Theo Wells-Spackman is a Report for America corps member who reports for VTDigger.
Dean Kamen, a director on the board of Beta Technologies, has stepped back from his role at the company after the U.S. Department of Justice released files tying him to Jeffrey Epstein.
“BETA treats these matters with utmost seriousness,” the South Burlington-based electric plane company said in a statement last week. “Dean Kamen has voluntarily recused himself from all Board activity, as of February 4.”
In its statement, Beta said the company had hired an external law firm to complete a review of Kamen’s appearance in the files.
“The Board believes this independent review is the appropriate course of action at this time to ensure alignment with our company’s values,” the statement continued.
Kamen holds over 800,000 total shares in Beta through both direct ownership and a revocable trust, according to company filings late last year — worth more than $13 million at Monday’s stock price. The New Hampshire-based entrepreneur and investor is best known for inventing the Segway, a two-wheeled self-balancing transportation device.
Kamen is also executive director of the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute, a government-funded biotechnology nonprofit with which Beta has a multimillion dollar business agreement.
Documents from the so-called Epstein files, released by order of the U.S. Congress, appear to show numerous communications between Kamen and Epstein. Several messages reference Kamen’s planned visits to Epstein’s properties, including “the ranch,” and “the island.”
Epstein’s infamous “island” is in the U.S. Virgin Islands, while “the ranch” appears to refer to his New Mexico estate.
In 2013, Epstein wrote in an email that two people whose names are redacted “will both go to the island on Sat. April 13th with Dean Kamen.” In the same email, he refers to purchasing “flights for the girls.”
A week later, Kamen wrote: “Let me thank you for hosting an incredible visit to a magical place.”
Epstein was first convicted of sex crimes in 2008.
Several other companies with ties to Kamen are distancing themselves from the U.N. Global Humanitarian Action Award recipient, the Boston Globe reported last week, including Sequel Med Tech and the nonprofit FIRST.
Beta Technologies, one of a small handful of publicly traded companies in Vermont, raised over $1 billion in its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange last November. Kamen and other top insiders at the company saw surges in net worth.
The company, which operates a 188,500-square-foot production facility in South Burlington, has since made commitments to roughly double its workforce in Vermont.
