March 12,2025

Wyden Releases New Information on Financing of Jeffrey Epstein’s operations by Billionaire Leon Black, Seeks Documents from Trump Administration

Continuing His Investigation of Billionaire Financier Leon Black’s Ties with Epstein, Calls on DOJ, Treasury and FBI to “Lift the Veil” on Epstein’s Sources of Financial Support

Washington, D.C. – Continuing his investigation of billionaire financier Leon Black’s extensive and unexplained financial ties with Jeffrey Epstein, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., sent a letter yesterday to the Department of Justice, Treasury and FBI referring information obtained through his investigation and requesting documents that would shed light on the financing of Epstein’s activities. 

Wyden is also releasing the $62 million settlement between Leon Black and the Attorney General of the U.S. Virgin Islands, which provided Black immunity from criminal prosecution in the USVI for his financial support of Jeffrey Epstein. Black’s settlement with the USVI explosively acknowledges that  “Jeffrey Epstein used the money Black paid him to partially fund his operations in the Virgin Islands.” As part of the settlement, Black paid $62 million to obtain criminal immunity from Epstein matters not just for himself, but also for his attorneys and individuals acting as his agents.

Wyden referred the following findings of his investigation to the DOJ and Treasury:

  • The Finance Committee obtained evidence that payments from Black to Epstein were used to fund Epstein’s operations. 

  • The Finance Committee discovered documents stating that the true amount Black paid to Epstein totaled $170 million, $12 million higher than previously identified by the Apollo board’s investigation. There has been no explanation why the Apollo board’s investigation failed to identify these payments.

  • The Finance Committee found that a major U.S. bank waited seven years to report Black’s payments to Epstein to the Treasury Department, potentially violating federal money laundering laws in the process.

Senator Wyden wrote: “In light of Attorney General Bondi’s recent claims that the Department of Justice intends to pursue accountability and transparency for those involved with Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking network, I write to request any documents in the possession of DOJ and the U.S. Treasury Department related to individuals, financial institutions, attorneys and agents that may have known about or facilitated the financing of Epstein's illegal activities.

“As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance and now Ranking Member of the Committee, members of my staff have been conducting an investigation into at least $158 million in payments made by financier Leon Black to Jeffrey Epstein for purported tax and estate planning advice. Over the course of the ongoing Finance Committee investigation, my staff have uncovered new evidence, including through review of federal government records, indicating that money paid by Black to Epstein was used to finance Epstein’s sex trafficking operations and that the true amount Black paid Epstein is actually significantly higher than previously known. My staff further discovered that a major U.S. financial institution failed to do legally required due diligence on the payments from Black to Epstein and waited nearly seven years to report the transactions to the Treasury Department. 

“I am concerned that Attorney General Bondi’s February 27th release of documents related to the Epstein case failed to provide any meaningful new information, and that many of these documents were already in the public domain—similar concerns have been raised by Democrats and Republicans alike. It is crucial that your agencies provide the Committee with the requested documents in order to further its ongoing investigation, and to ensure that the Trump Department of Justice does not sweep any case against high profile individuals associated with Epstein’s activities under the rug.” 

The full text of Senator Wyden’s letter is available here. His investigation into Black’s ties with Epstein began in 2022 with an inquiry into a report commissioned by Apollo Global Management, the firm Black co-founded and led as CEO, and it continued in 2023 with questions about the value of work Epstein reportedly performed and Black’s own tax planning. The investigation has also looked at a major financial institution’s potential violations of the Bank Secrecy Act stemming from its failure to conduct due diligence and make timely filings related to large transactions between accounts belonging to Epstein and Black. 

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