At a glance: Mandelson-Epstein emails

Newly released emails have raised further questions about the relationship between former minister and ambassador Lord Peter Mandelson and the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Email exchanges published in the US indicate Lord Mandelson was in close contact with the disgraced late financier during a period in which he was at the heart of government amid the financial crisis.

The emails suggest Lord Mandelson gave Epstein advance notice of an impending EU bailout, sent him internal government information about the state of the UK economy and lobbied the Treasury on banking policy at Epstein's suggestion.

We are still reviewing the millions of documents related to Epstein published by the US Justice Department but here is what has emerged about Lord Mandelson so far.

One exchange in the newly released emails suggests Lord Mandelson forwarded internal government information to Epstein in June 2009, at which point he was acting as Gordon Brown's business secretary and de facto deputy prime minister.

Nick Butler, a policy adviser to the then-prime minister, wrote a memo about the UK's struggling economy in which he recommended selling off government-held assets in order to raise public funds.

He copied several people into the email, including Lord Mandelson.

The published documents appear to suggest Lord Mandelson forwarded that internal government communication to Epstein, with the message: "Interesting note that's gone to the PM."

In response to Epstein asking, "what salable [sic] assets?", a reply from a redacted email address said: "Land, property I guess."

Lord Mandelson has been approached for comment.

Another exchange indicates Lord Mandelson gave Epstein advance notice of a €500bn bailout by the EU to save the ailing Euro.

In the early hours of 10 May 2010, EU finance ministers agreed the deal amid concerns that a debt crisis in the Greek economy could spread to the wider Eurozone.

The evening before the announcement, Epstein emailed Lord Mandelson to say: "sources tell me 500 b euro bailout , almost complete."

The released documents also appear to show Lord Mandelson told Epstein: "Sd be announced tonight."

Epstein then asked if Mandelson was home and received a reply, saying: "Just leaving No10..will call."

The UK did not contribute to the bailout, but then-chancellor Alistair Darling was present in Brussels for the negotiations.

Lord Mandelson has been approached for comment.

Another email exchange suggests Lord Mandelson tried to secure changes to a planned tax on bankers' bonuses following conversations with Epstein.

The policy was introduced after the financial crisis and meant that bonuses over £25,000 in the finance industry would be liable for an extra 50% tax rate.

On 15 December 2009, Epstein wrote: "[A]ny real chance of making the tax only on the cash portion of the bankers bonus."

"Trying hard to amend," Lord Mandelson replied. "Treasury digging in but I am on [the] case."

Mandelson has told the BBC that every UK and international bank was making the same argument about the impact on UK financial services.

"My conversations in government at the time reflected the views of the sector as a whole not a single individual," he said.

Two days after Lord Mandelson and Epstein exchanged emails about the bankers' bonus policy, the documents suggest they had further conversations about the plan.

An email from Epstein asks if "jamie" should call then-Chancellor Alistair Darling "one more time".

That appears to be a reference to Jamie Dimon, who was chief executive of US banking giant JP Morgan at the time.

In response, Lord Mandelson appears to have replied to Epstein saying he should call the chancellor again, before suggesting he should "mildly threaten" him.

BBC economics editor Faisal Islam has recounted how Darling later revealed he was subjected to intense lobbying by Dimon and other senior bankers to ditch the policy.

Lord Mandelson helped an investment banker friend of Epstein to secure a deal with the UK government to buy a highly profitable asset and later sought to make money from his bank, emails in the latest tranche reveal.

The 2010 sale of the asset, an energy trading business part-owned by crisis-stricken RBS, was arranged following a meeting Epstein said he had set up between investment banker Jes Staley, Darling and Lord Mandelson, who was business secretary at the time.

Less than a year after the deal was agreed and after he had left office, Lord Mandelson discussed how he might personally make money arranging deals for the same investment bank, JP Morgan.

The meeting was to discuss buying the energy trading firm RBS Sempra, which the RBS had owned as a joint venture with its founder Sempra Energy, but was then forced to sell as part of a plan to shrink the bank following the 2008 crisis.

Emails released in a 2023 court case show Epstein writing, "My view is Sempra is an asset that comes up once every ten years".

In another email about Sempra he says, "was Petie helpful?" The latest emails show Staley replied: "Very."

Two weeks later on 16 February 2010, the government announced an agreement had been reached to sell the business to JP Morgan for $1.7bn (£1.2bn) dollars. After leaving office following the general election of May 2010, Lord Mandelson wrote to Epstein on Christmas Day to discuss plans to generate work for his consultancy firm Global Counsel.

He wrote: "I do not want to live by salary alone. That's why I need to do as much as possible to build with JPM."

Lord Mandelson has been contacted for comment and is yet to respond.

Documents suggest Epstein made multiple payments to Lord Mandelson and his partner, Reinaldo Avila da Silva.

Bank statements show three separate payments of $25,000 referencing Lord Mandelson being sent from Epstein's JP Morgan accounts.

The transactions were made in 2003 and 2004, when Mandelson was the Labour MP for Hartlepool.

The first statement shows a payment was sent to a Barclays account where Reinaldo Avila da Silva is named as "A/C", typically an abbreviation for account.

In that payment, a "Peter Mandelson" is named on the account as "BEN", which is often an abbreviation for beneficiary.

The second and third payments of $25,000 were made to HSBC accounts only days apart in June 2004. In both, "Peter Mandelson" is the only person named, again as "BEN".

Lord Mandelson said he had no record or recollection of receiving the sums and did not know whether the documents were authentic. He said they need "investigating by me".

Epstein also sent £10,000 to Mandelson's partner Reinaldo Avila da Silva in 2009, according to the documents.

In an email to Epstein, da Silva set out the costs of an osteopathy course, provided his bank details and thanks the financier for "anything you can help me with".

Epstein replied a few hours later saying: "I will wire your loan amount immediately" and the following day Silva wrote: "Just a brief note to thank you for the money which arrived in my account this morning."

There is no suggestion Da Silva was involved in any wrongdoing.

The latest release of files related to Epstein includes more images of Lord Mandelson, including one in which he is seen standing in his underwear alongside a woman.

It is not known who the unidentified female is, as her face was redacted before publication, or when or where the images were taken.

In response to the image being published, Lord Mandelson said he "cannot place the location or the woman and I cannot think what the circumstances were".