The emails between Kimbal Musk and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein read like something no publicly traded company’s board member should have in their history. Bloomberg reported today that newly released DOJ documents show the longtime Tesla director was connected with at least two women through Epstein, years after Epstein pleaded guilty to sex crimes in 2008. For Tesla shareholders already watching a governance train wreck in slow motion, this is another car added to the pile.

The Fact: Kimbal Musk, a Tesla board member since 2004 and Elon Musk’s brother, exchanged emails with Epstein and his associates from 2012 to 2015, was invited to Epstein’s private island, and was connected with women through Epstein’s network, according to DOJ files released January 30, 2026.
The Delta: Kimbal is referenced at least 140 times in the latest Epstein file batch. Epstein’s associate Boris Nikolic warned Kimbal to be “nice” to a woman because “Jeffrey goes crazy when someone mistreats his girls/friends.” Kimbal replied that the message was received “wide and clear” with a winking emoji.
The Buyer Impact: Both Musk brothers now appear extensively in the Epstein files while sitting on Tesla’s board. This adds another layer to the corporate governance crisis that has already seen $180 million in board chair stock sales, a $1 trillion CEO pay package, and collapsing global sales.

The Emails Paint a Picture Kimbal’s X Post Tries to Erase

Kimbal Musk posted a statement on X Monday claiming his “only meeting with that demon was in his New York office during the day” and that he “never met with him again.” He attributed the volume of his emails in the files to a newsletter Epstein subscribed to. But the actual correspondence tells a different story.

In an October 2012 email to Epstein and Nikolic, Kimbal wrote: “Great to hang out today. Jeffrey and Boris, many thanks for connecting me with Jennifer. I believe you both played a role.” That doesn’t sound like a newsletter subscriber. Nikolic, a biotech venture capitalist and former adviser to Bill Gates, responded with the warning about Epstein’s “girls/friends.”

The emails show Kimbal spent months with a woman named Jennifer, with a schedule of her plans shared with Epstein tracking her movements alongside Kimbal’s from London to Morocco to St. Barts. When the relationship cooled in April 2013 and Kimbal suggested “going back a step to just dating,” Jennifer forwarded the exchange to Epstein. His reply: “good news now i have you back again, full time.”

Epstein also invited Kimbal to his private island in January 2013. Kimbal’s reply was not a firm rejection. “That would be nice,” he wrote. “I’m still dealing with the nuclear explosion that is my life, but I’m hopeful that things are settling down a bit.” He suggested visiting “in the spring.” Whether he ever went remains unclear.

Then there’s the June 2015 email where Epstein told a person named Sanita: “I gave another girl to kimball and he is thrilled.”

Elon Musk’s Own Epstein Correspondence Complicates the Board Picture

Kimbal isn’t the only Tesla board member in these files. CEO Elon Musk also appears extensively, with at least 16 emails to Epstein between 2012 and 2014. One November 2012 email from Elon asked Epstein: “What day/night will be the wildest party on =our [sic] island?” This contradicts Elon’s 2019 claim to Vanity Fair that Epstein “tried repeatedly to get me to visit his island. I declined.”

The emails also show Nikolic telling Epstein that he spoke with Kimbal, who told him “you are meeting elon tmr for lunch. He told him great stuff about you.” Around Kimbal’s 40th birthday in September 2012, Nikolic relayed to Epstein that the Musk brothers planned a night out, and Epstein would join them and bring Jennifer.

Neither Elon Musk, Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm, nor Kimbal responded to Bloomberg’s requests for comment for the story.

The Immediate Fallout Has Already Started

Kimbal quietly resigned from the Burning Man Project’s board of directors in January, just before the latest DOJ file release. Burning Man CEO Marian Goodell confirmed his departure, claiming it was due to “other commitments and priorities” and that the conversation happened before the files dropped. The Burning Man community had already circulated an open letter at RemoveKimbal.org demanding his removal after his name appeared 140 times in the documents.

Kimbal sold $346 million worth of Tesla stock since 2010, including more than $100 million in the past two years alone. He still holds nearly 1.4 million shares worth over $500 million at current prices. His board term expires in 2027.

Tesla stock closed Monday at $417.32, down roughly 7% year-to-date in 2026 and about 15% below its all-time high from December 2025.

EVXL’s Take

We’ve been covering Tesla’s governance crisis for over a year now, from Robyn Denholm’s $180 million stock sales to Musk’s $1 trillion compensation package to Yale’s study proving his politics cost Tesla over a million U.S. sales. The pattern is consistent: Tesla’s board exists to serve the Musk family, not to provide independent oversight.

Two sitting board members are now featured prominently in the Epstein files. At any other publicly traded company, this would trigger immediate independent investigations, potential removal, and serious shareholder lawsuits. At Tesla, it will probably be ignored.

That’s not a prediction about justice. It’s an observation about Tesla’s shareholder base. When the board framed Musk’s pay package as “pay him or Tesla dies,” shareholders approved it despite opposition from Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, CalPERS, and every major proxy advisory firm. When Kimbal and other insiders dumped nearly $200 million in stock during a rally, nobody blinked. When European sales cratered 38.8% in 2025, the stock still trades at 388 times earnings.

The real question isn’t whether Kimbal Musk committed crimes. It’s whether a company with a $1.57 trillion market cap should have a board where the CEO’s brother, who exchanged friendly emails with a convicted sex offender for years and accepted women from his network, serves as a director. At most companies, the answer would be obvious. At Tesla, the answer is whatever Elon decides it is.

Expect Kimbal to quietly step down from Tesla’s board before his 2027 term expires, likely framed as a personal decision unrelated to these revelations. Burning Man was the test case. Tesla will be next, probably by Q3 2026.

Editorial Note: AI tools were used to assist with research and archive retrieval for this article. All reporting, analysis, and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo.