The disgraced financier regularly courted tech industry figures not just for their prestige but also for access to promising companies.
In 2014, Coinbase was a two-year-old start-up offering people the ability to buy and sell Bitcoin. It needed investment to grow and turned to an unlikely source: Jeffrey Epstein.
“Would be nice to meet him if convenient,” Fred Ehrsam, one of Coinbase’s founders, wrote to associates about Mr. Epstein in December 2014 as the financier prepared to make a $3 million investment.
