What is striking about the two Epstein foundations that filed 990s is that they don’t contain any contributions from Epstein himself, despite his supposed wealth. In the case of C.O.U.Q., its entire corpus came from — you guessed it — Wexner.
In late February 2002, Wexner, through the Wexner Children’s Trust, gave the C.O.U.Q. Foundation 600,000 shares of Too Inc., worth $11.2 million. (Too Inc. was the stock of the Limited Too.) A year later, Wexner made a $10 million donation to C.O.U.Q., this time through the Wexner Charitable Fund. The three trustees of the Wexner Charitable Fund were Wexner; his wife, Abigail; and Epstein.
But why? Why would Wexner give millions to Epstein’s charity? Wexner’s best-known charity, the Wexner Foundation, was devoted to “developing Jewish professionals, volunteer leaders and leaders in Israel.” In 2002, it had a corpus of over $80 million. Wexner gives it millions of dollars every year.
So why did he feel the need to contribute $21 million to Epstein’s foundation? Was it a form of payment? Documents alone cannot answer this question. They can only raise it.
Did Epstein really donate $46 million to a Wexner foundation prior to going to prison in 2008?
Technically, the answer is yes. But the transaction is a head-scratcher. Here’s the sequence of events: In December 2007, a new foundation was established called the YLK Charitable Fund. It had two trustees: Wexner’s wife, Abigail, and Peggy Ugland, a longtime Wexner employee. This took place two months after Epstein had agreed to his now infamous plea deal in Florida. Few people knew about the plea, however, because the agreement was still under seal.
In January 2008 — one month later — Epstein transferred $46 million to Abigail Wexner’s new foundation, $14 million of which came from C.O.U.Q. and the rest from Epstein’s company. Among the conditions: YLK had to account for Epstein’s money “separately on its books and records.”
Just three years later, with Epstein out of prison, the YLK Charitable Fund shut down, having made exactly two donations. The money that remained — some $33 million — was then folded into yet another of Wexner’s foundations, the Wexner Family Charitable Fund.
Why would Abigail Wexner set up a foundation solely to accept money from Epstein? Why would it remain largely dormant for the next three years? What happened to the money once it was transferred to the Wexner Family Charitable Fund? Again, it is impossible to know simply from reading the documents. But it is a question investigators are likely to ask as they attempt to get to the bottom of Epstein’s finances.
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