David Copperfield has announced that he is performing his last show at MGM Grand in Las Vegas next month, an announcement that comes weeks after documents released in the Epstein files revealed new details about how the FBI viewed the illusionist’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender.

The announcement that the 69-year-old illusionist’s last show would be held on 30 April appears to have been made suddenly. In a statement praising and thanking Copperfield for his 25-year stint at MGM, the company said in a statement that it would automatically refund tickets for shows that were booked after that date.

In a statement on social media, Copperfield said he would soon be announcing “what’s next”, saying it would be the largest project he had ever tackled.

Copperfield has previously faced controversies, including a criminal investigation from 2007 to 2009 in which he was accused of raping a woman he had met in the audience of a show and invited to his private Bahamian island. Copperfield was never charged and said he was innocent of any wrongdoing. In a nationally broadcast cable show with Oprah Winfrey he said he was the victim in that case.

It is not clear whether the cessation of Copperfield’s Las Vegas show is related to the Department of Justice’s release of millions of documents in the so-called Epstein files. But the documents contained emails by FBI agents and prosecutors who were involved in the 2007 investigation of Copperfield, and showed that they had been in contact with Miami counterparts while they were investigating Epstein.

A 2007 FBI memo by agents in Seattle said further investigation of this “connection” was needed to “to determine if they [Copperfield and Epstein] both shared a predilection for minors” and “if they engaged in referring possible victims to each other”.

Lawyers for Copperfield have not replied to previous questions about the files released in January. In 2024, Copperfield’s lawyers told the Guardian that he “was not a friend of Jeffrey Epstein”. They said any suggestion Copperfield was friends with Epstein “is totally false and a mischaracterization made by the media” and that he and Epstein were “at most, acquaintances” who only met on a “handful” of occasions. Copperfield has repeatedly denied ever engaging in sexual misconduct or inappropriate behavior.

In the FBI’s 12 December 2007 memo, Seattle agents expressed concerns to counterparts in Miami about Epstein-related evidence that could be relevant to their investigation of Copperfield. The investigation, the agents said, had identified a “number of potential witnesses” who they believed lived in Miami and may have had a relationship with or worked for Copperfield. Two of these potential witnesses, they noted, were women who “are or may be witnesses” in the Epstein investigation in Miami, including one who had said Epstein “groomed” her.

The FBI was interested in interviewing the two women because both were named in Copperfield’s “business list”, which the agents said “appears to be a compilation of females that he targeted for sexual conquest”.

The agents said that the entries in Copperfield’s business list noted that the two women were “Jeff Epstein guestf[sic]” and that “he” – a likely reference to Epstein – said that one of the women was “not loyal, doesn’t play the game”. The memo said evidence seized from Copperfield’s residence and warehouse and at the MGM Grand Hollywood Theater, where he performs, also showed a “number of occasions” when Copperfield provided complimentary tickets to Epstein and his guests.

In a 2019 email that appears to have been sent from one FBI official to another, which was sent after Epstein died in prison, the FBI official said: the FBI investigation into Copperfield “showed that Copperfield trained his employees to identify young females (teens to early twenties) in the audience of his shows”. The women, the person said, were “separated from their boyfriends, families and husbands and brought backstage”.

“Copperfield’s employees were given access to a notebook that instructed them how to provide Copperfield with females. He kept a notebook with the females he was with” that included “contact information, whether he had sex with them, and a photograph”, the FBI official said.

The FBI official added: “I don’t know if any of his victims were underage. There were allegations that he drugged some of the females. I recall Epstein’s name coming up in our investigation a number of times and Copperfield appeared to have a very close relationship with Epstein.”

Copperfield’s name was on a “list” investigators found that included other men, the person said, adding, “some of which had reputations like Copperfield and Epstein”.

“Our case was eventually closed because our USAO [US attorney’s office] was weak and intimidated by the financial resources of Copperfield,” the FBI official said, while adding there had been other challenging issues involving the victim and jurisdiction.

MGM did not respond to a question about whether the conclusion of its relationship with Copperfield was at all connected to the Epstein files.

“We thank David and his exceptional team for the incredible energy they’ve consistently delivered with this larger-than-life production,” Mike Neubecker, the president and chief operating officer of MGM Grand, said in an emailed press statement. “David has fascinated audiences at MGM Grand for more than 25 years, and we wish him every success as he embarks on the next chapter of his journey.”

Lawyers for Copperfield did not respond to a request for comment.

Jules Metge contributed additional reporting