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Wall Street Tycoon Quits Firm After Jeffrey Epstein Ties Exposed

Wall Street Tycoon Quits Firm After Jeffrey Epstein Ties Exposed

Epstein ties
This March 28, 2017, file photo, provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry, shows Jeffrey Epstein. (New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP, File)

Leon Black, CEO and chairman of Apollo Global Management, quit the pioneering private equity firm earlier than planned as pressure intensified to cut ties over his closeness to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

In January, Black said he’d quit as CEO in July and stay on as chairman. Instead, he’s leaving immediately, saying “relentless public attention and media scrutiny” of his ties with Epstein took “a toll” on his health. Marc Rowan, an Apollo cofounder, will be CEO, and former Trump-era Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Jay Clayton will be chairman.

An internal investigation by Apollo found that Black paid Epstein more than $150 million over five years through 2017 for “estate-planning services.” The payments started after Epstein was first convicted of sex-trafficking underage girls. Payments included $148 million for financial advising and $10 million in donations to Epstein’s charity.

Black is considered “one of the fathers of the modern private equity industry,” Axios reported. One of Wall Street’s most prominent investment firms, Apollo was created in 1990 as a buyout firm in the wake of Drexel Burnham Lambert’s collapse.

Apollo announced two weeks ago that it is merging with its insurance affiliate, Athene Holding. The merger will create “a financial powerhouse that bears comparison with (Warren) Buffett’s twin insurance-investing empire,” Financial Times reported.

Epstein died in prison in 2019 under questionable circumstances. News of Black’s payouts raised questions that he might among the elite businessmen and politicians compromised by Epstein, who is said to have collected evidence of them in sexually compromising situations. Artists, art workers and activists have called for Black’s removal as board chairman of the Museum of Modern Art.

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The law firm hired by Apollo to investigate the Epstein-Black relationship concluded that Epstein provided “legitimate advice,” Vanity Fair reported.

“Well I, for one, am not buying it, not any of it, and neither are many other smart Wall Streeters,” William D. Cohan wrote when Black announced in January that he would step down. “Nice try, Leon. You must think we are pretty stupid, gullible, or insane to believe the tale you spun…about your decades-long involvement with Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted pedophile.”

Athene will become the biggest part of Apollo, underscoring how the firm Black co-founded with Rowan and Joshua Harris “has transformed itself from a scrappy buyout shop into a linchpin of the US financial system — one that is supplanting banks as a provider of financing for businesses and households across the U.S.,” Financial Times reported.