In January 2019, when I was still a young professional in London who had only recently started working for Sony, I stirred up a controversy from afar on San Marino’s diplomatic network abroad — on its uselessness and its costs.
Few people know that those were my first public appearances in San Marino, still far removed from any form of politics and predating TitanPost.
My pieces received a large number of shares and messages of support. And also criticism from the government of the time. This pleased me greatly: the seed of wanting to do politics, cut public waste, and be a thorn in the side of the Sammarinese establishment had by then been planted in me!
Two lessons
I understood two things right away.
First: the Sammarinese political class will never focus on the message or the substance of what you say. Only on the form.
Which is why you must never make mistakes: in my first piece I had spoken of San Marino’s ambassador to the UK when I actually meant the consul (so much so that in the following piece I had to apologise to the ambassador).
This is a lesson I learned very well from then on: to be unassailable, the form must be perfect. And, modestly, that is what I aspire to; even though it remains unattainable, like a recurring decimal tending toward infinity.
Second, I learned an even more important lesson: in San Marino, if you talk about an issue you want to improve, even if you’re completely outside politics and a nobody living thousands of kilometres away… it will always be seen as an attack on the government in power at that moment. And as a gift to the opposition.
Indeed, the government of the time, Adesso.sm, did not appreciate my pieces at all, while the opposition rejoiced.
But I was just a 25-year-old kid, outside any political games, who simply wanted to complain about the uselessness of San Marino’s diplomatic network in London!
The consul
So let’s get to the heart of the matter, and the reason why you clicked on this article when you saw Epstein’s face.
When I complained about San Marino’s diplomatic network in the UK, the consul at the time was Eduardo Teodorani Fabbri.
Born in 1965, son of Maria Sole Agnelli, sister of Gianni Agnelli, and therefore cousin of Margherita Agnelli, mother of John and Lapo Elkann.
A résumé within the family group: board member of Exor, Iveco and Maserati, and executive at CNH in the United Kingdom. Honorary consul of San Marino in London at least since 2014, when his name appears in the records of the Grand and General Council (Consiglio Grande e Generale), and until the appointment of his successor in November 2019.
At the time I was told he had held the post since 1997.
Fabbri is the consul who ended up at the centre of the case of a Sammarinese girl whose passport was stolen, to give just one example.
It was the summer of 2014: two girls on a study holiday in London, one has her passport stolen, and the police advise her to contact the embassy.
From there begins what Rete councillor Grazia Zafferani called, in the Grand and General Council, the saga of the phantom embassy: no office, no phone, the consul contacted repeatedly and never reachable, his secretary only tracked down the following day. On 4 September 2014 Zafferani called for his resignation on the floor of the Council.
In the interest of fairness: the Foreign Affairs Secretariat clarified at the time that San Marino’s consulates cannot issue travel documents and that in such cases one must turn to the Italian consulate. But a consul who cannot be reached remains a consul who cannot be reached.
I quoted him as follows in my piece:
«[Eduardo Teodorani Fabbri] Is carrying out his duties as consul impeccably; as is clear from this case in which a young Sammarinese woman on holiday in London had her passport stolen, and was left to fend for herself by the consul.»
«His title of consul is honorary, so in theory he receives no compensation. Or let’s say he receives compensation equal to his usefulness: zero.»
The “Master” Epstein
Years later, however, something infinitely more serious has come to light.
That San Marino had turned up in the Epstein Files, truth be told, was already known. In February, San Marino RTV had reported on a March 2012 chat between Epstein and former Norwegian prime minister Thorbjørn Jagland, then Secretary General of the Council of Europe, ahead of his visit to Mount Titano as official speaker for the installation of the Captains Regent on 1 April 2012.
Epstein had simply written «I like San Marino». A passing remark, harmless in itself.
This time, however, the connection is much more direct. And it runs through a man who officially represented the Republic of San Marino: Eduardo Teodorani Fabbri.
San Marino’s consul in London was in frequent contact with Jeffrey Epstein.
In the files released by the US Department of Justice, his name appears in roughly 1,280 documents. The earliest traces date back to 2002, the latest reach June 2019, just days before the financier’s arrest.
Do the math: for at least the last five years of this relationship, he was consul of the Republic of San Marino. And a good portion of the contacts come after 2008, when Epstein had already been convicted in Florida of sex crimes involving a minor.
In the chats, Teodorani called him «Master». Meetings and invitations, from Paris to London to Rome. The emails place him at the Zorro Ranch in New Mexico, Epstein’s ranch which appears in US court records among the sites of abuse. In October 2013, Epstein wrote to him that a «very, very beautiful» friend of his was about to arrive in London, and the consul replied to tell her to call him.
Not just socialising.
The documents also reveal Epstein’s interest in the Agnelli family’s business affairs: in June 2013 he asked who was handling the Cushman & Wakefield deal for the family — the real estate giant then controlled by Exor — and Teodorani replied that he would call him to explain. In 2018, it was Epstein who twice proposed a meeting with Steve Bannon, and Teodorani accepted.
In February 2026, in the weeks following the publication of the files, he resigned from all his positions in the United Kingdom, including his role as vice-president of the Italian Chamber of Commerce.
On 31 August 2026, US Congressman Thomas Massie included him, on the floor of the House, in a list of people he said should be investigated and prosecuted, and in the same weeks the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office opened a file on Italians named in the Epstein Files.
For the record: as things stand, there are no formal charges or indictments against him, and the Rome prosecutor’s file does not list any named suspects.
The same journalistic reconstructions point out that the emails do not attribute any direct involvement in illegal activities to him. But the long and frequent association with one of the most notorious sexual predators in recent history remains a documented fact.
And for at least the final years of that relationship, that man represented San Marino.
Two dates, to be clear.
5 August 2010: an email sent to Epstein confirms that Teodorani will arrive at the Zorro Ranch on 10 August, ahead of his host, and will wait for him there. On 15 August, Epstein writes to Peter Mandelson that Teodorani is there with him, at the ranch.
1 March 2019: on iMessage he writes to Epstein that they are waiting for «the girl with the pretty ankles». No speculation is needed here as to whether he was San Marino’s consul: just weeks earlier, in January, he was precisely the consul I was criticising in my articles.
Who appointed him?
It would be good to know, in San Marino, who appointed him consul.
But there is an even more uncomfortable question. In 2014 a councillor called for his resignation on the floor of the Council. He remained in his post for another five years.
So don’t just ask who appointed him. Ask also who kept him there.
PS: in case you’re wondering who is San Marino’s consul in the United Kingdom today, it is Maurizio Bragagni, appointed in November 2019. And under him, giant strides have been made in representing San Marino in the UK.
To name a few: during his term, in 2020, the governments of San Marino and the United Kingdom signed the agreement on the Youth Mobility Scheme, which allows Sammarinese citizens aged 18 to 30 to live and work in the UK for up to two years. In 2021 the consulate published a bilingual guide to British visas — exactly the kind of thing I had wished for back in 2019.
And in 2023 the two governments signed the double taxation agreement.
It may be a coincidence, but the change of consul came less than a year after my articles. I won’t take credit I don’t deserve. But I won’t refuse it either.
Nicholas Perpiglia
