The billionaire Leon Black’s decades-long relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will be reviewed by a group of board members at the private equity firm he leads, Apollo Global Management.
A spokeswoman for Apollo said Tuesday night that Mr. Black requested the review by members of the firm’s conflicts committee during a regularly scheduled board meeting.
Mr. Black asked for the review a little more than a week after The New York Times reported that he had wired at least $50 million in fees and donations to entities affiliated with Mr. Epstein in the U.S. Virgin Islands from 2012 to 2017.
Shares of Apollo have fallen more than 13 percent since the report was published. The firm reports quarterly earnings on Oct. 29.
In asking for the review, Mr. Black, an Apollo co-founder and its chief executive, said an independent review was in “the best interests” of Apollo, its employees, shareholders and limited partners. The board committee retained the law firm Dechert LLP to conduct the review.
Mr. Black and Apollo have repeatedly said that Mr. Epstein did no work for the firm, which counts some of the biggest public pensions in the world among its investors.
In a letter to investors after the Times report, Mr. Black said he had not been accused of any wrongdoing. He said he had paid millions in fees to Mr. Epstein for advice, mainly on estate planning.
Mr. Epstein died in custody in August 2019 after federal prosecutors in Manhattan had accused him of engaging in sex trafficking with underage girls and young women. His death was ruled a suicide.
Mr. Black’s letter said he regretted his dealings with Mr. Epstein but had been unaware of the activities that led to the most recent criminal charges against him.
Mr. Epstein pleaded guilty to a charge of soliciting prostitution from an underage girl in Florida in 2008, a case that required him to register as a sex offender. Mr. Black’s letter offered few details about the nature of the work that Mr. Epstein had provided for him in the years that followed. Mr. Epstein, a college dropout who styled himself a financial guru to the very wealthy, had no particular expertise in tax and estate planning.
Mr. Black is worth about $9 billion and is one of the wealthiest executives on Wall Street. He has an art collection estimated to be worth $1 billion and serves as chairman of the board of the Museum of Modern Art.
Mr. Black asked for the review because he wants an independent analysis to support his statement that he did nothing wrong and all the fees paid were legitimate, according to a person briefed on the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly.
The board’s review was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
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Apollo Board Will Review Leon Black’s Ties to Jeffrey Epstein - The New York Times
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