EXPLOSIVE new emails show how hard-hitting Olive Press journalism rattled the world’s elite, with disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein among those taken aback.
The Olive Press featured three times in a trove of three million files released on Friday by the US Department of Justice relating to the late sex offender, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial.
On 15 March 2016, Epstein received an email with the subject ‘EXCLUSIVE: Baron Rothschild indicted in France over fraud case – Olive Press News Spain’ from a redacted sender believed to be Ariane de Rothschild, the CEO of the Edmond de Rothschild Group since March 2023 and the first woman to ever run a Rothschild-branded financial institution.
The email contained a link to an article of the same name published by the Olive Press in the summer of 2015, which you can read here.
An exclusive investigation revealed that Baron David de Rothschild, one of Europe’s wealthiest aristocrats, had been indicted in France over a ‘dodgy’ equity release scheme that swindled millions of euros out of hundreds of British expats.
More than 20 British pensioners, supported by Spanish firm Lawbird, took up legal action against the banking magnate’s company after losing their dream properties and thousands of euros through his fraudulent Credit Select Series Mortgage Loan.
The product targeted Brits living in Spain who had properties with no mortgages and was sold as a legal means to reduce the value of their homes for inheritance tax mitigation purposes.
It allowed them to take out mortgages worth up to 75 per cent of the value of their Spanish properties, with the proceeds then invested with an insurance company to provide an income.
But things went awry when the investments did not perform as well as promised, leaving pensioners trapped and unable to pay off their mortgages.
The revelation sent shockwaves through Spain, with Rothschild forced to return every penny paid by one expat couple after a landmark court ruling in 2020.
And the Olive Press scoop clearly ruffled feathers further afield, as the bombshell files reveal.
Epstein forwarded the email to Kathy Ruemmler, a close associate and White House Counsel to US president Barack Obama until 2014.
He added the caption: “well,. well, well [sic]”
Just 24 minutes later, Ruemmler, who met Epstein on dozens of occasions after he had been convicted of sexual abuse of a minor in 2008, replied: “Whoa”
The email chain came just five months after Epstein, via his Virgin Islands-registered firm Southern Trust Company Inc., signed a $25 million (€21 million) agreement with the Rothschild Group to provide risk analysis and algorithm-related services.
The Rothschild Family feature prominently in the Epstein Files, with over 12,000 documents in the latest batch containing a reference to the family name.
Appearing in the Epstein Files does not indicate any wrongdoing.
Last year, close associate Ghislaine Maxwell – currently serving a 20-year sentence for recruiting underage girls for Epstein – claimed Lady de Rothschild introduced the paedophile to the former Duke of York, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
In 2025, King Charles removed Andrew’s remaining royal styles and honours, and restricted his use of titles and peerages over his long-standing association with the convicted sex offender.
This is far from the first time that the Olive Press and Epstein have crossed paths.
While working with the Mail on Sunday’s features team, current editor Jon Clarke spent a number of years investigating Epstein’s dodgy dealings.
That work included three separate trips to New York and Florida over 25 years ago to probe links between the paedophile and the British royal family, leading to a number of agenda-setting exclusives.
Jon even linked President Trump to a number of notorious Epstein parties in New York, information that was later followed up by the New York Times in 2016 just before he reached the White House for the first time.
Click here to read more Spain News from The Olive Press.
The title of this article is very misleading, you have made it appear as former President Obama is related/connected to the Epstein files.
Read it properly please before commenting …
Epstein forwarded the email to Kathy Ruemmler, a close associate and White House Counsel to US president Barack Obama until 2014.
Why does the headline say there are links to President Obama? I didn’t see anything in the article to corroborate that.
You need to read the article properly:
“Epstein forwarded the email to Kathy Ruemmler, a close associate and White House Counsel to US president Barack Obama until 2014.”