In the last 10 years of his life, who maintained the most frequent contact with Jeffrey Epstein? The Economist’s data team has just revealed the answer after examining over 1.4 million emails. l

In February 2026, The Economist published a sweeping data investigation that processed more than 1.4 million emails from Jeffrey Epstein’s personal archives. The emails, spanning roughly 2009 to 2019 and now publicly accessible via the Jmail.world platform, provide one of the clearest windows yet into Epstein’s communications during the final decade of his life.

The analysis shows that the overwhelming majority of Epstein’s most frequent contacts were members of his inner operational team. Staff and service providers accounted for nearly three-fifths of all messages among the top 500 correspondents. Key figures included longtime assistant Lesley Groff, accountant Richard Kahn, and pilot Larry Visoski, who handled the complex logistics of maintaining multiple luxury properties and a demanding travel schedule.

When staff are set aside, the picture shifts to a remarkably broad and elite external network. Among non-staff contacts, roughly one in four of the most frequent correspondents is prominent enough to have their own Wikipedia page. Finance led the sectors at 19 percent, followed by science and technology at 10 percent, with additional strong representation from law, business, and academia. Many individuals exchanged emails with Epstein on about 70 percent of days — roughly five out of every seven days in a typical week.

Notable names that surfaced repeatedly in the dataset include financier Jes Staley, media figure Peggy Siegal, Joi Ito, Ariane de Rothschild, former White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, scientist Boris Nikolic, billionaire Tom Pritzker, and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. The Economist’s team applied advanced standardization techniques to match variations in names and email addresses, then mapped relationship strength and frequency. They also developed an “alarm index” using a large language model to highlight potentially notable exchanges, though the bulk of the correspondence involved routine scheduling, business discussions, and networking.

Far from portraying an isolated figure, the data reveals Epstein as a persistent and active connector operating at the highest levels of wealth and influence. As researchers continue to explore the full archive, this massive dataset is prompting fresh questions about how access, favors, and information flowed through elite circles in the years leading up to his death in 2019.