, and the UK
Russian influence infiltrates elites to destabilize democracies.
1. France: A Central Logistics Node
- Reso-Garantia: The Influence Platform. This insurance company, owned by the Sarkisov brothers (veterans of the Soviet insurance firm Ingosstrakh), illustrates the penetration of elites.[13] Nicolas Sarkozy signed a €3 million consulting contract with them in 2019, which is the subject of an investigation for influence peddling. Bernard Arnault is also cited in investigations regarding complex real estate transactions in Courchevel with these same oligarchs.
- The Decimation of Key Witnesses. The main protagonists of the French branch are deceased, blocking classic judicial action:
- Jean-Luc Brunel: The logistician who supplied young women from the East via his agencies. Found hanged in his cell in Paris in February 2022, with no surveillance cameras.[14]
- Jeffrey Epstein: Owner of 22 Avenue Foch. Died in 2019.
- Jean-Michel Goudard: Political communicator and liaison, died in 2020.
2. Israel: Strategic Silence Silence from authorities regarding Abramovich’s massive investments (The Versano Hotel). The country is becoming a strategic retreat zone at the risk of sacrificing its diplomatic equilibrium.
3. United Kingdom and Poland: Validation of Theses
Espionage investigations validate the theses of historian Françoise Thom regarding the destruction of value hierarchies. The porosity between occult finance and political decision-making is now proven.
VI. Geopolitical Reading: The Strategy of the Moral Cesspool
Françoise Thom’s analyses shed powerful light on this sequence.[15] According to her, contemporary Russia does not seek to convince but to corrupt the adversary’s value system. The Epstein network fits perfectly into this logic:
- Compromise of Western elites
- Collapse of any moral pretension
- Installation of generalized cynicism
Even more disturbing: Moscow accepts burning its own assets if it causes a wider shockwave. The revelations are therefore not a failure of the Russian system, but possibly an assumed terminal phase of the operation. The Russian objective was not enrichment, but the creation of a cesspool to morally discredit all Western leaders.
VII. After Espionage, Global Financial Risk
The exposure of espionage circuits mechanically opens a second front: that of financial and prudential responsibility.
1. The Systemic Shock Scenario If judicial authorities demonstrate that mirror accounts were used to:
- Conceal sanctioned flows
- Mask Russian sovereign exposures
- Distort risk ratios
Then certain systemic banks could be forced to:
- Reclassify their assets
- Brutally increase their provisions
- Recapitalize urgently
Such a movement, even if targeted, would have a domino effect on interbank liquidity, far beyond Europe.
2. The Real Danger The danger is not immediate collapse, but the loss of trust: the revelation that the Western financial system absorbed, without detection, a long-term hostile operation.
Conclusion: The Masks Fall
The Epstein affair is neither an accident nor a moral anomaly. It is the symptom of a structural disconnect between:
- The Realpolitik of States
- The algorithmic logic of markets
- Willful blindness regarding the origin of capital
Western vaults were not broken into. They were opened in the name of yield, fluidity, and competitiveness.
After the social scandal, after the espionage operation, the financial shock remains an open possibility. And this time, its consequences could be global.
The fuse is short, the detonator is in Moscow, but the wires now run through Dubai.
Joël-François Dumont
See also:
- « Affaire Epstein : La main du Kremlin dans le « pot de miel » — (2026-0204)
- « The Epstein Affair: The Kremlin’s Hand in the “Honeytrap” » — (2026-0204)
- « Die Causa Epstein: Die Hand des Kremls im „Honigtopf“ » — (2026-0204)
Sources
[01] The Guardian, « Mandelson resigns from House of Lords amid new police probe », 3 février 2026.
[02] Press Conference by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Chancellery of the Prime Minister (Warsaw), February 3, 2026.
[03] Press Conference by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, op. cit.
[04] Der Spiegel, « Razzia in der Deutsche Bank Zentrale: Geldwäscheverdacht im Zusammenhang mit Roman Abramowitsch », January 30, 2026.
[05] Sunday Express, « Maxwell’s KGB Files Declassified », British Archives cited in the press, (March 1992).
[06] Françoise Thom, « Cesspool and Chaos: the Russian Connection in the Epstein Affair », Desk Russie, July 30, 2025.
[07] Dossier Center, « Investigation into Sergei Belyakov and the Economic Forum Connections », London, August 2025.
[08] US Department of Justice (DOJ), « Jeffrey Epstein Documents Release – Batch Jan 2026 », January 30, 2026.
[09] US Senate, Committee on Finance, « Wyden Release: JPMorgan Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) regarding Epstein and Russian Banks », October 2025.
[10] Daily Mail, « Epstein Carried Out Russia’s Largest Honeytrap Operation, Intel Sources Say », February 1, 2026.
[11] US Senate, Committee on Finance, op. cit.
[12] Der Spiegel, op. cit.
[13] French National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), « Preliminary investigation opened on counts of influence peddling and money laundering » (Reso-Garantia File), Paris, 2021.
Enquête préliminaire ouverte des chefs de trafic d’influence et blanchiment (Dossier Reso-Garantia) », Paris, 2021.
[14] US Department of Justice (DOJ), op. cit.
[15] Françoise Thom, op. cit.
