Many Internet users claim that Jeffrey Epstein is still alive. They share as alleged evidence photographs of the financier walking in Tel Aviv, Israel, or falsely claim that the activity of his gaming account indicates that he played the video game Fortnite years after the announcement of his death.

Published on: 02/09/2026 - 7:13 p.m. Modified on: 02/13/2026 - 6:56 p.m.

If the publication of the Epstein files by the US Department of Justice on January 30 highlighted disturbing links between the financier convicted of sex crimes and several political or business figures, it also fueled the most outlandish conspiracy theories. Last assertion, fanciful to say the least: Jeffrey Epstein is alive. The child molester was found hanged on August 10, 2019 in his prison cell in New York, which does not prevent many Internet users from sharing alleged proof of the financier's life on social networks.

Jeffrey Epstein living in Israel? AI-generated images

“Israel faked his death,” claims an Internet user on February 5 in a post seen more than 6 million times on

However, the photo is entirely fake: it was generated by AI. A reverse image search (see here how to do it) allows you to find the original photo in a non-truncated version on the Reddit forum “hardaiimages”, dedicated to the publication of AI-generated images.

The photo on Reddit is displayed full-length, while the one shared on X is cut off at waist level. This is a deceptive editing intended to conceal a clue revealing that the photograph was generated by artificial intelligence.

In the untruncated photo published on Reddit we can indeed see a diamond at the bottom right of the image: this is the logo of Google's image-generating AI, Nano Banana, integrated into Gemini, the firm's artificial intelligence chatbot.

The Google Lens tool also indicates that the image on Reddit was "Created with Google AI." Images generated by Nano Banana also carry an invisible watermark which can be revealed by the SynthID detection tool, embedded in Google Lens.

Also read: Zuckerberg, Musk, Cook in the same room? Google's new AI takes a qualitative step forward

Another photograph published on February 7 on

As journalist Henk van Ess explains, this is a real image but manipulated by AI.

A reverse search with the Tineye tool allows you to find the original photograph published on May 27, 2020 - after Epstein's death - by the British tabloid The Sun from a Netflix documentary broadcast in 2020. In this photo, we find the same vehicle with a horizontal red rear traffic light as the one visible in the photograph on X and Jeffrey Epstein is also dressed in the same black jacket in both photos.

In the original photo, Jeffrey Epstein is hairless and has well-cut hair. It appears that the photo was retouched, probably by AI, to add a beard and long hair to Jeffrey Epstein.

Jeffrey Epstein playing Fortnite? Identity theft, according to Fortnite

On February 5, Internet users put forward even more incongruous so-called proof of life on X. The financier would have played a session of the video game Fortnite started in August 2025, according to an Internet user, more than 6 years after the announcement of his death. A post relaying this assertion has garnered more than 7.8 million views on X.

These Internet users provide as proof a screenshot of a profile on Fortnite, under the pseudonym “littlestjeffl1”, located in Israel as proven by the Israeli flag displayed on his avatar.

This is a misleading statement. It is correct that Jeffrey Epstein appears to have had an online account with the pseudonym “littlestjeffl1”, as can be seen by consulting the website of the US Department of Justice with a search for the keyword “littlestjeffl1”. However, documents published by the ministry indicate that it is a pseudonym associated with a YouTube account. There is no trace of a Fortnite account under the pseudonym littlestjeffl1 in the Epstein files.

As a Fortnite company official indicates, the littlestjeffl1 account does not belong to Jeffrey Epstein. This is, according to the official, identity theft on the part of a player:

“A few days ago, the owner of an existing Fortnite account changed their previously completely unrelated username to “littlestjeff1,” following that name being revealed on YouTube.”

The Fortnite administrator indicates that he has found no trace of Jeffrey Epstein's email addresses mentioned in the Epstein files in the account system of the Epic platform which supports the Fortnite game.

“Since the publication [of the Epstein files], people have created Fortnite accounts with similar email addresses and usernames,” notes the Fortnite official.

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