![]() ![]() Records also indicate that no money was exchanged in the transaction, which transferred ownership of the property to Maple Inc., a Virgin Islands-based trust controlled by Epstein. “He literally came out of nowhere,” said another executive.Įpstein also obtained his Manhattan residence - a seven-story, 21,000-square-foot mansion that’s been called one of the city’s largest private homes - through Wexner, who purchased the property in 1989 for $13.2 million, furnished it lavishly, and yet “never spent more than two months there,” according to a 1996 interview Epstein gave to the New York Times.Īt the time, Epstein told the paper that the home was his, though property records show that the deed wasn’t officially transferred until December 2011. ”Everyone was mystified as to what his appeal was,” Robert Morosky, one of the company’s former vice chairs, told Vanity Fair in a 2003 profile of Epstein. The relationship appears to have been mostly concerned with Wexner’s personal business matters, rather than his retail empire, but executives at The Limited were aware of Epstein’s influence. SEC filings from the early 1990s through the mid-2000s list Epstein as one of three trustees of The Wexner Foundation, as well as several of Wexner’s other prosaically-named charitable organizations, including Arts Interests, Health and Science Interests, Health and Science Interests II, The Wexner Children’s Trust II, and International Charitable Interests. The Wexner link, though, is well documented. Neil Rasmus/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images Money manager Jeffrey Epstein, pictured here in 2005, was arrested this weekend on federal sex trafficking charges. (Also, he may not actually be a billionaire himself, per Forbes, despite the many headlines that label him as such.) In a 2002 New York magazine story, a prominent investor suggested that many of his reported claims (employing a staff of 300, managing Rockefeller money) were pure bluster: “It’s like looking at the Wizard of Oz - there may be less there than meets the eye.” (The company is publicly traded.)Įven by the standards of privacy-obsessed billionaires, Epstein’s business practices are shrouded in mystery. L Brands’ board of directors has “engaged outside counsel to conduct a thorough review” of Epstein’s connections with Wexner and the company, a spokesperson told CNN Friday. They alerted Wexner, who promised to handle the issue. Two former L Brands executives also told the paper that they had learned in the mid-1990s that Epstein was trying to get involved in recruiting models for the Victoria’s Secret catalog, side-stepping professional agencies. It wasn’t until Epstein was in the news more than a decade later - pleading guilty to federal charges in Florida for soliciting prostitution from a minor - that she realized he had never worked for the company, she said. There, according to a police report filed with the Santa Monica Police Department and obtained by the Times, he told her to undress, groped her, and said he wanted to “manhandle” her. (Wexner himself hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing, and according to a spokesperson, he severed ties with the financier over a decade ago.)Ī new report from the New York Times reveals that, in May 1997, Jeffrey Epstein posed as a talent scout for Victoria’s Secret, the multi-billion-dollar lingerie giant owned by Les Wexner’s L Brands, in order to lure a model named Alicia Arden to his hotel room. He’s worth $4.8 billion, according to Forbes, and for at least a decade he was Epstein’s only publicly known client. Wexner is the founder, chair, and CEO of L Brands, the Ohio-based conglomerate that owns Victoria’s Secret, Pink, and Bath & Body Works. Updated July 26 with information from a New York Times report.Īmong the many appalling allegations and reports of shady business dealings coming out about Jeffrey Epstein, the money manager arrested July 6 on federal sex trafficking charges, one name keeps cropping up: Leslie H.
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