The Honest Funding Picture
This is a multi-year investigation. The archive is not static — new documents emerge through ongoing litigation. A credible investigation will itself generate further document releases requiring retroactive analysis. We don't know the full long-term cost. Nobody honestly can — an investigation of this scope has never been done before, and the archive itself is still growing.
What we commit to: we'll keep everyone updated as we build, publish everything we spend, and raise further funding as we demonstrate progress. Here is what each milestone makes possible:
| Milestone | What It Funds |
|---|---|
| $10,000 | Infrastructure build, first analysis sprint, legal structure formation — the ignition |
| $50,000 | Complete Layers 1–4, first publication cycle, legal review retainer |
| $150,000 | Full system build, six months of active analysis, public communications |
| Long-term | Sustained operation — dedicated team, live archive maintenance, ongoing analysis. Scope and cost reported publicly as the project grows. |
What the First Goal Specifically Does
Infrastructure and hosting. AI inference costs for the first analysis sprint — processing the highest-priority document sets through the extraction and normalization layers. Legal structure formation — establishing the entity that governs this initiative before significant funds are deployed. The first document ingestion run.
This is the ignition. It proves the project is real. It produces the first tangible outputs: infrastructure deployed, documents ingested, initial entity extraction running. Everything after scales with the support behind it.
The Refund Commitment
If the goal is not reached, every contribution is returned. No ambiguity. No exceptions.
What Funds Are Used For
- Infrastructure — Cloud hosting, data pipelines, storage, processing compute
- AI inference costs — LLM and NLP processing for extraction, normalization, and analysis
- Personnel — Including the founders, because serious work requires paid people
- Legal review — Independent pre-publication legal review for findings that implicate named entities
- Legal entity formation — Establishing the governance structure and defense fund
- Public communications — Structured publication of findings and methodology updates
Fund allocation will be reported publicly on the Updates page as the project progresses. Every dollar received and every dollar spent will be disclosed.
Contribute Expertise
The project needs more than money. The following expertise is actively sought — each contribution is valued equally with financial support:
Legal Review
Pre-publication review, pro bono or retainer. Constitutional, criminal, and civil expertise across jurisdictions.
Investigative Journalism
Methodology, editorial standards, source verification, and publication ethics for evidence-based findings.
AI & ML Engineering
NLP, entity extraction, graph analysis, confidence scoring, and large-scale document processing systems.
FOIA & Document Archiving
Federal and state FOIA processes, document preservation, provenance tracking, and institutional record management.
Subject Matter Knowledge
Case-specific expertise in financial crime, trafficking law, offshore structures, or related legal domains.
Public Communications
Media relations, structured publication, public-facing communications for high-sensitivity investigative work.
To contribute expertise, reach out at contribute@openepsteinfiles.ai
The Legal Structure Commitment
The initiative will establish a formal legal entity before significant funds are deployed. The appropriate structure is under determination and will be disclosed publicly before the campaign closes.
We acknowledge that a project of this nature may be subject to legal challenge. A legal defense fund is a budget line, not a contingency. We are building for that reality.