This Sept. 19, 2014 file photograph exhibits retail mogul Leslie Wexner, on the Wexner Heart for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. Wexner is severing his final ties with the retail empire that he based in 1963.
Jay LaPrete | AP
A congressional deposition of Leslie Wexner, certainly one of Jeffrey Epstein’s closest recognized associates and prime benefactors, kicked off behind closed doorways in Ohio on Wednesday.
The deposition of the 88-year-old retail billionaire is happening weeks after the Division of Justice launched hundreds of thousands of further Epstein-related information, which have revealed new hyperlinks between the infamous intercourse offender and main figures in enterprise and politics.
Wexner, the retired founding father of Victoria’s Secret former mother or father firm L Manufacturers, has confronted intense scrutiny for years over his private and monetary relationships with Epstein. The newest doc dump raises new questions concerning the extent of that relationship and the way lengthy it lasted, regardless of Wexner’s declare that it was “utterly severed” practically twenty years in the past.
“I used to be naïve, silly, and gullible to place any belief in Jeffrey Epstein,” Wexner mentioned in a press release submitted to the Home Oversight Committee forward of the deposition.
“He was a con man. And whereas I used to be conned, I’ve performed nothing flawed and don’t have anything to cover,” Wexner mentioned.
He went on to name Epstein a “grasp manipulator” who “lived a double life,” insisting that any legal actions had been “most fastidiously and absolutely hid from me.”
“Once more, to be clear, I by no means noticed or heard about Epstein being within the firm of a minor lady,” Wexner mentioned.
Many years earlier, Wexner had given Epstein, a highschool math trainer turned well-connected cash supervisor, energy of legal professional over his funds. Wexner had lengthy been Epstein’s solely publicly recognized consumer.
“A very powerful data for us is absolutely concerning the cash,” Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the Oversight Committee’s rating Democrat, mentioned on CNN earlier Wednesday.
“We all know that Wexner was Jeffrey Epstein’s single largest benefactor,” Garcia mentioned. “When you concentrate on Epstein’s wealth, whether or not it was the aircraft, the island, the sum of money when had, his houses — a lot of that got here immediately from Wexner.”
“We’re not precisely certain why. It is not clear,” he mentioned. “If you speak to survivors, they’re going to all share with you that Wexner was on the heart of what Epstein was doing.”
Wexner has not been charged with any crime. After Epstein was arrested on federal intercourse trafficking fees in July 2019 — and died by suicide in jail a month later — Wexner mentioned he was embarrassed to have been “taken benefit of by somebody who’s … so wicked.”
The Oversight Committee had subpoenaed Wexner and different Epstein associates in January with bipartisan assist.
In his ready assertion earlier than Wednesday’s deposition, Wexner maintained that he “utterly and irrevocably minimize ties with Epstein practically twenty years in the past once I discovered that he was an abuser, a criminal, and a liar.”
“And, let me be crystal clear: I by no means witnessed nor had any information of Epstein’s legal exercise. I used to be by no means a participant nor coconspirator in any of Epstein’s unlawful actions. To my monumental embarrassment and remorse I, like many others, was duped by a world-class con man. I can not undo that a part of my private historical past at the same time as I remorse ever having met him,” Wexner’s assertion mentioned.
Wexner mentioned he employed Epstein as a monetary supervisor years after being launched to him within the Eighties by insurance coverage large Aon’s former vice chairman Bob Meister. Wexner additionally mentioned he consulted about Epstein with Ace Greenberg and Jimmy Cayne, of Epstein’s former employer Bear Stearns, and Elie de Rothschild of the Rothschild household banking dynasty, whom Epstein provided as a reference.
Epstein initially refused to tackle Wexner as a consumer, as a substitute providing occasional monetary recommendation free of charge. “Little did I notice that, from the very begin, Epstein was conniving to achieve my belief,” Wexner’s assertion learn.
Wexner finally succeeded in formally hiring Epstein. “As a result of my public firm and different duties required my full consideration, I offered Epstein with an influence of legal professional so he may execute transactions shortly, with out always requiring my signature,” in response to Wexner.
“The necessity for an influence of legal professional was clear to me, and I offered the identical scope of authority to Epstein as I did to his successor, Dennis Hersch,” the assertion mentioned. “What I didn’t anticipate was Epstein misusing the belief I positioned in him regardless of his fiduciary obligation to behave in my finest curiosity.”
As for the allegations that Epstein ran a widespread intercourse trafficking operation that exploited women and younger ladies, Wexner is adamant that he knew nothing about it.
“He knew that I by no means would have tolerated his horrible habits. Not any of it. At no time did I ever witness the facet of Epstein’s life for which he’s now notorious,” Wexner’s assertion mentioned.
“To be clear, by no means as soon as in 36 years have I been untrue to Abigail in any approach, form, or kind. By no means,” he mentioned referring to his spouse. “Any suggestion on the contrary is completely and fully false.”
Wexner additionally mentioned he by no means traveled on Epstein’s airplane and disputed the “rumor” that he gave Epstein a townhouse in New York. Epstein “bought it from me for what I used to be advised was the appraised worth,” and Wexner by no means entered the home afterward, in response to the assertion.
Wexner admitted visiting Epstein’s personal island within the U.S. Virgin Islands, however mentioned he did so solely as soon as, when his spouse and younger youngsters “stopped for a number of hours one morning whereas we had been on a cruise on our boat.”
Wexner mentioned he revoked Epstein’s energy of legal professional in September 2007, months earlier than Epstein pleaded responsible in Florida to a state cost of soliciting a minor for prostitution.
“In mild of his eventual responsible plea and deception of our household, we utterly severed our relationship with Epstein. Epstein was completely and irrevocably out of my life,” Wexner wrote.
The Wexner Basis advised CNBC in a press release, “We maintain in our hearts the survivors of Epstein’s horrific crimes and pray for his or her therapeutic and energy.”
