Editor’s note: This story may be updated as we verify additional details.
A newly released photograph shows New Hampshire businessman and inventor Dean Kamen with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as well as English billionaire Richard Branson outside on what appears to be a beach. The image was part of the latest batch of files published by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Friday, as part of an ongoing inquiry into Epstein.
Kamen, who is 74, has not been accused of any wrongdoing related to his time spent with Epstein. It isn’t clear how often the men traveled together, or when they were last in communication.
Kamen’s name has previously appeared in a flight log connected to Epstein, but this is the first public image of the two together.
Kamen, who is 74, has not been accused of any wrongdoing related to his time spent with Epstein. It isn’t clear how often the men traveled together, or when they were last in communication.
The photo of Epstein, Kamen and Branson — the British entrepreneur behind Virgin Atlantic and other companies — is undated. No other context was provided for the image.
NHPR attempted to contact Kamen on Friday morning by email for comment through two associates who have worked closely with him in recent years, but did not immediately receive a response.
Kamen’s name previously appeared in a 2003 flight log for Epstein’s private jet. The flight entry references a trip from John F. Kennedy airport in New York to Monterey, California.
Kamen is himself an avid pilot, who at times has commuted from his home in Bedford to his offices in Manchester via a personal helicopter. After finding early success designing medical devices, Kamen minted his status as a celebrity inventor in 2001, when he rolled out the Segway personal transport device on national television.
(Kamen served on NHPR’s Board of Trustees from 1987 to 1992.)
Epstein died in 2019 as he awaited trial on a range of criminal charges related to child sex trafficking and abuse.
Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime accomplice, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 for aiding in that sex trafficking operation. Before her arrest, Maxwell was living in a secluded home in Bradford, New Hampshire.
It isn’t clear how Maxwell came to live in New Hampshire, or if she had any relationship with Kamen.
Epstein’s relationships with powerful figures including President Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Bill Gates, among others, has been a major source of controversy in Washington, with a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers calling for the release of records.
Last month, Trump signed a measure ordering the Justice Department to release more materials related to its investigations into Epstein, following the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. It isn’t clear what those files, which are expected to be released, in part, next week, may contain.
In recent years, Kamen has become the central figure in a massive government-funded project in Manchester that aims to one day develop medical technologies that could help regrow human tissues and organs. The project has been championed by powerful figures in New Hampshire, including Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
