Powerful Miami men are on roster of secret society run by Palantir’s Peter Thiel

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MIAMI, FLORIDA - APRIL 7: Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, holds hundred dollar bills as he speaks during the Bitcoin 2022 Conference at Miami Beach Convention Center on April 7, 2022 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Marco Bello/Getty Images)

Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, holds hundred dollar bills as he speaks during the Bitcoin 2022 Conference at the Miami Beach Convention Center on April 7, 2022. Marco Bello Getty Images

A roster that was recently made public of 113 influential figures who were members of a secret society run by billionaire Peter Thiel or attended its events includes several individuals with South Florida ties.

The group, named Dialog, was founded by Thiel in 2006 and annually brings together cultural figures, industry titans and U.S. government officials at retreats that are strictly off-the-record and confidential.

The list was verified and first reported on by the San Francisco-based tech magazine WIRED. It includes, among others, Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and a resident of Indian Creek’s “Billionaire Bunker,” and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, who grew up in Miami Beach.

Also included are Barry Sternlicht, founder of the Miami Beach private investment firm Starwood Capital Group; and Mike Novogratz and Pete Briger, former and current top executives of Fortress Investment Group, which has a significant presence in Miami and is the primary financial backer of the Brightline rail system.

Thiel himself has owned a home in Miami Beach since 2020 and recently planted more roots in South Florida, announcing that his tech and surveillance firm, Palantir Technologies, had moved its headquarters to Miami.

It is unclear which figures on the roster were actually Dialog members versus which were guests or invited attendees at its events.

The Miami Herald was unable to find current contact information for Rubin. A spokesperson for Fortress Investment declined to comment. None of the others responded.

The Herald sent questions to the email listed on Dialog’s website and to a spokesperson for the Thiel Foundation ⁠— which typically handles press queries related to Thiel ⁠— but did not receive any response.

Thiel has become influential in Republican politics in the last few years, bankrolling Trump-aligned candidates. He recently made headlines for hosting a series of lectures on the coming of the Antichrist and Armageddon.

The announcement that Palantir ⁠— the controversial spyware and data analytics firm that contracts with the U.S. military, immigration enforcement ⁠and intelligence agencies — was moving to Miami was met with protests from some community members who say the firm is not welcome in South Florida.

US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner attends a State Dinner to honor Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on April 28, 2026. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images)

President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner attends a State Dinner in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on April 28, 2026. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI AFP via Getty Images

The roster of Dialog members and guests was initially left exposed online in the organization’s website code. It was made public by the Switzerland-based hacker-cum-activist who goes by the name “maia crimew” and was verified by WIRED. Crimew, who is best known for publishing the U.S. “No Fly” list, told WIRED that an anonymous tipster alerted her to the list.

A U.S. grand jury had indicted crimew in March 2021 on charges of hacking government systems, but prosecutors later dropped their push to extradite her from Switzerland.

The Herald contacted her but did not receive any response.

Forum for the world’s elite

Dialog’s website describes itself as an “invite-only community of CEOs, founders, public intellectuals, government leaders, investors, artists, and more who gather for off-the-record conversations to learn from one another.” It notes that it has no ideological agenda or partisanship and does not accept donations.

An invite for the society’s 2014 event in Sundance, Utah, that the Herald found in the recently released Epstein Files says it is a “bipartisan retreat discussing how to change the world.”

“Dialog participants aren’t modest,” it says. “[W]e don’t want to spend our time being in a large audience listening to winded speeches. There are no speakers. No panels. All attendees participate in break-out facilitated discussions.”

It is unclear from the documents the DOJ released earlier this year whether Epstein attended any Dialog retreat or was a member.

Starwood Capital Group Chairman and CEO, Barry Sternlicht, speaks during the 29th annual Milken Institute Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California on May 4, 2026. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images)

Starwood Capital Group Chairman and CEO Barry Sternlicht speaks during the 29th annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, on May 4, 2026. PATRICK T. FALLON AFP via Getty Images

Axios, which reported on Dialog’s plans to open a campus in Washington, D.C., last year, noted that past gatherings ⁠— which have typically had around 150 participants ⁠— have been held at Dove Mountain in Arizona and in Venice, Italy.

The roster and a second cache of registration records for Dialog’s planned August 2026 summit near Dublin that was obtained and verified by WIRED shows a remarkable convergence of power, money and influence.

It lays out a program of off-the-record sessions titled “Money (Does?) Buy Happiness,” “Navigating WWIII,” “Battlefield Technologies,” “How’s Your Sex Life?” and “Build-a-Cult.”

Dialog’s list of registrants this year, WIRED reported, “spans hedge fund and private equity billionaires, current and former foreign officials, network television actors, best-selling authors, and religious leaders.”

They include, according to WIRED, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Connecticut Congressman Jim Himes, the ranking Democrat on the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. They did not respond to the Herald’s requests for comment.

US Senator Ted Cruz, Republican from Texas, speaks as US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on oversight of the Department of Homeland Security, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on March 3, 2026. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP via Getty Images)

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on March 3, 2026. JIM WATSON AFP via Getty Images

Ranking member Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) speaks during a House Select Intelligence Committee hearing on March 19, 2026, in Washington, D.C.

Ranking member Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) speaks during a House Select Intelligence Committee hearing on March 19, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Andrew Harnik Getty Images

Among military and security officials who are registered as participants are U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, NATO’s supreme allied commander in Europe and head of the U.S. European Command.

“Every trip and everything General Grynkewich attends is subject to rigorous legal and ethical review,” NATO spokesperson Martin O’Donnell told the Herald, though he declined to comment specifically on the leaked information from Dialog.

Driscoll did not respond to the Herald’s request for comment.

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Shirsho Dasgupta combines traditional reporting with data analysis to produce high-impact stories and accountability journalism. A two-time Livingston Award finalist, he also won a Sigma Delta Chi Award in 2025 and was named finalist for the Scripps Howard Award in 2024. His stories have spurred investigations, influenced legislation and received numerous awards and citations from the National Press Foundation, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing and others.