Jeffrey Epstein, Noam Chomsky, and a Providence Lawyer — the Battle Over Millions

Jeffrey Epstein, Noam Chomsky, and a Providence Lawyer — the Battle Over Millions

Buried in the 3.3 million emails of the convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, released by the Department of Justice, are hundreds of emails involving a battle over millions of dollars in a trust fund relating to the family of one of the world’s most prominent academics of the past 100 years.

This episode shows how Epstein gained the confidence of one faction of the embattled family and used it to access their private secrets.

And, much of this conflict involved a Providence lawyer working out of 100 Weybosset Street.

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Here are  the players:

 

Jeffrey Epstein — convicted sex offender and friend to many of the world’s powerful.

 

Noam Chomsky — pioneering American linguist, philosopher, and social critic widely considered the "father of modern linguistics." He is a laureate professor at the University of Arizona and an institute professor emeritus at MIT. 

 

Max Kohlenberg  — a Providence-based trust attorney representing the family trust of Chomsky’s first and deceased wife, Carol. She had earned a doctoral degree in linguistics from Harvard University.

 

Valeria Chomsky — the second wife of Noam Chomsky. She interacted hundreds of times with Epstein about gaining access to the family trust's monies.

 

Rich Kahn — the former longtime accountant for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, currently serves as a co-executor and beneficiary of the Epstein estate.

At some point, Noam and Valeria Chomsky had engaged Epstein to help resolve a growing battle between the Chomskys and his children over the control of the family trust. A trust worth millions.

 

As part of Epstein’s involvement, he brought in Kahn to help "manage" the situation.

 

 

Epstein's Schedule: Layers of the Powerful and Influential

Epstein’s schedule for the last two weeks of November 2017 includes appointments with a far-reaching swath of America’s most famous and influential.

Woody Allen and Soon Yi were scheduled, and so was Deepka Chopra. Billionaire Leon Black was scheduled for breakfast, and both hotelier Tom Pritzker and Obama’s former chief legal counsel, Kathy Ruemmler, also had appointments.

 

One day in particular stands out.

 

It is Monday, November 27, 2017.

Amongst the many things appearing on Jeffrey Epstein’s schedule is:

An 8:00 AM breakfast with Reid Weingarten, a lawyer at one of America’s most influential law firms, Steptoe.  And Weingarten’s bio says, “Reid Weingarten is widely recognized as one of the nation's top white-collar criminal defense lawyers.”

There is also a 12:00 lunch scheduled that day with Peter Thiel — the billionaire founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies.

There were other appointments with names redacted.

And then on the schedule was a conference call scheduled for 3:20 PM, a call with Rich Kahn (Epstein’s accountant) and a Providence lawyer who represents the Chomsky Trust — Max Kohlenberg.

All of these prominent Americans were meeting with a man who was released from prison eight years earlier for sex crimes involving underage girls.

This was not the first time Epstein was scheduled to meet with Kohlenberg. The two were scheduled for a call in September, too.

 

 

Why Was a Providence Trust Attorney on a Call with Epstein?

This is a story of a family fight over money and how Epstein immersed himself in the conflict.

At some point, Noam and Valeria Chomsky had engaged Epstein to help resolve a growing battle between the Chomskys and his children over the control of the family trust.

At some point, Noam and Valeria Chomsky had engaged Epstein to help resolve a growing battle between the Chomskys and his children over the control of the family trust.

For Epstein, it was another intimate relationship with another famous person. Another academic or powerful influencer relationship for his network.

Unrelated to the legal battle over the millions, Noam Chomsky’s affiliation with Epstein netted him invitations to vacation together.

Prior to the fight over millions, emails showed Epstein and the Chomskys making plans to meet up in 2016, Epstein wrote to Noam, “Enjoyed … [as] always. Come to New York or Caribbean? Enjoy the food.”

“We did too, very much,” Chomsky replied. “Valeria’s always keen on New York. I’m really fantasizing about the Caribbean island.”

 

The Legal Battle

In 2017 and 2018, there were hundreds of emails between Epstein, Valeria, and Noam Chomsky about the dispute.

The dispute centered on distributions and control over a family trust and often pitted Valeria against Noam's children and the lawyer appointed to the trust.

A central player is Providence-based Kohlenberg.  GoLocal spoke to him, and he was guarded in his comments and protective of his legal obligations in the dispute.

“I am a trust and estate lawyer who has now retired, who did estate planning and trust administration for thousands of individuals, and one of them had a relationship with somebody that was completely unrelated to my work with that client,” said Kohlenberg.

“I’m grateful to have never had any interactions with Epstein,” he added.

Documents in the Epstein files show that Epstein and Kohlenberg were scheduled for meetings or conference calls on at least two occasions.

“I'm dismayed to see that most everything I wrote to my client was copied to Epstein,” said Kohlenberg.

“My takeaway is I did the very best that I could for my client and was sorry that circumstances arose that ended our professional relationship,” said Kohlenberg.

Throughout the legal dispute, Epstein fed into Valeria Chomsky’s frustration about Kohlenberg.

 

 

Epstein's Lawyer

Reid Weingarten would reemerge in this legal battle over the Chomsky Trust. 

Weingarten appears in the Epstein files more than 1,500 times. He served as Epstein’s lawyer regarding numerous actions, including defending Epstein against criminal prosecution.

First, Weingarten emerges as a potential replacement for Kohlenberg.

“Weingarten (accomplished as he may be as a white collar crime litigator) has the knowledge or necessary experience to serve as trustee of a marital trust established under Massachusetts law. (I would note that a quick perusal of the web indicates that he has represented, among others, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, Roman Polanski and the Republic of Kazakhstan. Also that he was on the short list to represent Donald Trump. Very impressive!),” writes Kohlenberg in 2017 in an email.

 

 

And later, a number of months later, Weingarten’s firm is involved in potential litigation against Kohlenberg for malpractice. 

But at the crux of the battle was Valeria's fear that Noam Chomsky's children wanted all the money.

 

 

Ultimately, the episode ended in a legal dispute.  Shortly thereafter, Epstein was indicted for sex trafficking. He died in jail a few months later 

The episode is just one of dozens exposed in the Epstein files in which he integrated himself and his actors into others' lives. He introduced Kahn and later Weingarten in an effort to influence the dispute.

 

 

After the Chomskys' friendship with Epstein was exposed, Valeria issued an apology. She called the relationship a "grave mistake."

GoLocal reached out to Noam Chomsky's daughter Aviva Chomsky, Weingarten, and a number of other attorneys involved in the dispute. None of them responded to questions.