{"id":302260,"date":"2026-06-10T06:27:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T06:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/302260\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T06:27:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T06:27:27","slug":"how-jeffrey-epstein-used-haiti-relief-to-boost-his-image","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/302260\/","title":{"rendered":"How Jeffrey Epstein used Haiti relief to boost his image"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/p>\n

An undated photo of Jeffrey Epstein released by the U.S. Justice Department.<\/p>\n

U.S. Department of Justice<\/p>\n

For Jeffrey Epstein, the relief efforts following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and devastated the Caribbean nation\u2019s economy were just another opportunity to promote himself.<\/p>\n

The earthquake struck about six months after Epstein had finished his jail sentence in Palm Beach County on solicitation charges, and he was, at the time, on a campaign to rehabilitate himself with the global elite.<\/p>\n

He agreed to lend one of his private jets to deliver aid to the country and bought tickets to a benefit program in the French Riviera in exchange for positive news stories, records released by the U.S. Justice Department show.<\/p>\n

Epstein rushed to publicize a $25,000 contribution he had made to an educational foundation run by Unik Ernest, a Haitian immigrant who had risen from a busboy in South Beach to celebrity promoter.<\/p>\n

EPSTEIN UPDATES: Get the latest on the Jeffrey Epstein investigation with our new newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n

The financier also planned<\/a> to meet Michel Martelly, then Haitian president, in Port-au-Prince, calling him \u201chilarious, a realist.\u201d The Herald did not find any evidence that a meeting took place. The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned<\/a> Martelly in 2024 for arming gangs and trafficking cocaine.<\/p>\n

But Epstein, a multimillionaire, seemingly thought little of Haiti or its impoverished people beyond how the country could benefit him, describing it in emails as unstable and in squalor but a \u201csafe place to park money.\u201d<\/p>\n

The records do not provide details on how he thought he could safeguard his assets in the country.<\/p>\n

\"Haitian Haitian President Michel Martelly greets supporters during a memorial ceremony on Jan. 12, 2016, in Port-au-Prince, in honor of the victims of earthquake that hit Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010. HECTOR RETAMAL AFP via Getty Images Charity for publicity<\/p>\n

Roughly two weeks after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake nearly destroyed Port-au-Prince on Jan. 12, 2010, Epstein received<\/a> a request from aid organizers in the U.S. Virgin Islands to lend his Gulfstream jet for a humanitarian flight to Haiti. The flight would carry critical medicines, food, nurses and doctors.<\/p>\n

\u201cInform Mr. Epstein that he will be getting some Media Coverage and publicity and that will definitely be very good for him,\u201d the message read.<\/p>\n

Epstein agreed: \u201c[I] will do it, if we can protect the interior.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another instance two years later, media publicist Peggy Siegal asked him to buy her a ticket to Sean Penn\u2019s \u201cHaiti: Carnival in Cannes<\/a>\u201c benefit program on May 18, 2012, at the Agora Pavilion of the Cannes Film Festival.<\/p>\n

Siegal, then a cultural ringmaster in New York and Hollywood, was helping Epstein rehabilitate himself at the time, records show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201c[T]ake it slow and stay quiet,\u201d she said<\/a> in an August 2010 email. \u201cYour friends are there for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Siegal, the records show, asked<\/a> Epstein for the $5,000 ticket four days before the Cannes event, adding that it would be tax deductible.<\/p>\n

\"PALM Peggy Siegal attends the amfAR Palm Beach Gala 2024 on March 2, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida. Mireya Acierto Getty Images for amfAR <\/p>\n

\u201c[Y]es, of course. I will always help,\u201d Epstein wrote back,<\/a> and directed his aides to make the purchase.<\/p>\n

Siegal, who now spends most of her time in Palm Beach, did not respond to the Herald\u2019s questions. She has previously acknowledged<\/a> being charmed by the financier and said that she was \u201cin denial\u201d about Epstein\u2019s history and activities.<\/p>\n

School funding<\/p>\n

Fresh off the plane from Haiti in the 1990s as a teen, Unik Ernest\u2019s first job was as a busboy at a trendy Caribbean restaurant in South Beach. But by the early 2000s, he was organizing celebrity-studded parties in Miami and New York.<\/p>\n

Ernest and Epstein first got introduced in late 2011. The records do not reveal who connected the two.<\/p>\n

Epstein, the records show<\/a>, took a liking to Ernest, offering him business advice and suggesting<\/a> he become the conduit for \u201cblack wealth to Silicon Valley.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy are there so few blacks in silicon valley. great opportuibty [sic],\u201d Epstein wrote to Ernest in a 2014 email.<\/p>\n

In October 2011, the financier donated $25,000 to The Edeyo Foundation, a nonprofit Ernest had created in 2007 to provide education to children in Port-au-Prince.<\/p>\n

Epstein\u2019s contribution was for the Ecole du Bel-Air, a school the foundation was building in the city in the aftermath of the earthquake. He rushed to send out a press release citing his donation.<\/p>\n

\"NEW Unik Ernest attends the official Black Eyed Peas album release party at The Griffin on June 10, 2009, in New York City. Dimitrios Kambouris Getty Images for Bragman Nyman Cafarelli <\/p>\n

But the records show that it caught the attention of Edeyo\u2019s board members, who had warned Ernest not to take Epstein\u2019s money.<\/p>\n

Ernest requested<\/a> several times that Epstein take down the press release.<\/p>\n

\u201c[N]o hard feelings?\u201d Epstein replied. \u201c[S]orry you should return the money asap if it was depositied [sic].\u201d<\/p>\n

Ernest returned<\/a> the money and reassured<\/a> him of their good relationship.<\/p>\n

Ernest did not respond to the Herald\u2019s request for comment. He has previously denied<\/a> any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

While Epstein\u2019s philanthropy to institutions like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University garnered press attention, his donations to Haiti-related causes did not. The Herald did not find a single mainstream news outlet that reported on them.<\/p>\n

Federal authorities arrested Epstein on sex trafficking charges on July 6, 2019. He was found dead in a Manhattan detention facility around a month later.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published June 9, 2026 at 5:00 AM.<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Shirsho Dasgupta<\/a><\/p>\n

Miami Herald<\/p>\n

Shirsho Dasgupta combines traditional reporting with data analysis to produce high-impact stories and accountability journalism. A two-time Livingston Award finalist, he also won a Sigma Delta Chi Award in 2025 and was named finalist for the Scripps Howard Award in 2024. His stories have spurred investigations, influenced legislation and received numerous awards and citations from the National Press Foundation, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing and others.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An undated photo of Jeffrey Epstein released by the U.S. Justice Department. U.S. Department of Justice For Jeffrey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-302260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}