Ehud Barak

Ehud Barak—Israel's prime minister from 1999 to 2001 and later defense minister—maintained a working and social relationship with Jeffrey Epstein well after Epstein's 2008 sex-offense conviction. Evidence shows Epstein bankrolled Barak's 2015 investment in the emergency-tech firm Carbyne, formerly Reporty, newly surfaced calendars list roughly thirty Barak-Epstein meetings between 2013 and 2017, including a 2014 flight on Epstein's jet, and a 2016 photograph depicts Barak entering Epstein's Manhattan townhouse the same day Epstein arrived with four women. The links became a flashpoint in Israel's 2019 campaign season, prompting Barak to pledge that he would sever financial ties. He denies any knowledge of Epstein's crimes and insists all dealings were legitimate.¹²³

  Snapshot

  Professional Background

A decorated IDF chief of staff and MIT-trained systems engineer, Barak entered politics in 1995, became prime minister in 1999, and left government in 2013 to focus on finance and technology ventures. His post-political portfolio emphasized cyber-defense and emergency-response start-ups, leading to his 2015 creation of Sum (E.B.) 2015 to channel private capital into Reporty—rebranded Carbyne in 2018—where he still serves as chair.¹⁵

  Epstein Timeline

  Business Partnership: Carbyne

Reporty Homeland Security, later Carbyne Ltd., developed smartphone-to-dispatch video streaming and geolocation for 911 systems.¹⁵ Barak's limited partnership supplied equity capital, Haaretz reports "a large part" of those funds came from Epstein, making him an indirect shareholder. Carbyne later raised U.S. venture money and installed former DHS and CIA officials on its board, but Epstein's stake drew adverse press after his 2019 indictment. Barak stated that all investors were screened by lawyers and accountants and that Epstein "had paid his debt to society."⁵⁹

  Visits, Flights, and Calendars

Wall Street Journal calendars show Epstein scheduling meetings with Barak month after month, some included lunches at Epstein's townhouse and sessions at his Palm Beach estate, both after the 2008 conviction.²⁴ The single logged flight—Palm Beach to Tampa—occurred on 3 April 2014. Barak told Israeli media that he "never stayed the night" at Epstein properties and was always accompanied by aides or family.²¹⁰

  Email Corpus (2013–2016)

Separate from calendar and flight-log reporting, an internal review of the Barak–Epstein email exports in this collection shows a long-running, high-frequency correspondence focused on startups, logistics, and policy messaging.

The set contains 479 HTML-rendered messages dated 20 Apr 2013 to 03 May 2016, dominated by Barak address variants and Epstein accounts, with occasional forwards and metadata-only threads. The most common high-signal subject token is Reporty, frequently appearing alongside homeland security, Ltd, term sheet, forecast, cap table, and similar financing and governance language.

Email volume is steady across 2013–2016, generally averaging in the mid-teens to mid-twenties per month after early 2013. The heaviest activity clusters in late 2014 and late 2015, with a taper into 2016.

    What they discussed

The subject lines and attachment names cluster into recurring themes.

• Reporty, a homeland security venture, including term sheets, forecasts, cap tables, executive summaries, weekly board reports, and coordination of telco calls and board materials.
• Travel and scheduling, including repeated touch base and meet threads that align with itineraries across New York, Boston, Washington, Paris, Nassau, and Monaco, and that often specify narrow windows for breakfasts, dinners, and calls.
• Security and technology briefings, including threads referencing programs or decks such as CWEW-Q Levitection, SUN SPARK, and FST Biometrics, suggesting a pattern of investor-facing or partner-facing briefings and event coordination.
• Media and policy messaging, including op-ed drafts and Iran-related commentary, indicating Epstein was looped into Barak's public-facing writing and distribution process.
• Personal contact, including plans for Passover meals, Sunday meetings, and recurring meals, reflecting that business coordination and social touch points overlapped in the same channels.

    Repeating project names

Some strings recur often enough to look like internal project or thread identifiers rather than one-off subjects.

• Reporty, often paired with financing and board-document language.
• CWEW-Q Levitection, an unusual acronym-like string that appears in scheduling contexts.
• SUN SPARK, appearing as a subject or attachment title for an overview deck.
• Light and Strong, including variants like lightandstrong and light&strong, appearing alongside investment-style updates.
• AdR and SPEIF, appearing as recurring abbreviations alongside term-sheet shorthand.

  Project timelines from the emails

The project threads below reflect recurring subjects, attachment names, and action-oriented messages in the 2013–2016 corpus.

    Reporty / Homeland Security Ltd (Dec 2014 – Mar 2016)

The Reporty thread covers Reporty Homeland Security, later Carbyne Ltd., and shows repeated cycles of term-sheet drafting, governance and compliance cleanup, and logistics around closing, followed by renewed fundraising activity into early 2016.¹⁵

• Early momentum (3 Dec 2014): Barak presses to move quickly, introduces legal support around Udi Knaani and Darren Indyke, and asks for business-plan inputs and term-sheet ingredients.
• Compliance and operational prep (11 Dec 2014): Nicole Junkermann, Darren Indyke, and Barak triage operational questions via a telco, then plan compliance and financial follow-ups with the Reporty CEO and counsel.
• Term sheet drafting and forecasting (20–31 Dec 2014): the thread circulates a drafted term sheet, a first-year forecast, and cap-table attachments, with Barak forwarding materials for Epstein review before sending them onward.
• Decision push (Jan 2015): Barak repeatedly urges Epstein to review revised term-sheet control provisions and pass the package to the CEO, while Indyke and Tomer Toor circulate markups and confirmations and calls are scheduled to close gaps.
• Fresh capital and investor meetings (Feb 2016): Junkermann joins planning for a new $0.5M tranche, meetings are arranged with CEO Amir in New York (including at The Mark), and the thread loops in a Peter Thiel–affiliated fund while tracking branding and funding milestones.
• Convertible loan and media push (Mar 2016): Barak reports Herzog, Fox, Ne’eman drafting a convertible loan intended to raise $3–4M with a 15 percent next-round discount and a 1 May 2016 due date, alongside mentions of global press tied to an Israeli launch.

    Light and Strong / Tshuva (Nov 2014)

This thread reads like an investor diligence and structure check focused on downside protection and counsel responsiveness.

• Attorney and anti-dilution focus (22 Nov 2014): Barak asks Epstein to focus on the financial and legal structure, including anti-dilution and exposure, while Epstein notes Tshuva’s attorneys are not responding.

    SUN SPARK (Nov 2014)

SUN SPARK appears as a deck-driven follow-up where Barak is trying to reconnect quickly after sending an overview presentation.

• Presentation follow-up (14–15 Nov 2014): Barak follows up after sending SUN SPARK – Overview – 13.11.14.pptx, asks whether Epstein is in Miami, and tries to lock a call as soon as possible.

    CWEW-Q Levitection (Apr 2016)

This thread describes a technical briefing on radar science paired with a proposed hard-nosed negotiation and a funding structure modeled on Reporty.

• Advanced radars review (16–18 Apr 2016): Barak describes a presentation by Dr. Levite involving 70GHz concepts and Rafael veterans but not a customer-ready product, then proposes replicating the Reporty-style funding construct, sending Udi to negotiate aggressively around a proposed 47 percent stake for $1.7M plus$4.0M, and updating Epstein and Indyke before any final commitment.

    Media and op-ed drafts (May 2013)

The corpus includes editorial drafting and distribution support, including Barak sharing work-in-progress text and asking for editing help under deadline pressure.

• Syria op-ed work (20 May 2013): Barak thanks Epstein for edits on an op-ed draft, cites a deadline, outlines a Syria argument that includes involving Russia and weighing chemical-weapons risk alongside Iran, and asks Epstein to prune earlier versions.

  Political Reaction

Barak's renewed political bid in 2019 faltered as opponents highlighted Epstein's support. Labor and Meretz negotiators warned a merger might suffer, and Prime Minister Netanyahu demanded an inquiry, citing the Carbyne deal.⁷⁸ Barak replied that Netanyahu's own circle had socialized with Epstein and accused rivals of "spin."⁹

  Current Status

Barak remains Carbyne's chairman and a frequent media commentator on Israeli security. He says all financial links to Epstein ended in 2015 and that no further investments or meetings occurred after 2017. Investigative focus today centers on Epstein's estate executors, not Barak, yet the disclosure cycle keeps his association in public view.¹⁰

  References

  Footnotes

1. Barak, Epstein Met Dozens of Times, Times of Israel ↩ ↩²

2. Barak Met Epstein After Conviction, Ynet ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. Epstein, Barak Partnership Worth Millions, Haaretz ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

4. Epstein Funded Barak's Tech Investment, Jerusalem Post ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

5. Barak Weighs Ending Epstein Ties, Haaretz ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

6. Barak Defends Epstein Business Ties, Business Insider ↩ ↩²

7. Epstein Calendar Names Include Barak, JTA ↩ ↩²

8. Epstein Scandal: New Names Emerge, The Guardian ↩ ↩²

9. Barak, Four Women Enter Epstein House, Jerusalem Post ↩ ↩² ↩³

10. Barak-Epstein Ties Hurt Merger Chances, Times of Israel ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

11. Barak Calls Epstein Issue 'Spin', Times of Israel ↩

12. Epstein Was Barak's Partner in 2015, Times of Israel ↩

13. Barak Threatens Libel Over Epstein Photo, Haaretz ↩

14. Epstein, Barak Invested in Startup, Haaretz ↩

15. Carbyne Ltd. (formerly Reporty Homeland Security), Wikipedia ↩ ↩²