--- title: "Epstein’s Top Child Trafficker Says She Partied With Elon Musk in the Caribbean" description: "Jeffrey Epstein's convicted sex trafficker says that she partied with Elon Musk and other tech leaders in the Caribbean." date: "2025-08-26" modified: "2025-08-26" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/ghislaine-maxwell-elon-musk-caribbean" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "jeffrey epstein" - "SpaceX" - "tech" --- # Epstein’s Top Child Trafficker Says She Partied With Elon Musk in the Caribbean ![Jeffrey Epstein's convicted sex trafficker says that she partied with Elon Musk and other tech leaders in the Caribbean.]() *\Image: Kevin Mazur / VF14 / WireImage / Getty / Futurism (edited) \* You know that [infamous photo]() of SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk posing with Ghislaine Maxwell, the woman [convicted of trafficking minor girls]() for the deceased billionaire Jeffrey Epstein? Musk has long dismissed the picture, [saying in 2020]() that it was taken when Maxwell "photobombed" him at an event hosted by *Vanity Fair*. "Don’t know Ghislaine at all," he shrugged at the time. Well, now there's a new twist in the saga, and it's raising serious questions about Musk's nothingburger explanation for the photo and his relationship with Maxwell. The claim comes because Maxwell sat for an interview this month with an official from the Department of Justice. The [transcripts]() are unreliable — remember that the government's case against Maxwell back in 2021 was so compelling that she [declined to testify]() in her own defense — but also filled with fascinating tidbits. One of those head-scratching exchanges came when the DOJ's Todd Blanche asked Maxwell about her relationship with Musk. "Do you know Elon Musk?" he asked. "I do," Maxwell replied. "And how did you meet Mr. Musk?" Blanche pressed. "I met him in — I don’t remember the year, but it’s going to be in 2010, ’11, something like that, I think, if my memory serves. And I was at an event for Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google. And Sergey had arranged for — it was for his birthday. And we were — or a bunch of us, I don’t even remember how many we were, but not many of us. Maybe — I don’t know. If I say 40, I could be wrong. If it was 30 or 50, I don’t remember. I’m sorry. Went to another friend’s island. Somebody called Mr. Pigozzi in the Caribbean and — not with Epstein, he was not there, to celebrate Sergey's birthday. And we were there together for, I want to say, three or four days, something like that in my memory. And Mr. Musk was present for that." We should pause here for a moment to reflect on the incredible fishiness of the entire situation Maxwell is describing. If she's to be believed, a grab bag of tech industry luminaries were cavorting on a Caribbean island with a close associate of Epstein — and this was, in her own telling, several years *after* Epstein [pleaded guilty to solicitation of a minor]() back in 2008. And even leaving aside Brin's involvement, the story also directly contradicts Musk's 2020 claim that he didn't know Maxwell "at all." In fact, Maxwell went on to say, it sounds like Musk also had some kind of relationship with Epstein himself. "Aside from that time in — around 2010, on the island in the Caribbean for a couple days, did you — have you seen — do you know Mr. Musk beyond that time?" Blanche asked, according to the transcript. "We met at — I was at the Oscars and we met at the Oscars," Maxwell replied. "What year was that, earlier or later?" Blanche asked. "It was post that event, I believe," Maxwell said. "And do you know whether Mr. Epstein knew Mr. Musk?" Blanche asked. "I believe they did," Maxwell replied. "And the only reason I say that is not from my memory, but because I saw — I think I saw — my memory is that in discovery, they were communicating on email." The interview with Blanche, we should point out, came as controversy has exploded over the Donald Trump administration's handling of government files related to Epstein's crimes and [suspicious death in 2019](). As such, Maxwell's new claims about Musk immediately become entangled in the fraught relationship between Musk and Trump, both of whom are now credibly linked to Epstein. The two were allies during the 2024 election and Trump's early days in the White House before their relationship exploded dramatically — with Musk, as if to put an exclamation point on how so many powerful men in business and politics seem to have had close relationships with Epstein, [charging that Trump himself]() is "in the Epstein files." Make no mistake: Musk has a [long]() [history]() of making misleading statements when convenient to his goals and interests, so it's not exactly surprising that Maxwell is refuting his version of events. (And let's not forget about [his own sex allegations](), either.) But it does raise the question of what further revelations we might hear about Musk — and the effects they could have on the rest of us, since he's the world's richest man and almost uniquely enmeshed in the fate of the global economy and the US government. **More on Epstein:** [*The Trump Administration Reportedly Has Extensive Logs of Epstein Money Transfers, Refuses to Release Them*]() ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()