Palm Beach Pete, The 71-Year-Old Who Went Viral For All The Wrong Reasons, Got New Teeth And A DNA Test To Prove He's Not Who You Think He Is

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Posted on Oct 21, 2026 UTC

Palm Beach Pete has spent much of 2026 trying to convince the internet that he isn't Jeffrey Epstein. Getting new teeth and undergoing DNA testing apparently seemed like reasonable next steps.

The 71-year-old Florida man, whose real name is Peter Bart Simel, became an internet celebrity earlier this year after a video of him driving a convertible through South Florida went viral. This is because he bears a remarkable resemblance to the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender who died in a New York jail in 2019.

Since then, Pete has amassed a following under the handle @not_jeffepstein, where he posts updates about his life, responds to conspiracy theories, and sometimes makes cheeky fun of the very rumors he is disavowing.

Despite his insistence that he is, in fact, Palm Beach Pete and not Jeffrey Epstein, some internet sleuths remain unconvinced.

It all started on March 19, 2026, when a motorist spotted an older man with gray hair and sunglasses driving a convertible along Interstate 95 in South Florida.

The viral clip quickly spread across the internet as users joked and speculated that Epstein had faked his death (an understandably enduring conspiracy, considering the details surrounding his demise) and was now just casually cruising around Palm Beach, Florida.

Matt Wallace / X / Via x.com

The next day, the driver identified himself as Peter, a Palm Beach resident who is definitely not Jeffrey Epstein, and the next day posted a follow-up video once again confirming, "I'm so not Jeffrey Epstein. I'm just me being me."

Palm Beach Pete / Via x.com

"Hey everybody, this is 'Palm Beach Pete,' and my video went viral because some dude randomly filmed me when I was driving on I-95, unbeknownst to me," he says. "And the next thing I know, I'm a viral sensation. I'm not Jeffrey Epstein. I'm 'Palm Beach Pete!'"

And in an interview with TMZ later that day (March 20), Peter confessed the similarities were "pretty weird," labeled Epstein "a vile human being," and admitted: "I could be the guy, but I'm not the guy."

Naturally, Pete's attempts to clear his name only made him more infamous and the internet more suspicious, turning into an ongoing bit where he repeatedly introduces himself to his 1.2 million TikTok followers and insists that he isn't Jeffrey Epstein, at the same time dropping breadcrumbs related to the financier.

One particularly elaborate bit features Pete at the dentist's office, discussing getting new teeth and, at one point, plugging the crypto sports-betting platform Stake. The dentist's face is censored with a black box—a significant detail considering Epstein's documented obsession with dentistry.

Comments under the video were comically skeptical, with one user writing, "He is playing right in ur faces and y'all are too blind to see."

In another TikTok video with over 14 million views, Pete joked about bone-mashing, a looksmaxxing trend from the depths of the manosphere that has men beating themselves in the face with hammers to alter their facial structures and look "manlier."

Again, commenters played into the bit.

But repeatedly insisting he isn't Jeffrey Epstein wasn't enough. Pete decided to bring science into the equation, announcing on October 7 that he was going to take a DNA test, explaining, "All you guys do is ask about this DNA testing...it's been taking a toll on me."

The following day, he posted two images in which he announced: "I have JUST RETURNED FROM ISRAEL, where I underwent a BRAND NEW DNA TEST at the world-renowned BioGenesis Laboratory in Tel Aviv." He also suggested the Florida government had interfered with his efforts to prove his identity. However, there is currently no evidence to suggest this really happened.

I have JUST RETURNED FROM ISRAEL, where I underwent a BRAND NEW DNA TEST at the world-renowned BioGenesis Laboratory in Tel Aviv.

The technology in Israel is DECADES ahead of what we have here in the United States. Their scientists are doing things our so-called “experts” in… pic.twitter.com/ATLAAOdmKb

— Palm Beach Pete (@not_jeffepstein) October 8, 2026

@not_jeffepstein/X / Via x.com

To make matters stranger, the existence of BioGenesis Laboratory could not be verified. As pointed out by India Times, the website "biogenesissolutions.com" appears to have been registered on October 8—the same day of Pete's post. AND, the lab's supposed address—37 Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv—matches that of a military base housing the Israel Ministry of Defense.

Naturally, this DNA test "evidence" did the opposite of putting the conspiracies to rest. The internet went rabid, with some folks calling it "the absolute sketchiest thing you could have done," some claiming the resemblance was exaggerated, some genuinely believing the theories, some leaning into the bit and lauding Pete as a master troll, and some pointing out that the "joke" might not be in the best taste.

The ethics of making money by posing as a convicted sex offender become even more questionable when we consider that in May, Palm Beach Pete announced plans to run for mayor of the city in 2028.

Included in his campaign promises are free Botox for all Palm Beach residents, free convertible use for 1 year (???), pickleball & paddle court expansion, free tennis lessons for all, and "Import NYC Water for Better Pizzas & Bagels."

Pete's mayoral campaign is worth noting beyond the bananas promises because of its entanglement with the DNA test storyline. In June, Pete claimed to have received a letter from Florida election officials concerning "irregularities" in his test, asking him to suspend his campaign and "take a step back." He said he wasn't going to do that.

Then there's the matter of his supposed "girlfriend." In August, social media posts depicting a woman named "Palm Beach Lisghaine" (an anagram of Ghislaine, the first name of longtime Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell) went viral. Not long after, Lead Stories identified the "woman" as AI-generated.

Between his mayoral run, unsubstantiated DNA tests, trolling posts involving dentists and hammers, and an AI-generated Epstein-associated girlfriend rumor, Palm Beach Pete's story has become increasingly difficult to separate from the memes surrounding it. Which is probably the point.

By his own admission, Pete can self-fund his mayoral campaign "because I did so well" at gambling. The more he tries to "prove" he's not Jeffrey Epstein, the more content he gets out of it.

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