Leon Black paid Jeffrey Epstein $158 million between 2012 and 2017. Epstein was a convicted sex offender for every year of those payments. Black’s own board confirmed it. No charges.
Leon Black paid Jeffrey Epstein $158 million between 2012 and 2017. Epstein was a convicted sex offender for every year of those payments. Black’s own board confirmed it. No charges.
Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black paid Jeffrey Epstein $158 million over five years. The payments started in 2012, four years after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to solicitation of prostitution and procuring a person under 18 for prostitution. Black knew about the conviction. His own board’s investigation confirmed that explicitly.
The stated reason was tax and estate planning advice. Epstein was not a licensed tax attorney. He was not a certified public accountant.
In October 2020, Apollo’s board commissioned law firm Dechert LLP to investigate. Dechert reviewed more than 60,000 documents and interviewed more than 20 people. Their report, filed as an SEC 8-K on January 25, 2021, is public record.
What Dechert found: the payments were “inexplicably large” – far exceeding what Black paid any other financial advisor, and far higher than the median compensation of Fortune 500 CEOs at the time. Black claimed Epstein’s advice saved him between $1 billion and $2 billion in taxes. Dechert found the idea behind the key transaction originated with Black’s other legal advisors. Epstein tried to claim credit for their work.
Black also made two loans to Epstein totaling $30.5 million between 2013 and 2017. When Black demanded repayment in 2018, Epstein paid back $10 million and never paid the rest. Black and Epstein stopped communicating in the fall of 2018. The relationship ended over a money dispute – not over anything Epstein had done.
In March 2021, Black resigned as CEO of Apollo. He resigned from the chairmanship of MoMA. He pledged $200 million to gender-equality initiatives.
In 2023, Black settled with the US Virgin Islands for $62.5 million. No admission of wrongdoing. The settlement document states Epstein used Black’s money to partially fund his operations in the Virgin Islands.
In July 2023, Senator Ron Wyden opened a Senate Finance Committee investigation, citing inconsistencies in the Dechert report. Wyden called on the IRS to investigate potential tax evasion and urged the DOJ to subpoena Epstein-related records from Bank of America, JPMorgan, and Deutsche Bank.
On March 11, 2026, Richard Kahn, Epstein’s longtime accountant, testified under oath before the House Oversight Committee. Kahn confirmed Black was one of only five clients who paid money to Epstein. The other four named under oath: Les Wexner, Glenn Dubin, Steven Sinofsky, and the Rothschilds.
House Oversight has formally requested Black appear for deposition in May 2026. He has not yet confirmed.
Day 2 Thursday covers the meetings – post-conviction access to 9 East 71st Street, what current Apollo CEO Marc Rowan’s documented meetings with Epstein mean for the firm’s transparency claims, and the Giacometti sculpture deal involving Epstein’s Haze Trust.
Full series at substack.com/@thedocumentsshow
everydaycarrie on
Now do amazon and jeffrey bezos.
Can’t?
Must be in the unreleased files.
At least wexner told us under oath that bezos was one of epsteins major clients.
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Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black paid Jeffrey Epstein $158 million over five years. The payments started in 2012, four years after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to solicitation of prostitution and procuring a person under 18 for prostitution. Black knew about the conviction. His own board’s investigation confirmed that explicitly.
The stated reason was tax and estate planning advice. Epstein was not a licensed tax attorney. He was not a certified public accountant.
In October 2020, Apollo’s board commissioned law firm Dechert LLP to investigate. Dechert reviewed more than 60,000 documents and interviewed more than 20 people. Their report, filed as an SEC 8-K on January 25, 2021, is public record.
What Dechert found: the payments were “inexplicably large” – far exceeding what Black paid any other financial advisor, and far higher than the median compensation of Fortune 500 CEOs at the time. Black claimed Epstein’s advice saved him between $1 billion and $2 billion in taxes. Dechert found the idea behind the key transaction originated with Black’s other legal advisors. Epstein tried to claim credit for their work.
Black also made two loans to Epstein totaling $30.5 million between 2013 and 2017. When Black demanded repayment in 2018, Epstein paid back $10 million and never paid the rest. Black and Epstein stopped communicating in the fall of 2018. The relationship ended over a money dispute – not over anything Epstein had done.
In March 2021, Black resigned as CEO of Apollo. He resigned from the chairmanship of MoMA. He pledged $200 million to gender-equality initiatives.
In 2023, Black settled with the US Virgin Islands for $62.5 million. No admission of wrongdoing. The settlement document states Epstein used Black’s money to partially fund his operations in the Virgin Islands.
In July 2023, Senator Ron Wyden opened a Senate Finance Committee investigation, citing inconsistencies in the Dechert report. Wyden called on the IRS to investigate potential tax evasion and urged the DOJ to subpoena Epstein-related records from Bank of America, JPMorgan, and Deutsche Bank.
On March 11, 2026, Richard Kahn, Epstein’s longtime accountant, testified under oath before the House Oversight Committee. Kahn confirmed Black was one of only five clients who paid money to Epstein. The other four named under oath: Les Wexner, Glenn Dubin, Steven Sinofsky, and the Rothschilds.
House Oversight has formally requested Black appear for deposition in May 2026. He has not yet confirmed.
Day 2 Thursday covers the meetings – post-conviction access to 9 East 71st Street, what current Apollo CEO Marc Rowan’s documented meetings with Epstein mean for the firm’s transparency claims, and the Giacometti sculpture deal involving Epstein’s Haze Trust.
Full series at substack.com/@thedocumentsshow
Now do amazon and jeffrey bezos.
Can’t?
Must be in the unreleased files.
At least wexner told us under oath that bezos was one of epsteins major clients.