Jeffrey Epstein and Leon Black, the billionaire cofounder and CEO of the investment company Apollo Global Management, had a business relationship for decades, but the nature of it has remained mostly hazy. Epstein advised Black on various business and philanthropy matters and served on the board of his family foundation, and U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George has said she intends to subpoena him in connection with an investigation of the deceased pedophile’s estate. In a letter to Apollo investors in July 2019, shortly after Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges, Black said the pair had had a “limited relationship.”
The clearest public picture of the ties between the two emerged in a New York Times report on Monday. Citing four people with knowledge of the transactions and documents it reviewed, the paper reported that Black wired Epstein at least $50 million in the years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a teenage girl. (Two of the people said the amount could be as high as $75 million.)
According to the Times, Black and Epstein also frequently dined and socialized together. Epstein would reportedly have Black over at his Upper East Side mansion for breakfast or lunch, and the paper said that in 2012, Black took a yacht from a family vacation in the Caribbean to go to a cookout at Epstein’s Virgin Islands home.
The transactions go some way toward explaining how Epstein was able to maintain his fortune after Les Wexner, the billionaire founder of L Brands, cut him off, but as the Times notes, it’s still not exactly clear what services Black was paying Epstein for.
“Mr. Black received personal trusts and estates planning advice as well as family office philanthropy and investment services from several financial and legal advisers, including Mr. Epstein, during a six-year period, between 2012 and 2017,” Stephanie Pillersdorf, a spokeswoman for Black, told the Times. “The trusts and estate planning advice was vetted by leading auditors and law firms.” She added that the pair’s business relationship ended in 2018 because of a “fee dispute” and that Black stopped communicating with Epstein.
In a letter obtained by Axios, Black told Apollo investors after the Times report was published that he regrets “having had any involvement with him,” and that he intends to cooperate in the Virgin Islands investigation. He acknowledged paying Epstein “millions of dollars annually for his work” from 2012 to 2017 but said that “there has never been an allegation by anyone, including the New York Times, that I engaged in any wrongdoing or inappropriate conduct.” Epstein’s conviction for soliciting an underage prostitute was in 2008, a few years before the payments that Black mentioned. As the Times noted in its updated story, shares of Apollo were trading nearly 6% lower on Monday.
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