A Norwegian diplomatic couple under investigation for their connections to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein borrowed one of his planes to visit Bermuda with their children, according to US Department of Justice files.

That is just one of more than 140 references to Bermuda in the available files reviewed so far.

Epstein had a fleet of aircraft that were frequently loaned to friends, many of them high-profile diplomats and heads of corporations.

According to documents accessed through the website journaliststudio.google.com, in May 2011 Epstein loaned his plane to Norwegian diplomatic couple Mona Juul and Terje Roed-Larsen to fly themselves and their children to Bermuda for a holiday.

The French Le Monde newspaper reported yesterday that Norwegian police have launched an “aggravated corruption” investigation into the couple’s links with Epstein.

Ms Juul, Norway’s ambassador to Jordan and Iraq, resigned from her duties on Sunday after reports of an investigation into her relationship with Epstein.

There are also references in the files to flights to Bermuda taken by American banker and former group chief executive of Barclay’s James Edward “Jes” Staley.

In November 2010, Mr Staley wrote to Epstein: “Just arrived in Bermuda. Great trip. Clear head.”

The trip happened two years after Epstein was convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor. He had served 13 months in a Florida jail, and was a registered sex offender.

Mr Staley is now accused of making trips to Epstein’s island, Little St James, in the US Virgin Islands, where Epstein frequently held parties at which girls as young as 14 were allegedly used for sex.

Mr Staley left Barclay’s in 2021 after his seemingly close friendship with Epstein became known. Last year, he was banned for life from the British financial industry and fined £1.1 million by the Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority.

In total, “Bermuda” appears more than 140 times in the DOJ’s Epstein files, although in some cases it is only a reference to the type of grass.

In 2015, there was mention of selling one of Epstein’s Bermuda-registered Boeing aircraft for $37,000,000.

HSBC Bank of Bermuda is also in the files in reference to a Bermuda account sending more than $58,000 to Epstein’s Haze Trust.

The Haze Trust was one of the ways Epstein managed his $41.4 million in cash assets.

In July 2019, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reported that it was likely that Epstein used a series of offshore shell companies to hide his money, including one in Bermuda.

Through a leak, the ICIJ reported that Epstein was an Appleby client, and chaired Liquid Funding, a Bermudian-registered company from 2000 to 2007.

It was partially owned by Bear Stearns, Epstein’s former employer, and apparently held billions of dollars in complex securities.

The company was dissolved in November 2015 after being put into voluntary liquidation.

Epstein died in a New York prison in 2019, awaiting trial for series of charges accusing him of running a network of underage girls for sex.

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