In a closed-door session at his Ohio residence on Wednesday, billionaire Leslie Wexner confronted mounting questions from United States lawmakers about Jeffrey Epstein’s rise to wealth and affect – and the position he might have performed in that ascent.
5 members of the Home Oversight Committee had travelled to depose the 88-year-old after Democrats subpoenaed him within the wake of the most recent US Division of Justice launch tied to Epstein.
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The newest tranche of paperwork, printed by the Justice Division on January 30, 2026, is a part of an enormous wealth of supplies amassed throughout federal investigations into Epstein, who pleaded responsible in 2008 to procuring a minor for prostitution and was later charged in 2019 with intercourse trafficking of minors earlier than his loss of life by suicide in federal custody. Wexner’s identify seems, each redacted and unredacted, on communications and monetary paperwork inside these recordsdata.
“I used to be naive, silly, and gullible to place any belief in Jeffrey Epstein,” Wexner mentioned in an announcement. “He was a con man. And whereas I used to be conned, I’ve accomplished nothing flawed and don’t have anything to cover.”
For many years, Epstein cultivated relationships with enterprise leaders, politicians and lecturers.
Central amongst them was Wexner, the founding father of L Manufacturers, the retail empire behind Victoria’s Secret, Tub & Physique Works and The Restricted, whose fortune helped construct the foundations for Epstein’s entry to world elites, together with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
The newly launched recordsdata shed recent mild on how deeply Epstein embedded himself inside Wexner’s monetary and philanthropic world, a relationship that proved pivotal in remodeling him from an obscure cash supervisor right into a determine of extraordinary wealth and affect.
Epstein and Wexner’s townhouse
Epstein was launched to Wexner within the mid-Nineteen Eighties. On the time, Epstein was a school dropout who had briefly taught at Manhattan’s elite Dalton Faculty after reportedly exaggerating his tutorial credentials. He had handed by way of Bear Stearns underneath govt Alan “Ace” Greenberg earlier than leaving to arrange his personal advisory agency.
By 1986, he had met Wexner. 5 years later, the retail billionaire had granted him full energy of legal professional, a unprecedented delegation permitting Epstein to signal cheques, rent workers, borrow cash, and purchase or promote property on Wexner’s behalf.
Al Jazeera has reviewed newly launched Justice Division information, together with a 1998 buy and sale settlement and associated promissory notice and warranty, which element the mechanics of asset transfers between the 2 males.
The paperwork present how management of Wexner’s Manhattan townhouse at 9 East 71st Road was formalised by way of a structured transaction involving a $10m promissory notice and a private warranty signed by Epstein. The property turned Epstein’s New York base and a logo of his rising stature.
By the early Nineties, Epstein was embedded in Wexner’s philanthropic and company world, serving as a trustee of the Wexner Basis and because the president of Wexner-affiliated property corporations. In 1996, he relocated his agency to the US Virgin Islands, positioning himself as an offshore financier.
The authority Wexner granted him over property, philanthropy and property did greater than elevate his standing socially. It conferred institutional legitimacy. With management over substantial wealth and formal roles inside a serious basis, Epstein may current himself as a financier with entry to capital and world networks.
The Wexner Basis and the Israel connection
One of many clearest through-lines from that interval runs to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who was launched to Epstein by former Israeli President Shimon Peres at a big occasion in Washington in 2003.
Between 2004 and 2006, the Wexner Basis paid Barak roughly $2.3m for 2 commissioned analysis research, one on management and one other on the Israeli-Palestinian battle. The muse later mentioned just one paper was accomplished, however decided that the work justified the fee.
Barak, who served as Israel’s prime minister from 1999 to 2001 and later as defence minister from 2007 to 2013, maintained contact with Epstein for a number of years.
A court docket submitting included within the newly launched Epstein information incorporates an allegation that distinguished sufferer Virginia Giuffre claimed that Wexner and Barak have been two of the lads Epstein trafficked her to.
The submitting doesn’t present supporting proof for the declare. Neither man has been charged with wrongdoing in reference to Epstein.
In February this 12 months, Barak advised Israel’s Channel 12 he had been unaware of the complete scope of Epstein’s crimes and regretted ever assembly the financier.
Wexner has mentioned he severed ties with Epstein round 2007 after he found the financier had “misappropriated huge sums of cash from me and my household”.
However the monetary and institutional credibility Epstein accrued throughout his years managing Wexner’s wealth didn’t evaporate when that relationship ended.
Epstein ‘enhancing’ Barak’s op-ed
Even after his relationship allegedly ended with Wexner, Epstein now had the social status, and cash, to develop ties with highly effective decision-makers, emails newly launched by the Justice Division and reviewed by Al Jazeera present.
In October 2014, Nili Priel Barak – Barak’s spouse – wrote to Epstein about journey plans to New York, suggesting dates when Ehud Barak can be on the town and asking whether or not he can be accessible to satisfy.
Days later, she forwarded him a draft opinion piece, writing: “Herewith the Op Ed. Please let me know your opinion and your remarks. Thanks.”
Epstein replied with what he labelled “starting edits”, returning a model of the unpublished article. The draft speaks in Barak’s political voice, together with the road: “Because the Minister of Defence of Israel I’ve met greater than as soon as with [US] President [Barack] Obama…” and lays out arguments concerning the “two states answer” versus a “one state answer”.
A 12 months later, in 2015, Epstein invested in Reporty Homeland Safety, later rebranded as Carbyne, a startup chaired by Ehud Barak that developed superior emergency communications know-how – additional tying their political relationship to a shared business enterprise.
The corporate’s management included CEO Amir Elichai, a former particular forces officer, and director Pinhas Buchris, a former Israeli Defence Ministry director-general and former commander of Unit 8200, the Israeli army’s cyber intelligence unit.
Between 2012 and 2014, paperwork reportedly point out Epstein additionally assisted Barak in exploring security-related enterprise with African world leaders. The paperwork illustrate how Epstein managed to transform monetary credibility into political entry, after which bolstered these relationships by way of shared business ventures.
Barak has mentioned: “I’m chargeable for all my actions and selections. There may be room to query whether or not I ought to have investigated extra completely. I remorse not doing so.”
Wexner has by no means been charged with any crime and has mentioned he was unaware of Epstein’s felony conduct. However his identify seems repeatedly all through the newly launched recordsdata, a reminder of how central their relationship as soon as was.
