Justice Department emails released Friday expose Jeffrey Epstein's role as an unlikely power broker in Silicon Valley's executive suite. The documents reveal that the convicted sex offender facilitated a meeting between Apple CEO Tim Cook and Steven Sinofsky, Microsoft's former Windows chief, just weeks after Sinofsky's abrupt $14 million exit from Microsoft in November 2012. The disclosure adds another troubling chapter to tech's reckoning with Epstein's connections to industry leaders.
The Justice Department just dropped a bombshell into Silicon Valley's carefully managed reputation. Emails released Friday reveal that Jeffrey Epstein - the financier and convicted sex offender who died in federal custody in 2019 - wasn't just connected to tech's elite. He was actively brokering deals and arranging meetings between some of the industry's most powerful executives.
The documents show that in late November 2012, just weeks after Microsoft announced Steven Sinofsky's surprise departure as head of Windows, Epstein was working his Rolodex. In an email to Sinofsky, Epstein wrote that Apple CEO Tim Cook was "excited to meet," according to court filings obtained by The Verge.
But there was a catch. Cook had apparently heard rumors that Sinofsky was starting a company with "farstall" - Epstein's typo-riddled reference to Scott Forstall, Apple's former iOS chief who'd been shown the door just one month earlier in October 2012. The timing raises questions about what Cook knew and when about Sinofsky's post-Microsoft plans.
Sinofsky's exit from Microsoft was one of the messiest breakups in tech history. After leading the charge on Windows 8, he walked away with a $14 million settlement package. And who did he turn to for help negotiating that deal? Jeffrey Epstein. The newly released emails show Epstein wasn't just a financial advisor - he was Sinofsky's career counselor, helping plot his next moves at companies like and Apple.
