Jeffrey Epstein’s entry into the life of Leslie Wexner spurred a myriad of questions among some of the fashion titan’s closest confidantes and associates.
What did Wexner, a billionaire who built a fashion empire from scratch, see in Epstein, a college dropout with no obvious background as a money manager or tax expert?
In recent weeks, revelations about the wealth Epstein amassed during his decades-long relationship with Wexner and his repeated alleged abuse of underage girls during that period have complicated that picture. On Wednesday, the saga took another twist as Wexner wrote to members of the Wexner Foundation that his former money manager had “misappropriated vast sums of money from me and my family.”
The deception, uncovered in 2007 around the time Epstein gave up his role managing the billionaire’s fortune, was a “tremendous shock,” Wexner said in the letter. “I am embarrassed that, like so many others, I was deceived by Mr. Epstein.”
Addressed to the “Wexner Foundation Community,” the letter portrays the L Brands Inc. founder as being in the dark about Epstein’s alleged wrongdoing. It didn’t address why he hadn’t previously disclosed it and a spokesman declined to comment beyond the contents of the message.
Their relationship has been under scrutiny in recent weeks, prompting L Brands to hire a law firm to probe any ties between the company and Epstein.
Epstein, a convicted sex offender who served 13 months in jail a decade ago after pleading guilty to two counts of solicitation, was arrested in July and charged with sex trafficking. Days later, Wexner sent an email to L Brands employees admitting that Epstein had managed his financial affairs, but saying he had no knowledge at the time of Epstein’s crimes.
Epstein, who’s in jail at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, has pleaded not guilty to the sex trafficking charges. Three of his lawyers didn’t respond after regular business hours to requests for comment on Wexner’s allegations.
Born in 1953 and raised in Brooklyn, Epstein attended Cooper Union and NYU’s Courant Institute but left both without a degree. He taught calculus and physics at Manhattan’s exclusive Dalton School in the 1970s, and later joined Bear Stearns. In 1981, he left to set up his own money management firm, claiming to work only for billionaires.
Wexner, who’d founded the predecessor to L Brands in 1963, had apparently amassed a fortune beyond that threshold by the late 1980s, after the company’s stock multiplied during the prior years, according to a person familiar with the matter. He had met Epstein “through friends who vouched for and recommended him as a knowledgeable financial professional,” according to the letter.