Claim: During a podcast, former cricketer Wasim Akram said Imran Khan travelled to Jeffrey Epstein’s island with the convicted sex offender and Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell and that this was mentioned in the “Epstein Files.”
Fact: The claim is false. While Wasim Akram did recount a trip to an island in South America with Imran Khan and Ijaz Ahmed during a 1988 tour to Guyana, he did not mention Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein, or the Epstein Island. He did not refer to the “Epstein Files” either.
On 3 February, a video of former cricketer Wasim Akram shared online contains the following text: “وسیم اکرم کے مطابق عمران خان گرل فرینڈ گلین میکسوئل کے ساتھ جزیرے پر سیر کرنے گیا. اسکا ذکر ایسٹین فائل میں ہے
ٹرمپ کی بیوی میلینا بھی اس بد نام زمانہ جزیرے پر ٹرمپ کو لی جو پہلے چیزی اپشین کی گرل فرینڈ تھی۔ اسی جزیرے پر بربریت کا شکار بھی ہوئی۔ دہی کے حکمران سے لیکر اڈیالہ جیل کے ٹائی تک اور لندن سے لیکر نیو یارک تک سب شرفا کے نام اسٹین نائل میں شامل ہیں۔”
[Translation: According to Wasim Akram, Imran Khan went on a trip to an island with his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. This is mentioned in the Epstein file.
Trump’s wife Melania also took Trump to that infamous island. She was previously Jeffrey Epstein’s girlfriend and was also subjected to abuse on the same island. From the country’s rulers to the guards of Adiala Jail, and from London to New York, the names of all these so-called ‘respectable’ people are included in the Epstein file.]
In the video, Akram says:
“There was a test match in Guyana in 1988. Those days were rest day. Remember, 3 days you play and then a rest day and then 2 days off. So the rest day, he said, me and Ajaz said, we’re going for a trip. I said, yeah, sure. Nothing to do in Guyana by the way. I don’t know about now, but then there was nothing to do. So he took us and one of his friends, uh, she, a female took us to the airport, and she had her own plane. So, we sat on a private plane, about 45 minutes ride, into a deserted island. There was a runway there, and apparently the island was owned by her dad. Who was, I think, into a logging business. So, they went into chat into the house.” One of the hosts, Ian Higgins, adds, “just to chat.”
Akram adds, “Me and Ijaz just looked at each other, we said, oay, what should we do now? We can’t even go back to the hotel. We’re on an island in the middle of South America. So we literally South America, in the middle of it. And we found a young guy, some worker there, who knew we were, who Imran was obviously, we were too young. Said you want to go on a boat? So we got a boat and we got some cold drinks in the boat. Maybe there was sandwich around there, and then we just started going on the river for about 7, 8 hours. We came back, Imran was ready to go and then we came back.” At this point, Sam Perry, the other host says, “finished up.”
Epstein Files
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) published over three million pages of the so-called “Epstein Files” on 30 January 2026 in line with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The latter was signed into law by President Donald Trump on 19 November 2025, bringing the total to nearly 3.5 million.
“More than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images are included in today’s additional publication,” the DoJ said in its press release.
Epstein, a financier by profession who was friends with multiple rich and influential people, including US President Donald Trump, “was accused of sexually abusing and trafficking dozens of women and girls”. According to The New York Times, “he was found dead in his jail cell” on 10 August 2019. He was arrested earlier in the year and his death was “ruled a suicide” but “fueled a host of suspicions about the investigations into his crimes and about his powerful friends”.
Among the influential people named in the documents released more recently are X owner Elon Musk, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Trump, and his commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, Virgin Group co-founder Richard Branson, and Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor of Britain.
The files have been released in phases since 2024, and the claim being fact-checked first circulated online during the same period.
Epstein’s Island
Little Saint James Island is situated in the US Virgin Islands, off the south-eastern tip of St Thomas, one of the Caribbean archipelago’s three main islands. It became the center of disturbing allegations involving a worldwide grooming scheme. Accusations from Virginia Roberts Giuffre and the Virgin Islands attorney general’s office claim that Epstein and his recruiters targeted young women, deceptively subjected them to sexual servitude, and transported them to the island between 2001 and 2019. The island allegedly served as a hub in a worldwide web of sex trafficking, with victims as young as 12. The island was sold in May 2023 for $60 million to an investor who plans to build a luxury resort.
Who is Ghislaine Maxwell?
Maxwell, 60, a former British socialite, was Epstein’s ex-girlfriend and key associate. Following her arrest in July 2020, she was convicted in December 2021 of recruiting and grooming teenage girls for sexual encounters with Jeffrey Epstein. The verdict involved sordid accounts of sexual exploitation at Epstein’s homes in Florida, New York, and New Mexico. Maxwell was found guilty of five out of six counts. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2022.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check doubted the claim, as Wasim Akram did not mention Ghislaine Maxwell or Jeffrey Epstein in the viral clip. We noticed that the footage featured the logo of The Grade Cricketer, a cricket podcast hosted by Ian Higgins and Sam Perry. We then visited the channel and located the episode aired on 24 November 2022 featuring Wasim Akram.
Upon reviewing the full podcast, we found that the viral clip was taken from 17:20 to 18:41. This segment followed the same course as the video being fact-checked. Prior to Akram’s response, the hosts had asked him to share his experience of circuiting with Khan. In response, the cricketer recounted instances of going out with Imran Khan on multiple occasions including their Guyana tour in 1988.
However, he did not mention Ghislaine Maxwell or Jeffrey Epstein by name nor did he refer to Epstein Island or Epstein files at any point. It is important to note that Little Saint James located in the US Virgin Islands is quite a distance away from an island in the middle of South America. The two locations are distant and distinct, with no direct proximity between a South American island and Little Saint James.
Additionally, the Epstein Files do not imply any association between the disgraced financier and Imran Khan. Khan’s name appeared in the Files in two contexts; in one instance, he is mentioned in Jeffrey Epstein’s personal emails, where Epstein expressed his political opinions about Khan in the context of global affairs. Khan was also named in a diplomatic correspondence, where a former UN official referred to him as socially influential in international circles.
These references, however, did not include any statements about Khan visiting Epstein Island, having a personal relationship with Epstein, or being associated with Ghislaine Maxwell.
Soch Fact Check previously debunked this claim in 2024, alongside several other false claims about Imran Khan’s alleged links to Epstein.
Virality
The viral claim was shared here, here, here, and here on Facebook. Archived here, here, here, and here.
On X, it was shared here (archive).
On Instagram, it was shared here (archive).
Conclusion: While Akram recounted a trip to an island in South America with Imran Khan during a 1988 cricket tour in a podcast, he did not mention Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein or the Epstein Island.
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Background image in cover photo: The Grade Cricketer
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