Def Con, one of the world’s largest and longest-running hacking conventions, announced Wednesday that three people connected to Jeffrey Epstein are no longer allowed to attend.
The conference warranted the addition of Pablos Holman, Vincenzo Iozzo and Joichi Ito to its public list prohibited personsciting that the three appear in the latest release of Justice Department files related to its investigation of the late investor and convicted sex offender. Also mentioned by Def Con article in Politico based on emails the three exchanged with Epstein.
Joan Vollero, a spokesperson for Iozzo, told TechCrunch in a statement that Def Con’s actions are “entirely executory given that Mr. Iozzo has barely attended the convention in the last twenty years.”
“It was a rush to judgment that was not based on any investigation or wrongdoing by Mr. Iozzo,” the spokesman said.
Reps for Def Con, Holman and Ito did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
The move to ban the three comes days after TechCrunch reported that cybersecurity conferences Black Hat and Code Blue removed Iozzo from their official review board pages amid new and emerging revelations linking the prominent hacker to Epstein, among others.
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Do you have more information about Epstein’s connections in the cybersecurity world? From a non-working device, Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai can be reached securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382 or via Telegram, Keybase and Wire @lorenzofb or via email.
Iozzo is a cybersecurity industry veteran who is currently the founder and CEO of identity startup SlashID. He previously served as a director at CrowdStrike after the security giant acquired his cybersecurity startup IperLane in 2017. As TechCrunch previously reported, Iozzo interacted with Epstein between 2014 and 2018, including after the Miami Herald was mentioned new complaints that Epstein had abused dozens of women and children.
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Epstein he pleaded guilty in 2008 to solicit girls for sex and registered as a sex offender in New York and Florida. In 2019, the Ministry of Justice accused Epstein of trafficking, exploiting and abusing dozens of underage girls. Epstein he died in prison.
Iozzo told TechCrunch that his interactions with Epstein were “limited to business opportunities that never materialized, and discussions about markets and emerging technologies” and that he “never observed or engaged in any illegal activity or conduct.”
Prior to his startups, Iozzo was a research associate at the MIT Media Lab, which was overseen by Ito at the time. The two appear in many of Epstein’s emails together.
Joichi Ito was director of the MIT Media Lab until 2019, when resigned after it was reported that he knew that Epstein was a convicted sex offender and that he and the university had extensive personal and financial dealings with Epstein.
Holman, meanwhile, is the general partner of venture capital firm Deep Future and describes himself on his website as a “hacker, inventor and tech futurist.”
Holman had been in contact with Epstein since 2010, he planned to stay in one of his New York apartments in 2013, and tried to help Epstein hides negative online news about himself.
According to an emailEpstein made plans to attend Def Con with Holman in 2013, but it is unclear if they attended. Def Con founder Jeff Moss he said that as far as he knows, “Epstein never attended.”
