It was back in September 2016, long before his deep ties to Jeffrey Epstein were revealed, billionaire Leon Black mingled blissfully with Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and Princess Eugenie in a prized box at the US Open. It has been noted that at the time, he was a titan of Wall Street and pillar of NYC society via Daily Mail.
Ivanka was due to become a first daughter, Jared was on the cusp of a White House role and Eugenie’s father Prince Andrew was yet to be quizzed on television about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein was alive and still operating the sex trafficking ring that put his pal Ghislaine Maxwell behind bars for 20 years, and that continues to haunt his friends, associates, and everyone who knew him.
Black is accused of raping two women in Epstein’s home in 2002 – claims he strongly denies.
He is also being questioned over his payments of $158million to Jeffrey Epstein, and his $62million payment to the US Virgin Islands prosecutors in their pursuit of damages for Epstein’s victims.
Black remains married to his socialite wife Debra, has also admitted to an affair with a Russian model who says he violently attacked her before getting her to agree to a $20million NDA deal in 2015.
Despite his repeated insistence that he is innocent of any wrongdoing, the walls appear to be closing in. It has been noted that he stepped down from his wildly successful firm Apollo in 2021 after the extent of his relationship with Epstein became clear but is now facing increased scrutiny and shame over his long-standing relationship with the late pedophile.
Black has until September to cooperate with the Senate Finance Committee that is investigating his payments to Epstein.
His representatives insist that his payments to Epstein were above-board. He said that he paid Epstein for tax and estate planning services, foolishly believing he believed it would legally save him money.
In 2021, Black stepped down from Apollo after his relationship with Epstein was pored over by internal investigators. He was also, at the time, being accused of rape and violent sexual assault by Guzen Ganieva, a Russian model with whom he’d had an affair.
In 2015, Ganieva signed an NDA given to her by Black in which she agreed not to talk about their relationship.He agreed to pay her $100,000 a month for 16 years – a deal that would have given her $20million in total – so long as she kept quiet. In the same month they struck their deal, he donated $10million to Gratitude America, a charity being run by Epstein that, until Black’s donation, had not raised a penny.
