Continuing Epstein Investigation, Wyden Questions Leon Black over New Revelations in Epstein Files, Appearance of “Hush Money” Payments and Surveillance of Women

Continuing Epstein Investigation, Wyden Questions Leon Black over New Revelations in Epstein Files, Appearance of "Hush Money" Payments and Surveillance of Women

Washington, D.C. - Continuing his four-year Epstein investigation, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) today released new findings and questioned Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon 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.

The complete letter from Wyden to Black is available here.

"You were among Jeffrey Epstein's primary sources of income, flooding him with cash at a time when he was already a registered sex offender. It's been nearly four years since I first inquired as to your relationship with Epstein and still believe the explanations you provided my office for the payments to Epstein have been inadequate," Senator Wyden wrote. "Files released by the DOJ continue to undermine your assertion that Epstein provided uniquely valuable tax and estate planning advice - and the files raise significant new questions about your compliance with our nation's tax laws. Furthermore, the files remove any lingering doubt as to whether you were connected to women in Epstein's network, and the evidence that Epstein and powerful associates in the U.S. and abroad were surveilling and paying off women on your behalf is highly disturbing."

Key findings included in Senator Wyden's letter to Leon Black:

1. Epstein's compensation for what Black has claimed were tax and estate planning services was inexplicably high. The rates Black paid Epstein were 30 times higher than he paid the elite tax and estate advisors he already employed.
2. $10 million Black paid to Epstein was papered over with a sham 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity. Epstein lawyer Richard Kahn wrote in an email that routing the money through the charity would "avoid public disclosure" and "maximize deductions."
3. Black was overpaid $141 million by a family trust, and if the trust is ruled defective, it would result in billions of dollars being clawed back into his taxable estate.
4. Emails indicate Black paid millions of dollars to women using Epstein as a middleman.
5. Millions of dollars Black paid to women were described as "gifts" in documents Epstein possessed. This raises questions as to whether Black complied with federal tax laws governing gift and estate taxes.
6. Epstein provided the Russian government with the location of women who were on Black's payroll for unknown reasons.
7. Epstein and the head of the law firm Paul Weiss partnered to surveil women on Black's behalf.

Background on Senator Wyden's Epstein investigation: Senator Wyden's Epstein investigation began in 2022 with an inquiry into the sex trafficker's financial relationship with multi-billionaire Leon Black, the co-founder of Apollo Global Management. In 2024, following a request from Finance Committee Democratic staff for access to Treasury's Epstein files, the Biden administration allowed committee investigators to review more than a thousand pages of documents in person at the Treasury Department. Later that year Senator Wyden requested the Treasury produce the Epstein file for the committee to investigate further. He made the same request early in the Trump administration, which came into office promising a greater level of transparency on Epstein matters. He also obtained Leon Black's settlement with the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands and released new information pertaining to Black's payment of $170 million to Epstein over several years, ostensibly for tax and estate planning services. In June, Senator Wyden again sought the Epstein files and laid out a blueprint for a proper follow-the-money investigation given the Trump administration's refusal to act, and the following month he revealed that Epstein's huge transactions and tax planning work may never have been investigated or audited by the IRS. In a letter to the Treasury Secretary sent in September, Senator Wyden identified several individuals with documented Epstein ties and again demanded the Epstein files. In November Senator Wyden released a detailed analysis of the ways in which JPMorgan Chase protected Epstein and enabled his sex trafficking operation through an egregious series of compliance failures spanning nearly two decades. In December Senator Wyden blasted the Trump administration for violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act by withholding the vast majority of the Epstein files it is legally required to release publicly, and he questioned why the Department of Justice had reportedly failed to question key Epstein co-conspirators in any criminal investigation related to Epstein's trafficking network. In January, he expanded his investigation with a new probe of Epstein's relationship with Bank of New York Mellon and the hundreds of millions of dollars he moved in suspicious transactions through BNY accounts. In late February, following the revelation that Epstein and several associates were targets in a secretive, federal investigation into drug trafficking, prostitution and money laundering, Senator Wyden sought details and a key document from the Drug Enforcement Administration as to the results of that investigation. Weeks later, Senator Wyden announced that he had learned Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, had intervened to block the DEA from complying with Wyden's request.

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