On July 18, 2012, Jeffrey Epstein despatched an e mail that learn: “I take into account you a good friend, it’s the reverse of dantes circle , girlfriends wives„ youngsters„ all take second place [sic].” It was addressed to Richard Saul Wurman, an architect who cofounded the TED convention collection. Wurman replied: “SO TRUE AND ELEGANT. IT SO OFTEN FROM THE OPPOSITE OF EXPECTATION THAT CLARITY ARISES. [sic]”
On the time they gave the impression to be negotiating a Memorandum of Understanding between the financier and a convention Wurman established that was to happen that September.
These are two of greater than 1,200 search outcomes for “Richard Saul Wurman” in Epstein’s e mail cache launched by the U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ) on January 30.
These exchanges seem to counsel a relationship between Wurman and Epstein. Wurman didn’t reply to AN’s requests for remark.
Obvious communication between Wurman, Epstein, and their respective associates and assistants reveals Epstein’s connections with TED, in addition to subsequent productions Wurman launched, together with the WWW Convention and 555 Convention.
The appearances of names and entities in these communications is correspondence and isn’t essentially proof of wrongdoing. AN is reporting on the fabric as provided by the DOJ, which has not been authenticated by one other supply.
Who’s Richard Saul Wurman?
Wurman is understood for gathering specialists for cross-disciplinary dialog, most prominently by way of the long-running TED (Know-how, Leisure, Design) convention. He as soon as described TED as “the ceremonial dinner I all the time wished to have however by no means did.”
Born in Philadelphia in 1935, Wurman studied structure at College of Pennsylvania below Louis Kahn and graduated from Penn in 1959.
In 1963, Wurman cofounded his personal structure apply, Murphy Levy Wurman, with two fellow Penn graduates. Wurman has written quite a few books, together with guidebooks and two publications about Louis Kahn. He coined the time period “info structure.”
In 1976, Wurman was elevated to Fellowship stature inside the AIA and earned an AIGA Gold Medal in 2004. He acquired a lifetime achievement award from Cooper Hewitt in 2012.
Wurman based TED in 1984 with Harry Marks as a discussion board to create trade between Silicon Valley designers, enterprise capitalists, and technologists. Wurman additionally ran TEDMED, a healthcare-industry TED spin-off, from 1995 by way of 2010.
Wurman offered TED in 2001 for $14 million to Chris Anderson to be able to deal with different ventures, specifically the WWW Convention Wurman based in 2012 and the 555 Convention, which he created in 2014.
Wurman turned 90-years-old final 12 months and celebrated in January 2026 with a 3-day convention in Miami Seaside titled Wurman Shoulders Weekend during which audio system shared about their mentors.
Friends included Nicholas Negroponte, Sanjay Gupta, Bobby Brown, Matt Groening, Kara Swisher, and Stefan Sagmeister, amongst others. It was billed as “Richard Saul Wurman has one final dialog earlier than he dies.”
JE and TED
E-mail exchanges between Wurman and Epstein date again to at the very least 2011. Wurman emailed Epstein’s assistant, Lesley Groff, on April 1, 2011, about arranging Wurman’s go to to “Little Jeff Isle,” in Wurman’s phrases, which means that Wurman could have made plans to go to Little Saint James.
On March 6, 2011, Nathan Myrvold, former Microsoft CTO and chef, emailed a set of photographs from a TED gathering to Epstein. “I feel they turned out fairly good,” he wrote. In one other e mail dated June 27, 2011, Epstein was invited to RSVP for a TED get together.
A spokesperson for TED advised AN: “Jeffrey Epstein was not invited or welcome to attend the TED Convention in or after 2008.” That was the 12 months Epstein was convicted in Florida of soliciting a prostitute and procuring a minor for prostitution in 2005.
“[Epstein] made numerous makes an attempt to get entry to the TED Convention after that point and was denied,” the spokesperson stated. “Nevertheless, as is frequent at excessive profile convenings, satellite tv for pc occasions are sometimes held which are exterior of the official TED program with no participation from the TED group.”
Cash Discuss
Epstein agreed to jot down Wurman a $100,000 verify in 2012 to finance the preliminary WWW Convention in Purple Financial institution, California, based on an e mail dated August 21 of that very same 12 months.
The DOJ information embody an bill for $100,000, dated on August 6, 2012, and payable to Wurman, Inc. It isn’t confirmed if the verify was ever despatched or cashed.
The transaction to financially help Wurman gave the impression to be facilitated over e mail by Richard Kahn of HBRK Associates. Different correspondence reveals that Kahn additionally coordinated initiatives by Gensler and different architects on Little St. James Island for Epstein.
Again and Forth
On October 15, 2013, Wurman emailed Epstein: “Want extra of you than a 30 min quickie.”
Through an e mail dated February 25, 2013, Epstein was invited to a TED get together by Wurman’s assistant. The cocktail get together was at Pikes Lodge in Ibiza, Spain.
In a March 10, 2014 e mail, Wurman reminded Epstein’s assistant to have Epstein RSVP for a TED get together: “reminder: we have to RSVP to Brockman’s TED get together by March 10,” Wurman stated.
Brockman right here is John Brockman, a literary agent who hosted “luxurious dinners [and] unique conferences … for the wealthy, the sensible, and the highly effective” financed by Epstein and others, based on The Guardian. Brockman was additionally the writer and editor of edge.org.
In a 2016 e mail, Wurman requested Epstein’s assistant to inquire about sharing the manuscript of a piece in progress: “Wished to point out [Epstein] first half of recent e-book about 340 pages. [sic]”
The final correspondence between Wurman and Epstein within the DOJ emails cache is from 2017. On January 16, 2017, Wurman emailed Epstein: “HBD- Completely satisfied Birthday I assume!” Epstein was arrested in July 2019 and died the next month.
