Former Norwegian diplomat Terje Rød-Larsen apologized earlier this week for the close ties he had for many years to the late billionaire and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The apology came in a rare interview with Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK), conducted at his villa on the Greek island Paxos.
It’s the first time Rød-Larsen has spoken in any depth to Norwegian media since newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) first revealed his ties to Epstein back in 2020. DN could report then how Epstein, who had recently committed suicide in prison after being arrested on new assault charges, had contributed financially both to the International Peace Institute (IPI) that Rød-Larsen headed in New York, and to Rød-Larsen and his diplomat wife Mona Juul, but Rød-Larsen refused to respond to DN’s inquiries, and literally ran away from DN journalists when they had to resort to confronting him on a street in Manhattan.
Earlier this year, the US Justice Department released thousands of Epstein’s emails, text messages and photos. The sheer extent of Epstein’s ties to the couple and many other Norwegians including Norway’s new queen, the former Crown Princess Mette-Marit (now queen) was suddenly documented. It’s been a huge embarrassment to all involved, and parliamentary hearings on ministerial links to Epstein have been conducted this week.
Both Rød-Larsen and Juul already face corruption charges tied to their relations with Epstein, and Juul lost her latest ambassador post at the foreign ministry. They still refused to respond to media inquiries, until NRK could finally meet with him at his home on the Greek island (external link to NRK’s report, in Norwegian).
Rød-Larsen said Epstein was a “door-opener” to other wealthy people “who could contribute economically” to IPI, “and he was therefore a very valuable contact for me.”
Suffering from the after-effects of a stroke, the 78-year-old Rød-Larsen didn’t want to be interviewed on video because of his impaired speech. He told NRK off camera, though, that he’s “deeply sorry” about his involvement with Epstein and that he “should have cut contact with him at an earlier point in time.”
The documents released in the US revealed hundreds of emails and text messages between Rød-Larsen and Epstein regarding dinners and holidays together, including a visit with Juul and their two children to Epstein’s island in the Caribbean where many of his sexual assaults on young women he’d hired took place. The emails and messages also revealed how Epstein and others in his network had helped their son when he was applying for college, and in helping him get a job in London when Juul was Norway’s ambassador to Great Britain.
Rød-Larsen told NRK that it’s been “a very sorrowful time in our family” after Rød-Larsen’s and Juul’s grown son committed suicide late last spring. The Epstein documents also revealed that he and his twin sister had been named as beneficiaries in Epstein’s will.
Now Rød-Larsen says he first met Epstein in New York after being introduced to him by the former prime minister of Israel, Ehud Barak. Epstein was actively donating to many causes at the time, perhaps, according to Rød-Larsen, to atone for his sexual assaults on young women, some of them underage girls.
Rød-Larsen told NRK that Epstein invited him to lunch at a café in New York, told him he’d been in prison and wanted to donate money to IPI. He also offered to introduce Rød-Larsen to other wealthy and influential people.
It apparently took off from there, and Rød-Larsen told NRK he was glad to meet him and other donors. “He had served his sentence, and in these circles it’s common that people in his situation donate to good causes,” Rød-Larsen told NRK. He stressed that Epstein’s donations to IPI, which totalled around NOK 6 million, amounted to less than 1 percent of IPI’s total budget between 2011 and 2019.
Røe-Larsen denies he was aware of Epstein’s ongoing assaults, even though one young woman believed to be a victim was employed by IPI at the alleged request of Epstein. Her lack of diplomatic qualifications for the promotion of peace set off some alarms within IPI that eventually reached Norway’s foreign ministry, which later cut funding to IPI in 2018.
“If I had known that he (Epstein) systematically contributed to sexual assault, I would have ended my relations with him,” Rød-Larsen told NRK. Instead, they continued, also on a more personal level after Epstein had financially and controversially become involved in Rød-Larsen’s and Juul’s purchase of a fashionable condominium in Oslo. Emails between Epstein and Rød-Larsen also reveal that Rød-Larsen scouted fashionable real estate for Epstein around Europe.
Both Rød-Larsen and Juul deny the criminal charges against them. Newspaper Aftenposten reported last week that the Norwegian police’s economic crime unit Økokrim is now concentrating on gathering and securing evidence after ransacking the couple’s home in Oslo where they also found boxes of documents related to the Oslo Agreement. Rød-Larsen had controversially taken the documents home with him from the foreign ministry in violation of Norwegian public archive laws. They have since been returned. The police investigation is likely to extend into next year.
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
