She was the glamorous German countess with a vast fortune who was one of Jeffrey Epstein’s closest confidantes for 20 years.
Nicole Junkermann stepped down as a trustee of a cancer charity after revelations of her friendship with Epstein and newly released emails now show that she may have provided a link between the predatory financier and the heart of Westminster.
The 50-year-old London-based technology investor, convinced health secretary Matt Hancock to appoint her to the government’s influential ‘Healthtech Advisory Board’.
And she even attempted to engineer a meeting between Epstein and former prime minister David Cameron.
The former model and entrepreneur was charged with creating a ‘culture of innovation’ and with guiding the government ‘on its mission to transform technology in the NHS’.
She was photographed standing directly behind Hancock, 47, at the board’s inaugural meeting – a picture he must now wish could be wiped from the archives.
Last week Junkermann stepped down as a trustee of the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity as the extent of her roughly two-decades-long friendship with Epstein was exposed.
Lancaster University, where she was a visiting professor, is also reviewing her status.
A series of newly released emails show Nicole Junkermann (pictured) may have provided a link between Jeffrey Epstein and the heart of Westminster, including senior politicians
Junkermann pictured to the right above former health secretary Matt Hancock (centre), whom she convinced to appoint her to the government’s influential ‘Healthtech Advisory Board’
Junkermann (left) married Italian Count Ferdinando Brachetti Peretti (right) in 2017. Mr Peretti is part of a wealthy dynasty that controls the Italian energy giant API
Hundreds of emails released by the United States Department of Justice suggest the paedophile began corresponding with her in May 2009, two months before he was released from prison having served 13 months for soliciting sex from girls as young as 14.
Junkermann described Epstein as ‘Mr Wonderful’ in one message in which she suggested she visit him once he was out of jail.
However, a 2003 diary entry she reportedly made, indicates they met years earlier.
Transcribing the diary entry into an email, she wrote: ‘I cannot sleep, I think about Jefrey. There are few people in my life which I want to spend time with – he is one of them.’ How can I trust him? How can I feel so much tenderness?’
By 2011, the pair appeared to have become infatuated with each other. Junkermann called Epstein ‘baby’ and they discussed a mysterious proposal, with Junkermann gushing: ‘You make me smile, you are in my heart.’
Discussing an investment she was mulling, she asked the shamed financier: ‘Daddy, How are u? Should I hedge now at 1.37 or wait? Kiss.’
By 2012, the exchanges become more testy.
Glamorous Nicole Junkermann (centre) pictured with Leona Koenig (left) and Eva Dichand (right) at the 65th Annual Cannes Film Festival in 2012
Epstein at one point rages that he had ‘spent time trying to give you my best advice’ but he was seeing no ‘small sign of a of two-way street [sic] – not one intersting [sic] person, gesture.’
The German entrepreneur protested that Epstein had a selective memory, reeling off apparent gifts including a ‘cashmere bathrobe’ and ‘your jewelery [sic] which you did not appreciate.’
The emails show that Epstein offered Junkermann a job, saying she would be ‘very helpful to me.’
He is said to have arranged introductions to French banker Ariane de Rothschild and Leon Black, the billionaire private equity tycoon.
He also helped to secure her a nomination for the Young Global Leaders programme run by the World Economic Forum by obtaining a letter of recommendation from Larry Summers, the former US treasury secretary, according to a previous report.
In one email Junkermann asks him, ‘Do you trust me?’
Epstein replied: ‘Any reason I shouldn’t?’
Underlining their closeness, in January 2013 Epstein discussed conceiving a baby.
In an email sent to Junkermann, he wrote: ‘how would the baby thing work, what involvement would you need from me, I reflected on what is left to do that i have not already done …voila’
She replied, ‘Wow!’ to which he responded, ‘Is that a code word?’
Epstein followed up with: ‘where ? how ? what would you expect from me, me from you? It would make a better dream work’
Epstein tried to introduce Junkermann to Microsoft founder Bill Gates at a party, emailing her: ‘I have gates on wed, if you would like to join for part..
‘also why dont you consider working for/with me , organizing the worlds most intersintng pocpl, you can invest alongsie, you can re structure house staff, be very helpful to me, and you might find it challenging.’
She replied: ‘Let’s discuss it….Tried to call you’, then adding ‘Miss you.’
Epstein, notorious for trafficking young girls in a private jet he owned dubbed the ‘Lolita Express,’ teased Junkermann about her favoured mode of transport.
He wrote: ‘Why are you dtill (sic) flying commercial, its time to get your own plane. you can afford it.’
She appears to have become a trusted advisor before he was arrested. They jointly invested in an Israeli security start-up called Carbyne, according to a report.
In July 2017, Epstein included her on an email sent to former Israeli PM Ehud Barak, in which he argued that using Cyprus to avoid tax was ‘silly, antiquated and dangerous.’
Junkermann concurred, saying that Cyprus was ‘raising eyebrows’ and that she ‘would propose Luxembourg’ as an alternative.
That same year – 2017 – she married Italian Count Ferdinando Brachetti Peretti, 66, part of a wealthy dynasty that controls the Italian energy giant API.
Hundreds of emails released by the United States Department of Justice suggest paedophile Epstein began corresponding with Junkermann in May 2009. Junkermann pictured here with husband, Ferdinando Peretti
Junkermann (centre) pictured with German businessman Patrick Faber-Castell (left) and Trinidadian-German singer Haddaway
But Justice Department files show that she remained close to Epstein – and was still making introductions for him – even after she became a countess.
In fact, she continued corresponding with the convicted paedophile right up until his second arrest.
In 2018, she wrote to Epstein: ‘I am hosting a lunch on the west coast in March for David Cameron would you like to join or anyone else who I should invite?’
A short time before Epstein was found hanging in his prison cell in August 2019, Junkermann referred to a letter published in The New York Times defending him.
In an email first reported by The Telegraph, she wrote: ‘Cross fingers it is just a wave and it goes away again……. bad timing on the whole Me Too.’
Junkermann’s bond with Epstein was only uncovered when the full treasure trove of evidence was finally released this month.
Born in Düsseldorf in 1975, she is the only daughter of powerful German businessman Heinz Junkermann, who would take her to board meetings from the age of 12.
Raised in Marbella, Spain, she studied business administration and management at the International University of Monaco and attended Harvard Business School in the United States
But she made her bones in the City of London where her NJF Capital has invested in dozens of technology companies including Owkin, an AI healthcare firm worth more than $1bn (£735m) that has struck deals with the NHS.
This perhaps explains how Hancock, who resigned as an MP at the 2024 General Election, came into her crosshairs.
The ‘Healthtech Advisory Board’ was tasked with ‘assisting in policy creation, challenging decision making and acting as a sounding board for new ideas.’
It is not clear when she left that role but the Epstein revelations were too much for those running the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, which had appointed her as a trustee in 2024.
The charity raises funds for the Royal Marsden hospital, a specialist cancer centre, which William and Kate became patrons of in January last year and which treated the princess for cancer.
It is understood that Junkermann also stepped down from a role as a visiting professor at Lancaster University, while her Linked-in page was taken down in recent days.
She says she ‘deeply regrets’ her conversations with Epstein and feels she was deceived and misled by him.
A spokesman for the countess said: ‘The scale of Jerey Epstein’s crimes is appalling. As a woman and a mother, Nicole was completely deceived and misled by him and deeply regrets their conversations regarding personal and professional matters.
‘These conversations took place at a time when she was vulnerable, and she was manipulated into trusting him and consulting him with the most personal of matters.
Nicole has been horrified to come to understand his true nature and the suffering he inflicted on women and girls through his abuse of trust, power, and manipulation. Her thoughts are completely with his victims, and she looks forward to the day the real predators face justice.’
Junkermann married her husband, 66, in what one newspaper described as a ‘secret (and) very intimate ceremony attended only by witnesses.’
A glowing 2019 article in the Il Mattino newspaper described Junkermann as a ‘technology consultant to the British government.’
In 2012, she welcomed another Italian publication into her South Kensington home where she boasted that of the 40 start-ups in her portfolio, ‘a full 12 – about one in three—are considered unicorns: they have an average size of over €10 billion.’
A Real Madrid fan who speaks five languages, Junkermann added: ‘Everything I’ve done, I’ve built myself.’
