Claim: Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan is on financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s list; court documents identifying his associates are now public.
Fact: Khan’s name is not on the list and the evidence presented in the viral post does not prove his connection with Epstein.
Jeffrey Epstein scandal
Financier Jeffrey Epstein, born on 20 January 1953, had a controversial life and career. He initially taught physics and math at Manhattan’s Dalton School, and later entered finance, eventually founding his firm, J. Epstein and Co. in 1982. His wealth and connections expanded globally as he acquired properties, including the private islands of Little St. James and Great St. James. Epstein gained public attention through the Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation and a $30 million donation to Harvard University. His connections included prominent figures like Donald Trump and Bill Clinton.
In 2008, Epstein faced allegations of sexually abusing underage girls, resulting in a plea deal with then-US Attorney Alex Acosta. He was arrested again in 2019 on suspicion of sex trafficking minors, and eventually died by suicide in jail. The unsealed documents made public in January 2024 named over 170 of Epstein’s associates highlighting his complex network of connections.
Epstein’s Island
Little Saint James Island is situated in the US Virgin Islands, off the south-eastern tip of St Thomas, one of the Caribbean archipelago’s three main islands.
It became the center of disturbing allegations involving a worldwide grooming scheme. Accusations from Virginia Roberts Giuffre and the Virgin Islands attorney general’s office claim that Epstein and his recruiters targeted young women, deceptively subjected them to sexual servitude, and transported them to the island between 2001 and 2019. The island allegedly served as a hub in a worldwide web of sex trafficking, with victims as young as 12.
The island was sold in May 2023 for $60 million to an investor who plans to build a luxury resort.
Who is Ghislaine Maxwell?
Maxwell, 60, a former British socialite, was Epstein’s ex-girlfriend and key associate. Following her arrest in July 2020, she was convicted in December 2021 of recruiting and grooming teenage girls for sexual encounters with Jeffrey Epstein. The verdict involved sordid accounts of sexual exploitation at Epstein’s homes in Florida, New York, and New Mexico. Maxwell was found guilty of five out of six counts. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2022.
Who is Virginia Roberts Giuffre?
She filed a lawsuit accusing Jeffrey Epstein of sexually abusing her on Little St. James Island when she was 17. She also implicated Prince Andrew, stating that he sexually abused her on the same island, which Prince Andrew “unequivocally denies.”
Fact or Fiction?
On 4 January 2023, X (formerly Twitter) user Gulfam Butt claimed that Imran Khan is on Epstein’s list. The evidence he presented to back his claim is as follows:
- Photos of Khan with former British socialite, convicted sex offender and Epstein’s frontwoman Ghislaine Maxwell.
- Cricketer Wasim Akram narrated a story about Imran Khan and youngsters being flown on a private plane to a deserted Island, called Epstein Island.
- Victim Doe 107 requested the judge for anonymity arguing they could face victimisation in their home country.
- Virginia Giuffre claimed that Maxwell directed her to travel and provide sexual services for high-profile men including a well-known prime minister implying that it is Khan.
Soch Fact Check found the claim to be misleading. We conducted a thorough search of the Epstein list, released on 3 January 2024, using keywords like Imran Khan, Pakistan, cricketer, cricket, sports, and sportsman. However, we did not find his name on the list. Media outlets, including BBC News, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Business Insider, and Fox News, reporting the names of known figures have not mentioned Khan either in connection with the Epstein case.
Maxwell and Khan’s photo featured in the viral post, was taken on 28 October 1990 at a party hosted by Greek writer and publisher Taki Theodoracopulos at the Savoy Hotel in London. Maxwell began dating Epstein when she moved to New York in 1991. The socialite was residing in Oxford, United Kingdom before that. The small private island, Little Saint James, was owned by Epstein between 1998 and 2019.
Hence, the photo which was taken a year before Maxwell’s move to the US and eight years before Epstein’s ownership of the island does not establish Epstein’s link to Khan because the timeline does not align with the alleged connection.
A video clip shared by the X user shows Akram in an interview, saying that Khan and one of his female friends, who had her own plane, took him to the airport. “So we sat on a private plane. About 45 minutes ride into a deserted island. They went in to “chat” into the house. I said okay what should we do now. We cannot even go back to the hotel. We are on an island in the middle of South America,” said Akram. The cricketer has denied the claim. Responding to a tweet featuring the same interview and claim, Akram told a social media user to stop spreading lies.
The full interview clip revealed that Akram was narrating the story of Pakistan cricket team’s tour of West Indies in 1988 when Khan was the captain.
At the 17:15 mark of the video, Akram said “Guyana. So there was a test match in Guyana in 1988. Those days there were rest days, remember? Three days you play and then a rest day and then two days up. So the rest day, I said me and Aijaz said we are going for a trip. I said yeah sure, nothing to do in Guyana by the way. I don’t know about now but then there was nothing to do so he [Imran] took us and one of his friends, she a female, took us to the airport and she had her own plane. So we sat on a private plane about 45 minutes ride into a deserted island, there was a runway there and apparently the island was owned by her dad who was I think into a logging business so they went into chat into the house. Me and Aijaz just looked at each other, I said okay what should we do now? You can’t even go back to the hotel, we are on an island in the middle of South America. So we are literally in South America in the middle of it and we found young guys, some worker there who knew who we were, who Imran was, obviously we were too young. He said you want to go on a boat, so he got a boat and we got some cold drinks in the boat, maybe there was sandwich around there and then we just started going on the river for about seven eight hours. We came back, Imran was ready to go and everyone came back.”
It’s important to note that Little Saint James located in the US Virgin Islands is quite a distance away from an island in the middle of South America. The two locations are distant and distinct, with no direct proximity between a South American island and Little Saint James.
Contrary to what the viral claim implied, Doe 107, is one of Epstein’s female victims, who told the judge that she lives in a “culturally conservative country” outside of the US and her life will be in danger if she is identified, according to court records. Her testimony in court does not mention Khan or any sportsman, and nor does this aforementioned statement establish any link to the politician. It would be speculative to assume the country is Pakistan as there are several culturally conservative countries worldwide.
Epstein’s scheduling diaries, obtained during lawsuits, revealed individuals connected to his network included former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak and a former Norwegian prime minister. However, not all of those named are accused of wrongdoing.
The unsealed court documents contain no indication that Barak was in any way involved because the only time his name is mentioned is in the following passage on page 275 when, Johanna Sjoberg, was asked about him:
“Q. Do you ever remember meeting Prime Minister Ehud Barak from Israel?
- No.”
Sjoberg is an alleged victim of Epstein. In her 2016 deposition, she testified that she worked for Epstein from 2001 to 2006, but denied meeting Barak.
Although Barak has admitted that he met Epstein regularly between 2013 to 2017 at his New York townhouse, flew on his jet but denied allegations of meeting him with “with girls or minors, or even adult women in improper context or behavior”.
There is no evidence to suggest that victim Virginia Giuffre’s claims concern Pakistan’s former prime minister, Imran Khan when his name is not mentioned in court documents. It’s also important to note that Khan held the premier’s office between 2018 and 2022 whereas the date or time of the incident involving a prime minister and Giuffre, previously referred to as Jane Doe #3 until she revealed her name, is not mentioned in the documents.
The following excerpt on page 130 from the documents, where the word “prime minister” has been mentioned is reproduced below:
“Epstein also trafficked Jane Doe #3 for sexual purposes to many other powerful men, including numerous prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known Prime Minister, and other world leaders. Epstein required Jane Doe #3 to describe the events that she had with these men so that he could potentially blackmail them.”
Virality:
The claim can be found here, here, here, here and here.
It was found here on Facebook.
Conclusion: Imran Khan is not implicated in the Jeffrey Epstein list. Claims about Wasim Akram narrating a story involving Khan on Epstein’s private island are incorrect, as the incident occurred on a different island in South America in 1988, predating Epstein’s ownership of Little St James. Photos of Khan with Epstein’s ex-girlfriend were taken before she moved to the US, indicating no direct link between Khan and Epstein. The claim that the former prime minister was mentioned by one of Epstein’s victims has not been substantiated with evidence, and there is no indication that her testimony refers to Khan.
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