Paolo Zampolli
Earlier this month, proud sex trafficker Andrew Tate and “modeling agent” Paolo Zampolli linked up at, or in the vicinity of, the annual Milken Institute Global Conference, where business leaders and wannabes congregate to discuss “Leading in a New Era.”
The annual confab is sometimes described as the American business version of Davos. The 2026 conference announcement invited attendees to the Beverly Hilton to “reflect on the disruptions and innovations of the recent past and translate lessons learned into building meaningful, healthy, and prosperous lives for all.”
Milken Global is named after one of the great Wall Street fraudsters of all time – a man who, as they say, did the crime and did the time, then came roaring back into polite society.
Kind of like, come to think of it, a guy named Jeff.
This annual networking conference, tailored for C-suite executives, investors, and policymakers is of course open to both men and women… at least for now (let’s see how America looks after Scott Yenor’s vision becomes the law of the land).
But the fact that roofie-rape-accused Zampolli – the guy who pulled strings to have ICE deport his baby mama when she became inconvenient – AND a multiple rape and battery-accused global sex-crime-cheerleader scumbag like Andrew Tate were both present is proof positive that the Epstein Class is still in control of American business echelons in 2026.
Then again, perhaps we should not be shocked that an Andrew Tate would be skulking around with a Paolo Zampolli at a major American confab named after a Wall Street felon.
Michael Milken was originally sentenced in 1990 to 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to six felony counts related to securities and reporting violations tied to the Drexel Burnham Lambert scandals. Of course he did not serve the full sentence – he did less than two years due to good behavior and cooperation with prosecutors. Though permanently barred from the securities industry, Milken retained massive informal influence through his relationships, family offices, philanthropy, advisory networks, and the Milken Institute ecosystem.
The annual Milken Institute Global Conference became central to his rehabilitation, evolving into a sought-after gathering of CEOs, politicians, billionaires, celebrities, intelligence figures, tech founders, and global investors. Over the decades, attendance by these establishment figures effectively normalized Milken, and in 2020, Trump pardoned him, erasing his federal conviction.
And last fall, the historic federal-style Riggs Bank building a short walk from the White House and U.S. Treasury got a new name: the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream. It’s billed as a kind of museum with “interactive exhibits” focused on education, health, finance and entrepreneurship.
What better way to signal that the founding principles of the American commons – thrift, honesty, hard work, respect for law and order – have morphed into something rather more …barbaric… during the Epstein years. And not just in his mansion or Mar-a-Lago.
The word “Milken” appears 723 times in the Epstein files released so far – most often in connection with his institute, which invited Jeff to its events. But the men were certainly friendly. In one 2012 scheduling email, Epstein was to have breakfast with Leon Black, and the sender (an Apollo company employee) suggested Mike Milken might join them. In another email, Epstein described Milken as “leons [sic] closest friend.”
Epstein did attend at least one of the Milken conferences, in 2013, though he dismissed it afterward as having “wasted my time.”
But the Milken reputation-rehab method was always an option for Jeff. In fact, Valerie Post – the Council on Foreign Relations’ director of events at the time – suggested it to him in a 2010 email.
Of course Paolo Zampolli, currently a Trump-invented “special envoy” would grace the Milken Institute Global Conference with his presence. But hanging with Andrew Tate, whose malignant effect on teen boys worldwide has prompted whole seminars of concerned educators, adds insult to Trumpian injury.
Making this spectacle infinitely more odious is that the conference took place not far from the Beverly Hills Hotel, where Tate – in a 2025 incident reported to police – “violently beat and choked” a woman named Brianna Stern, who later filed a lawsuit against him in Los Angeles. The details are harrowing: Stern claims they were having consensual sex when Tate began to choke her, and she “began crying and begging for him to stop. He would not.” Days later, she was diagnosed with a concussion after seeking medical attention, according to the complaint. She told NBC, “I was terrified that I might die.”
(Tate has denied the allegations and filed a $50 million countersuit against her, though a judge tossed parts of his case in December. Stern’s suit is scheduled to go to trial next year.)
Numerous other women have lodged rape and choking allegations against Tate, including conservative political influencer Lauren Southern, who detailed a choking rape in her memoir last year. A UK civil case brought by four women is inching through the London court system over alleged incidents between 2013 and 2015. One woman says Tate pointed a gun at her face and raped her. Another claims he frequently strangled her, while a third says he continued having sex with her after she lost consciousness from choking. One filing also states that he said he was “debating whether to rape” her.
In 2023, Tate was indicted in Romania, along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian women, on charges of human trafficking, rape, and forming an organized criminal group to sexually exploit women. He has bragged on record about trafficking women and treating them “like slaves.” Romania charged him with imprisoning women tattooed with “Tate Girl” and forcing them to perform webcam sex acts for hours at a time.
None of that disqualified him from our national Predators’ Ball. When Trump won the 2024 election, Tate tweeted that his Romanian rape case would be “dismissed” and added, “Watch this space ;-)”. That case remains open, but pro-Tate freaks in the Trump administration – likely including his former lawyer and current administration tool, Paul Ingrassia, who once called Tate a paragon of western masculinity – managed to spring him and his brother from Romania and fly them to Miami. There, they have resumed their rape-cheerleading influencer enterprise.
Zampolli, meanwhile, has gone on a misogynistic rampage of his own since his ex, Amanda Ungaro, accused him of cutting a deal with Melania to keep himself in Trump’s good graces. He has been raging in the Italian media against “whores” who accuse him of roofie rape or support his ex-wife in Brazil.
Zampolli clearly finds in Tate a kindred spirit and the rape-bro’s content creation den a safe space. There, he bragged to Tate about selling Boeing jets to Uzbekistan during one of his “envoy” jaunts for Trump: “$20 billion in 20 minutes, by the way. This is the art of the deal, the art of impossible.”
Tate replied, “I only did $19 billion in 20 minutes, so you’ve beaten my record.”
Zampolli accepted the compliment:
Well, if you also would be selling Boeing like me, we have to compete. Like I told Jeff [presumably Jeff Shockey, Boeing’s EVP of Government Operations, Global Public Policy & Corporate Strategy] for the head of buying that as I’m the second best served person after the president of the United States of America, which he beat me a lot, and they told me, ‘Would he be upset?’ I said, ‘No, absolutely not. This is called fair competition.’ More Boeing we sell, more job we give to America [sic].
Trying to imagine a Boeing executive forced to pretend to respect this depraved Epstein demimonde apparatchik almost makes me feel sorry for him.
A spokeswoman for the Milken Institute emailed the Freakshow that “Andrew Tate was not registered for and did not attend the Milken Institute Global Conference. He also did not attend any Milken Institute-hosted events alongside the conference.” She added that Zampolli had been invited by a sponsor. “There are many events held on the sidelines of the Milken Institute Global Conference with which we do not have any connection or oversight. I believe this is where Zampolli and Tate spoke.”
Well, Tate was undoubtedly slinking around and proud of it. In a video tweeted from what appears to be a private jet, he boasted about not having to pay for his Milken ticket and said he was invited “because I’m a rich n---, I’m there doing rich n--- shit.”
In the video with Zampolli, he was less profane: “We met earlier at the Milken conference. I’m taking this so seriously. I’ve even got some written down questions because I know you’re a serious businessman who’s done some very serious things… Are you enjoying the Milken conference? What do you think? This is my first one, but there’s some interesting people here.”
Zampolli replied with the signature obsequy that has made him the perfect Trump tool. “Oh, well, I want to thank Mr. Milken to have invite me here for sport diplomacy. There is big panels of sport. We have a lots of sport people… And it’s an honor to be – thank you, Mr. Milken for inviting me” [sic].
It’s 2026. Jeff’s been dead eight years. The mansion is shuttered, the island swept clean of predators.
But there is still always a cozy conclave in America where the Epstein class can schmooze
.Nina Burleigh is a journalist, author, documentary producer, and adjunct professor at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. She has written eight books including her recently published novel, Zero Visibility Possible.
Katie Chenoweth is associate professor of French at Princeton University and an investigative researcherReprinted with permission from American Freakshow
