Now chairman of the ultra-fast fashion brand, Tang asked to meet Epstein twice.
BRUSSELS — Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein had multiple interactions with American and Chinese business mogul Donald Tang, according to documents released as part of the Epstein files in January.
Epstein, who died by suicide in his prison cell in 2019, appears to have exchanged emails and texts with Donald Tang three times between 2010 and 2012, the documents show. Tang also appears to have contacted Epstein’s co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell once. Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 on child sex trafficking charges.
Donald Tang is an American and Chinese billionaire and the executive chairman of the ultra-fast fashion company Shein. Between 2010 and 2012, Tang was chief executive officer of financial advisory firm CITIC Securities International Partners, according to his LinkedIn profile and held multiple trustee positions in academia and art. In the late nineties and early 2000s he held leadership roles at the U.S. investment bank Bear Stearns which collapsed following the 2008 financial crisis.
Donald Tang’s name appears on at least five separate occasions in the U.S. Justice Department’s latest release of emails and text exchanged or received by Jeffrey Epstein in last month, which offer insight into his expansive network of influence across political and business spheres. There is no indication of any wrongdoing in the exchanges.
“The communications in question took place more than a decade ago, well before Mr. Tang joined SHEIN, and the company was not aware of them,” Shein told POLITICO in a written statement. “We are reviewing these matters as a priority. While these matters predate Mr. Tang’s role with the company and have no relation to SHEIN or its business, we do not condone such contact,” it reads.
Donald Tang did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
An October 2010 email from a redacted email address attributed to the name Donald Tang was sent to “NY MAX” in which the sender says, “you are meeting my friend Dick Merkin tomorrow….I’ve got you wrapped.” The sender called the recipient “babe” and signed “Donald.” The email was then forwarded to Epstein by another redacted email address labelled “G Max,” that appears to be one of the email addresses associated with Ghislaine Maxwell.
Dick Merkin, a California-based healthcare executive, did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.
In one email to American businessman David Stern, Epstein told him to contact Donald Tang because of his financial experience at Bear Stearns, advising him to “tell him what you need” after Stern wrote that he wanted to buy out $35 million’s worth of company shares from individuals referred to as “Merkin and…his friends” so that he can sell an unnamed company “to the Chinese in 2014.”
Stern, who died in 2020, was the director of the startup competition Pitch@Palace, which was owned by Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, before shutting down in November 2025.
‘Anytime for you’
The files show that Epstein and Tang planned to call each other once in 2011 and meet on two separate occasions in 2011 and 2012.
In June 2011 Epstein sent an email asking “donald , can we speak on the phone?” to which a redacted email address associated with the name Donald Tang responds “It’s late in NY. I am leaving for Shanghai in a few hours. What’s your number for me to call you?”
In October 2011 Epstein received an email, also from a redacted address, signed by Donald Tang, asking him if he will be “in town early part of next week? Would love to see you if you are…” Epstein responded the same day in an email, saying “yes anytime for you.”
Epstein refers to Donald Tang in a separate email dated April 29, 2012 and sent to a third party, describing him as “very china connected.”
In an exchange of texts on the same day via the Apple-owned messaging app iMessage from two redacted numbers, the sender asks the receiver if they are “in town around May 22nd,” and is signed “Donald Tang.” The receiver then sent a message, saying “you should meet david stern, young kid very smart china sophisticated.”