Rudd must ‘come clean’
Claim he was ignorant of Epstein donation ’not credible’, says Dutton
IT was “not credible” that ex-pm Kevin Rudd didn’t know about a “massive” $US650,000 worth of donations from sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein to his New York think-tank, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says.
Mr Dutton yesterday called on Mr Rudd to publicly release all the information available on the links between the dead paedophile and the International Peace Institute.
“It’s just not credible, him saying he didn’t know anything about this, he hasn’t seen anything,” Mr Dutton said.
“It’s $US650,000 — it’s a massive donation.
“Mr Epstein was a very significant character and Mr Rudd needs to detail all of the information, because people want confidence and faith in the work that his group is doing. But at the moment, Mr Rudd has more questions than he’s got answers.”
Mr Rudd, chairman of the IPI, joined the institute in June 2014 after losing the federal election the year before.
Between 2011 and 2019 Epstein, who was found dead in a prison cell in August last year while awaiting sex trafficking charges, donated $650,000 to the IPI via his charities.
That’s despite the fact Epstein was convicted of procuring an underage girl for prostitution in 2008.
A year-long media investigation into the IPI has also uncovered close ties between the IPI’S director and former Norwegian diplomat Terde RodLarsen and Epstein, including a $US130,000 personal loan, which Mr Rod-larsen has now apologised over.
Mr Rudd, as chairman of the institute, said he never had personal dealings with Epstein and was “blindsided” to find out about the scandal via Norwegian media.
He said he was on a teleconference call in January 2014 to provide advice to Mongolia and was later told “Epstein was apparently among the 10 participants of the teleconference”.
“As soon as the board became aware we acted,” he said. “We decided it was wrong, simply because of the appalling nature of Epstein’s record.”
The Norwegian investigation by business newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv has also uncovered emails of Mr RodLarsen authorising a separate $100,000 payment from the think tank to Epstein.
The money was originally slated to go to Mr Rudd for advice to the Mongolian government, but Mr Rudd declined because “my involvement, apart from the initial teleconference, was negligible”.