Electrical car startup Lucid Motors was scrambling to boost a Collection D funding spherical in 2017. It had courted Ford as a possible investor, however Jia Yueting, the founding father of rival EV startup Faraday Future, had quietly amassed round a 30% stake and was basically blocking new traders.
David Stern, a mysterious businessman and shut advisor to former Prince Andrew, noticed a chance to interrupt the logjam: usher in Jeffrey Epstein.
“Ford will doubtless be lead in $400m Collection D in Lucid. Huge strategic transfer,” Stern wrote to Epstein in emails launched final week as a part of the Division of Justice’s newest disclosure of three million paperwork associated to Epstein. Jia “has large money points” at Faraday, he wrote, and must “promote now to make payroll for his different enterprise.”
It wasn’t the primary EV startup Stern pitched Epstein, and it wouldn’t be the final, in accordance with lots of of paperwork reviewed by TechCrunch.
On the time, legacy automakers and newly minted startups, fueled by the breakthrough success of Tesla and progress by Google’s self-driving venture, had been leaping into electrical and autonomous automobiles. And Stern was apparently hungry to make the most of the ensuing deal circulate. The paperwork present he additionally pitched investments in Faraday Future and in one other EV startup, Canoo.
It’s unlikely Epstein invested in any of them. Lucid didn’t shut its Collection D till late 2018, when it raised greater than $1 billion from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. Faraday finally acquired a serious funding from Chinese language actual property conglomerate Evergrande in late 2017. Epstein mentioned in a 2018 message included within the Justice Division’s information that he had no “direct” or “oblique” curiosity in Canoo.
These discussions as a substitute present larger perception into the many connections Epstein, a convicted intercourse offender, needed to Silicon Valley startups up till his arrest and loss of life in 2019. Additionally they present a snapshot of a relationship that has not been explored in earlier reporting.
Techcrunch occasion
Boston, MA
|
June 23, 2026
By the point of the Lucid emails, Epstein and Stern had been working collectively carefully for practically a decade, the newly launched paperwork present. To Epstein, Stern was “my china contact.” To Stern, Epstein was “my mentor, and I do what he tells me.”
A ‘ghost’ of a businessman
Stern is a largely digital ghost with little data accessible about him on the web previous to the discharge of the information.
He’s maybe finest referred to as the director of Prince Andrew’s Pitch@Palace startup contest, which ran for just a few years till Andrew’s connections to Epstein had been uncovered. Andrew even referred to Stern as a “ghost” in one 2010 e-mail.
Stern seems to have first approached Epstein in 2008, in accordance with the emails launched by the DOJ — only one month earlier than the financier pled responsible to soliciting a minor for prostitution in Florida. Stern was making a fund, known as AGC Capital, to make the most of the financial increase in China, and he wished Epstein to take a position.
It’s not clear how Stern was launched to Epstein. Stern didn’t reply to an in depth listing of questions for this text.
Stern, who’s German, attended the College of London and Shi-Da College in China within the late Nineties, and served as chairman of China Millennium Capital, the Chinese language arm of Millennium Capital Companions, in accordance with the bio part of the AGC Capital pitch deck, which is within the DOJ’s information.
Stern additionally labored for Siemens, negotiating “industrial Joint Ventures with Chinese language State Owned enterprises,” earlier than becoming a member of the Shanghai workplace of Deutsche Financial institution. He began an organization known as Asia Gateway in 2001 that “suggested blue chip corporations, Chinese language enterprises in addition to the Chinese language authorities in progress methods and investments.”
These jobs seem to have helped Stern make connections with highly effective and rich Chinese language businessmen, together with Li Botan — the son-in-law of the fourth-most senior chief in China underneath Xi Jinping’s predecessor Hu Jintao. (Li would ultimately go on to change into a founding investor in Canoo with Stern.)
It’s not clear if Epstein invested in AGC Capital; the financier spent the following 12 months serving his sentence. However Stern and Epstein remained in contact, and in 2009 Stern began pitching different concepts.
The paperwork reveal a relationship that begins off formal and terse, with Epstein at one level excoriating Stern for not having correctly ready a possible enterprise deal.
“[I]f you need to do actual offers you need to be exact and cautious„ each error is a fortune,” Epstein wrote. “[Y]our first grade is an F.”
One of many first large initiatives the 2 males collaborated on was serving to the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, with her depressing funds, in accordance with the emails.
The connection deepened over the next decade. The 2 males acquired shut sufficient that Stern felt comfy asking Epstein in 2016 to change into the godfather of one in every of his kids. (Epstein wrote that he was “flattered” however declined as a result of he “made a promise to my goddaughter that I’d not be godfather to anybody else.”)
It’s laborious to say how fruitful the connection was on the enterprise facet. However between 2009 and 2019, Stern introduced Epstein various potential offers throughout numerous industries.
Early on, he appeared lifeless set on beginning a “secret” new fund with Epstein to put money into Chinese language companies collectively, which he known as JEDS — the 2 males’s initials mixed. (It was additionally referred to in some emails as “Serpentine Group.”) Stern later pitched shopping for farmland in Russia, instructed buying the information group Al Jazeera and taking it public, mentioned shopping for troubled music writer EMI, and regarded buying an apparently distressed (and unnamed) undersea cable firm.
Additionally they had their eyes on banks. Stern and Epstein tried to purchase Luxembourg-headquartered personal financial institution Sal. Oppenheim, the emails present. In 2016, they even mentioned a buyout of Deutsche Financial institution, which had for years transacted with Epstein.
Stern repeatedly flaunted his connections with high-profile businessmen and politicians in his emails to Epstein and his different contacts. In February 2012, Stern instructed Epstein introduce Jes Staley — the pinnacle of J.P. Morgan’s funding financial institution on the time — to Malaysian politician Anwar Ibrahim.
“I do know Anwar properly,” Stern wrote. “If he turns into prime minister of malayisa [Staley] will clear up and it may very well be a gold mine for JPM.” (Ibrahim misplaced a contested election in 2013 however grew to become prime minister in 2022.)
Stern additionally claimed to have had dinner with Jack Ma, had a deliberate assembly “alone” with UAE president Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and mentioned he was “associates” with the grandson of former Chinese language president Jiang Zemin.
Going electrical
By 2017, Stern was apparently eyeing the frenzy to construct new mobility corporations.
He tried to get Epstein to fulfill Faraday Future founder Jia to debate an funding. It’s not clear if that ever occurred; the corporate and Jia didn’t reply to requests for remark.
However former BMW and Deutsche Financial institution CFO Stefan Krause, who had been introduced in to avoid wasting Faraday Future, made a direct enchantment to Epstein in April 2017.
“Faraday Future (FF) is a good story in itself, regretfully surrounded by quite a lot of noise round Jia Yueting (YT) and his different enterprises (LeEco, LeMall, LeSports, to call just a few). These companies should not working, so he run out of money. FF is ravenous,” Krause wrote to Epstein. “Nice likelihood to construct a greater Tesla.”
(Krause is described as a “buddy” and a enterprise companion of Stern’s within the paperwork. He didn’t reply to a request for remark.)
It seems these conversations petered out. Quickly after, Stern instructed the Lucid Motors funding.
In Might 2017, a pitch deck landed in Epstein’s inbox. It was put collectively by a fund known as Monstera that Stern had created. “Monstera can acquire a 32% shareholding in Lucid by way of the acquisition of the stake at present managed by Yueting Jia,” one slide reads. Different emails present that Stern anticipated to spend round $300 million to purchase the 32% stake.
He referred to it as a “fireplace sale” in emails. Monstera may both maintain the place or “[o]ffload” it “when Ford is available in.”
Ford finally pulled out, and Lucid needed to wait to shut its Collection D till August 2018, when Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund invested greater than $1 billion. (SEC filings present the Saudi sovereign wealth fund repurchased Jia’s shares over the following few years. Lucid didn’t reply to a request for remark.)
When Krause left Faraday Future to begin a brand new EV firm in late 2017 — first known as Evelozcity and later, Canoo — Stern was one of many authentic backers. He contributed simply $1 million alongside bigger sums from Li, the CCP-connected Chinese language businessman, and Michael Chiang, a billionaire who runs Taiwanese electronics big TPK. (Li’s involvement later triggered a nationwide safety evaluation when Canoo went public in 2020.)
In June 2018, Stern despatched Epstein a doc in regards to the startup, to which Epstein responded: “enjoyable.”
However Epstein by no means invested in Canoo, both. He did, nonetheless, pitch highly effective folks on Stern’s behalf. Epstein emailed Deepak Chopra in Might 2018 and informed the self-help guru that “david has a brand new electrical automotive co in la.” He informed Chopra “they’ll construct the following gen well being sensors into the automotive. you guys ought to discuss.”
In June 2019, Epstein despatched a message to Eduardo Teodorani, an Italian businessman who’s a senior vp of agriculture equipment big CNH. “My buddy David stern… has a electrical automotive co that I believe you need to discover earlier than he sells it to a different co,” Epstein wrote. Epstein additionally related Stern with Sheikh Jabor al Thani, a member of the Qatari royal household, on June 29 so he may “hear extra about your automotive co.”
One week after he despatched that message, Epstein was arrested. He died in jail a month later.
It’s not clear when Stern final spoke to Epstein. However in March 2019, he forwarded a narrative to Epstein titled: “Warren Buffet: Electrical Vehicles Are Very A lot in America’s Future.” Within the physique of the e-mail, Stern wrote: “How will we get him ??”
