Documents from lawsuits filed by Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre show connections between the New York financier and former Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Nathan Myhrvold.
Myhrvold, who was among those who contributed to a 2003 birthday book made for Epstein, was named as a passenger for two flights on Epstein's private jet in the 1990s, according to flight log documents filed in a defamation suit by Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell in 2015. Though sealed for years, the last of the records were made public in 2024.
Giuffre filed a separate defamation lawsuit against defense attorney Alan Dershowitz.
Epstein killed himself in a New York City federal lockup in 2019, while awaiting trial on sex trafficking and rape allegations. He was also convicted of child prostitution-related offenses in 2008. Maxwell was convicted in 2022 of sex trafficking girls in connection with Epstein and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
Epstein first faced criminal charges related to sexual exploitation of underage girls in 2006. Since then, interest in the sprawling sex trafficking investigations into Epstein has intensified, with politicians and business figures drawn in.
President Donald Trump's campaign last year capitalized on that interest, with promises that his administration would unseal files and provide full transparency into criminal cases against Epstein. Trump has changed his tune now, at one point calling the saga "pretty boring."
Congress is split on releasing files related to the criminal investigations, but it has released a few tranches, including one that included the 2003 birthday book.
While Myhrvold has acknowledged knowing Epstein, his representatives contend the two were little more than passing acquaintances with a shared interest in TED conferences and scientific research.
In flight logs disclosed during the defamation suit by Giuffre against Maxwell, Myhrvold is listed as a passenger on Dec. 9, 1996, for a flight from Fort Knox, Ky., to Teterboro, N.J., and another on Jan. 11, 1997, from Newark, N.J., to Titusville, Fla.
The other passengers listed on the first flight are Epstein, Maxwell and two illegible names. On the second flight, the other passengers named are Epstein, his former lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Norwegian cosmetics heiress Celina Midelfart and another illegible name.
The two flights occurred while Myhrvold was still with Microsoft. He worked for the company from 1986 to 2000. Microsoft declined to comment.
Contacted for comment earlier this week, a spokesperson for Myhrvold repeated a statement made in September after Congress released the 2003 birthday book, a 238-page collection of lewd letters and drawings apparently from politicians and notable business figures, including Myhrvold.
The spokesperson did not address Myhrvold's note to Epstein in the birthday book or his inclusion in the flight logs.
"Mr. Myhrvold knew him from TED conferences and as a donor to basic scientific research," the spokesperson said. "He regrets that he ever met him."
Myhrvold's apparent contribution to the birthday book was a letter celebrating the New York financier along with graphic photos depicting sex acts and engorged genitalia of animals. In the letter, Myhrvold allegedly wrote that he took the photos on a recent trip to Africa.
"A few years ago somebody at a party asked me 'Does Jeffrey Epstein manage your money?'" Myhrvold appears to have written in the letter to Epstein. "I replied 'No, but he advises me on lifestyle'. The guys eyes bugged out of his head and he said 'REALLY?'"
Myhrvold started at Microsoft in 1986 after the company purchased his startup, Dynamical Systems Research. He rose through the ranks, founding Microsoft Research in 1991 with computer scientist Richard Rashid, eventually becoming Microsoft's first chief technology officer.
After taking a yearlong sabbatical in 1999, Myhrvold left Microsoft and co-founded Intellectual Ventures, a Bellevue-based investment firm that specializes in intellectual property and patenting. It also has been accused of patent trolling, a practice in which a firm acquires patents and sues over infringement to make money. He serves as the firm's CEO.
Myhrvold is also vice chair of the board of TerraPower, a nuclear power company based in Bellevue founded by his former boss, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, whose ties to Epstein were revealed by The New York Times in 2019.
Myhrvold co-authored Gates' book "The Road Ahead" in 1995, a book summarizing the personal computing revolution and forecasting the importance of the internet. He's also written cookbooks including "Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking."
TerraPower said in a statement last month that the company has "never had any connection with Jeffrey Epstein," and that all records released by Congress predate the company's formation in 2008.
Mentions of Myhrvold occurred at least twice more in records from the lawsuits filed by Giuffre.
A document filed in the suit against Maxwell containing a scanned copy of Epstein's address book, undated, shows an entry for Myhrvold containing 17 phone numbers for his work, personal and assistants' lines. Also included is an address for a house that Myhrvold purchased in 1992 and sold in 2004, according to King County records.
In the lawsuit filed by Giuffre against Dershowitz, Myhrvold is mentioned.
After Giuffre accused Dershowitz of having sex with her while she was underage, Dershowitz denied the claim and Giuffre sued him for defamation in 2019. She ultimately dropped the suit in 2022.
At one point, Dershowitz told his lawyer that Giuffre may have confused him with Myhrvold who "spent a lot of time with Mr. Epstein," according to an affidavit, filed by Giuffre's attorneys, from a lawyer whom Dershowitz consulted with after Giuffre's accusations. Dershowitz claimed he and Myhrvold looked alike.
Giuffre denied she was confusing the two.
She died by suicide in April at her home in Australia. Her memoir, titled "Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice" and released Tuesday, recounts the years she spent with Epstein and the various and powerful men he trafficked her to. In the book she accuses Prince Andrew of sexually assaulting her while she was underage. She also describes horrific sexual abuse from an unnamed but "well-known Prime Minister."
The book also makes passing mentions of figures like former President Bill Clinton and Trump, as well as Gates. She made no accusations toward them. The book doesn't mention Myhrvold.