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The Documentary Podcast

Mapping Epstein's global connections

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.32.7K Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2026

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The personal correspondence, photographs and papers of the late convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein have been released to the public in stages, beginning in December 2025, after an almost unanimous vote in the US Senate.

The released files run to three and a half million documents — emails, letters, photographs, videos, financial records, flight details — all are now open to public scrutiny. Many files remain heavily redacted, but what can be read has already had repercussions globally and revealed Epstein’s web of connections to powerful figures around the world.

Abdirahim Saeed, BBC Arabic, and Luiz Fernando Toledo, BBC News Brazil, share what they found about the files related to their regions.

The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts. Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India. If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more.

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

0:07.0

If you need help on money matters, you're not alone.

0:10.5

In the Martin Lewis podcast, I'll give you tips to keep more cash in your pocket

0:13.9

and answer your important questions.

0:16.7

Now that we're starting from scratch, what is the best way for us to move forward?

0:21.2

To help your everyday finances just add up.

0:24.8

Let's see what we can do.

0:26.2

The Martin Lewis podcast, listen on BBC Sounds.

0:30.1

Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

0:37.9

You're listening to The Fifth Floor. service. This is the fifth floor.

0:41.7

The fifth floor, you knowsons.

0:46.0

This is the fifth floor at the fifth floor,

0:47.5

Farnak, Amidi, Sobeth.

0:50.8

This is the fifth floor at the heart of global storytelling with BBC journalists from all around the world.

0:59.1

I'm your host, Faranak Amidi.

1:04.9

The personal correspondence photographs and papers of the late convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein that are now open to public scrutiny run to 3.5 million documents, emails, letters, photographs, videos, financial records, and flight details.

1:26.6

They reveal a web of international connections.

1:30.5

So many countries.

1:31.8

India, Qatar, Israel, Brazil, Dubai, Russia, just to name a few.

1:36.7

With me today are two BBC Language Service journalists,

1:40.0

each of whom has spent time examining the files.

1:43.6

Abdurain Saeed from BBC Arabic and Luis Fernando Toledo, who is a reporter for BBC News, Brazil.

...

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