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.
“I won’t do anything before hearing back from you but I’m ready to go into bat for our friend,” Osborne added.
Osborne, Rake and Barclays declined to comment.
Email exchanges between Osborne and Epstein were referred to in proceedings last month by the Financial Conduct Authority, which in 2023 banned Staley from holding senior positions and fined him £1.8mn over his ties to the convicted paedophile.
The banker has challenged the ban in a high-profile court case that concluded earlier this month. A judgment is not expected for several weeks.
The regulator alleges that Staley misled the FCA regarding the nature of his relationship with Epstein. Staley has maintained he had a “close professional relationship” with the sex offender but that they were not friends.
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.
A profile of Osborne by the Los Angeles-based think-tank Berggruen Institute states that his advisory firm “acts for a select group of governments and corporations across the world” and that clients include “some of the world’s most admired leaders and philanthropists”.
Osborne, during this period, also set up his own investment firm Hedosophia, named after the Greek gods of pleasure and wisdom.
Hedosophia, with backing from vehicles linked to Bloomberg and Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, invested in technology companies. Those included music streaming platform Spotify and Alibaba, the Chinese ecommerce giant, according to people familiar with the fund.
Osborne later became one of the biggest promoters of blank cheque companies alongside venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya. Their series of special purpose acquisition companies, or Spacs, helped fuel the 2020 boom bringing companies such as Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and fintech SoFi to public markets.
But Osborne is perhaps better known as a fixer for the rich and powerful. In the emails referenced in court — exchanged with Epstein in 2012 — Osborne suggested lobbying George Osborne, then UK chancellor, on Staley’s behalf.
“I propose to call my longtime friend . . . George Osborne’s chief of staff to say that Jes is in the running — and would make the best pick for the job,” he wrote to Epstein in July 2012.
Osborne also appeared to have senior connections inside Barclays.
“I have the full short list from the highest placed source,” Osborne wrote to Epstein that same month, and followed up with an email about the hiring process: “We should discuss this weekend whether to put out his name before or after those meetings on August 5th/6th.” He added that Staley’s interviews would be “key” but “we can definitely help along the process”.
A person involved in the hiring process at the time said there had been no communication with either Osborne or Epstein about the recruitment process.
Staley said in court he was unaware of Osborne and Epstein’s efforts to have him installed as Barclays CEO in 2012 but conceded that Osborne seemed to have “some connection inside of Barclays”. The UK lender has maintained that no one lobbied the bank on Staley’s behalf, either in 2012 or 2015 when he was named CEO.
Osborne first met Epstein in early 2010 at a dinner organised by TED Conferences in Long Beach, California, according to a person familiar with the matter. They met subsequently a handful of times, typically during UN climate week, and in 2012 Epstein asked Osborne to look into who the candidates were for the top job at Barclays following Diamond’s resignation.
Osborne and Staley had met in early 2011 and maintained a friendly relationship, said the person. Epstein appeared to be aware the two men knew each other and emailed Staley in October of that year to tell him: “Ian Osborne is here at the house, want to come over.”
Staley told the court during his testimony last month that he and Osborne had not been friends. “I think my recollection is that Ian was the type of person that tried to get themselves involved in business in order to elevate their position,” he said.
