Epstein Files and Finland: What 1.7 Million Pages of FBI Documents Reveal

Published 22.2.2026 | yirah.fi

178 Gigabytes

On January 30, 2026, the United States Department of Justice released the largest single criminal investigation dataset in history. FBI documents, emails, calendar entries, flight logs and financial records related to the Jeffrey Epstein case totalled 178 gigabytes. The dataset contains 865,000 EFTA documents and approximately 1.75 million pages.

Jeffrey Epstein was an American financier convicted of sexual offences against minors in 2008. He was arrested again in July 2019 on new charges. A month later, he was found dead in his cell in New York.

Epstein's network stretched from politics to science, from the financial world to royalty. In 2024, the United States Congress passed the EPSTEIN Transparency Act, which required the Department of Justice to release the investigation materials. The release took place in January 2026.

The sheer volume of the dataset makes it practically impossible to investigate without tools. The original documents are in PDF format with no functioning search index. The Department of Justice's own search function covers only a portion of the material. To address this, yirah.fi built a search engine that enables free-text search across the entire dataset. The search engine is open to everyone at yirah.fi/epstein.

Finnish Names in the Dataset

Finnish names appear in the dataset. Their context must be understood before drawing any conclusions.

Sauli Niinistö, Tarja Halonen, Mari Kiviniemi, Jutta Urpilainen, Jorma Ollila, Matti Alahuhta, Mikko Kosonen, Tapio Kuula and several other Finnish politicians and business leaders appear in the material. Every single one of them appears exclusively on WEF (World Economic Forum) participant lists and conference directories. Epstein systematically collected such lists as part of his broader intelligence-gathering operation.

Not one of these names appears in Epstein's emails, calendar entries or direct correspondence.

We checked each name individually. The results were clean.

A mention on a conference list does not mean a connection to Epstein. Responsible reporting also discloses what was not found. This is one of the things that was not found.

Marko Ahtisaari: What Yle Reported

On January 30, 2025, Yle published an article headlined "Marko Ahtisaari's name appears in the Epstein materials: Ahtisaari confirms the meeting." The article was written by Sannimari Lehtilä.

According to the article, Marko Ahtisaari's name appears in email correspondence between Joi Ito and Jeffrey Epstein. Ito inquired about the possibility of introducing Ahtisaari to Epstein, and a meeting was arranged for November 24, 2013.

Ahtisaari confirmed the meeting to Yle by text message. He described it as "a brief and isolated meeting" that led to no further contact. He emphasised that he had "no other connection to Epstein before or after this meeting."

Marko Ahtisaari: What the Documents Show

We went through the entire 865,000-document dataset. Marko Ahtisaari appears in 14 separate EFTA documents spanning June 2011 to August 2016.

Based on the material, Ahtisaari told Yle the truth. He had one meeting with Epstein, and the dataset contains no direct communication between them either before or after that meeting. There is no financial connection, no agreements, and no other direct contact in the record.

At the same time, the material reveals something broader: how Epstein's network operated around people. The following timeline shows what Epstein's assistants, Joi Ito and other network members did in Marko Ahtisaari's name or around him — without Ahtisaari himself being an active party.

June 2011: "Boris' friend, Marko"

Two and a half years before the meeting, Marko Ahtisaari appeared in the calendar of Epstein's assistant Lesley Groff.

On June 28, 2011, an entry appeared on Groff's task list:

"Can David Gergen meet Boris' friend, Marko?"

The entry recurs five times over the course of a week at different reminder times (EFTA00431619, EFTA00431846, EFTA00431439, EFTA00431560, EFTA00431318). This indicates the matter was left pending and repeatedly flagged.

David Gergen is an American political adviser who served in four presidential administrations. Boris is Boris Nikolić, a Croatian-American biologist, scientific adviser to Bill Gates, and a close contact of Epstein's. Nikolić was later named as the contingent executor of Epstein's will.

On June 29, Groff reported to Epstein by email (EFTA00431465):

"I called David Gergen's office and spoke to one of his assistants. The assistant said in a meeting this morning you and Marko were brought up, David does have the resume and information."

Epstein's network had thus delivered Marko's CV and background information to Gergen and was attempting to arrange a meeting on Marko's behalf. At this stage, Marko was "Boris' friend." The material does not indicate whether Marko was aware of this arrangement.

November 2013: The Meeting in Manhattan

On November 24, 2013, Joi Ito sent Epstein an email introducing Marko Ahtisaari (EFTA00976504):

"He was until recently the head of design of Nokia. He's a philosopher and a designer. His father was the president of Finland and a well know UN diplomat — Martti Ahtisaari. He just moved to New York and has been going through a transition."

In the same message, Ito mentioned that Marko would be joining the Media Lab as a Fellow:

"Marko and I have been talking a lot about deception and will be joining the Media Lab as a fellow."

Epstein replied with a single word: "great".

Ten minutes later, Ito sent a second message (EFTA00976506):

"Marko is one of my best friends — there's nothing I really hide from him. I'm thinking that maybe he can help me run the Media Lab."

Epstein replied: "got it".

The meeting took place that same day. In the afternoon, Ito sent a confirmation message with Marko Ahtisaari's email address in the CC field (EFTA00379132). Groff replied: "Terrific...thanks!" (EFTA00379137).

This is the only documented direct contact between Epstein and Marko Ahtisaari. Ahtisaari's description to Yle — "a brief and isolated meeting" — is consistent with the contents of the dataset.

July 2014: Ito Reports to Epstein

Eight months after the meeting, Joi Ito wrote Epstein an email with the subject line "Sultan" (EFTA00991955):

"BTW, I saw Sultan and PM hanging out at his hotel with Marko for a few days. Fun. Wish you were here."

Ito was reporting Marko's movements to Epstein in passing, as part of inner-circle updates. "Sultan" and "PM" refer to other high-profile individuals in Ito's network. The message is from Ito to Epstein. Marko is neither the sender, the recipient, nor copied on it.

August 2016: The Final Mention

Hong Kong-based researcher Gino Yu wrote Epstein an email that mentioned Marko (EFTA00642843):

"Joi is also in this space with this project (I saw Marko this trip): http://syncproject.co"

Sync Project was a startup founded by Marko Ahtisaari that researched the effects of music on health. Joi Ito sat on its board. This message, too, was written by a third party to Epstein. Marko is not part of the email thread.

This is the last documented mention of Marko in the Epstein dataset.

Director's Fellow and MIT Media Lab

In Joi Ito's introductory email on November 24, 2013, Marko's Media Lab affiliation was still in the future: "will be joining the Media Lab as a fellow." Based on the material, the transition took place during 2014. In March 2015, an Ito LinkedIn update (EFTA00679843) links the Sync Project launch to the Media Lab.

The Director's Fellows programme was founded by Ito himself. It brought "exceptional individuals into the Lab from outside academia." The programme involved no employment relationship and no academic obligations. A Fellow received a title, access to the Media Lab's network, and the opportunity to participate in Lab events.

How Epstein's Network Operated

The case of Marko Ahtisaari illustrates the operational logic of Epstein's network. Epstein did not necessarily know his targets personally. His network mapped, brokered and tracked people of interest systematically.

In the summer of 2011, Boris Nikolić introduced Marko's name to Epstein. Epstein's assistant Groff began arranging a meeting with David Gergen on Marko's behalf. Two and a half years later, Joi Ito introduced Marko to Epstein in person. After that, Ito and other network members reported Marko's movements to Epstein as part of routine network updates.

Marko Ahtisaari himself does not write to Epstein a single time in the entire dataset.

This pattern is not unique. The same structure repeats across hundreds of other names in the material: someone in the network identifies a person of interest, Epstein's machinery springs into action, and the target's name begins appearing in documents — without the target necessarily being aware of this attention.

Timeline

Everyone Can Verify for Themselves

All documents referenced in this article can be searched at yirah.fi/epstein. The search engine covers 865,000 EFTA documents and 1.75 million pages of original FBI investigation material. The search is free and requires no registration.

In forthcoming articles, we will examine the documented connection between the Norwegian royal family and Epstein, as well as Helsinki's role as a transit point for Epstein's network.

This article is based solely on FBI documents released by the United States Department of Justice. All EFTA references are verifiable from original sources. A mention in the dataset does not imply involvement in any crime.