SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY IN THE 1990S, SOPHIE BIDDLE HAKIM CAME INTO THE EMPLOY OF JEFFREY EPSTEIN AS A MASSAGE THERAPIST, visiting the infamous “Epstein Island” in the Caribbean at least several times. Based on numerous emails disclosed in the Epstein files up until 2019, she was a close friend to Epstein, who himself became the benefactor to not only Sophie, but to her husband and daughter.
The Carmel Valley health and wellness expert appears in the files mostly just as “Sophie,” sometimes in emails where her name is redacted, but it becomes obvious who it is when read in context with other documents and sources. Her name also appears in flight logs made public through court documents.
Her husband, Monterey chiropractor Dr. Gilbert Hakim, also shows up in the Epstein files, and may have consulted on Epstein’s back on at least one occasion. Gilbert’s and Sophie’s daughter, Dylan Hakim, now 22 and attending college in Boston, also appears in the files, in emails from Sophie with Epstein’s assistant Lesley Groff, coordinating travel for Sophie and Dylan to New York, paid for by Epstein.
There is nothing in the files to suggest wrongdoing by the Hakims. What unfolds in reading the files is a close relationship between someone who worked for Epstein starting in the 1990s and who, for reasons unknown, continued the friendship after Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to prostitution charges involving minors and became a registered sex offender.
Sophie, Gilbert and Dylan did not respond to the Weekly’s requests for interviews. What is known about them comes in pieces gleaned from the 3.5 million files the federal government released on Jan. 30, along with court documents and other sources.
SOPHIE WAS BORN IN 1964 to the acclaimed yachting cinematographer John Scott Biddle and his first wife, Mary McMichael. As the son and daughter of prominent families, their engagement was announced in the New York Times in 1961. Mary, who helped John film America’s Cup races, had a stroke shortly after Sophie’s brother Scott was born in 1966 and died five years later. Sophie was just 7 years old. John was remarried to Amy McKay van Roden in 1977.
John was inducted into the America’s Cup Hall of Fame in 2009, and Sophie Biddle Hakim of Los Angeles, as she was referred to in the Jamestown Press, accepted the award posthumously, along with her brother Scott. A photo shows them smiling at the ceremony, along with their stepmother, Amy.
Biddle filmed the America’s Cup 10 times, and the Newport Bermuda Race 11 times, which earned him a spot in the National Sailing Hall of Fame in 2018, according to the publication Sail-World. He made 140 sailing films, which he took on a lecture circuit to show to audiences over 40 years, the Jamestown Press reported.
“Dad had a great sense of humor,” Sophie said in her remarks at the 2018 ceremony, as quoted in Sail-World. “He always made sure his sailing films had scenes that would make you laugh: three Bermuda fitted dinghies getting tangled up at the mark and sinking on the spot; a small regatta of children’s sunfishes capsizing left and right; running out of film just as the sight of a topless woman came into view. His turn of phrases were clever and gave the films charm. For him, getting the job done meant capturing all the intense moments and giving you the history of what was going on and yet making sure you had a hearty chuckle as well.”
IN 2016, SOPHIE GAVE A TALK FOR LOCAL PROFESSIONALS at Cibo Restaurant in Monterey, entitled “Celebrity Secrets for Dining Out… Without Stressing Out!” A short biography included in a press release about the event said she received a bachelor’s degree from Dennison University, a small liberal arts college in Granville, Ohio, and completed postgraduate work at the New Center for Health Education and Research. (In another biography from 2013, it says she received certification from the New Center, located in New York, in 1990.)
Ohio and New York are relevant to Epstein’s story, and perhaps suggest ways Sophie could have connected with him. Granville is only 20 minutes away from New Albany, where billionaire and Victoria’s Secret owner Les Wexner lived for many years – Epstein was Wexner’s money manager starting in about the late 1980s until approximately 2008.
On one set of flight logs for Epstein’s private jet between 1995 and 2000, Biddle shows up 30 times, at first flying out of Columbus, Ohio to West Palm Beach, Florida and back in late 1995. She also flew to Teeterboro, New Jersey, near New York City, multiple times. Several times she flew to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, near Little St. James, Epstein’s island. She also flew to Santa Fe, New Mexico, which is where Epstein’s ranch, Zorro Ranch, was located. The last flight she’s recorded on is in July 2000, flying between Teeterboro and Santa Fe.
It was also during the 1990s that Sophie began working on movie sets as a nutrition coach and massage therapist. The 2013 biography lists 10 films she worked on, beginning with Die Hard: With a Vengeance in 1995 and including others such as The Postman (1997), Armageddon (1998), Mystery Men (1999), and Hollywood Homicide (2003). The last film listed is Envy in 2004.
Her 2016 biography also notes she had worked with “CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, athletes, European royalty and people from all walks of life.” There is no mention of Epstein.
WHEN EXACTLY SOPHIE AND GILBERT MOVED TO CARMEL VALLEY ISN’T CLEAR. The family appeared to still be in Los Angeles in 2008. A check in the Epstein files made out to Westwood Presbyterian Church Preschool in Los Angeles for $4,814 shows “Dylan Hakim” in the memo line, which is possibly Epstein paying for her tuition. It’s signed by Richard Kahn, Epstein’s accountant and business manager. Dylan would have been approximately 4 years old at the time.
Eight years later, in 2016, another email describes $5,000 to Sophie for “Skype tutoring” for Dylan.
In August 2009, just weeks after Epstein was released from jail – he served 13 months of an 18-month sentence on the charges of soliciting prostitution from a minor – Sophie and Dylan apparently visited New York and were due to receive a gift from him via Groff, noted in an email from Groff to him: “She is going to stop by here tomorrow with Dillon [sic] (I’m so excited to meet her little girl!) to receive her very nice gift from you!”
The move to Carmel Valley came possibly in 2011, when Epstein again helped out the family by loaning money so they could purchase their home near Bernardus Lodge. In an email from Kahn to Epstein in September 2011, the business manager tells Epstein that “sophie and hakim” are borrowing $50,000 from “jee,” referring to Epstein, and another $250,000 from a family member and that the couple was funding the remainder of the $700,000 purchase price. Kahn told Epstein there was a mortgage balance of $550,936.
“[H]akim wanted me to communicate to you his thankfulness and please let him know how he can return the favor,” Kahn wrote.
Five months later, in February 2012, there’s an email exchange between Epstein and Sophie that begins with Epstein telling her he’ll be in Los Angeles several days later.
“Ahhhh! Might you come up to Carmel Valley or near there? Xo,” Sophie responded. Epstein simply says, “no, long beach.”
“Can you please please come see me,” she responded. “Long beach to Monterey airport is a short 40 min flight and I am 14 minutes from airport. I can meet you there or even better, [bring] you back to the house for you to see. Gilbert won’t be there (he’ll be in LA) and Dylan’s in school until 3PM. Please please!!Xo.”
He replied, “no time, how is the house sale going.” It’s not known if Epstein ever visited the Carmel Valley house that he helped them purchase.
A few weeks later, Sophie exchanged emails with Groff about a missing vitamin shipment Sophie had sent to Epstein in New York.
On May 14, 2012, Gilbert sent money via wire transfer to Epstein’s J.P. Morgan account in the amount of $550,936. There’s no mention of what it was for, but it closely matches the amount the Hakims needed to close on the Carmel Valley house. Soon after he wrote a letter to Epstein, as evidenced by an email from Groff to Gilbert on June 4: “I did receive the letter you wrote to JE and left it on his desk… no way he could miss it. Just wanted you to know!”
Gilbert shows up in the files again in an email from Groff to him a year later: “Jeffrey says you are coming to NY for a visit and is asking what time you arrive on May 6th… can you let me know?!”
IN JUST ONE OF MANY EXAMPLES found in the files of Epstein’s reach into the upper echelons of business and society, Epstein recommended Sophie’s health and wellness services to Baroness Ariane de Rothschild, a French banker who is now CEO of the Edmond de Rothschild Group, in an email dated Oct. 17, 2013. The files show Epstein and de Rothschild communicated between 2013 and 2019 on business and personal matters.
(A spokesperson for de Rothschild told Reuters recently that she had no knowledge of Epstein’s conduct and she “unequivocally condemns his behavior and the crimes which he committed.”)
In his email to de Rothschild, Epstein suggested Sophie could come spend two to three weeks with the baroness to develop a personal health program. “Funny enough,” Epstein told her, Sophie is the great-great-granddaughter of the American business partner of de Rothschild’s great-grandfather.
In 2014, Epstein gave encouragement to Sophie, as referenced in an email Sophie sent to him, with the subject line “Smiles.” The sender was redacted, but the content of the email falls in line with Sophie’s wellness business. (She currently lists a business name, The Best You Yet, on her LinkedIn account. “I help my clients have more energy, lose weight, sleep better and look more vibrant,” according to her profile.)
“It seems hard to believe that a week ago today we spoke, as so much has happened since then. Your belief in me, and persistent generosity and caring never ceases to amaze me and make me feel so good. I have felt so alive and probably the best that I have in months since we talked,” the email states. “I hadn’t realized how worried and hopeless I was feeling about finances and how I was going to get my business off the ground…
“All of the sudden so many people are asking for my help and ordering supplements like crazy,” she said. “I don’t know what it is about you that always has such a profound effect on me, my life and how I feel about myself. You set things in motion for me, just by being in connection with me. I hope you understand that I am not talking about money. Of course that is an aspect, but it is so much more than that.”
Sophie took Dylan on other trips to visit Epstein over the years, as evidenced by air travel arranged by Groff on behalf of Epstein, detailed in emails from 2013, 2016 and 2017. During the 2017 trip, Dylan got to ride in a Bentley driven by JoJo Fontanilla, a house servant of Epstein’s. Sophie let Dylan, then about 13, ride in the Bentley while she was taking a meeting.
“She felt like such a big girl! All made for a memorable day,” Sophie remarked in an email.
IN ONE OF THE LAST COMMUNICATIONS FOUND IN THE FILES, from Groff to Sophie in February 2019, Groff asks about Sophie’s chiropractor husband, Gilbert, reviewing an MRI of Epstein’s back.
“Hi Sophie! Hope you are well. Jeffrey would like me to send his MRI of his back to your husband… can you please give me his details and the address to Fed Ex to? Jeffrey also wants to make sure it is all fed ex’d back to us once he has reviewed… I can provide a Fed Ex return label… ” Groff wrote.
Sophie responded with an address (which is redacted from the files) and added, “I will be sure to take it to Fed Ex after he has reviewed them, The return label will make it easy. Thank you. I hope all is well with you. Happy new year belated!”
Just five months later, Epstein was arrested on July 6, 2019 on charges of trafficking minors in New York and Florida. Less than two weeks after that, on July 18, he was found dead inside his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City. His death was ruled a suicide.