TheBadPlaceyahoo news | OPINION: Did Leon Black really pay Jeffrey Epstein $170 million for 'tax and...
In June 2022 Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D‑OR) began probing the “suspiciously lucrative” relationship between former Apollo Global Management CEO Leon Black and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Black had stepped down from Apollo in March 2021 after controversy over his ties to Epstein, insisting he knew nothing of the criminal’s activities and that Epstein never did business with the firm. Yet Wyden’s request‑for‑information letter highlighted a company‑commissioned investigation that suggested Black may have paid Epstein up to $170 million for tax and estate‑planning advice—well beyond typical CEO compensation and far exceeding fees paid to certified professionals.
Wyden’s inquiry centered on several oddities: the alleged payments ranged from $23 million to $26 million per year for several years, dwarfing the median 2021 Fortune 500 CEO pay of $15.9 million; the compensation appeared far above what is reasonable for estate‑planning services; and many of the agreements were unsigned. One unsigned tranche alone accounted for $56.5 million paid in five installments between 2013 and 2014. Wyden pressed Apollo to preserve all documents related to its internal probe, asking for any backup material that could verify whether Epstein’s “proprietary” tax strategies actually saved Black billions of dollars or were merely unfounded claims.
Although Wyden is now the ranking Democrat rather than the chair of the Finance Committee, he continues to push for transparency, introducing the “Produce Epstein Treasury Records Act” to force the Treasury Department to release bank records and other financial documents to congressional investigators. Wyden’s persistence underscores a broader frustration with Republican blockades and a desire for accountability, arguing that Epstein’s victims deserve justice and that no individual’s wealth should shield them from scrutiny or the consequences of “horrifying sexual abuse and pedophilia.”
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OPINION: Did Leon Black really pay Jeffrey Epstein $170 million for 'tax and estate planning'?
If some skeptics find the magic tax calculation hard to believe, they might have really raised eyebrows over the discovery that not all of the compensation agreements between Black and Epstein were signed.