Epstein Invested $2.5 Million in N26 Through Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures – Report

Convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein invested more than $2.5 million in the German-Austrian online bank N26 through a venture capital fund of the investment firm Valar Ventures. This is evident from confidential investor documents and emails that the U.S. Department of Justice published at the end of January as part of the so-called Epstein Files, as Der Standard reports.

Investments through Peter Thiel’s firm

Epstein had invested a total of $40 million in two venture capital funds from Valar Ventures. The investment firm was co-founded by tech investor and PayPal founder Peter Thiel. Between 2015 and 2016, more than $2.5 million flowed from these funds into the financing of N26. Valar Ventures itself invested a total of approximately $14.6 million in the online bank during this period.

The investments took place during two early funding rounds when N26 was still in its early stages. The so-called Series A, in which Epstein participated, amounted to approximately $11 million. To date, N26 has raised nearly $1.8 billion from investors according to its own statements.

N26 founders say they did not know about it

The two Austrian founders Maximilian Tayenthal and Valentin Stalf, who started N26 in 2013, told Der Standard that they knew nothing of Epstein’s involvement. Valar did not inform N26 about Epstein’s investment, which is not uncommon in fund participations.

“With an American fund, you can normally assume that the money is clean. If we had known that the money came from a convicted criminal, we would not have accepted it,” Tayenthal told the newspaper.

N26 stated that it was not involved in interactions between investors and Epstein and had never sought contact with him or been in direct communication with him.

Further investment offers

The published emails show that Andrew McCormack, partner at Valar Ventures, offered Epstein another investment opportunity in N26 in November 2018. This involved a major funding round in which Valar wanted to participate with approximately $30 million. Whether Epstein accepted this offer cannot be clearly determined from the documents.

In February 2019, Epstein’s investments in the Valar funds were worth approximately $90 million according to an email from McCormack, more than doubling in value. Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on charges of human trafficking and forced prostitution of minors and died in a prison cell in August 2019. He had already pleaded guilty in 2008 to, among other things, recruiting a minor for prostitution.

Background on the parties involved

Peter Thiel, co-founder of Valar Ventures, is a prominent tech investor who attracted attention in 2016 through his donations to then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. Valar Ventures left a request regarding Epstein’s investments unanswered.

The two Austrian N26 founders Tayenthal and Stalf withdrew from the management of the online bank last year. N26 was valued at up to $9 billion at one point.