The Greatest Heist: How Reagan's Shadow Network Created Trump and Epstein

A Manhattan Party in 1981 launched a network that would consume billions of dollars in American wealth over the next 40 years.

In 1981, Donald Trump took the elevator up from his Olympic Tower apartment to attend his neighbor's gathering. The host was Adnan Khashoggi, the world's largest arms dealer, throwing an exclusive soirée in his 30,000 square foot duplex penthouse spanning floors 46 and 47, overlooking St. Patrick's Cathedral. Among the guests sipping champagne and admiring the gold fixtures were dictators, arms dealers, intelligence operatives, and money launderers—the shadow infrastructure of Reagan's nascent Iran-Contra operations.

Trump left that party with more than business cards. He left with access to a river of foreign money that traditional lenders could never provide, and connections to a criminal network that would reshape his life and, four decades later, American democracy itself.

The Criminal Convergence (1981)

Olympic Tower wasn't just any luxury building—it was explicitly designed as a money laundering hub for international elite seeking Manhattan real estate. The resident’s directory revealed a tower of global jet setters with controversial pasts.

Adnan Khashoggi occupied the crown jewel—a 30,000 square foot duplex penthouse with swimming pool and gold fixtures. From this lavish perch, the Saudi billionaire orchestrated arms deals that would shape Middle Eastern conflicts throughout the 1980s as the world's largest arms dealer.

Donald Trump lived as a resident from 1977-1981, a rising developer fresh off his Grand Hyatt success, desperately needing capital for his Trump Tower dream. His proximity to Khashoggi wasn't coincidental—Roy Cohn was both Donald Trump’s lawyer and Nancy Reagan’s confidante.

Just floors below, Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda owned five condominiums, laundering billions looted from the Philippine treasury through Manhattan real estate.

Kitty corner from the Olympic, was the Helmsley Palace Hotel and Villard Houses.

Robert Maxwell maintained his Manhattan command center in a triplex suite on the 53rd floor of the Palace. The British media mogul coordinated intelligence operations for Israel’s IDF, Soviet KGB, and British MI6 simultaneously—controlling $1.2 billion in CIA and Israeli slush funds that would fuel decades of covert operations.

There’s no doubt about it if the Olympic Tower could talk, it would tell a helluva story. Within this one city block of New York were the key protagonists in the Iran-Contra scandal and as 1980 slipped into 1981, it was curtain time for the scandal.

• September 1980: Iran-Iraq War begins, creating massive arms dealing demand

• November 1980: Reagan elected on platform of rebuilding intelligence capabilities

• January 1981: Reagan inaugurated, Iran-Contra operations officially begin

• 1981: Trump attends Khashoggi's party at Olympic Tower

• 1981: Jeffrey Epstein forced out of Bear Stearns under insider trading cloud

Meanwhile, just blocks away, Jeffrey Epstein's Wall Street career was imploding. The SEC had launched an investigation into potential insider trading involving Edgar Bronfman, the Seagram's CEO and a major Bear Stearns client. Epstein was "violating SEC stuff with a big client that Ace had given him," Epstein’s former business partner Steve Hoffenberg told Narativ. Bear Stearns CEO Alan "Ace" Greenberg, who had been "totally impressed and manipulated by Jeffrey Epstein, seduced by Jeffrey Epstein, not physically, but mentally," was forced to cut ties.

Epstein was "kicked out of Bear Stearns," "penalized and found guilty of financial breaking of rules at the Securities and Exchange Commission, and he lost his licenses." The rising junior partner who had climbed remarkably fast for someone with "zero experience" was suddenly persona non grata on Wall Street.

But within months, he had found new employment in an underground economy that would teach him skills no MBA program offered: arms dealing, money laundering, and financial fraud.

The Arms Dealer Apprentice (1981-1987)

Steven Hoffenberg's explosive account reveals what happened next. In an exclusive interview with Narativ the man who hired Epstein at Towers Financial describes how the disgraced broker was recruited into an international arms dealing network.

"The next employment that Jeffrey Epstein was able to secure was with CEO Douglas Leese, who ran a group of companies based offshore," Hoffenberg told Narativ. "Jeffrey Epstein was hired to do money laundering, investment banking, financial fraud, all types of criminality around the world, and Adnan Khashoggi was attached to that group of companies who helped in training Jeffrey Epstein."

Douglas Leese wasn't just any arms dealer—he was the architect of the Al-Yamamah deal, the largest arms contract in history. Between 1984-1986, this "oil for arms" arrangement saw Britain sell $2 billion worth of fighter jets and weapons to Saudi Arabia, with Leese orchestrating complex financial flows that included massive bribes and commissions of up to 30% of the deal value. Parliamentary records from 1996 show Leese was directly named in the scheme, with enormous payoffs shared between Saudi royalty and "a whole gang of middlemen in London" who made "millions of pounds in pay-offs."

Working under Leese and Khashoggi during the height of Al-Yamamah, Epstein learned how to move hundreds of millions through offshore entities, create front companies, and use legitimate businesses as cover for arms dealing profits. The Austrian passport found in Epstein's safe—showing stamps from numerous countries throughout the 1980s with a Saudi address—documents his operational movements during this training period.

The Heir Apparent (1987)

Robert Maxwell had grander plans for his daughter's likely suitor. The British media mogul had already perfected the criminal blueprint: intelligence cover plus arms dealing plus financial extraction plus media protection. In an exclusive interview with Narativ, former Israeli intelligence operative Ari Ben-Menashe revealed that Maxwell introduced Epstein to Israeli military intelligence in the early 1980s.

Maxwell took a real likening to Epstein and according to researcher Olga Lautman, Epstein was a frequent visitor to Maxwell's office during this period. This was likely a function of Epstein's role as an assistant to Leese and Khashoggi. Since Khashoggi was definitively involved in Iran-Contra operations and Epstein worked directly for him, this was likely Epstein's pathway into those operations.

Ben-Menashe later confirmed both Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell operated as agents for Israeli military intelligence: "These guys were seen as agents... they found a niche for themselves, blackmailing American and other political figures for the Israelis."

Meanwhile, Ben-Menashe revealed the staggering scale of the slush funds Maxwell controlled. To fund Iran-Contra, Israel and the United States each contributed $600 million in off-the-books money—$1.2 billion in secret funds that Americans would never be able to trace. When Maxwell died in 1991, control of these funds passed to his network, including his daughter Ghislaine and her partner Jeffrey Epstein. Did Epstein inherit the CIA’s $600 Million?

Subscribers can keep reading for details on how Epstein laundered arms money through Towers Financial and details of his friendship with Trump you won’t read anywhere else.