Ian Osborne
 Ian Osborne  | |
|---|---|
Fixer to the rich and powerful, associated with Jeffrey Epstein |
Ian Osborne is a deep state fixer.
Activities
The Financial Times described him as:
Over a long career in finance, Ian Osborne has cultivated an air of mystery — despite setting up a multibillion-dollar venture capital firm and rubbing shoulders with everyone from Michael Bloomberg to Boris Johnson.
Known as the ultimate power broker, the founder of Hedosophia has quietly built an influential network over the years, spanning the business, media and political world.
Now a court case in London has revealed that network included Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who died in a New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
The case, filed by former Barclays chief executive Jes Staley, included communications between Osborne and Epstein as they mounted a campaign to have the investment banker installed in the CEO office at the UK bank three years prior to his appointment in 2015.
In emails dubbed "Project Jes", Osborne and Epstein discussed lobbying key political figures, as well as Barclays insiders, to help "our friend" get the top job at the British bank shortly after Bob Diamond was unseated from the role over the Libor fixing scandal in 2012.
Osborne in July 2012 wrote to Epstein in emails referred to as evidence in court: "I would chat with Mike Rake to make the case for Jes," referring to the then deputy chair of Barclays. He also suggested that the financial press and regulators would "look kindly" on Staley’s appointment.
Osborne at the time ran an eponymous public relations and consultancy firm, Osborne & Partners, with clients ranging from Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. He was also a managing director at DST Global, the investment firm set up by Israeli billionaire Yuri Milner.
Osborne, during this period, also set up his own investment firm Hedosophia, named after the Greek gods of pleasure and wisdom.[1]
Event Participated in
| Event | Start | End |
|---|---|---|
| Yalta European Strategy/Meeting/2011 | 2011 | 2011 |
