Tim Collins and the Middle East Banking Network

How a single email thread exposes Epstein's role as deal broker to private equity, European royalty, and post-Soviet oligarchs

The Thread

On July 31, 2010, David Stern forwarded a message to Jeffrey Epstein:

"Signs of life from Collins."

The original message was from Tim Collins, founder of Ripplewood Holdings, one of America's most prominent private equity firms:

"It is a big slice. How r u?"

Epstein replied immediately:

"Hes been in london all week. HE wants to buy another bank in the mideast. he did one in egypt, we should do one in syria or lebanon, the next two hot spots."

(EFTA01816291, EFTA02409070)

That line — "he did one in egypt" — anchors to a verifiable transaction. In February 2006, Collins and Ripplewood purchased an 18.7% stake in Commercial International Bank (CIB) of Egypt for approximately $230 million. Collins installed himself, former Citigroup president Robert Willumstad, and former Mobil CEO Lucio Noto on the board. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker helped broker the deal. Collins exited by December 2009 with what he described as a 54% gross IRR across his portfolio. (Daily News Egypt, Private Equity International)

Now, in mid-2010, Collins wanted to do it again — and Epstein saw himself as part of the next deal. "We should do one in syria or lebanon," he wrote. Not "he" — "we."

What unfolds over the next two years in the corpus is a sustained campaign to embed Epstein's network into Collins' banking acquisitions, using Prince Andrew as a seal of approval and David Stern as the man in the middle.

David Stern: The Man in the Background

The email thread's other participant — redacted in Dataset 9 and Dataset 11 copies, but named in Dataset 10 — is David Stern, a German-French businessman born in 1978 who founded Asia Gateway Limited (later renamed Witan Group) in 2002. Stern described his own role succinctly in a separate email: "I stay in the background/hidden, just make the arrangements." (Middle East Eye)

Stern's name appears across more than 6,000 documents in the EFTA corpus — we verified this by searching the full 2.91-million-page production directly. He served as a director of Prince Andrew's Pitch@Palace entrepreneurial initiative (resigning in 2019 after Epstein's death), a director of St George's House at Windsor Castle from 2016 to 2022, and sat next to Queen Elizabeth II at a Pitch@Palace event in 2016. (Wikipedia, Middle East Eye)

The Collins relationship began two months before the banking email. On May 29, 2010, Stern asked Epstein:

"Is Tim Collins of Ripplewood ok guy? Apart from talking about himself all the time. He has offered to pick me up en route to Bilderberg in plane."

Epstein replied:

"he is good friends with Jes, little full of himself. good white house contacts."

(EFTA01813479)

"Jes" is Jes Staley, then CEO of JPMorgan's Investment Bank. Collins and Staley's offices exchanged calls through Epstein's network — Staley's office called regarding a Collins-Prince Andrew meeting, and Collins then asked for Andrew's contact number through Staley. (Yahoo News)

The day after the Bilderberg question, the conversation turned darker. Stern mentioned that "tim collins seems unusually happy I am flying on his plane." Epstein warned:

"good, careful, he talks... re alistair. not a very class act to follow... the risk is that he has now set up the standard of trash, i would like you as far away from that as I would from chemoy"

(EFTA01812311)

"Chemoy" is Mikhail Cherney (also spelled Chernoy) — a Russian-Israeli oligarch whom the FBI considered "an organised crime figure." (Wikipedia) Epstein used Cherney as a benchmark for toxicity. More on him shortly.

The Cannes Connection

The July 31 thread contains more than banking talk. Stern invited Epstein south:

"Why don't you come to Cannes on Monday/Tuesday and see Leon and me?"

Epstein demurred:

"give leon a kisssfor me"

(EFTA02407723)

"Leon" is Leon Black, founder of Apollo Global Management. Stern later reported back from the party:

"Leon friendly but not wishing to engage with me."

(EFTA00734780)

In the same thread, Stern asked Epstein:

"Do you know Beny Steinmetz?"

Epstein replied:

"ive never met him.. ehud barak likes him, and he is close to chemoy, derpaskas ex buddy"

(EFTA00737300)

Three names in one sentence. Beny Steinmetz, the Israeli diamond and mining billionaire, was then one of Israel's richest men. He was convicted in a Geneva court in January 2021 of bribing officials in Guinea to secure iron-ore mining rights, sentenced to five years and a 50 million Swiss franc fine. The sentence was reduced to three years on appeal, and the Swiss Supreme Court upheld the conviction in March 2023, exhausting all appeals. (OCCRP, SWI swissinfo)

Ehud Barak, Israel's former Prime Minister, counted Steinmetz among his close friends, according to Haaretz. (Haaretz)

And Deripaska — Oleg Deripaska, the Russian aluminum oligarch — was Cherney's former business partner. Their partnership dispute became a landmark $4 billion London lawsuit. (OCCRP)

Then Stern offered a Syria angle:

"I have a good contact in Syria - Wafic Said - but sex better in Lebanon."

(EFTA02409071)

Wafic Said is a Syrian-Saudi billionaire worth approximately £1.5 billion who helped facilitate the Al-Yamamah arms deal between the UK and Saudi Arabia — the biggest export deal in British history, generating £43 billion in revenue for BAE Systems. He later donated approximately £70 million to establish the Said Business School at the University of Oxford. (Wikipedia, Said Foundation)

All of this — Collins, Black, Steinmetz, Barak, Cherney, Deripaska, Said — in a single email thread on a Saturday morning.

Peter Mandelson's 45 Minutes

Twenty days before the banking email, on July 11, 2010, Peter Mandelson — the former UK Business Secretary and Labour Party strategist — emailed Epstein:

"Home. Seeing Tim Collins in 45 mins. Any suggestions?"

(EFTA02002567)

The subject line reads "ask for a job." Mandelson was meeting Collins at Epstein's direction. The same email chain from May 29 (EFTA01813479) shows Epstein had been messaging Mandelson that morning before Stern's Bilderberg question — the three men were connected in a tight loop. Mandelson's email appears in one thread alongside a discussion about whether "tom pritsker thinks than canning fok would take jes somewhat more serioulsy than you alone" — a reference to arranging meetings involving Jes Staley.

(EFTA01812311)

The Royal Endorsement

By September 2010, Stern was organizing face-to-face meetings:

"Are you ok if PA and me meet with Tim Collins next week Thursday or Friday?"

Epstein: "yes"

(EFTA01810510)

"PA" is Prince Andrew. On November 2, 2010, Stern reported what he found when he visited Collins' home:

"Went to tim collins house yesterday. He wants to proceed but wants a second well known party such as JPM or HSBC to join in. Reason: if it is exclusive agreement with my entity then i am basically part of KB and in this case I should be subject to their governance and regulatory system. With a second partner there is no danger of that."

"Note: his one son is working for King Abdullah, his other son for Tony Blair."

(EFTA01980338)

In Collins' own words, a second partner would mean Stern's entity wouldn't be "subject to their governance and regulatory system" — and "with a second partner there is no danger of that."

The next day, November 3, Epstein emailed "The Duke" directly:

"I would like to talk to you about vacation nov 29- dec5.. would you like to have a private screening of the movie the Kings Speech. we could invite some 'interesting' people. I want to talk about david and Tim collins, my up and coming abu dhabi trip. etc"

(EFTA01980132)

Epstein was explicitly coordinating Collins' business through Prince Andrew. By March 2011, the royal endorsement was explicit:

"PA wrote me: Tim Collins asked a friend PA and Collins have in common, if he (Collins) should do business with me. PA told him that I have his full trust and Collins would be a fool not to do business with me."

(EFTA01779226)

Prince Andrew was vouching for David Stern — Epstein's intermediary — to Tim Collins.

From Egypt to Germany: The BHF Acquisition

Collins wasn't done buying banks. On November 22, 2010, Stern reported:

"Tim Collins called. Wants to see me tomorrow to discuss idea of Orascom JV with Chinese."

(EFTA01801774)

Orascom — the Egyptian telecom and construction conglomerate — was another Middle East target. By June 2011, the Arab Spring killed that prospect. A forwarded email in the corpus captures the moment:

"Egypt in turmoil, land titles that were built by big corporations will probably be reversed. Most Christian Coptic Companies Like Orascom telecom will be broken up. Moslem brotherhood is in charge, money is flowing out of banking system. Syria, Lebanon not coming back. Iraq huge reward major corruption risk."

(EFTA01864342)

Syria and Lebanon — the "next two hot spots" Epstein had identified in July 2010 — were indeed gone. Collins pivoted to Germany.

By September 2011, Stern was reporting Collins' biggest target:

"Tim Collins called to ask me for Chinese co-investors for BHF (German private bank owned by Deutsche Bank). He is in the process of buying BHF. His CEO Lenny Fischer will call me tomorrow for details."

(EFTA01855333)

Two days later, Stern reported back after speaking with Fischer directly:

"Not knowing what I am talking about, I think the Tim Collins deal sounds great. Spoke to the CEO (Lenny Fischer). Kleinwort Benson Group to acquire BHF Bank in Germany to create leading European Merchant & Wealth Management Bank. Total AuM: Euro 50 billion. NAV Euro 850 million. Offer: 35% for Euro 270m in the combined Group. To use this as platform to combine PA and Chinese wealth seems perfect...."

(EFTA00682939)

"PA" is Prince Andrew — the same abbreviation Stern uses across hundreds of emails. Stern wasn't just tracking Collins' acquisition. He was strategizing about how to use it as a vehicle to combine royal access with Chinese capital. (For the broader German banking network surrounding this deal, including Stern's later partnership with former Deutsche Bank CFO Stefan Krause, see The German Financial Network.)

Stern met Fischer at a dinner party in St. Moritz that December:

"Lenny is the CEO of RHJI, the listed financial services group that owns Kleinwort Benson of which Tim Collins owns around 14%. Kleinwort are finalising the transaction of buying BHF, largest German independent Private Bank which has EUR 40.6 billion AuM."

"Met also Ivan Glasenberg at this dinner, CEO of Glencore who personally made about $ 5 billion this year. Interesting guy, smart and tough as steel - jewish of course."

(EFTA01842628)

Two days later, on New Year's Day 2012:

"Met Lenny Fischer again, 100m will get 15% in KB Group. He needs min. 50m to close the deal. He has 150m commitments so far. Tim Collins owns 13%."

(EFTA01842638)

The BHF acquisition was real. RHJI completed the purchase in February 2014 for approximately EUR 354 million, with BaFin approval. Collins and affiliates held a 35% stake in the combined Kleinwort Benson Group alongside Fosun Group and Stefan Quandt's AQTON SE. The whole operation was subsequently acquired by France's Oddo & Cie in 2016. (GlobeNewsWire, Wikipedia)

Epstein's network was actively seeking co-investment positions in this transaction. A May 2012 email captures the ongoing interest:

"The German bank BHF, the one Collins tried to get, could that be the box?"

(EFTA01883202)

By May 2014, Collins' stake had dropped below 10% — the corpus preserves the formal regulatory notice.

(EFTA01922767)

The Ripplewood Risk Flag

One document provides institutional context. A compliance spreadsheet in the corpus lists:

Ripplewood Advisors LLC — Client — High Risk — Y

Listed alongside Lawrence Cohen, Lorani Partners Corporation, and Anthony Podesta — all managed by a compliance officer named "Chuck Walker."

(EFTA01398948)

The institution that generated this risk assessment is not identified in the document.

The Oligarch Layer: Cherney and the Reuben Brothers

Epstein's warning to Stern — "I would like you as far away from that as I would from chemoy" — referenced a world he knew well. A separate document captures a warning Epstein received about the Reuben Brothers, David and Simon:

"Correction. Reuben bros have very murky past in ex Sov Union with Michael Chernoy. Semi sanitised now. Huge assets."

(EFTA02428456)

The Reuben Brothers — now Britain's second-wealthiest family with a combined £26.87 billion — built their fortune through Trans-World Group (TWG), co-founded with Michael Cherney and his brother Lev. TWG was the first and largest private company producing aluminum in Russia. By 1996, it was the world's third-largest aluminum producer behind Alcoa and Alcan. The period 1994–1998 in Russia's Krasnoyarsk region was called the "Great Patriotic Aluminium War." Dozens were murdered in battles over smelter control. Russia's Interior Minister Anatoly Kulikov linked both the Cherney brothers and the Reuben brothers to the Izmaylovskaya mafia. Boris Yeltsin removed Kulikov from his post. A former acting head of the DEA recommended the Reubens sever ties with Cherney after the FBI told him it "believed Michael himself was an organised crime figure." Cherney was paid $400 million to leave. (For the full Reuben-Cherney-Epstein investigation, including the Peggy Siegal introduction, the M/Y Siren yacht, and the Deutsche Bank records, see The Reuben Brothers, the Siren Yacht, and the Chernoy Warning.) (Wikipedia, Wikipedia, Sunday Times Rich List 2025)

Epstein knew this history. He used Cherney as a name to frighten Stern with. And yet in the very same week, he casually mentioned Cherney's connection to Steinmetz and Deripaska — not as a warning, but as a map of who knew whom.

The 2018 Revival: Deripaska, Zeitlin, Bannon

The oligarch connections didn't end in 2010. Eight years later, Epstein was still brokering access to Deripaska's world.

On May 4, 2018 — approximately one month after the U.S. Treasury's OFAC sanctioned Deripaska — Jide Zeitlin emailed Epstein:

"Separately, do you know Oleg Deripaska or Ivan Glasenberg?"

(EFTA02449325)

Zeitlin was a former Goldman Sachs partner who became CEO of Tapestry Inc. (parent of Coach and Kate Spade) in 2019. He resigned in July 2020 over allegations of posing as a photographer to lure women into relationships. (ProPublica) In 2018, he was operating in sovereign investment and African infrastructure — discussing Nigerian port deals with Sultan Ahmad bin Sulayem (DP World) through Epstein. (Drop Site News)

Zeitlin met Epstein and thanked him:

"I appreciate getting to know you. Thank you for taking the time today and for your thoughts re Deripaska."

(EFTA02451692)

Epstein immediately forwarded the entire exchange to Steve Bannon, Trump's former chief strategist, with the note:

"keeping you in the loop"

(EFTA02451692)

Providing "thoughts" on a recently-sanctioned Russian oligarch, then forwarding the conversation to a former White House strategist. In September 2018, Epstein sent Lawrence Krauss a NYT article about Deripaska, Bruce Ohr, Christopher Steele, and the FBI. (EFTA02625106)

On New Year's Day 2019, Epstein emailed Ehud Barak:

"did you read the treasury notice re deripaska i sent"

The attached file was named 20181219_notification_removal.pdf — a December 2018 Treasury notice about OFAC's proposed delisting of Deripaska's EN+ and RUSAL.

(EFTA02606567)

Epstein was tracking U.S. sanctions policy on Deripaska in real time and distributing the intelligence to a former Israeli PM and a former White House strategist.

"Dark Arts": The Hamza Al Kholi Thread

A separate iMessage thread from January 2019 between Epstein and Terje Rød-Larsen — the former UN Special Envoy for Lebanon — touches the same Egypt-banking nexus from a different angle. Rød-Larsen shared a contact card for Hamza Al Kholi. Epstein responded:

"Hamza very tied to egypt"

Rød-Larsen: "He is half Egyptian and Saudi."

Epstein:

"yes, very involved in the dark arts"

"very"

Rød-Larsen: "Dark arts???"

Epstein:

"no interest. for you or me. money movement. bank laundering. many things that i can't and you shouldn't go near"

(EFTA01614507, pages 6–7)

Epstein explicitly warned Rød-Larsen away from Al Kholi — describing him as involved in money movement and bank laundering — while simultaneously, through different channels, brokering access to sanctioned oligarchs and orchestrating investments in Middle Eastern banks.

Tim Collins Today

Collins remains active in global finance. He currently sits on the boards of Banque Saudi Fransi, EFG Hermes (EFG Hermes), and AS Citadele banka in Latvia, where he is chairman. He serves on the advisory board of NEOM, Saudi Arabia's $500 billion mega-city project. He is a member of the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations. (Acorn Capital, Trilateral Commission)

Before Ripplewood, Collins worked at Lazard Frères and Onex Corporation. His most famous deal before Egypt was the 2000 acquisition of Japan's failed Long-Term Credit Bank for approximately $1.2 billion (121 billion yen) — the first foreign acquisition of a Japanese bank — which he rebranded as Shinsei Bank and took public in 2004 for roughly $2 billion in paper gains. (Trilateral Commission)

Collins attended the 2011 Bilderberg conference — the year after Stern flew to Bilderberg on Collins' plane. (NNDB)

There is no public evidence that Collins was aware of Epstein's criminal history or that their business discussions led to illicit activity. Collins was not among those who visited Epstein's properties or appeared in his personal contacts.

What the Network Reveals

No single participant in this story is necessarily criminal. What the corpus reveals is the architecture — how Epstein positioned himself as a node connecting:

• A major American PE firm (Ripplewood/Collins) seeking bank acquisitions across the Middle East and Europe
• The British Royal Family (Prince Andrew) providing credibility and introductions
• A former UK cabinet minister (Peter Mandelson) taking meeting instructions from Epstein
• The CEO of JPMorgan's investment bank (Jes Staley) as a shared connection
• Leon Black of Apollo Global in Cannes
• A post-Soviet oligarch network (Deripaska, Cherney, Steinmetz) with roots in Russia's aluminum wars
• A former Israeli Prime Minister (Ehud Barak) receiving sanctions intelligence
• A former White House strategist (Steve Bannon) kept "in the loop" on sanctioned oligarch discussions
• A former Goldman Sachs partner (Jide Zeitlin) asking Epstein for oligarch introductions
• A UN Special Envoy (Terje Rød-Larsen) in regular iMessage contact
• A Syrian-Saudi arms dealer (Wafic Said) offered as a contact for Syrian banking

The pattern is consistent: Epstein didn't buy banks. He didn't run a fund. He connected people who did those things to other people who did those things, across jurisdictions and sectors that don't normally touch. A private equity titan looking to buy a Middle Eastern bank shouldn't need a convicted sex offender to make introductions — but in this network, that's exactly how it worked.

Document Index

External Sources