LUCY NICHOLSON/Reuters
- Apollo Global Management and its CEO Leon Black have agreed to use an external law firm to review Black’s ties with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
- Dechert LLP will conduct a “thorough review” of the information Black has provided about his ties to Epstein.
- Black transferred at least $50 million in consulting and other fees to Epstein, despite telling his investors in 2019 that their relationship was “limited,” The New York Times reported earlier in October.
- Epstein was convicted for soliciting prostitution from a teenage girl in 2008. He was arrested again in July 2019, on federal charges for the sex trafficking of minors, and died in his jail cell in August 2019. His death was ruled a suicide.
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Apollo Global Management and its CEO, Leon Black, have agreed to use an external law firm to review Black’s ties with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the investment management firm said on Wednesday.
It follows a New York Times report that said Black transferred at least $50 million in fees to Epstein, despite telling his investors in August 2019 that the pair’s relationship was “limited” and that he only consulted Epstein on financial matters “from time to time.”
Since the report, Apollo’s shares have fallen roughly 15%.
In a regulatory filing, Apollo said Wednesday that the board’s conflict committee had chosen law firm Dechert LLP to conduct a “thorough review” of the information that Black has brought forward about his relationship with Epstein.
The filing also stated that Black “looks forward to cooperating fully,” and said an independent review is “in the best interests of Apollo.”
Epstein, a former American financier, was convicted for soliciting prostitution from a teenage girl in 2008. In 2019, he was arrested on federal charges for the sex trafficking of minors. He died in his jail cell in August 2019, which was ruled a suicide.
In 2019, tax filings seen by Business Insider showed that Epstein was the sole director for Black's family foundation for more than a decade. Epstein stayed on even after pleading guilty to soliciting prostitution, the filings showed.
And according to documents seen by the Times, Black paid tens of millions of dollars to Epstein for advice and services between 2012 and 2018.
Two people familiar with the matter told the paper that Black may have transferred up to $75 million to Epstein in total.
Stephanie Pillersdorf, a spokeswoman for Black, said October 12 that he "continues to be appalled by the conduct that led to the criminal charges" against Epstein, adding that Black "deeply regrets having any involvement" with Epstein.
Apollo never did business with Epstein, she added.