Owner of Budapest property linked to Epstein files says he was threatened

Freshly released documents from the Epstein files have brought renewed attention to a Budapest apartment on Király Street, revealing sharply conflicting accounts from those involved. While the Norwegian owner of the property now claims he was threatened by Jeffrey Epstein, recently published emails appear to suggest a very different story.

Owner of Budapest property says he has been threatened

Haakon Gundersen, a Norwegian film producer and the indirect owner of the central Budapest flat, issued a statement denying any business relationship with the late American financier. According to Gundersen, Epstein was introduced to him merely as a potential intermediary who could help connect him with Silicon Valley investors. He insists that no joint projects or agreements ever materialised.

Despite this, Gundersen claims Epstein later demanded money from him and attempted to pressure him, although he says he neither complied nor suffered any consequences. He also maintains that Epstein never fulfilled any of the alleged threats, writes Szeretlek Magyarország.

This wasn’t exactly the case

However, documents released by the US Department of Justice in January paint a more nuanced picture. In an email exchange from January 2017, Gundersen provided Epstein with the address of the Király Street apartment. His response was blunt, urging him to sell the property “as quickly as possible”.

Subsequent correspondence indicates that the flat could have been sold within weeks for around EUR 240,000, and Gundersen even promised to forward a draft contract. Ultimately, the transaction never went ahead.

The apartment is officially owned by Alphaville Real Estate Kft., a Hungarian company controlled through a Norwegian parent firm linked to Gundersen. The files also mention another Norwegian figure, former diplomat Terje Rød-Larsen, who was known to have financial ties to the predator. In a 2019 message exchange, Rød-Larsen inquired about a Budapest address, to which Epstein responded by providing the Király Street location.

Was Epstein interested in the Budapest apartment?

The connection between him, Gundersen and Rød-Larsen was already the subject of media scrutiny in Norway years earlier. In 2020, Norwegian outlets published a photograph taken in New York in 2013 showing Epstein socialising with filmmaker Woody Allen and his wife, alongside Gundersen and Rød-Larsen.

Beyond real estate and personal links, the newly disclosed files also hint at political dimensions. In a 2018 text message, former White House strategist Steve Bannon told Epstein that he was advising several European political movements.

He explicitly named figures and parties including Italy’s Matteo Salvini, Germany’s AfD, the Swiss People’s Party, Nigel Farage and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Bannon suggested that such connections could be used to influence or block cryptocurrency regulation. Epstein’s brief reply to the message was simply: “Roger.”