Nicholas Ribis

Nicholas Ribis built his career in the casino industry during its most volatile period, serving as CEO and Vice President of Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts during Trump's Atlantic City operations. In an April 2016 email to Epstein ¹, Ribis claimed credit for designing Trump's "business comeback" from the casino bankruptcies of the early 1990s: "Remind ur friend that I designed the DJT business comeback and now he may be the President." Epstein repeated this claim to Steve Bannon in February 2018, writing that "Nick was the person that negotiated Donald out of bankruptcy. Not Wilbur" — a correction of the public narrative attributing that role to Wilbur Ross of Rothschild Inc.

After leaving Trump's casino operations, Ribis became associated with Resorts International Hotel & Casino under Colony Capital, controlled by Thomas Barrack. This placed Ribis at the intersection of two Trump-orbit figures: Barrack (later indicted in 2021 for illegal UAE lobbying) and Epstein. Ribis forwarded a Forbes article about Barrack's "disastrous deal" to Epstein in July 2018 ², while Epstein shared intelligence with Ribis about the Barrack-Manafort-Gates-Patten chain. Ribis's late-career venture, NLR Ventures LLC, pursued the Cal Neva Resort & Casino at Lake Tahoe — the former Sinatra property — a deal that remained at a perpetual "critical point" and served as the stated basis for Ribis's ongoing financial requests to Epstein.

The financial relationship between Epstein and Ribis began no later than October 2010, when Ribis emailed Epstein requesting a $2.5 million wire for an "AC Hilton" transaction, offering his Olympic Towers condominium as collateral ³: "if u can help I would appreciate it if not I fully understand -- late notice." Epstein declined on short notice, but the exchange established a pattern that would recur for nearly a decade: Ribis approaching Epstein for rapid, large-sum financing with inadequate or undelivered collateral.

By 2011, Epstein had extended at least $200,000 in personal loans to Ribis and expressed skepticism about repayment. On June 20, 2011, Epstein wrote: "I can't figure out how the money gets repaid... the plane is worth no more than 4" and noted "the economy looks fragile." The loans were structured as zero-interest personal advances from Epstein to NLR Ventures LLC, processed through Deutsche Bank wealth management. Deutsche Bank compliance flagged the wire, asking: "What is the purpose of the Outgoing wire to NLR VENTURES LLC?" and "What is the Beneficiary NLR VENTURES LLC line of business?" The bank's wealth management staffer Bradley Gillin (345 Park Ave, 24th floor) processed the transactions, while Richard Kahn at HBRK Associates managed the loan account on Epstein's side.

Repayment was erratic. Kahn demanded repayment of the $200,000 on September 11, 2017. In July 2017, $125,000 remained outstanding and Epstein instructed Kahn to "give nick a new amount calculated for july 15th payoff." A check for $158,025.02 "with interest accrued" arrived in January 2018, followed by a wire of $137,072.70 in April 2018 to Deutsche Bank account 35269691 ("Jeffrey Epstein"). In mid-2018, Ribis's check #1148 was deposited on June 29, 2018, cleared on July 3, then a stop payment was issued on a separate check on July 6. Ribis had written: "Please don't deposit it will bounce!!!" Epstein deposited it anyway. Throughout, Ribis promised Mikimoto pearls and watches as collateral, but as Kahn told Epstein: "we made this loan to nick based on a promise of a jewelry delivery within two days in the amount of no less than 200k" — the jewelry never arrived.

In December 2017, Epstein told Ribis "we are filling out our regulatory reports this fri. and leaving you off" while simultaneously accepting a $50,000 incoming wire transfer ⁴. This deliberate omission from regulatory filings, concurrent with active financial flows, indicates an intent to conceal the Ribis relationship from compliance oversight.

Ribis's primary intelligence value to Epstein appears to have centered on the Caesars Entertainment bankruptcy — one of the largest restructurings in American corporate history, with direct implications for Leon Black's Apollo Global Management. Ribis had extensive gaming industry contacts and claimed insider access to the proceedings, telling Epstein in December 2015 that he had been "doing some digging on Caesars" and arranging meetings at Epstein's 9 East 71st Street residence to discuss his findings ⁵.

Ribis reported directly from meetings with "Mark" — Marc Rowan, Apollo's co-founder — relaying that "Apollo already lost 2b original investment now this - there concerned for sure" and that "David Tepper wants a lot" ⁶, providing Epstein with real-time intelligence on creditor positions during active litigation. In March 2016, Ribis told Epstein he "could have been the examiner" in the Caesars bankruptcy "but Mark's lawyers nixed me and oked Davis" ⁷, referring to the court-appointed examiner whose report would prove damaging to Apollo. Separately, Ribis told Epstein that "Steve P" — Steven Pesner of Akin Gump, assigned to coordinate with Ribis on the Caesars engagement — was "making money having this continue" and had been slow-walking Ribis because he "knows too much" ⁸.

Epstein relayed Ribis's Caesars reporting to Melanie Spinella, Leon Black's executive assistant ⁹, creating a channel through which intelligence about Apollo's legal exposure flowed from Ribis through Epstein to Black's inner circle. The February 2012 origin of this channel — when Ribis pitched a Caesars casino deal "for Leon" through Epstein — suggests Epstein may have been positioning himself as an intelligence intermediary between the gaming industry and Apollo's senior leadership during a period of significant Caesars liability exposure.

Ribis's second intelligence stream was his access to Trump White House personnel dynamics, drawn from 24 years of proximity to Trump. His predictions proved consistently accurate. On January 21, 2016, ten months before the election, Ribis told Epstein: "DJT will be President." On February 3, 2017, less than two weeks into the administration, Ribis predicted: "Bannon will be gone by Sept - too out front taking glow off DJ." Steve Bannon was fired on August 18, 2017, within the timeframe and for the reason Ribis had identified.

On July 24, 2017, Ribis reported: "I hear RP and SB on way out - Moch to be chief of staff - I and JK killing all they view as enemy." Decoded: RP was Reince Priebus (fired four days later on July 28), SB was Steve Bannon (fired August 18), "Moch" was Anthony Scaramucci (appointed communications director on July 21), and JK was Jared Kushner. These were not public predictions; Ribis was reporting personnel changes with a 72-hour lead time before they became public.

In February 2018, Epstein introduced Ribis to Bannon via email, credentialing Ribis as "loyal, lawyer. Knows Donald 25 years, and shares Kasowitz Expertise" and adding: "Nick was the person that negotiated Donald out of bankruptcy. Not Wilbur." The introduction carried an explicit operational security instruction: "Not for Email call before you take off." By connecting Ribis's Trump personality and personnel intelligence with Bannon's political strategy perspective, Epstein created a combined Trump administration information channel. This occurred while Epstein was simultaneously managing financial relationships with multiple Trump-orbit figures including Thomas Barrack.

The Ribis relationship is significant less for the sums involved — $200,000 is modest by Epstein network standards — than for the pattern it documents. Ribis was not a billionaire cultivated for his wealth, nor a scientist funded for prestige. He was a financially strained gaming executive whose primary value to Epstein appears to have been informational: knowledge of Trump's psychology from decades of proximity, familiarity with casino industry dynamics, and direct access to Apollo's leadership during the Caesars crisis. The loans to Ribis through NLR Ventures correspond in timing and structure more closely to an ongoing relationship of mutual obligation than to conventional business lending.

Richard Kahn's role in the relationship extended beyond financial administration. Kahn actively managed the Ribis account, demanded repayment, threatened to deposit checks Ribis had warned would bounce, and functioned as an enforcement mechanism that kept Ribis in a state of continuing financial obligation. The loan chain — Epstein to Kahn to Gillin (Deutsche Bank) to NLR Ventures, and repayments back through Kahn to Deutsche Bank — created a documented paper trail. Ribis could not easily disengage from a man who held his bounced checks and unfulfilled collateral promises.

The December 2017 regulatory omission — Epstein telling Ribis "we are filling out our regulatory reports this fri. and leaving you off" while simultaneously accepting a $50,000 wire — demonstrates that Epstein treated the Ribis relationship as one requiring concealment from regulators. Whether this was to protect Ribis's gaming licenses (which could be jeopardized by association with a convicted sex offender), to avoid disclosing the financial relationship in Epstein's filings, or both, the deliberate concealment distinguishes this from ordinary personal lending.