South Africa’s billionaire ‘Sun King’ linked to Jeffrey Epstein

The latest release of material relating to the notorious financier, human trafficker, and child sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, shows that South African hotel mogul Sol Kerzner was a known associate of his.

The United States Department of Justice published millions of new files relating to Epstein on January 31, 2026. It was the most extensive release yet, giving some insight into his time in prison and his death.

Additionally, the Department shared Epstein’s email records, revealing his relationships with high-profile individuals. 

One such individual was Sol Kerzner, the late South African founder of Southern Sun hotels and the multinational hotel company Kerzner International.

It is important to note that being mentioned in the Epstein Files does not indicate any wrongdoing. Instead, it merely shows that a link between them existed.

Email threads show that Kerzner met Epstein, and the woman accused of human trafficking alongside Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, around 2010. 

In an email sent from Epstein’s address, it is stated: “Jeffrey, and Ghislaine Maxwell, have met Sol with [redacted] and [redacted].”

“You might remind Sol that their first contact was with David and Cathy Lurie, in the eighties. Sol can call Jeffrey at [redacted].”

In June 2010, email threads show that Kerzner tried to organise a follow-up meeting with Epstein through his assistant Ian Douglas. 

The meeting, which Kerzner requested for 21 July 2010 in New York City, was not possible as Epstein was not in New York, but the thread shows that the two may have had multiple phone calls.

“I spoke to Sol on the phone,” Epstein writes in one email.

Newsday sent questions to Kerzner International, but did not receive a response by the time of publication. Comment will be added if received.

Kerzner meets with Epstein and Maxwell

The exchanges suggest that Epstein and Kerzner were connected through a mutual acquaintance, Sultan Bin Sulayem, the CEO of Dubai-based logistics group DP World. 

Sultan Bin Sulayem and his exchanges with Epstein were revealed extensively, including messages arranging a Russian “masseuse” from Epstein’s “private spa.”

Emails show that the meeting between Epstein and Kerzner was dependent on Kerzner providing certain unspecified “numbers” which, it appears, were never sent. 

“As you know, Sol never followed up,” wrote Sulayem in an email to Epstein in August 2010. Kerzner’s name, however, was listed in Epstein’s “little black book” of contacts.

This was recalled by an individual recorded in the database as “Armandt Viljovn” who said he recognised Sol Kerzner’s name, along with several others that he said were connected, though information regarding the connection has been redacted.

The emails make it clear that Epstein was a loyal client of Kerzner’s, with multiple payments and bookings recorded for Kerzner International hotels. 

Emails sent by Epstein’s assistant Lesley Groff show that Epstein and Groff visited the Atlantis Paradise Island resort in the Bahamas, owned by Kerzner, praising the resort and saying that the two “love everything” about it. 

Another document shows that Epstein booked a room at the Atlantis The Palm resort in Dubai and stayed at the One&Only five-star Dubai hotel, both properties owned by Kerzner International. 

The ‘Sun King’

Kerzner, or Solomon Kerzner, is known for opening the first five-star hotel in South Africa: the Beverley Hills in Durban.

Kerzner grew up in Doornfontein, Johannesburg, where his parents worked as shopkeepers, eventually saving enough money to open a small bed-and-breakfast in Durban.

After training as an accountant, His career shows a rapid rise to success following the opening of his first hotel and dinner club in the Durban CBD. 

He went on to open the Beverley Hills and the 450-room Elangeni & Maharani, also on the Durban coast. He then formed a partnership with South African Breweries to create the Southern Sun group of hotels and casinos. 

Due to rigid apartheid gaming laws, Kerzner looked to surrounding countries for some of his initial investments.

He built the Botswana five-star Chobe Game Lodge, where Elizabeth Taylor and Sir Richard Burton got married.

In 1979, Kerzner opened the hugely successful South African Sun City resort in the Pilanesburg. 

Kerzner left the Southern Sun hotel group to launch Sun International in 1983, but retained Sun City and opened the resort’s first five-star hotel, the Cascades.

The company expanded from this point, purchasing the struggling Paradise Island resort in 1994 and turning it into the Atlantis. 

By the time Sol retired as Chairman of Kerzner International in 2014, the company had built multiple establishments and had three successful brands: Sun International, Atlantis and One&Only.

Kerzner died in March 2020 after a long battle with cancer in Leeukoppie Estate in Cape Town at the age of 84.

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Find some of the emails published by the DOJ that link the two below: