Jeffrey Epstein reportedly harboured a disturbing dream before his imprisonment and death to use his vast New Mexico ranch to impregnate women in an effort to “seed the human race” with his DNA, reports have revealed. The disgraced financier and convicted sex offender allegedly planned to develop an improved super-race of humans using genetic engineering and artificial intelligence in plans revolving around his Sante Fe ranch.

According to a 2019 New York Times report, in the aftermath of his 2008 sex trafficking conviction, Epstein hoped to impregnate women at his ranch – one of his properties where young women, including minors, were allegedly abused. Four people familiar with his plan told the newspaper that Epstein repeatedly confided this plan to them, though there is no evidence it was ever carried out. It reported that prominent scientists, including the late Stephen Hawking, regularly attended dinners, lunches and conferences held by Epstein.

On multiple occasions beginning in the early 2000s, Epstein told confidants that his Sante Fe ranch would serve as a base where women would be inseminated and give birth to his children, the report added, suggesting that the idea of this so-called “baby ranch” was widely known within his social circle.

The adviser, cited in the report, said he heard about the plan directly from Epstein at a gathering at his Manhattan townhouse, and separately from a prominent business figure. One scientist also recalled Epstein sharing the idea during a dinner at the same townhouse in 2001, while another said it was discussed again at a conference he hosted in St Thomas five years later.

One unnamed scientist, identified as a NASA employee, said Epstein envisoned having 20 women impregnated at a time at his 33,000-square-foot ranch, formerly known as the Zorro Ranch, which the convicted sex offender bought in 1993 for $12million (£8.8million).

All three described the idea as far-fetched and disturbing; however, there is no indication that such a plan would have been illegal, the report added.

Epstein was first convicted in 2008, when he pleaded guilty to state charges of soliciting a minor and served a controversial 13-month jail sentence under a lenient work-release deal. In 2019, he was arrested again on federal sex trafficking charges, but he died on August 10, 2019, in a New York jail while awaiting trial, in what was officially ruled a suicide. The allegations gained renewed attention with the release of the Epstein files, a set of court documents that have exposed the scale of his connections to influential figures.