Wyden Refers Findings on Leon Black’s Epstein Ties to House Oversight Committee

Wyden Refers Findings on Leon Black's Epstein Ties to House Oversight Committee

Black is Scheduled to Testify Before House Oversight Committee Later in June; Wyden Letter Lays Out Findings of His Four-Year Epstein Investigation and Identifies Questions Black Has Repeatedly Failed to Answer

Washington, D.C. - Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today referred key findings from his four-year investigation into Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black's financial and personal relationship with Jeffrey Epstein in a letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (KY-01) and Ranking Member Robert Garcia (CA-42). Black is scheduled to testify before their committee on his Epstein relationship later this month.

"My investigation reviewed a business arrangement where Black paid Epstein $170 million over a five-year period for purported tax and estate planning advice. This investigation also exposed the details of a settlement between Black and the Government of the U.S. Virgin Islands where Black paid $62 million to avoid criminal prosecution in the U.S. territory. To date, I do not believe Black has provided a credible explanation as to why he paid Epstein amounts that vastly exceeded those paid to other professional advisors involved in his tax and estate planning," Senator Wyden wrote. "In addition to alleged tax planning, it appears that Epstein kept close tabs of women who Black had reached settlements/NDAs with and reached out to Russian government officials to help Black with these so-called problems. Epstein even appears to have acted as a middleman for Black to pay women on Black's behalf, raising concerns of potential money laundering … While I have offered Black ample opportunities to address outstanding irregularities regarding his arrangement with Epstein, he has refused."

In March, based on new revelations from Epstein files released by the Justice Department, Senator Wyden questioned Black over his significant personal and financial entanglements with Epstein, including his massive, unexplained payments to Epstein and various women, evidence of Epstein surveilling women on his behalf, and his abusive and potentially fraudulent tax schemes. Black's response to Senator Wyden's latest inquiry, available here, failed to provide any answers.

Senator Wyden's letter to House Oversight Chairman Comer and Ranking Member Garcia is available here.

He suggested the House Oversight panel pursue several lines of inquiry, including the following:

• The basis for Black's extraordinary payments to Epstein that far exceeded the rates he paid world-class financial advisors he already employed

• Detail on Black's $62.5 million settlement to avoid prosecution in the U.S. Virgin Islands, including why Black admitted in that settlement that the money he paid Epstein was used to fund sex trafficking and why the settlement granted criminal immunity to Black's attorneys and agents

• Revelations from the Epstein files that Black appears to have routed payments to women using Epstein as a middleman and that Epstein surveilled women on Black's behalf

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