Investigation Clarifies Particulars of Leon Black and Jeffrey Epstein’s Connections

Late in July 2023, information emerged that Leon Black was dealing with a federal lawsuit accusing him of the rape of a teenage woman. As Hyperallergic famous of their article on the lawsuit, the situation the place this was stated to have taken place added one other disagreeable layer to the proceedings: Jeffrey Epstein’s New York Metropolis townhouse. This was not the primary time Black’s connections to Epstein had been entrance and heart within the public eye; in 2021, he stepped down as head of Apollo World Administration as a result of cash he had paid Epstein through the years. He stays, as Hyperallergic’s article identified, a MoMA trustee.

Now, in an investigative report by Johanna Berkman at Air Mail, the extent of Black and Epstein’s connections has come into sharper reduction.

As a part of the investigation, Berkman reviewed paperwork that have been a part of the U.S. Virgin Islands’ ongoing lawsuit in opposition to JPMorgan Chase. She famous that Epstein had arrange a agency often called Southern Belief — and that it had acquired $158 million between 2013 and 2017. This quantity matches up with a determine that Black is claimed to have paid Epstein throughout the identical time period. (A spokesperson for Black stated that these have been for “reliable monetary advisory providers.”)

The investigation provides loads to ponder — together with an evaluation of a report that Apollo World Administration employed a legislation agency to provide into Black’s ties to Epstein. This features a sequence of donations to nonprofits at each other’s requests — or, as Berkman writes, “Epstein was successfully donating Black’s a refund to Black’s charity.”

Whereas Air Mail’s investigation might reply some questions on Black’s connections to Epstein, it raises a number of extra. It’s an unsettling look into some of the unsettling information tales in latest reminiscence.