Follow Us on Google
By Goli Innocent
A new report by Drop Site News has alleged that late American financier Jeffrey Epstein and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak exploited Nigeria’s Boko Haram insurgency for financial and strategic gain.
According to the investigation, emails released by the US Justice Department in 2018 showed Epstein facilitating discussions between Jide Zeitlin, then chairman of Nigeria’s Sovereign Investment Fund, and Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, former chairman of DP World, a UAE-based logistics giant.
The talks reportedly centred on securing control of shipping terminals in Lagos and Badagry after earlier negotiations with Nigerian presidents since 2005 failed to yield results. Epstein died in a New York jail in 2019.
The report said DP World was unwilling to invest in an industrial zone in Nigeria without full control of the adjoining port.
Bin Sulayem resigned on February 13 after his ties to Epstein resurfaced publicly, further fuelling scrutiny of the negotiations.
Investigators also detailed Epstein’s near-daily correspondence with Barak, who allegedly sought to deepen Israeli-Nigerian security cooperation after leaving office.
Other News
After stepping down as defence minister in 2013, Barak reportedly leveraged security connections in Nigeria to open doors for Israeli-linked energy and investment ventures.
In 2015, Barak and a partner invested $15 million in FST Biometrics, founded by former Israeli intelligence chief Aharon Ze’evi Farkash.
Its Basel biometric system, initially used at Israel-Gaza crossings, was marketed in Nigeria as a counter-terrorism solution.
The technology was reportedly introduced to Babcock University as protection against Boko Haram attacks, while also being promoted to African governments for broader population-control applications.
The investigation further cited a 2020 World Bank-supported partnership involving the Israel National Cyber Directorate and Toka Group, a cybersecurity firm co-founded by Barak, aimed at contributing to Nigeria’s national cybersecurity infrastructure.
It concluded that the network of security interventions and investment manoeuvres allowed Epstein and Barak to profit from instability linked to the Boko Haram conflict while advancing Israeli corporate interests in Nigeria.
