David Copperfield says he will stage his final performance at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on 30 April, drawing a sudden end to one of the city’s longest-running headline acts.

The announcement arrived just weeks after newly released documents from the so-called Epstein files shed fresh light on how FBI agents once viewed Copperfield’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender.

MGM said tickets booked for shows after 30 April will be refunded automatically. In its statement, the company thanked Copperfield for a 25-year run at the resort, describing the production as a larger-than-life fixture of the property.

Copperfield, now 69, also signaled that he is not stepping away from public work altogether. In a social media statement, he said he would soon reveal what comes next and described it as the largest project he has ever tackled.

What remains unclear is whether the timing of the Las Vegas exit has any connection to the justice department’s release of millions of records tied to Epstein. MGM did not answer a question on that point.

The newly surfaced material included emails and internal FBI communications referring to the agency’s earlier investigation of Copperfield. One 2007 memo from FBI agents in Seattle said further work was needed to examine what it called a connection between Copperfield and Epstein, including whether the two men shared an interest in minors or referred possible victims to one another.

The memo also said investigators had identified potential witnesses in Miami who may have had a relationship with or worked for Copperfield. According to that document, two women named in Copperfield’s business list were also believed to be witnesses in the Epstein investigation, including one who had said Epstein groomed her.

Agents wrote that Copperfield’s business list appeared to be a compilation of women he targeted for sexual conquest. The memo said some entries identified women as Epstein guests and included notes that investigators found significant. It also stated that evidence seized from Copperfield’s residence, warehouse and the MGM Grand Hollywood Theater showed multiple occasions when he provided complimentary tickets to Epstein and his guests.

A separate 2019 email between FBI officials, sent after Epstein’s death in prison, described an investigation that allegedly found Copperfield had trained employees to identify young women in the audience, separate them from companions and bring them backstage. The same communication referred to a notebook that allegedly tracked women, their contact details, whether Copperfield had sex with them and their photographs.

That FBI official said they did not know whether any victims were underage, but added that allegations had surfaced that some women were drugged. The official also wrote that Epstein’s name came up repeatedly and that Copperfield appeared to have a very close relationship with him.

Copperfield’s lawyers have previously rejected that characterization. In 2024, they told the Guardian he was not a friend of Epstein and said any claim that the two were friends was false. They described them as, at most, acquaintances who met only a handful of times. Copperfield has repeatedly denied sexual misconduct or inappropriate behavior.

Copperfield has faced serious allegations before. He was investigated from 2007 to 2009 after being accused of raping a woman he met during a show and later invited to his private island in the Bahamas. He was never charged and said he was innocent. In a nationally broadcast interview with Oprah Winfrey, he said he was the victim in that case.

The closing of his Vegas residency leaves a large question hanging over one of the city’s most recognizable entertainment brands. For now, Copperfield is ending a quarter-century run while legal and reputational questions from the past continue to shadow the moment.