Different Jeffrey Epstein is director at Kaiser Health
Different Jeffrey Epstein is director at Kaiser Health | Fact check
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USAID flag comes down in front of agency's Washington headquarters
A flag for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was removed from a pole outside the agency's office on Friday, February 7.
Ryan Omid
The claim: Post implies USAID paid convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein
A Feb. 5 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) includes a screenshot of what appears to be a record showing that a man named Jeffrey E. Epstein received $265,915 in compensation in 2023 for serving as the director of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc.
A line of text on the document reads, "Trace connections to USAID NGOs." A caption above the image reads, 'USAID was paying Jeffrey Epstein. WTF!?'
Some users took the post as proof the money went to the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender who died by apparent suicide while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019.
'Once they did (sic) deeper I suspect we will find out we have been supporting Epstein island with our tax dollars,' one user wrote, referring to Epstein's private island where authorities say he took girls and women to be sexually abused.
'HEALTH PLAN INC. Epstein and his guest were there on the island for a health plan??? you cannot make this stuff up,' reads another comment.
The post was liked more than 30,000 times in about two weeks.
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Our rating: Missing context
The implied claim is wrong. The record references a different Jeffrey Epstein who is a director for Kaiser. The document shows his compensation from the nonprofit in 2023, not money he received from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Same name, different men
The Department of Government Efficiency, a temporary organization authorized by President Donald Trump and run by Elon Musk, has slashed the operations of USAID and other agencies in the name of reducing federal spending and uncovering fraud.
The post misrepresents information in a third-party database to imply a connection between USAID, the world's largest foreign aid agency and a target of DOGE, and the late disgraced financier Epstein. It actually shows unrelated information about a director of a healthcare organization who was also named Jeffrey E. Epstein.
The 2023 document could not refer to the late Epstein, the man who pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from a minor, because he died in 2019. He died by apparent suicide in prison while awaiting trial on federal charges that he trafficked minors to his private island for sex.
Kaiser's Epstein, who also goes by Jeff, is alive, and photos on his LinkedIn profile and elsewhere show a different man than the late Epstein. His well-documented career shows he joined Kaiser's board in 2013, is the former CFO of Oracle and other companies, a lecturer at Stanford and an operating partner at a venture capital firm.
Fact check: No, USAID didn't pay Hollywood actors millions to visit Ukraine
The record shown in the screenshot appears to have come from Data Republican, a website that says it provides a database of federal grants. The website also compiles financial information about executives at companies that received grants. A search for Jeffrey Epstein in the database pulls up the same record visible in the post. The payment listed in the post matches Jeffrey E. Epstein's 2023 compensation at Kaiser as reported in the company's tax filings.
USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the claim for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Lead Stories and AFP also debunked the claim.
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