Cannibalism, Sulphuric Acid & a Stolen Gun: Fact-Checking Viral Claims From the Epstein Files
Numerous shocking 'revelations' are being widely disseminated on social media and in the press. But take a closer look, and the horror show quickly becomes farcical.
Hi folks. Welcome to the next instalment of my weekly fact-checking series debunking viral conspiracy theories surrounding the Epstein files, correcting clickbait and media-promoted myths, and adding some important context to the chaos.
Let’s dive straight back in.
CLAIM: An email in the Epstein files shows Epstein and an associate discussing children between the ages of 6 and 7.
We’ll start with an easy one. Some X users report that the below email documents Epstein talking with an unidentified associate about ‘hot girls between 6 and 7’.
The truth is that the email’s sender is telling Epstein to come to a Hari NYC yoga class, makes no mention of underage females, and provides the address (still active today):
“Hari NYC” (New York City).
“30” (30th Street), “between 6 and 7” (6th and 7th Street).
CLAIM: “Epstein ordered sulphuric acid to dissolve the bodies of victims”
You may have seen this bizarre claim doing the rounds on social media, particularly on X. But while it’s true that Jeffrey Epstein’s staff once ordered a large amount of sulphuric acid for his island, it is only extraordinary to those of us, myself included, who aren’t lucky enough to own a private island and therefore don’t understand the operational necessities of trying to sustain life on one.
It’s all well and good lying back on your sun lounger by the pool all weekend, slowly sipping margaritas. But you and your guests are going to need to drink more than just cocktails. With the heat on Little Saint James generally never dipping below 25 degrees, and the humidity on the island averaging between 70-80%, water was needed in huge volumes. It not only kept inhabitants hydrated, but also hygienic. It was needed for the dozens of toilets and showers, for washing clothes and bed sheets, for watering the countless plants and cultivated lawns, for irrigation, for… well, you get the picture.
Untreated seawater is, of course, a big no-no, unless you want the salt content to destroy your clothes and sanitation systems, or you wish to drink it and leave your guests to dig you an early grave on the beach while your brain and body dehydrate into insanity. Thus, Epstein’s island, like all private islands, relied upon a sophisticated water treatment system.
The most important component in this was the Reverse Osmosis Plant (RO), mainly used to desalinize the water. Documents in the Epstein files show that the island operated an RO plant to turn seawater into fresh, usable water.
But such systems require a LOT of maintenance.
In May 2014, the water on Epstein’s island was found to have a considerably high PH level, making it potentially dangerous and also contributing to the rusting of water pipes and equipment. This was confirmed by an inspector who visited the island, as demonstrated in the below email from the Epstein files. With seawater being alkaline, it was decided that acid would be needed to balance out the PH levels (standard practice).
Less than a year later, in February 2014, the Florida company TSG, which designs, builds and maintains water purification plants, wrote a service report on the seawater reverse osmosis plant on Little St. James, which also appears in the Epstein files the DOJ published. The report mentions the "Sulfuric Acid Chemical feed pump" that Epstein’s staff went out and purchased, and includes pictures of the plant.
Treatment of the water’s PH levels was continuous throughout the years that Epstein owned Little Saint James.
In 2018, records show that his staff ordered more of it - six 55-gallon drums that were delivered to the island to once again try to remedy the problem.
Not for ‘dissolving bodies’. Not for ‘destroying evidence’. Just simply and boringly for purifying water.
If I have to write any more tedious lines about PH levels and acid, I’ll end up jumping into a batch, so let’s move on to the next viral claim.
CLAIM: “CCTV footage from Epstein’s home shows him with his victims”
It’s true that there was a CCTV camera installed in Epstein’s office. But the media are tending to omit important context.
Firstly, a thorough police investigation concluded that no surveillance footage from Epstein’s home showed him with any underage females. Instead, on occasion they showed him with young adult women, though not engaging in any sexual activity.
Secondly, the camera was installed in the office due to an employee stealing money kept there. The thief was Epstein’s butler, Juan Alessi.
After leaving Epstein’s employ, Alessi had been caught re-entering the house in West Palm Beach and frequently stealing cash from Epstein’s desk. Perplexed by the recurring disappearance of his money, Jeffrey had set up a CCTV camera, carefully hidden in a clock. He then called the police, showing an officer the subsequent footage of Alessi, over a number of days, creeping into the house via the sliding doors, helping himself to bank notes and even Jeffrey’s handgun, a black Glock kept behind a desk. When he presented Alessi with a grainy photograph of him caught in the act, Alessi confessed. His excuse was that he and his wife were going through a divorce and that he wanted the gun to commit suicide; however, this didn’t account for his stealing of almost $10,000 in $100 bills from a white envelope tucked into one of Jeffrey’s briefcases.
Ultimately, Epstein decided not to prosecute and allowed Alessi to pay back the money in instalments.
CLAIM: “A Nine-year-old victim is mentioned in the emails”
This claim can be seen not only in widely-circulated social media posts, but also in mainstream newspapers.
“9-year-old victim… wow!” Senator Cynthia Lummis told the press on Monday, parroting what she’d read in an email sent to Epstein in 2013.
But if you’ve seen some of the many emails within the files, you’ll have noticed two things:
Epstein was a DREADFUL speller; so much, in fact, that he had the following signature/excuse automatically included beneath all of his emails: “Sorry for the typos”.
The emails are riddled with out-of-place equal (=) sign. This, it has already been revealed, is simply the result of an exporting error, with the DoJ’s system accidentally replacing thousands of numbers and letters throughout the files with equal signs. Brian Krassentein (who is a regular poster of disinformation and clickbait) was one of the first to falsely claim that the below email shows that Epstein was discussing a 9-year-old. But in reality, the equal sign has replaced the first number. It cannot be zero, ergo the ‘sexy and cute’ Brazilian being discussed must have been at least 19 years old at the time.
CLAIM: Karyna Shuliak (Epstein’s last girlfriend) has ‘risen from her Twitter grave’
Social media users went into a frenzy after an account believed to be owned by Epstein's last girlfriend was suddenly reactivated, leading Alex Jones to request an interview with her.
The X account @Karynashuliak racked up over 30,000 followers in a matter of days.
On Saturday, ‘Karyna’ posted: “After years of silence, the truth: Jeffrey was innocent, trapped by powerful people who silenced him. I was his last confidante, and I have the evidence they’re still hiding.”
During my five year investigation into the Epstein scandal for my upcoming book, NAKED LIES, I revealed that the financier’s last jail cell telephone call before he died in August 2019 was to Shuliak.
Shuliak, born in 1991, became publicly known after the death of Epstein due to her close personal relationship with him and claims that she may have been a significant beneficiary of his estate. Raised in Minsk, Belarus, she trained initially as a dentist in her home country before moving to the United States in her early twenties to continue her professional education. Her relocation and subsequent career progression coincided with her introduction to Epstein, whom she met around 2011, beginning a relationship that would last until his death in August 2019.
Epstein is reported to have played a substantial role in supporting Shuliak’s dental career after they became involved. Financial records, emails, and witness accounts suggest that he helped fund her continued dental education in the United States, including tuition and associated costs linked to dental training in New York. He is also reported to have assisted with immigration-related matters, living expenses, and international travel, not only for Shuliak herself but also for members of her family. During this period, she completed the necessary qualifications to practice dentistry in the United States and later held dental registrations in multiple jurisdictions, including Florida and California, with professional links to the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein owned extensive property.
Within Epstein’s inner circle, Shuliak was described by some associates as protective and closely involved in his day-to-day affairs.
There is no evidence or allegation that she participated in Epstein’s alleged criminal activities.
After his death, attention shifted to Epstein’s estate planning, particularly a trust structure he executed just days earlier. Court filings and investigative reporting have stated that Shuliak was named as a primary intended beneficiary of that trust, with provisions that allegedly included cash assets, valuable jewellery, real estate holdings, and long-term financial support. Some reports have claimed the value of what she stood to inherit could have reached around $100 million, although this figure has never been definitively confirmed.
Whether Shuliak ultimately received any substantial inheritance remains unclear.
Today, Shuliak remains a largely private figure, does not give comment to the press, and has no accounts on social media.
That’s why I was surprised to wake up and see that her name was trending on X, with the Twitter account Karynashuliak posting sensationalised comments and garnering widespread attention - something that Shuliak herself has always sought to avoid.
More surprisingly, I saw that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones had reached out to her to request an interview.
So I did some digging.
Then, what was evidently a hoax suddenly morphed into an undeniable scam when the account sent out a post asking for crypto donations.
The account also runs a similar grift on Telegram, and another on Instagram.
On another post, ‘Karyna’ wrote warned that Ghislaine Maxwell would be murdered if she ‘tries to speak out’. The post concluded by writing, ‘just like they murdered my husband’.
This alone should have raised a red flag (Epstein and Karyna, though in a relationship, were never married). However, X users continued to believe the account’s claims, with some even making donations.
Having interviewed a long list of key witnesses for NAKED LIES - from Trump’s former lawyer, members of the Maxwell family and Epstein’s brother, to alleged victims and Virginia Giuffre’s inner circle - I decided to reach out to someone whom I know to be associated with the real Karyna Shuliak. I cannot reveal their name, because they do not wish to be the target of the media’s ongoing frenzied harassment.
My source put me in touch with Shuliak, and, while she declined to be interviewed, she agreed for me to release the following comment from her:
“It’s not me. I have no account on X. The account claiming to be me (@Karynashuliak) is not in any way associated with me and is unauthorised. I have no online presence because I wish to protect my privacy.”
Case (easily) solved.
Two hours after I published my initial report exposing the fake account, its owner publicly admitted that it was a fake (though its mysterious owner tried to package the deception as ‘a social experiment’).
CLAIM: Epstein had a secret baby
The following headlines and excerpts have sent the international press and public into a frenzy of speculation this week, with fascinated readers now firmly believing that Jeffrey Epstein sired a secret son.
It even almost duped me at first, with the claim that Prince Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, had emailed Jeffrey Epstein to congratulate him on the birth of a baby boy, leaving me scratching my head and diving into the documents in search of verification.
However, I quickly noticed that the now widespread belief is based on lazy journalism, a lust to produce clickbait, and a complete absence of basic fact-checking.
So I decided to check the facts for you myself. What I found is that Ferguson did NOT congratulate Jeffrey Epstein, but had instead congratulated their (Epstein and Ferguson’s) mutual friend and business associate, David Stern.
David Stern (not to be confused with the late NBA chairman, although numerous mainstream outlets have already done precisely that) is a British businessman formerly associated with multiple companies, including the Witan Group.
This is David Stern:
And this is David Stern with Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew:
An example of correspondence between Prince Andrew and David Stern can be read in the Epstein files by clicking here.
Now, without any fluff or rambling, here is a timeline of what the Epstein Files actually tell us in relation to the ‘mystery baby boy’:
21/02/2011: David Stern sent the below email to Jeffrey Epstein, demonstrating that he (Stern) was in a relationship with a Russian woman named Yana Bogomolova.
26/06/2011: Yana Bogomolova had an ultrasound. I managed to discover that the Epstein files contain a video of that scan, which was later sent by David, at that time a proud soon-to-be father, to Epstein.
As you can see from the data listed on the ultrasound video, the gestational age of the pregnancy is listed as 28 weeks and 3 days, placing it firmly in the third (final) trimester. By using a due date calculator, I found that the baby would have had a due date of mid to late September 2011.
20/09/2011: During the pregnancy, David and Yana got married. And then, on the 20th September, their baby boy was born. In an email later sent to Epstein and other friends and associates of the Sterns, David Stern writes: “Dear Friends, we are delighted to announce the healthy & safe arrival of our son, born on 20 September 2011. He is looking forward to meeting you soon! Best wishes, Yana & David & [baby’s name redacted] Stern.”
21/09/2011: The day after Stern’s baby boy was born, Sarah Ferguson contacted David Stern through BBM (BlackBerry Messenger). In the message, she wrote: “Don’t know if you are still on this bbm but heard from The Duke that you have had a baby boy. Even though you never kept in touch, I still am here with love, friendship and congratulations on your baby boy. Sarah xx”. Shortly after, she sent a follow-up message: “You have disappeared. I did not even know you were having a baby. It was sooo crystal clear to me that you were only friends with me to get to Andrew. And that really hurt me deeply. More than you will know.”
On the same day, David Stern sent two emails to Jeffrey Epstein, copying the messages from Ferguson to show him what she had said. Although the sender’s details are redacted, the DoJ forgot to hide the sender’s details fully in the first email, revealing that the sender is David Stern, using his company email account, ds@wittangroup.com.
In the first email that David sent to Epstein at 6:18 am, he wrote “F [Ferguson] writes…” before including Ferguson’s BBM message:
In the second email David sent to Epstein at 6:26 am, he told him what Ferguson had sent next, starting his email simply with ‘Followed by:……’
So there we have it. A friend of Epstein and Ferguson had a baby. Ferguson congratulated him, yet also scolded him for allegedly using her to get close to Prince Andrew before ghosting her. That friend then forwarded her message to Epstein.
The explanation for why David Stern sent Ferguson’s BBM to Epstein is simple. By then, Epstein’s relationship with the Duchess of York had significantly soured.
After being hounded by the press over her association with Epstein, Ferguson gave an interview to the Daily Telegraph, and the Daily Telegraph subsequently published the following quote from her:
“I personally, on behalf of myself, deeply regret that Jeffrey Epstein became involved in any way with me. I abhor paedophilia and any sexual abuse of children and know that this was a gigantic error of judgment on my behalf. I am just so contrite I cannot say.”
In her interview, Ferguson admitted that she allowed Epstein to pay off £15,000 of her debts. “Whenever I can, I will repay the money and will have nothing ever to do with Jeffrey Epstein ever again,” she added.
The week after Ferguson’s interview, enraged that she had publicly called him a paedophile, Epstein discussed the situation with a crisis management publicist, Mike Sitrick. Epstein suggested Ferguson could release a statement saying she had been “duped” by lawyers representing some of his accusers.
“She now knows that what she was told was based on falsehoods and fabrications designed to enhance their civil suit,” Epstein said. “She should out the newspapers on the offering of money for stories.”
Sitrick, understood to be working for lawyers Epstein had retained, responded, saying they needed to put pressure on Ferguson to change her account. He said: “Agree, quite frankly, whatever her excuse, she needs to say she was mistaken, she apologises, feels terrible. Jeffrey is not a paedophile. The woman who was the source of the conviction for solicitation of prostitution for someone under 18 was 17-3/4, and she is very sorry. We need all those components. She created this problem. She needs to fix it, and as I know, everyone knows time is of the essence here.”
In the exchange, Sitrick said that if Ferguson did not succumb to “gentle persuasion”, he felt that they should “turn up the heat even to the point of sending her a draft defamation lawsuit”.
Although Epstein expressed concerns that he could not “depend” on Ferguson “doing as we would wish”, Sitrick replied that her retraction was “critical”. He said this would be “a major turning point and be picked up everywhere”.
He added: “This is about your name and your reputation. You really can’t worry about her, in my view, you need to worry about you. She certainly isn’t concerned about you or your reputation.”
Ferguson appears not to have made a public statement in support of Epstein. In private, however, she emailed him. She wrote: “I know you feel hellaciously let down by me from what you were either told or read and I must humbly apologise to you and your heart for that.”
She added: “I was instructed to act with the utmost speed if I would have any chance of holding on to my career as a children’s book author and a children’s philanthropist. As you know, I did not, absolutely not, say the ‘P word’ [paedophile] about you but understand it was reported that I did.”
Regardless, fast-forward to now, and journalists, eager to publish a ‘juicy’ Epstein-related story yet too lazy and/or useless to correctly read and relay a simple email, have quickly seen a message from Ferguson that was sent to Epstein, failed (or have chosen to ignore) the ‘F wrote’ and ‘followed by….’ important pieces of context, failed (or again chose to ignore) the ultrasound video and the fact that David Stern, not Epstein, was the proud father and the recipient of Ferguson’s original messages, and have published a lie claiming that Epstein may have had a secret baby son.
And that lie continues to circulate around the world. It has since been repeated in articles by the Guardian, the Daily Mail, the Independent, the Daily Beast, and in almost every newspaper and media outlet on the planet.
I contacted the BBC, who assured me that their error was ‘being looked into’.
To date, they have not issued a correction or removed or updated their misleading articles. On the contrary, they have since continued to promote the myth in follow-up articles.
So much for trustworthy journalism. And this is just a small example, just one from hundreds of articles containing far more damaging misinformation relating to the Epstein scandal that has been published and promoted by the press and media.
Hardly anyone seems to be reporting the news accurately or without bias anymore.
That’s why I hope you’ll kindly support me moving forward. I’ve been investigating the Epstein scandal for almost 6 years now, interviewing key witnesses, gathering fresh evidence, fact-checking the misleading and damaging lies spread by the media, and striving to deliver to you exactly what you deserve - the truth.
I’m doing this independently, and now rely solely on paid Substack subscribers to be able to continue my work.
Please consider becoming a paid subscriber by clicking the button below.
CLAIM: A Paedophile pilot has been arrested in connection to the Jeffrey Epstein case
A viral tweet led to small news outlets repeating the claim that a pilot had been arrested in Brazil after being found to have operated a child-trafficking operation in collusion with Epstein.
The post has since been viewed over 3 million times, despite it being a lie.
Yes, a pilot named Sergio Antonio Lopes was arrested for child pornography and exploitation this week. However, he and his alleged crimes have no connection to the Epstein scandal whatsoever. You can read more about the story by clicking here.
CLAIM: “Epstein murdered a Christian girl!”
This is a particularly odd one, with X users claiming that an email, in which Epstein talks about an unidentified woman and Jesus, translates into “Epstein killed a child and then mocked her religion”.
But no child is mentioned in the email, let alone a murder. Furthermore, it would be illogical for someone to jokingly suggest that Epstein dress up as Jesus the next time he sees the woman if the woman in question were no longer alive.
CLAIM: “A diplomat offered her 13-year-old sister to Epstein”
This nonsense, invented by Mario Nawfal (a well-known poster of fake news and clickbait) has been viewed millions of times.
The truth is that the sister of Al-Owais (whom I won’t name here, to protect her from the many harassing ghouls and armchair detectives on X) was in her twenties at the time that the email was sent.
CLAIM: Epstein and his associates were eating children/engaging in cannibalism
For context, Lauren Boebert is a famously moronic Qanon believer, and is widely reported in the media as having promoted Pizzagate. She believes in every conspiracy theory under the sun (which she probably believes to be a giant climate-controlling lamp owned by George Soros). Pizzagate supporters are renowned for trying to create any sinister connection they can to harmless words found in emails (the 'Pizza' in 'Pizzagate' originates from nutjobs finding multiple harmless references to pizza among the tens of thousands of Tony podesta's leaked emails, and claiming it was code for child abuse). You can read my (very very) deep dive into Pizzagate, its origins, and how it influenced the Epstein scandal, by clicking here.
The 'torture' emails Boebert refers to are in fact a few emails (one is from Epstein to the Sultan, jokingly saying 'thanks for the torture video' - the other two are similarly tongue-in-cheek, for instance someone telling Epstein that one of their friends 'looks tortured' - I checked, and this relates to a recent relationship break-up.
Regarding 'Consumption', the word appears in the emails over 1,000 times... all in relation to trade, science, or commerce. E.g. 'In China, the consumption of eggs is 10% less than an India', and a report titled 'Reduced consumption due to higher CAFE standards and Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards the automobile replacement cycle'.
Regarding 'Human consumption', yes, that phrase appears too... but only, for instance, at the end of a private email, i.e. 'not for human consumption'.
And there’s the sinister-sounding 'Cannibal Restaurant'.
I found the restaurant in question (now closed down). It was operational in 2013, when Epstein and his friends were (very rarely) emailing about it, as many others would have been.
The Cannibal (officially The Cannibal Beer & Butcher) was a gastropub/restaurant and butcher shop at 113 East 29th Street in Manhattan, New York. It opened in 2011 and was still in operation around 2013 (the year in which it's mentioned in the Epstein emails). It was known for its inventive meat dishes, artisanal charcuterie, and "an impressive craft-beer list". It was started by restaurateur Christian Pappanicholas as a spin-off of his next-door Belgian restaurant Resto and became known as a meat-centric neighbourhood favourite.
Beef jerky is indeed mentioned in the emails, but it isn’t a ‘codeword’, as brainless Boebert believes. It was written in relation to that same restaurant, which was famous for its burgers and beef jerky.
And as Boerbert and thousands of others put their tin foil hats back on, naturally they were bound to trawl through millions of files in a hunt to find harmless references to pizza they can assimilate into their underground child-trafficking fantasies.
The Epstein emails contain such references - but always in the context of, you guessed it, ordering or eating pizza.
Boerbert tried to further insinuate that an email mentioning grape soda and pizza had an evil hidden meaning behind it.
But, as Mostly Peaceful Latinas pointed out, the emails reveal that the simplest (and in this instance, the sanist) answer is often the correct one.
If you’ve made it this far, well done! Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for another fact-checker and some more exclusive articles and interviews in the coming days and weeks.
Also, if you aren’t already, please subscribe to Jessica Reed Kraus. She’s the only other journalist I know who has spent years investigating this entire scandal and putting facts and morals above fiction and money. She has a treasure trove of exclusive interviews on her Substack, and will soon be providing an update on the case of Epstein’s former cellmate.
We both need your support so we can keep giving you what you deserve - the truth.
We’ve got a long, treacherous road ahead of us.
P.S. “Sorry for the typos”.
For starters, I am relieved to hear an alternate reason behind the presence of the sulfuric acid!
Well done! The truth is always simple, I believe. Lies tend to be complicated. And your investigation is proving that. Thanks for your work on this!