Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly arranged two business meeting with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after his first stint in prison, new emails released by the US Department of Justice have revealed.
The disgraced financier killed himself in 2019 after being indicted on federal charges of sex trafficking, but previously served time in Florida in 2008 after pleading guilty to procuring for prostitution a girl below age 18.
Epstein served a lenient 13 months of his 18-month sentence, with a number of unorthodox privileges afforded to him during his time at the Palm Beach County Stockade, such as being allowed to leave for up to 12 hours a day, six days a week on ‘work release’.
The convicted paedophile then served an addition year of similarly lax probation on house arrest, which allowed for international travel, and was later placed on the sex offender’s register.
One year on, in January 2011, Boehly appears to have been introduced to Epstein via an associate called David Mitchell, a New York-based property developer.
Boehly, who is also a co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Lakers, is head of holding company Eldridge Industries, whose investments include media, real estate, and asset management.
Emails released by the US Department of Justice have shown that Jeffrey Epstein sought to organise meetings with Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly in 2011
At the time however, he was a managing partner at financial services Guggenheim Partners, which was then responsible for managing over $100billion-worth of assets.
Epstein’s then-assistant Lesley Groff exchanged emails with Mitchell, initially writing: ‘Jeffrey requested I touch base with you on your “Guggenheim person”…might this person be able to come see Jeffrey Mon or Tues (Jan 17 or 18)’.
Boehly is established as the contact mentioned, with a meeting confirmed between Groff and Epstein for 11am on Tuesday January 18.
In April of that year, Groff sent another email to Epstein, detailing an attempt to call Boehly, and confirming that she had asked his assistant to ask Boehly to call Epstein back.
Later, in September 2011, the second meeting was proposed by Mitchell in an email with the subject line ‘Peter Mandelsohn’, with the developed asking: ‘Can we get together with my friend Jeffery (sic) to speak about bringing Peter into the Irish situation. Is there some time that work for you?’
If Mitchell’s initial spelling is incorrect, the ‘Peter’ referenced could be Peter Mandelson, the former British ambassador to the United States who was dismissed from the role last September amid revelations about his ties to Epstein and the late predator’s convicted sex-trafficker associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
Boehly replied to this email five days later on September 12 approvingly, adding that he was ‘in Europe’.
After back and forth between Groff, Mitchell, Epstein, and Boehly’s ‘mission control’ responsible for his diary Emily Curtis, a conference call was confirmed for September 19 according to an email sent by Mitchell to Curtis that morning.
There is no suggestion in the emails that Boehly was involved in Epstein in anything other than a business sense, nor is there evidence of in the released emails of further contact.
Daily Mail Sport has contacted Boehly’s representative for comment.
The latest tranche of over three million emails release by the DOJ on Friday revealed that New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch was in contact with Epstein over the procurement of young women.
In a statement provided to Daily Mail, Tisch said: ‘We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy, and investments.
‘I did not take him up on any of his invitations and never went to his island. As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with.’
