Masha Bucher(Masha Bucher) is one of the most well-known female venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. The latest emails released by the U.S. Department of Justice show that she had a close relationship with convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein for several years.

Jeffrey·Epstein is late.

A startup founder sits in a palatial room of the financier's Upper East Side mansion, where the most prominent décoris a nine-foot-tall painting——The picture isformer President Bill·Clinton wearing Monica·Lewinsky's famous bluedress. Thefounder fully expected Epstein to invest in his company. The meeting was arranged by one of his early investors, Martha·Buher. In Buher's description, Epstein was a A wealthy businessman who loves science, but thefounder casually searched Epstein's name on the way to an appointment in Uber, only to discover that he had a completely different and darker reputation.

Epstein finally arrived,but avoided talking abouthis own fundsmanager's career instead braggingabouthimself and Bill·The friendship between Gates and the founder of Google. When the founder finally began to introduce his company, he was interrupted——Two young women walked into the room, one of whom sat on Epstein's lap. He asked squintingly:"GuessLook, which age isolder?"

The founder, who requested anonymity, said that he avoidedguessing the ages of the twowomen and felt sick after the meeting. This was also the last time he saw Epstein. "It was a Level 10 nuclearaccident-level encounter."Heis very interested in"Forbes"Say.

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Documents show that Epstein first met Bucher in2017 and hired her as a publicist to help him in2008because ofsexualityTrafficking wasrestored her reputation after being convicted, and then provided her with support and encouragement when she began investing her own funds.

Buher later admitted that it was Epstein who helped her found Day One Ventures in 2018. A text message she sent to Epstein in 2019 wrote: "Without the ideas and knowledge you shared, I would never have been able to create my own fund."

Now, this 36investor claims to have participatedin22unicorn companiesin their early stages, including Elon·Musk's leaf="">World, and small nuclear reactor manufacturerValar Atomics, with funds under management exceeding 4.5USD. Thisis a rare achievement for any female VCpeople, and it is even more difficult for this former publicist who was born in Russia and has no previous investment experience and no background in Sand Hill Road's top funds. (xAI, World and Valar Atomics did not respond to requests for comment.)

Emails and text messages between Epstein and Bucher (who used her maiden name Drokova at the time) lasted from the beginning of 2017 to a few days before his arrest in 2019. Documents show that this young publicist, who was in his twenties at the time, was initially responsible for helping him arrange meetings with reporters. Later, the relationship between the two gradually deepened. Epstein asked his assistant to send her a Prada handbag, and also made an appointment for her to have hairdressing services at Fekkai Salon, a top salon in New York. Emails show that Epstein also paid for hairdressing services. leaf="">Shestayed at the Four Seasons Hotel for free. Bucher would have hour-long phone calls with Epstein, and the two would also exchange photos and videos via SkypeSkype. During one chat, Epstein asked her for nude photos, and it is unknown whether Bucher sent them.

As of press time, Bucher had not commented. She has previously stated that she was not paid for any work she did for Epstein, adding that she "deeply regretted not doing a background check in the first place".

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Thousands of well-known people who exchanged emails and messages with Epstein, or were copied on his correspondence with associatesThis venture capitalPeopleare justone ofone of them.

The people mentioned in the document range from politicians such as Donald·Trump, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud·Barack, former British Minister Peter·Mandelson, to Elon·Musk, Bill·Gates, Peter·Thiel and other technology billionaireshao, to name a few. Some of the people mentioned in the document were only casually mentioned by Epstein or his associates, or had already disclosed their relationship with the disgraced financier; others downplayed the relationship between the two parties, saying that it was just more than ten years ago through email introduction or having had Short communication.

This batch contains350thousands of emails, documents and notes. leaf="">Transparency Act" was announced on January 31. On the day the document was released, Bucher was holding a lavish party at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco - PartyAt the scene, a group of masked people wearing white robes and silver masks were wandering around the exhibition hall. The invitationsaid,The party willput on a"Psychological magic show",Openan"collective imaginationexperiment".

It is unclear whether the Justice Department has released all of Epstein's documents (lawmakers, watchdogs and Epstein's victims have accused the governmentThere are stillrecordsUnreleased; Deputy Attorney General Todd·Blanche said that this batch of documents is the last batch of content released by the government). Many documents have been completely or partially blacked out.

Andthere is no allegation that Bucher or other persons named in the documentsactedviolated the lawor engaged in inappropriate conduct. Buttheyin Epstein2008regardedthesexualtraffickingAfter pleading guilty, he still chose to associate, communicate or cooperate with him, putting many powerful people who tried to downplay their connection with the financier into a reputation crisis.

2017year3month, the subject of the letter is"Odd Woman——Martha·Drokova and her project"'s emails landed in Epstein's inbox. "Thisyounglady would be happy to meet you and show you her plans to conquer the world."The email states that the sender is unidentified and the name has been blacked out.

This related person seems to have sent another email in Mayof the same year, attaching a Wall Street Journal report about Bucher's shift from public relations to angel investing. "She also helped me find personal assistant candidates, but the people she recommended none of themnot pretty enough to introduce toyou."The anonymous author wrote, and a ":/" emoticon is attached at the end of the sentence.

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The email did not shy away from Bucher’s complicated past.

Buher was born in Russia in 1989. When he was young, he served as a Russian youthorganization with close ties to the Kremlin"Nash"（Nashi) became famous locally. In 2012,she starred inadocumentary"Putin's Kiss"(Putin’s Kiss) appeared in, and the title of the film comes from the famous scene of her kissing Vladimir·Putin’s cheek. She said that she gave up her Russian citizenship after the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in 2022. (Epstein himself also had ties to Russia, and newly released documents show that he tried to arrange a meeting with Putin for years.)

It is unclear when Epstein and Bucher first met offline. But over the next two years, the young publicist helped him arrange meetings with reporters many times and apparently secured positive coverage that downplayed his crimes of sexually assaulting minors. "Richard (Epstein's accountant Richard·Kahn) transferred 2.5 million to Martha. Martha can give some to Dylan."Epstein wrote in a 2017 email that Dylan here refers to Dylan, the former technology reporter for Business Insider·Love(Dylan Love)), Bucher hadarrangedhiminterviewEpstein.

2017In 2017, Love wrote an article for technology mediaThe Next Websharing Epstein's views on Bitcoin. The article did not mention his conviction record. The Next WebThe editor later added a correction:"This article corrected an obvious omission: Jeffrey·Epstein2008was convicted of luring underage women into prostitution "

What Bucher did tocleanseEpstein's reputationThe public relations work was first exposed in2019.

That year9, science reporter Jeffrey·Mervis(Jeffrey Mervis) published reports that Bucher arranged for him to meet with Epstein at his seven-story townhouse in Manhattan. "I read your article about TrumpPresident's scientific researchbudget."Buher wrote to Merwes,"Jeffrey's response toHow to fill the budget gaphasuniqueuniqueinsights "

While working for Epstein, Bucher became involved in investing. She said in a previous interview that she switched from providing public relations consulting for startups such as Houzz, HotelTonight, PandaDoc to angel investment, and then 2018raised the first seed fund of 2000ten thousand dollars, named Day One Ventures. leaf="">HotelTonight (now owned by Airbnb) andPandaDoc did not respond to requests for comment.

Since then, Bucher has invested in a number of well-known startups and even collaborated with OpenAIto host an AIgenerative art exhibition. In a previously undisclosed transaction, Day One stated that it participated in Elon·MuskxAI's B round of financing at that timeThe companyvaluation24 billionUSD. xAI later merged with Those deals put Bucher on the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

In 2022, a reporter from the "Washington Post" reported that Bucher's fundraising promotion materials boasted that he had dealings with Russian oligarchs, but Bucher denied that these emails were true and said that he did not have any Russian funds. She also said at the time that she deeply regretted supporting Putin and his government.

Epstein's emails did not mention his direct investmentDay One. However, an email in 2017 showed that Bucher had asked him to introduce "reliable Russian oligarchs" because she was looking for " for her fund. leaf="">Suitable investors".

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Buher’s ties to Russia continued to raise concerns, especially after she began investing in defense and artificial intelligence companies.

Today, she is one of the best-known investors in the emerging cluster of defense startups in El Segundo, California. Bucher interviewed podcast host Molly·O'Shea(Molly O’Shea)In an interview (the content of the interview has now been deleted), she stated that she has invested in at least five startups in El Segundo, including signed with the U.S. Department of EnergyNuclear reactor pilot contractsValar Atomics, Artificial RainCompanyRainmakerand space startupStarpath.

RainmakerCEO Augustus·Doricko（Augustus Doricko) stated that after verifying Buher's background, it has severed all contact with her and Day One. "Looking back now, I really wish I couldspend more time and choose investors more carefully."Dorico said. Valar and Starpath did not respond to requests for comment.

While starting his investment career, Bucher continued to correspond with Epstein. The email shows that she introduced him to many startup founders, such as Bryan Johnson, who is obsessed with longevity research. leaf="" Bell), CalypsoAINeil·Serebryan(Neil Serebryany), and Jay of Cloud Phone ServicesCallision·Gidry Love（Jay Jideliov). Johnson said that he had a Zoom call with Epstein and did not know his past at the time. After ending the call, Johnson felt extremely uneasy and felt that Epstein was the darkest and most evil person I have ever seen. leaf="">, and I have never had any interaction with him since then. Bell, Serebryanny and Gidlilov did not respond to requests for comment.

A founder who requested anonymity said he met Bucher at a venture capital event. She offered to introduce a wealthy philanthropist, but refused to disclose his identity unless both parties agreed to meet. She only said that this person had been slandered by the media. The founder agreedto meet,but feltEpstein's behavior during the meeting"was just aasshole", and has never contacted Epstein or Bucher since. "If she thinks this kind of people are worth getting to know, then I don't want to get involved."The founder said.

It was impossible to tell from the email whether Epstein was interested in investing in these entrepreneurs. Epstein’s emails show that he often sent emails to top Silicon Valley figures such as Peter Thiel and Reid, and Huffman, Elon and Musk, but he rarely made technology investments.

Buher shared fund progress and travel information with EpsteinIn addition, he also showed offhis own angel investment projectAcquired.ioat 2018YearNews of being acquired in December. She wrote:"I will never forget you telling me that women are bad at investing because they don't know how to sellout. That's true, and it helped me a lot. Thank you, Jeffrey! I really appreciate you."Epstein replied:"Well done, proud of you."

The exchange of emails and messages between the two continued until 2019year7month11days before Epstein was arrested. A month later, Epstein died in a federal detention facility in Manhattan. In their last exchange, Bucher shared about his health and the selling points of his startup("Youth safety topicsSuper popular on the Internet"), and thank herthis"best friend".

This article is translated from:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/iainmartin/2026/02/04/how-jeffrey-epstein-helped-his-publicist-become-a-big-time-venture-capitalist/