Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein got help from and networked with Russian expatriate tech investors who have drawn scrutiny from U.S. intelligence agencies over their past ties with the Kremlin, according to emails released last week by the Justice Department.
The newly revealed extent of Epstein’s Russian connections, which also include senior Russian government officials, has added momentum to previous suspicions that he worked with or was targeted by intelligence agencies because of his personal connections to international elites. The new documents prompted the Polish government to reopen an inquiry into possible links between Epstein and Russian intelligence services, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Tuesday. A Russian government spokesperson dismissed the move.
The documents related to Epstein’s Russian connections were among 3 million pages the Justice Department released last week to comply with a federal law passed in November that required the disclosure of files from federal investigations of the deceased financier. The deadline was Dec. 19.
Masha Drokova, a former teen leader of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s youth organization, Nashi, who moved to San Francisco around 2017 and launched a venture fund backing tech start-ups, is mentioned more than 1,000 times in the released emails and Skype chats between 2017 and Epstein’s arrest in 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges. He previously pleaded guilty in 2008 to two charges of soliciting prostitution, including one involving a minor.
Drokova, who worked in media relations for tech companies before becoming an investor, is seen organizing press interviews with Epstein and trying to arrange for scientists to give interviews about their relationship with him. Epstein had connections with prominent researchers and funded research at institutions including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that have since apologized for allowing the donations.
The documents also show Drokova lavishing Epstein with praise and sending him pictures of herself that she said she could not share on social media.
Epstein and Drokova were introduced via email in 2017 by a person whose name was redacted in the documents, who told Epstein that Drokova was an emerging investor. “Exceptional young lady. She wants to meet you, get to know you and help me find you a young attractive assistant. Masha says that she needs to know who you are and what kind of assistants you would like,” the person wrote.
Drokova then put forward multiple women she thought might serve as assistants to Epstein, the emails show, and she introduced him to technology entrepreneurs and investors including her former boss and investor, Serguei Beloussov, a tech entrepreneur who helped establish a Russian government quantum computing initiative and also made tech investments.
The Washington Post reported in 2022 that Beloussov drew scrutiny from intelligence officials in the United States and Switzerland over concerns that he had remained on good terms with the Kremlin and used his investments to acquire sensitive technology secrets. Drokova also was a subject of U.S. scrutiny, The Post reported. The status of the U.S. and Swiss concerns could not be determined this week.
“Connecting you here. You both are one of the most intelligent and fun people I met in my life. Super smart and special,” Drokova wrote to Epstein and Beloussov in a January 2018 email. “You both share interest in quantum technology and better understanding of this field than most of business people. It might be one of many topics to discuss.”
Epstein later said in messages to Drokova that he enjoyed speaking with Beloussov and that he wanted to speak with a Harvard University computer science expert whom Beloussov supported. It is not clear from the files whether Epstein did business with Beloussov, who later changed his name to Serg Bell.
Bell told The Post on Thursday that he had never met or done business with Epstein and spoke to him only once by phone, at the request of Harvard officials who wanted to see if they should take his money. “Only did favor to Harvard advising to not [do] business with him,” Beloussov said by electronic message.
In late 2025, the Office of the U.S. Director of National Intelligence banned Bell’s company Acronis, which develops software for making backups of computer systems, from intelligence contracts and subcontracts, without stating a specific reason.
Drokova, who now uses the name Bucher, did not respond Thursday to questions about her contact with Epstein.
Both have previously denied acting on behalf of Moscow and distanced themselves from the regime. “I deeply regret ever joining Nashi and supporting Putin and his government,” Bucher told The Post in 2022. “Since 2009, I have disconnected from Russian politics and politicians and have quietly supported individuals and organizations that oppose Putin’s regime.”
Beloussov helped start the Russian Quantum Center, which was added to the Specially Designated Nationals list of sanctioned entities in 2022 for acting on behalf of the Russian government. In a 2019 interview, Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s special envoy for digital development, said Beloussov had done great things for Russia and could now help it from abroad.
“Acronis teams, even in private, do a lot for the country. The role, for example, of Serguei Beloussov, the leader of the Acronis team, in launching a large state-owned quantum computing system in Russia is not very public now, but it cannot be overestimated. He understood this before others, drove ahead of others and did a lot to make this story go. Therefore, they will find how to pay their debts to the Motherland,” Peskov told the Russian business news site BFM.ru.
Beloussov ran multiple investment firms, including Runa Capital, where Drokova worked before launching her own Day One Ventures. Day One’s investments include privacy browser DuckDuckGo, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman’s biometrics and cryptocurrency venture World, and CalypsoAI, a security specialist acquired last year by networking company F5.
Runa, in turn, invested in a quantum fund called QWave Capital, according to an April 2025 FBI memoreleased with the Epstein-related documents last week.
That FBI memo summarized the possible security risks of Tim Draper, a major Silicon Valley investor, in case Draper met President Donald Trump. It said that Drokova had also worked for Draper, though Draper told The Post he did not know her.
Trump had a years-long friendship with Epstein that ended in the mid-2000s. He has not been accused of being involved in Epstein’s criminal activities and has said he was not aware of them.
In a previous interview with The Post, Drokova described her work for Epstein as a short-term favor. But the new documents show they exchanged hundreds of emails and Skype messages, both affectionate and businesslike, between April 2017 and June 2019.
In a 2018 email to Epstein, around the time when she was setting up Day One and boasting of her Russian connections, she wrote: “I knew from the first minutes of our meeting that you’d influence my life a lot. And that’s what happened. I trust you a lot. I love your intellect, sense of humor and charisma but even more I love your big heart, kindness and your sincere care of your friends. That’s a lot. For me you are one of the brightest modern philosophers and thinkers and I’m incredibly thankful to be able to learn from you.”
Drokova appeared to turn down a salary from Epstein in one message, saying that learning from him was reward enough. But the documents show he did arrange for expenses to be reimbursed and sent her a Prada handbag worth more than $1,000.
In a December 2017 email, she pressed him on what he knew from his connections about possible future sanctions on companies with Russian operations: “I’ve heard of coming wave of sanctions against tech companies with R&D in Rusia (basically any, not necessarily affiliated with Ru government). How can I find out details about that? Most people I’ve talked to are just speculating and guessing. I’d love to find what’s actually going on.”
The messages continued through June 25, 2019, when Drokova shared photos of herself in Paris via Skype and Epstein responded by asking for nude photos, which she promised in the future.
Epstein was arrested less than two weeks later on charges of sex trafficking minors and jailed in New York. He was found dead in cell later that year in what was determined to be a suicide.
Aaron Schaffer contributed research for this report.
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