By Ellen Cans
Leon Black, hoping to quiet investors’ concerns, said on Apollo Global Management’s earnings call that the company never did business with Jeffrey Epstein. The CEO of private equity firm, Apollo Global Management, reiterated on Thursday at the company’s third-quarter earnings call that he had paid Epstein millions of dollars annually to provide professional services to his family partnership from 2012 to 2017 “involving estate planning, tax, structuring of art entities and philanthropic advice.” Though Black has not been accused of any misconduct himself, his investors have been shaken by news of wire transfers he made to Epstein. Black said that he “deeply” regrets any association with the disgraced financier who died in jail last year while facing scandalous charges.
“This matter is now affecting Apollo, which my partners and I spent 30 years building. And it’s also causing deep pain for my family,” Black said on the call. “Knowing all that I have learned in the past two years about Epstein’s reprehensible and despicable conduct, I deeply regret having had any involvement with him. With the benefit of hindsight, working with him was a horrible mistake on my part.”
Black also reiterated that he has not been accused of any wrongdoing. “For that work, there exists substantial documentary support for the services provided,” Black said, referring to the payments he made. “Let me be clear: There has never been an allegation by anyone that I engaged in any wrongdoing, because I did not. And any suggestion of blackmail or any other connection to Epstein’s reprehensible conduct is categorically untrue.”
On Thursday afternoon, Apollo’s stock price dropped 2.5% , and is down 15% over the past month. Two weeks ago, three Apollo board members hired a law firm to conduct an independent review of the CEO’s dealings with Epstein, who had faced charges of sex trafficking underage girls. Black said that he was completely cooperating with the review and that he was the one who requested it. Black has been in a tight spot since an October 12 story by The NY Times saying Black wired Epstein $50 million in the years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction. Black explained how many other illustrious figures had sought financial council from Epstein, lending him confidence to do so. “Like many other people I respected, I decided to give Epstein a second chance,” Black said. “This was a terrible mistake. I wish I could go back in time and change that decision, but I cannot.”
