Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper is mentioned in several emails included in the latest release of documents related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including one in which Epstein invited Tepper through a third party to join him and Bill Gates for breakfast at his house.
Tepper is not a sender or recipient of any of the emails, and there is no indication that he and Epstein ever met or had direct correspondence. There's also no evidence that Tepper took Epstein up on his offer of dining with Bill Gates. A spokesperson for Tepper declined to comment.
But the messages show the extent to which Epstein — a convicted sex offender enmeshed with some of the world's most powerful men — tried to use his contacts to cultivate even further connections with the rich. Tepper, with a Forbes-estimated net worth north of $23 billion, is the NFL's wealthiest team owner.
One email, sent to Epstein at 2 a.m. on July 5, 2014, from a sender whose name was redacted, says the sender met Tepper at a party and described him as "very smart and very funny."
Epstein replied with an invitation: "If you see Teppr again invite him to breakfast on sept 6 or 7 with Bill gates at my house."
The following month, on Aug. 17, 2014, Epstein emailed Bill Gates a list of wealthy individuals that included Tepper, and asked, "who do you know and like? or would like to know?"
At the time, Tepper was a prominent hedge fund manager and the founder of Appaloosa Management. He purchased the Carolina Panthers in 2018.
Tepper's name also appears in two emails sent to Epstein by Nicholas Ribis, the former head of Donald Trump's hotel and casino empire, in 2013 and 2016.
In the earlier message, Ribis asked Epstein if he knew Tepper and said he was close to a business deal with him. In the later email, Ribis speculates that Tepper "wants a lot" from a settlement with Caesars Entertainment Corp.
Tepper is one of more than a dozen major sports figures whose name surfaces in the three million pages of Epstein-related documents released by the Department of Justice on Friday. New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch was revealed to have corresponded with Epstein about women, and Casey Wasserman, who is overseeing the 2028 L.A. Olympics, exchanged intimate emails with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's onetime paramour and accomplice in his sex crimes.
Epstein died in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on further sex crime charges in 2019. Federal and state authorities said his death was a suicide.
