Former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine (R) has long downplayed his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein (L)
Miami-Dade County will be on a global stage when the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off Thursday. Hardrock Stadium in Miami Gardens is among the sports venues around the U.S. hosting matches for the 48-team tournament, including a quarterfinal and the bronze final. The first game is on June 15 between Saudi Arabia and Uruguay.
With the diaspora of Latin American and Caribbean cultures in South Florida, World Cup fever is sure to hit the stratosphere, and local government officials and civic leaders are rolling out a slate of events to capitalize on it.
Between Miami-Dade, Miami and Miami Beach alone, $61.7 million in taxpayer funds are being funneled to the World Cup, including funding the official FIFA World Cup 2026 Kickoff Watch Party & Concert headlined by Carlos Vives at 10th Street and Ocean Drive in Miami on Thursday. The event is being put on by the FIFA 2026 World Cup Miami Host Committee, which is composed of 40 former and current elected officials, government bureaucrats and influential businesspeople.
The committee’s board of directors features big wigs like billionaire hedge fund manager and recent Miami transplant Ken Griffin, Miami tech billionaire and Inter Miami MLS franchise owner Jorge Mas and former Congresswoman Donna Shalala.
Another committee board member is a guy who’s been implicated in an alleged sexual assault tied to his past connections with the world’s most famous pedophile and sex trafficker: financier Jeffrey Epstein, who reportedly died by suicide in his prison cell in 2019. Real estate investor and former Miami Beach mayor Philip Levine is still listed on the host committee’s website with his headshot sandwiched between Griffin and Mas.
Philip Levine (lower left) is a board member of the FIFA World Cup 2026 Miami Host Committee.
Last week, the House Oversight Committee requested the U.S. Department of Justice investigate sexual assault allegations by Sarah Kellen against Epstein, his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, French celebrity hairstylist Frédéric Fekkai and Levine. Kellen worked for the late financier for nearly 20 years
On June 4th, committee members sent a letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche that noted Kellen recently testified that she was never contacted by local, state, federal or foreign law enforcement or government authorities from the time she began working for Epstein in approximately 2000 or 2001 until July 2019 when Epstein was arrested and charged in New York on sex trafficking charges.
At that point, she did speak to officials from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
“As part of its investigation into the alleged mismanagement of the federal government’s handling of the Epstein and Maxwell matters,” the June 4th letter states, “the committee seeks to understand why Ms. Kellen was not interviewed or otherwise contacted during that period.”
During a May 21 hearing under oath, Kellen alleged that Levine sexually assaulted her during her second year working for Epstein while she was with her boss, Maxwell and Levine in a rented house in St. Tropez, according to a transcript of her testimony. At the time, Kellen was in her early Twenties.
Epstein and Maxwell had gone to bed, but she and Levine were still awake, Kellen said. She then described how Levine allegedly forced himself on her:
“And he [Levine] — he came up to me, and he was like, ‘You know, must be so lonely for you working with them because you’re with them all the time, and you can’t have your own life, so you must be – must be really lonely,’ and he basically forced himself on me.”
Levine has denied the allegation, asserting he “had a brief intimate encounter with another consenting adult,” according to a spokesperson responding to Miami New Times, which first reported the committee’s DOG referral.
A longtime business partner of Miami Beach developer Scott Robins and his late father, Gerald Robins, Levine served as the city’s mayor from 2013 to 2017. The following year, he lost the Democratic primary for governor, finishing in third place despite an endorsement from hometown newspaper, The Miami Herald.
Levine has long downplayed his relationship with Epstein. A few weeks after Epstein died, Levine told The Miami Herald that they only met a few times and had “no clue” how they met. In February, when the DOJ released the Epstein files showing Levine’s name appeared more than 600 times, he told The Miami Herald that he had a “former friendship” with Maxwell. With regards to Epstein, Levine said:
“I never conducted business with him, never visited his island and never flew on his aircraft. I regret ever meeting him.”
Yet a tranche of emails between Epstein, Maxwell and Levine contradicts the former mayor’s denials. The duo appeared to have a close relationship that dated back to at least 2003, which included Levine congratulating Epstein in 2010 after the financier completed a sweetheart nonprosecution deal that allowed him to serve time at a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office detention center under a work-release program.
On July 14, 2010, Levine wrote:
“Hi, Just want you to know that I am happy that everything has come to a positive ending for you during these tough times. You are a great guy and I know all good things will come to you going forward. In Europe for a while and hope we can catch up soon. Your friend, Philip.”
The recent sexual assault allegations against Levine have made him radioactive in Miami-Dade’s political scene. Last month, Miami-Dade County Commissioner Vicky Lopez’s reelection campaign put out a flyer for her campaign kick-off fundraiser listing several prominent politicos as hosts, including Levine. Days later, after news broke about Kellen’s testimony, the flyer was replaced by a new one that no longer listed Levine, according to Political Cortadito.
Yet, Levine remains on the World Cup host committee, which has been radio silent about it. The committee’s media division did not respond to my emails requesting comment, and Rodney Barreto, the committee’s co-chairman, did not respond to a text requesting comment.
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