u/SleeperCellKoala

The following article provides concrete evidence that Andre Balazs and his then-wife Katie Ford were with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell on the day of their first date in Aspen in 1991. Balazs and Ford kept associating with Epstein and Maxwell long after Epstein's first arrest. Balazs reportedly escorted Maxwell around New York while Epstein was serving jail time. Emails show that Epstein had Balazs on a list of about 50 "peeps" that he was putting together with Maxwell during his first bout of legal trouble. I could go on, but all this and more is laid out eloquently in this article:

https://jamiefcrawford.substack.com/p/the-big-club-jeffrey-epsteins-connections

The following article provides concrete evidence that Andre Balazs and his then-wife Katie Ford were with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell on the day of their first date in Aspen in 1991. Balazs and Ford kept associating with Epstein and Maxwell long after Epstein's first arrest. Balazs reportedly escorted Maxwell around New York while Epstein was serving jail time. Emails show that Epstein had Balazs on a list of about 50 "peeps" that he was putting together with Maxwell during his first bout of legal trouble. I could go on, but all this and more is laid out eloquently in this article:

https://jamiefcrawford.substack.com/p/the-big-club-jeffrey-epsteins-connections

Actor Josh Lucas has been able to skate by rather unscathed despite his proven association with Epstein and Maxwell both before and after Epstein's 2008 conviction.

He also co-owns the most infamous elite sex club in New York for the rich and famous called The Box.

This is just one fraction of a story about Epstein and The Box that has just been fleshed and exposed for the first time. A damning and thoroughly sourced investigation: https://jamiefcrawford.substack.com/p/the-big-club-jeffrey-epsteins-connections

In September 2006, a blog post on Gawker was published about a then-upcoming New York City nightclub called The Box. The club is owned by “The Impresario of Smut” Simon Hammerstein - the grandson of The Sound of Music’s Oscar Hammerstein. This 2006 blog post goes on to talk about one of the pedigreed men rumored to be behind The Box: the billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein who had just been arrested for procuring a minor for prostitution earlier that summer. “His involvement would help explain the venue name,” the author wrote in jest.

In 2007, on the Motherboards NYC forum, a user claimed to have heard that The Box is owned by a consortium of lawyers and investment bankers. Artist Molly Crabapple who worked at The Box has described it as “the sort of place where the worst people in the world who have wrecked global economies and bankrupt small countries go to spend 10,000 dollars of their ill-gotten gains on bottles of champagne and then try to pick up naked dancers.” Crabapple described her time there as "painting pigs at Nero's nightclub."

The club has been described by Vanity Fair as New York City’s hottest freakshow - where Leonardo Dicaprio has had condoms emptied upon him, where Susan Sarandon has had vomit spewed all over her, and where Owen Wilson and Kate Hudson once stormed out over a vaudeville act that used a live crying human baby. Much like a Diddy party, events at The Box have been described in terms of increased exclusivity and increased degeneracy as the nights grow later.

A February 2014 financial report in the Epstein files shows that a total sum of over $30,000 was paid simultaneously across the trust funds of Martha Hammerstein, Patricia Benner, and Peter Mathias - who are all first cousins of Simon Hammerstein.

In another file, a redacted individual was emailing with Epstein’s assistant Lesley Groff about a date with “The Box club owner” at the venue. Talking of the show they saw at The Box, the unidentified person said “Not sure how/if to recommend it... An article said it was a combination of Eyes Wide Shut and The Shining. I could see some elements of those, but there were other, stranger things... “

The recent release of the Epstein files show that Epstein went to The Box and got VIP seating at least twice after his release from prison. On September 14th, 2010, he was able to sit at the exclusive “Hammerstein table” and on December 2nd, 2014, he was again put on the VIP list and arranged to bring 3 others with him.

Ghislaine Maxwell was photographed at one of the first private events at The Box in December 2006.

On February 12th, 2007, one of Epstein’s employees in New York, Rahna Jalashgar, emailed him about an invite he had received to the opening night of a new nightclub. The Box’s official opening night was on Valentine’s Day 2007 - two days after this email. Epstein was on his private island at the time and said Jalashgar could go in his place.

In March 2007, Hammerstein and board member at The Box Josh Lucas were pictured with Ghislaine at an event she hosted her New York apartment.

In October of 2008, Simon Hammerstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were reported to be at a celebrity party together full of hedge fund managers and investment bankers watching a performance full of nudity. Along with them was the musician Moby, who showed up corresponding with Maxwell in the Epstein files and who was an investor and regular at The Box. Moby would eventually publicly distance himself from The Box, saying “I like degeneracy, but for the Box you really need to be in the right frame of mind. I’m pretty comfortable with debauchery and degeneracy, but the things that go on there don’t make sense to me … The last time I was there, there were live sex acts on stage, and I don’t want to get anyone in trouble, but just suffice to say lots of crazy things. I’ve traveled around the world, and I’ve been to a lot of degenerate places, and rarely have I seen the level of degeneracy like I’ve seen at the Box.”

One of the most mysterious data points connecting Epstein and The Box comes from a screenshot he emailed to Ghislaine Maxwell on November 4th, 2010. Epstein had just landed in Abu Dhabi that day and sent Maxwell a screenshot of his current location on Google Maps. In the search bar of this screenshot is the New York address for The Box, “189 Chrystie.”

The Box is still open to this day, and the google reviews from just this year alone are full of people alleging that the staff was drugging their drinks.

This is just scratching the surface of the story. Once I understood The Box's significance, many of the people besides Epstein and Maxwell lingering at this shady establishment became more threads to pull at. The entire macroscopic story is presented here: https://jamiefcrawford.substack.com/p/the-big-club-jeffrey-epsteins-connections

In September 2006, a blog post on Gawker was published about a then-upcoming New York City nightclub called The Box. The club is owned by “The Impresario of Smut” Simon Hammerstein - the grandson of The Sound of Music’s Oscar Hammerstein. This 2006 blog post goes on to talk about one of the pedigreed men rumored to be behind The Box: the billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein who had just been arrested for procuring a minor for prostitution earlier that summer. “His involvement would help explain the venue name,” the author wrote in jest.

In 2007, on the Motherboards NYC forum, a user claimed to have heard that The Box is owned by a consortium of lawyers and investment bankers. Artist Molly Crabapple who worked at The Box has described it as “the sort of place where the worst people in the world who have wrecked global economies and bankrupt small countries go to spend 10,000 dollars of their ill-gotten gains on bottles of champagne and then try to pick up naked dancers.”

The club has been described by Vanity Fair as New York City’s hottest freakshow - where Leonardo Dicaprio has had condoms emptied upon him, where Susan Sarandon has had vomit spewed all over her, and where Owen Wilson and Kate Hudson once stormed out over a vaudeville act that used a live crying human baby. Much like a Diddy party, events at The Box have been described in terms of increased exclusivity and increased degeneracy as the nights grow later.

A February 2014 financial report in the Epstein files shows that a total sum of over $30,000 was paid simultaneously across the trust funds of Martha Hammerstein, Patricia Benner, and Peter Mathias - who are all first cousins of Simon Hammerstein.

In another file, a redacted individual was emailing with Epstein’s assistant Lesley Groff about a date with “The Box club owner” at the venue. Talking of the show they saw at The Box, the unidentified person said “Not sure how/if to recommend it... An article said it was a combination of Eyes Wide Shut and The Shining. I could see some elements of those, but there were other, stranger things... “

The recent release of the Epstein files show that Epstein went to The Box and got VIP seating at least twice after his release from prison. On September 14th, 2010, he was able to sit at the exclusive “Hammerstein table” and on December 2nd, 2014, he was again put on the VIP list and arranged to bring 3 others with him.

Ghislaine Maxwell was photographed at one of the first private events at The Box in December 2006.

On February 12th, 2007, one of Epstein’s employees in New York, Rahna Jalashgar, emailed him about an invite he had received to the opening night of a new nightclub. The Box’s official opening night was on Valentine’s Day 2007 - two days after this email. Epstein was on his private island at the time and said Jalashgar could go in his place.

In March 2007, Hammerstein and board member at The Box Josh Lucas were pictured with Ghislaine at an event she hosted her New York apartment.

In October of 2008, Simon Hammerstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were reported to be at a celebrity party together full of hedge fund managers and investment bankers watching a performance full of nudity. Along with them was the musician Moby, who showed up corresponding with Maxwell in the Epstein files and who was an investor and regular at The Box. Moby would eventually publicly distance himself from The Box, saying “I like degeneracy, but for the Box you really need to be in the right frame of mind. I’m pretty comfortable with debauchery and degeneracy, but the things that go on there don’t make sense to me … The last time I was there, there were live sex acts on stage, and I don’t want to get anyone in trouble, but just suffice to say lots of crazy things. I’ve traveled around the world, and I’ve been to a lot of degenerate places, and rarely have I seen the level of degeneracy like I’ve seen at the Box.”

One of the most mysterious data points connecting Epstein and The Box comes from a screenshot he emailed to Ghislaine Maxwell on November 4th, 2010. Epstein had just landed in Abu Dhabi that day and sent Maxwell a screenshot of his current location on Google Maps. In the search bar of this screenshot is the New York address for The Box, “189 Chrystie.”

The Box is still open to this day, and the google reviews from just this year alone is full of people alleging that the staff was drugging their drinks.

This is just scratching the surface of the story. Once I understood The Box's significance, many of the people besides Epstein and Maxwell lingering at this shady establishment became more threads to pull at. The entire macroscopic story is presented here: https://jamiefcrawford.substack.com/p/the-big-club-jeffrey-epsteins-connections

Quintessentially is a concierge service for "ultra high net worth individuals." It was founded by Queen Camilla's nephew Ben Elliot. Even on the face of it, it sounds pretty bizarre and suspect. They psychoanalyze their clientele to provide curated experiences, for instance they once provided a client with a three month "kidnap experience". Basically they are there to help billionaires with fried dopamine receptors just feel something. “People are demanding that they are taken to the edge of their normality,” Co-founder Aaron Simpson says.

Ben Elliot is in Epstein’s black book, as is his Quintessentially colleague Luca Del Bono. Both Elliot and Del Bono have the Quintessentially title directly under their names in the black book. When Quintessentially teamed up with Deutsche Bank to roll out Quintessentially Platinum - described as their most personal, exclusive service yet - for clients of Deutsche Bank Wealth Management, Jeffrey Epstein was initially one of the first members to get the nomination in January 2015. Ghislaine Maxwell attended Quintessentially US Launch Party in 2003 at the art auction house Sotheby’s. Ben Elliot has been photographed at Maxwell's house and at other events with her.

In 2017 there was media coverage that Quintessentially was building a superyacht called the Quintessentially One. It was to be “the world’s largest floating private membership club.”

Five billionaires paid 10 million euros towards the building cost of the superyacht in return for their own private suit on board. Co-founder Aaron Simpson emphasized that they would be remaining anonymous “until a bottle of champagne hits the hull.” The archived website for the Quintessentially One explains that “The jewels in crown of the super yacht are 12 stunning triplex apartments located on the top decks. These are available for sale to those looking for the most exclusive onboard residences in the world.”

Now, in an article written to exonerate himself from his association to Maxwell, a guy named Nicholas Coleridge wrote “The last time I ran into Ghislaine was at a Sotheby’s preview. She was as friendly and engaging as ever. She told me she was working on a project to build a luxurious floating country in the middle of the Pacific. The advantage would be zero income tax and zero inheritance tax, but you could only become a citizen if you had many hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Was this project of Ghislaine’s the Quintessentially One? While she referred to her project as a “floating country”, Quintessentially spokespeople would repeatedly refer to it as “the world’s largest floating private membership club” with residences on board for sale - and Quintessentially has been accused in the past of assisting members with offshore tax avoidance.

The last time the Quintessentially One got any mainstream press coverage was in 2017, but in a YouTube interview from June 2019, Aaron Simpson confirms that the plans were still ongoing for the world’s largest floating private membership club at that time. Wayback Machine collection data (see graphic representation above) for the Quintessentially One website came to a curious halt months later in the last quarter of 2019, when Epstein had just died and Maxwell was on the run. What happened? Was the project scrapped and the site nuked? Why in late 2019?

Oh, and as recently as February 12th, 2026, news broke that Quintessentially co-founder Aaron Simpson is currently in court battling allegations of sexual assault, sex trafficking, money laundering and tax evasion. Ben Elliot has declined to comment.

I discovered all this while investigating a New York elite sex club called The Box that I have been able to intimately link to Epstein and Maxwell. The Box was reportedly be the onboard nightclub and provide the entertainment on the Quintessentially One. I go even deeper and present the ties between Epstein/Maxwell, The Box, Quintessentially, and much more in this article I just published: https://jamiefcrawford.substack.com/p/the-big-club-jeffrey-epsteins-connections

Quintessentially is a concierge service for "ultra high net worth individuals." It was founded by Queen Camilla's nephew Ben Elliot. Even on the face of it, it sounds pretty bizarre and suspect. They psychoanalyze their clientele to provide curated experiences, for instance they once provided a client with a three month "kidnap experience". Basically they are there to help billionaires with fried dopamine receptors just feel something. “People are demanding that they are taken to the edge of their normality,” Co-founder Aaron Simpson says.

Ben Elliot is in Epstein’s black book, as is his Quintessentially colleague Luca Del Bono. Both Elliot and Del Bono have the Quintessentially title directly under their names in the black book. When Quintessentially teamed up with Deutsche Bank to roll out Quintessentially Platinum - described as their most personal, exclusive service yet - for clients of Deutsche Bank Wealth Management, Jeffrey Epstein was initially one of the first members to get the nomination in January 2015. Ghislaine Maxwell attended Quintessentially US Launch Party in 2003 at the art auction house Sotheby’s. Ben Elliot has been photographed at Maxwell's house and at other events with her.

In 2017 there was media coverage that Quintessentially was building a superyacht called the Quintessentially One. It was to be “the world’s largest floating private membership club.”

Five billionaires paid 10 million euros towards the building cost of the superyacht in return for their own private suit on board. Co-founder Aaron Simpson emphasized that they would be remaining anonymous “until a bottle of champagne hits the hull.” The archived website for the Quintessentially One explains that “The jewels in crown of the super yacht are 12 stunning triplex apartments located on the top decks. These are available for sale to those looking for the most exclusive onboard residences in the world.”

Now, in an article written to exonerate himself from his association to Maxwell, a guy named Nicholas Coleridge wrote “The last time I ran into Ghislaine was at a Sotheby’s preview. She was as friendly and engaging as ever. She told me she was working on a project to build a luxurious floating country in the middle of the Pacific. The advantage would be zero income tax and zero inheritance tax, but you could only become a citizen if you had many hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Was this project of Ghislaine’s the Quintessentially One? While she referred to her project as a “floating country”, Quintessentially spokespeople would repeatedly refer to it as “the world’s largest floating private membership club” with residences on board for sale - and Quintessentially has been accused in the past of assisting members with offshore tax avoidance.

The last time the Quintessentially One got any mainstream press coverage was in 2017, but in a YouTube interview from June 2019, Aaron Simpson confirms that the plans were still ongoing for the world’s largest floating private membership club at that time. Wayback Machine collection data (see graphic representation above) for the Quintessentially One website came to a curious halt months later in the last quarter of 2019, when Epstein had just died and Maxwell was on the run. What happened? Was the project scrapped and the site nuked? Why in late 2019?

Oh, and as recently as February 12th, 2026, news broke that Quintessentially co-founder Aaron Simpson is currently in court battling allegations of sexual assault, sex trafficking, money laundering and tax evasion. Ben Elliot has declined to comment.

I discovered all this while investigating a New York elite sex club called The Box that I have been able to intimately link to Epstein and Maxwell. The Box was reportedly be the onboard nightclub and provide the entertainment on the Quintessentially One. I go even deeper and present the ties between Epstein/Maxwell, The Box, Quintessentially, and much more in this article I just published: https://jamiefcrawford.substack.com/p/the-big-club-jeffrey-epsteins-connections

Quintessentially is a concierge service for "ultra high net worth individuals." It was founded by Queen Camilla's nephew Ben Elliot. Even on the face of it, it sounds pretty bizarre and suspect. They psychoanalyze their clientele to provide curated experiences, for instance they once provided a client with a three month "kidnap experience". Basically they are there to help billionaires with fried dopamine receptors just feel something. “People are demanding that they are taken to the edge of their normality,” Co-founder Aaron Simpson says.

Ben Elliot is in Epstein’s black book, as is his Quintessentially colleague Luca Del Bono. Both Elliot and Del Bono have the Quintessentially title directly under their names in the black book. When Quintessentially teamed up with Deutsche Bank to roll out Quintessentially Platinum - described as their most personal, exclusive service yet - for clients of Deutsche Bank Wealth Management, Jeffrey Epstein was initially one of the first members to get the nomination in January 2015. Ghislaine Maxwell attended Quintessentially US Launch Party in 2003 at the art auction house Sotheby’s. Ben Elliot has been photographed at Maxwell's house and at other events with her.

In 2017 there was media coverage that Quintessentially was building a superyacht called the Quintessentially One. It was to be “the world’s largest floating private membership club.”

Five billionaires paid 10 million euros towards the building cost of the superyacht in return for their own private suit on board. Co-founder Aaron Simpson emphasized that they would be remaining anonymous “until a bottle of champagne hits the hull.” The archived website for the Quintessentially One explains that “The jewels in crown of the super yacht are 12 stunning triplex apartments located on the top decks. These are available for sale to those looking for the most exclusive onboard residences in the world.”

Now, in an article written to exonerate himself from his association to Maxwell, a guy named Nicholas Coleridge wrote “The last time I ran into Ghislaine was at a Sotheby’s preview. She was as friendly and engaging as ever. She told me she was working on a project to build a luxurious floating country in the middle of the Pacific. The advantage would be zero income tax and zero inheritance tax, but you could only become a citizen if you had many hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Was this project of Ghislaine’s the Quintessentially One? While she referred to her project as a “floating country”, Quintessentially spokespeople would repeatedly refer to it as “the world’s largest floating private membership club” with residences on board for sale - and Quintessentially has been accused in the past of assisting members with offshore tax avoidance.

The last time the Quintessentially One got any mainstream press coverage was in 2017, but in a YouTube interview from June 2019, Aaron Simpson confirms that the plans were still ongoing for the world’s largest floating private membership club at that time. Wayback Machine collection data (see graphic representation above) for the Quintessentially One website came to a curious halt months later in the last quarter of 2019, when Epstein had just died and Maxwell was on the run. What happened? Was the project scrapped and the site nuked? Why in late 2019?

Oh, and as recently as February 12th, 2026, news broke that Quintessentially co-founder Aaron Simpson is currently in court battling allegations of sexual assault, sex trafficking, money laundering and tax evasion. Ben Elliot has declined to comment.

I discovered all this while investigating a New York elite sex club called The Box that I have been able to intimately link to Epstein and Maxwell. The Box was reportedly be the onboard nightclub and provide the entertainment on the Quintessentially One. I go even deeper and present the ties between Epstein/Maxwell, The Box, Quintessentially, and much more in this article I just published: https://jamiefcrawford.substack.com/p/the-big-club-jeffrey-epsteins-connections

Quintessentially is a concierge service for "ultra high net worth individuals." It was founded by Queen Camilla's nephew Ben Elliot. Even on the face of it, it sounds pretty bizarre and suspect. They psychoanalyze their clientele to provide curated experiences, for instance they once provided a client with a three month "kidnap experience". Basically they are there to help billionaires with fried dopamine receptors just feel something. “People are demanding that they are taken to the edge of their normality,” Co-founder Aaron Simpson says.

Ben Elliot is in Epstein’s black book, as is his Quintessentially colleague Luca Del Bono. Both Elliot and Del Bono have the Quintessentially title directly under their names in the black book. When Quintessentially teamed up with Deutsche Bank to roll out Quintessentially Platinum - described as their most personal, exclusive service yet - for clients of Deutsche Bank Wealth Management, Jeffrey Epstein was initially one of the first members to get the nomination in January 2015. Ghislaine Maxwell attended Quintessentially US Launch Party in 2003 at the art auction house Sotheby’s. Ben Elliot has been photographed at Maxwell's house and at other events with her.

In 2017 there was media coverage that Quintessentially was building a superyacht called the Quintessentially One. It was to be “the world’s largest floating private membership club.”

Five billionaires paid 10 million euros towards the building cost of the superyacht in return for their own private suit on board. Co-founder Aaron Simpson emphasized that they would be remaining anonymous “until a bottle of champagne hits the hull.” The archived website for the Quintessentially One explains that “The jewels in crown of the super yacht are 12 stunning triplex apartments located on the top decks. These are available for sale to those looking for the most exclusive onboard residences in the world.”

Now, in an article written to exonerate himself from his association to Maxwell, a guy named Nicholas Coleridge wrote “The last time I ran into Ghislaine was at a Sotheby’s preview. She was as friendly and engaging as ever. She told me she was working on a project to build a luxurious floating country in the middle of the Pacific. The advantage would be zero income tax and zero inheritance tax, but you could only become a citizen if you had many hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Was this project of Ghislaine’s the Quintessentially One? While she referred to her project as a “floating country”, Quintessentially spokespeople would repeatedly refer to it as “the world’s largest floating private membership club” with residences on board for sale - and Quintessentially has been accused in the past of assisting members with offshore tax avoidance.

The last time the Quintessentially One got any mainstream press coverage was in 2017, but in a YouTube interview from June 2019, Aaron Simpson confirms that the plans were still ongoing for the world’s largest floating private membership club at that time. Wayback Machine collection data (see graphic representation above) for the Quintessentially One website came to a curious halt months later in the last quarter of 2019, when Epstein had just died and Maxwell was on the run. What happened? Was the project scrapped and the site nuked? Why in late 2019?

Oh, and as recently as February 12th, 2026, news broke that Quintessentially co-founder Aaron Simpson is currently in court battling allegations of sexual assault, sex trafficking, money laundering and tax evasion. Ben Elliot has declined to comment.

I discovered all this while investigating a New York elite sex club called The Box that I have been able to intimately link to Epstein and Maxwell. The Box was reportedly be the onboard nightclub and provide the entertainment on the Quintessentially One. I go even deeper and present the ties between Epstein/Maxwell, The Box, Quintessentially, and much more in this article I just published: https://jamiefcrawford.substack.com/p/the-big-club-jeffrey-epsteins-connections

Quintessentially is a concierge service for "ultra high net worth individuals." It was founded by Queen Camilla's nephew Ben Elliot. Even on the face of it, it sounds pretty bizarre and suspect. They psychoanalyze their clientele to provide curated experiences, for instance they once provided a client with a three month "kidnap experience". Basically they are there to help billionaires with fried dopamine receptors just feel something. “People are demanding that they are taken to the edge of their normality,” Co-founder Aaron Simpson says.

Ben Elliot is in Epstein’s black book, as is his Quintessentially colleague Luca Del Bono. Both Elliot and Del Bono have the Quintessentially title directly under their names in the black book. When Quintessentially teamed up with Deutsche Bank to roll out Quintessentially Platinum - described as their most personal, exclusive service yet - for clients of Deutsche Bank Wealth Management, Jeffrey Epstein was initially one of the first members to get the nomination in January 2015. Ghislaine Maxwell attended Quintessentially US Launch Party in 2003 at the art auction house Sotheby’s. Ben Elliot has been photographed at Maxwell's house and at other events with her.

In 2017 there was media coverage that Quintessentially was building a superyacht called the Quintessentially One. It was to be “the world’s largest floating private membership club.”

Five billionaires paid 10 million euros towards the building cost of the superyacht in return for their own private suit on board. Co-founder Aaron Simpson emphasized that they would be remaining anonymous “until a bottle of champagne hits the hull.” The archived website for the Quintessentially One explains that “The jewels in crown of the super yacht are 12 stunning triplex apartments located on the top decks. These are available for sale to those looking for the most exclusive onboard residences in the world.”

Now, in an article written to exonerate himself from his association to Maxwell, a guy named Nicholas Coleridge wrote “The last time I ran into Ghislaine was at a Sotheby’s preview. She was as friendly and engaging as ever. She told me she was working on a project to build a luxurious floating country in the middle of the Pacific. The advantage would be zero income tax and zero inheritance tax, but you could only become a citizen if you had many hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Was this project of Ghislaine’s the Quintessentially One? While she referred to her project as a “floating country”, Quintessentially spokespeople would repeatedly refer to it as “the world’s largest floating private membership club” with residences on board for sale - and Quintessentially has been accused in the past of assisting members with offshore tax avoidance.

The last time the Quintessentially One got any mainstream press coverage was in 2017, but in a YouTube interview from June 2019, Aaron Simpson confirms that the plans were still ongoing for the world’s largest floating private membership club at that time. Wayback Machine collection data (see graphic representation above) for the Quintessentially One website came to a curious halt months later in the last quarter of 2019, when Epstein had just died and Maxwell was on the run. What happened? Was the project scrapped and the site nuked? Why in late 2019?

Oh, and as recently as February 12th, 2026, news broke that Quintessentially co-founder Aaron Simpson is currently in court battling allegations of sexual assault, sex trafficking, money laundering and tax evasion. Ben Elliot has declined to comment.

I discovered all this while investigating a New York elite sex club called The Box that I have been able to intimately link to Epstein and Maxwell. The Box was reportedly be the onboard nightclub and provide the entertainment on the Quintessentially One. I go even deeper and present the ties between Epstein/Maxwell, The Box, Quintessentially, and much more in this article I just published: https://jamiefcrawford.substack.com/p/the-big-club-jeffrey-epsteins-connections

Quintessentially is a concierge service for what they call ultra high net worth individuals. It was founded by Queen Camilla's nephew Ben Elliot. Even on the face of it, it sounds pretty bizarre and suspect. They psychoanalyze their clientele to provide curated experiences, for instance they once provided a client with a three month "kidnap experience". Basically they are there to help billionaires with fried dopamine receptors just feel something. “People are demanding that they are taken to the edge of their normality,” Co-founder Aaron Simpson says.

Ben Elliot is in Epstein’s black book, as is his Quintessentially colleague Luca Del Bono. Both Elliot and Del Bono have the Quintessentially title directly under their names in the black book. When Quintessentially teamed up with Deutsche Bank to roll out Quintessentially Platinum - described as their most personal, exclusive service yet - for clients of Deutsche Bank Wealth Management, Jeffrey Epstein was initially one of the first members to get the nomination in January 2015. Ghislaine Maxwell attended Quintessentially US Launch Party in 2003 at the art auction house Sotheby’s. Ben Elliot has been photographed at Maxwell's house and at other events with her.

In 2017 there was media coverage that Quintessentially was building a superyacht called the Quintessentially One. It was to be “the world’s largest floating private membership club.”

Five billionaires paid 10 million euros towards the building cost of the superyacht in return for their own private suit on board. Co-founder Aaron Simpson emphasized that they would be remaining anonymous “until a bottle of champagne hits the hull.” The archived website for the Quintessentially One explains that “The jewels in crown of the super yacht are 12 stunning triplex apartments located on the top decks. These are available for sale to those looking for the most exclusive onboard residences in the world.”

Now, in an article written to exonerate himself from his association to Maxwell, a guy named Nicholas Coleridge wrote “The last time I ran into Ghislaine was at a Sotheby’s preview. She was as friendly and engaging as ever. She told me she was working on a project to build a luxurious floating country in the middle of the Pacific. The advantage would be zero income tax and zero inheritance tax, but you could only become a citizen if you had many hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Was this project of Ghislaine’s the Quintessentially One? While she referred to her project as a “floating country”, Quintessentially spokespeople would repeatedly refer to it as “the world’s largest floating private membership club” with residences on board for sale - and Quintessentially has been accused in the past of assisting members with offshore tax avoidance.

The last time the Quintessentially One got any mainstream press coverage was in 2017, but in a YouTube interview from June 2019, Aaron Simpson confirms that the plans were still ongoing for the world’s largest floating private membership club at that time. Wayback Machine collection data (see graphic representation above) for the Quintessentially One website came to a curious halt months later in the last quarter of 2019, when Epstein had just died and Maxwell was on the run. What happened? Was the project scrapped and the site nuked? Why in late 2019?

Oh, and as recently as February 12th, 2026, news broke that Quintessentially co-founder Aaron Simpson is currently in court battling allegations of sexual assault, sex trafficking, money laundering and tax evasion. Ben Elliot has declined to comment.

I discovered all this while investigating a New York elite sex club called The Box that I have been able to intimately link to Epstein and Maxwell. The Box was reportedly be the onboard nightclub and provide the entertainment on the Quintessentially One. I go even deeper and present the ties between Epstein/Maxwell, The Box, Quintessentially, and much more in this article I just published: https://jamiefcrawford.substack.com/p/the-big-club-jeffrey-epsteins-connections

The following article provides concrete evidence that Andre Balazs and his wife Katie Ford were with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell on the day of their first date in Aspen in 1991. Balazs and Ford kept associating with Epstein and Maxwell long after Epstein's first arrest. Balazs reportedly escorted Maxwell around New York while Epstein was serving jail time. Emails show that Epstein had Balazs on a list of about 50 "peeps" that he was putting together with Maxwell during his first bout of legal trouble. I could go on, but all this and more is laid out eloquently in this article:

https://jamiefcrawford.substack.com/p/the-big-club-jeffrey-epsteins-connections

The following article provides concrete evidence that Andre Balazs and his wife Katie Ford were with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell on the day of their first date in Aspen in 1991. Balazs and Ford kept associating with Epstein and Maxwell long after Epstein's first arrest. Balazs reportedly escorted Maxwell around New York while Epstein was serving jail time. Emails show that Epstein had Balazs on a list of about 50 "peeps" that he was putting together with Maxwell during his first bout of legal trouble. I could go on, but all this and more is laid out eloquently in this article:

https://jamiefcrawford.substack.com/p/the-big-club-jeffrey-epsteins-connections

This is a groundbreaking story about the tangible, financial, social, and mysterious connections between Jeffrey Epstein and "The Box" nightclub in New York City. The infamous predator and Simon Hammerstein's notorious club serve as a throughline in this story that then maps out a wider web of individuals and entities in the same orbit. Military contractors, elite concierge services, modeling agencies, impresarios, hoteliers, A-list celebrities, royalty, and suspected foreign spies all appear in this macroscopic story.

The image that emerges is of one big social club that revolves around excessive indulgence, a gravitation towards degenerate debauchery, and a fully-realized rejection of sexual consent and personal agency. The image that emerges is one of class solidarity and a cross-pollination of moral depravity - with enough smoke rising form these individuals and their organizations to indicate one massive fire.