Liquid Funding, Ltd.: The Bermuda Shell Company ICIJ Missed
- Patrick Duggan
- Feb 12
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 25
# Liquid Funding, Ltd.: The Bermuda Shell Company ICIJ Missed
The Cross-Reference Nobody Did
329,442 DOJ documents. 625MB of ICIJ Offshore Leaks data. Nobody connected them.
We did.
**Jeffrey E. Epstein** appears in the Paradise Papers as Director and Chairman of **Liquid Funding, Ltd.** - a Bermuda company registered through Appleby, one of the world's largest offshore law firms.
This wasn't hidden. It was just never correlated.
The Discovery
ICIJ Node ID: **80063035**
Name: **Epstein - Jeffrey E**
Country: U.S. Virgin Islands
Source: **Paradise Papers - Appleby**
His registered address in the Paradise Papers:
> 6100 Red Hook Quarter; Suite B3; St. Thomas 00804-0870; US Virgin Islands
The same address that appears throughout the DOJ documents as Epstein's USVI base of operations.
Liquid Funding, Ltd.
Entity ID: **82004676**
Incorporated: **October 19, 2000**
Jurisdiction: **Bermuda**
Service Provider: **Appleby**
**Epstein's Role:**
- **Director**: November 9, 2001 - March 30, 2007
- **Chairman**: November 9, 2001 - March 19, 2007
He wasn't just connected. He ran the company for six years.
The Board
Who sat on Liquid Funding's board alongside Jeffrey Epstein?
| Name | Role | Dates |
|------|------|-------|
| Jeffrey E. Epstein | Director, Chairman | 2001-2007 |
| Paul Anthony Novelly | Director | 2001-2003 |
| Deborah J. Poole | Director, Chairman | 2000-2006, 2007-2010 |
| Christopher Papouras | Director, Chairman | 2006-2010 |
| Marcus Klug | Director | 2001-2005 |
| Ernst Krehan | Director | 2005-2010 |
| Alex J. Erskine | Director | 2001-2007 |
| Jeffrey M. Lipman | Director | 2011-present |
**Auditors:**
- Mary Fulton (Ireland) - 2000-2002
- **Deloitte & Touche LLP** (New York, Broadway) - 2002-2011
- **PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP** (New York, Madison Ave) - 2011-present
**Parent Entity:**
- **Liquid Funding Holdings, LLC** (USA)
Two Big 4 accounting firms audited Epstein's Bermuda shell company.
Paul Anthony Novelly
Epstein's co-director deserves special attention.
The Paradise Papers show Novelly connected to:
- **The Novelly GRAT Trust**
- **Novelly Dynasty Trust** (dated March 25, 2003)
- **P.A. Novelly II GRAT Trust**
- **Mario D. Novelly GRAT Trust**
- **Jared J. Novelly GRAT Trust**
- **Chandra Novelly Niemann GRAT Trust**
Plus directorships at 6+ other Bermuda entities, spanning from 1983 to present.
A dynasty trust. Multiple generational wealth transfers. All while serving on a board with Jeffrey Epstein.
The Russian Money Trail
Remember what Epstein said about Yuri Milner?
**EFTA01882985:**
> "yuri money is russian gangster money, usmanov"
Alisher Usmanov - Milner's business partner - appears in:
- **Panama Papers**
- **Paradise Papers**
- **Pandora Papers**
His offshore network:
- **The Lion Trust** (Jersey)
- **Red and White Holdings Limited** (Jersey)
- **ABU GROUP LIMITED** (BVI)
- **Ocean Breeze Estates Ltd** (BVI)
- **Windflower Properties Limited** (BVI)
- **SWINSTAR HOLDINGS LIMITED** (BVI)
- **HOVIGTON ENTERPRISES LIMITED** (BVI)
- **BRENSON HOLDINGS LIMITED** (BVI)
The man Epstein described as having "russian gangster money" - in dinners with Google founders, at Epstein's New York townhouse and Paris apartment - had shell companies across three separate offshore leaks.
The Deripaska Connection
**EFTA02544069** (September 2011):
> "Li Bo Tan is also the guy invited by Deripaska a while back"
Oleg Deripaska - Paul Manafort's handler - appears in:
- Panama Papers
- Paradise Papers
- Pandora Papers
- Offshore Leaks
His entity: **BATU MINING LIMITED** (BVI), serviced by Mossack Fonseca through Cyprus.
The network connected:
- Epstein
- Milner ("russian gangster money")
- Usmanov (Milner's partner, multiple offshore entities)
- Deripaska (Russian oligarch, Manafort handler)
- Li Bo Tan (son-in-law of Chinese Congress Speaker)
All documented. All in the leaks. All in our index.
The Bronfman Trusts
Charles Bronfman co-founded the **Mega Group** with Les Wexner in 1991 - the same year Wexner gave Epstein power of attorney.
The Paradise Papers show:
- **Edgar M. Bronfman IDB Trust A-G** (7 trusts)
- **Adam R. Bronfman IDB Trust**
- **Matthew Bronfman IDB Trust**
- **The Saidye Rosner Bronfman Ruby Trust**
- **The Saidye Rosner Bronfman Topaz Trust**
All shareholders in **Treetops Acquisition Group** (Cayman Islands).
The Mega Group wasn't just philanthropy. It was infrastructure.
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The Apollo Connection
**THIS IS THE SMOKING GUN.**
We searched the DOJ documents for "Liquid Funding." 503 results.
**EFTA02361689** (August 12, 2016):
Marc Rowan (Apollo Global Management) emails:
> *"From: Marc Rowan*
> *To: Shwachman, Perry J.; 'jeffrey E.'*
> *Subject: Re-Introduction after 'Liquid Funding'*
>
> *I will leave it to the two of you to discuss directly."*
Perry Shwachman (Sidley Austin partner) responds:
> *"Jeff: It would be great to talk to you about helping with potential new USVI insurance regulations."*
**Marc Rowan** - who is now CEO of Apollo Global Management - was using "Liquid Funding" as the basis for introducing Epstein to corporate lawyers.
The same Liquid Funding where Epstein was Director and Chairman.
The same Apollo that Leon Black ran - the man who paid Epstein $158 million.
**EFTA01510050:**
JPMorgan financial records show:
> *"BOOK TRANSFER CREDIT: BEAR STEARNS LIQUID FUNDING NEWARK... REF: LIQUID FUNDING HOLDINGS, LLC BUYOUT"*
The shell company. The bank transfers. The Apollo connection. All documented. All in the index.
What the Big 4 Knew
Deloitte & Touche audited Liquid Funding, Ltd. from 2002 to 2011.
That means a Big 4 accounting firm was signing off on Epstein's Bermuda shell company during the exact period when:
- Epstein was convicted (2008)
- Epstein's Palm Beach scandal was public knowledge
- Epstein was a registered sex offender
PricewaterhouseCoopers took over in 2011 and continues to this day.
What due diligence did they perform on their client?
The Methodology
How we found this:
1. Downloaded ICIJ Offshore Leaks database (625MB)
2. Searched `nodes-officers.csv` for "Epstein"
3. Found node 80063035: "Epstein - Jeffrey E"
4. Traced relationships to entity 82004676: Liquid Funding, Ltd.
5. Identified all officers, addresses, auditors
6. Cross-referenced with Paradise Papers source data
Total time: 45 minutes.
ICIJ has had this data since 2017. Nobody made the connection.
Verify It Yourself
**ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database:**
- Download: https://offshoreleaks-data.icij.org/offshoreleaks/csv/full-oldb.LATEST.zip
**Key Records:**
- Officer: `80063035,Epstein - Jeffrey E,U.S. Virgin Islands,VIR,Paradise Papers - Appleby`
- Entity: `82004676,Liquid Funding, Ltd.,,BM,Bermuda,,,,,19-OCT-2000,,,,,Appleby`
- Relationship: `80063035,82004676,officer_of,chairman of,Resigned,09-NOV-2001,19-MAR-2007`
**Epstein DOJ Index:**
- **epstein.dugganusa.com** - 329,442 documents
The Questions
What was Liquid Funding, Ltd. funding?
Why did Deloitte audit a sex trafficker's shell company for nine years?
What other Epstein entities exist in offshore leaks that haven't been correlated?
Who were Paul Novelly and Christopher Papouras, and what did they know about their co-director?
And why did it take a solo researcher with a grep command to make this connection?
The Bottom Line
Jeffrey Epstein appears in the Paradise Papers.
His Bermuda shell company was audited by Deloitte.
His dinner companions - the "russian gangster money" crowd - have dozens of entities across Panama, Paradise, and Pandora Papers.
The Mega Group founders have trusts across the Caribbean.
All of this was public. None of it was connected.
Until now.
*Jeffrey E. Epstein, Director and Chairman of Liquid Funding, Ltd. (Bermuda), 2001-2007*
*Paradise Papers - Appleby. Node 80063035. We cross-referenced it.*
*Her name was Renee Nicole Good.*
*His name was Alex Jeffery Pretti.*
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