Former CEO of Apollo Global Management Leon Black arrives to testify in a closed hearing with the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill June 26, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Kevin Dietsch Getty Images
The old one Apollo Global Management CEO Leon Black, in testimony prepared for a House committee on Friday, said convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein defrauded him out of more than $60 million in financial advisory fees by falsely claiming his tax deductions.
Black says he did not participate in Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation and did not pay him for access to women.
He said he was misled by Epstein’s Jekyll-and-Hyde persona in a prepared opening statement, shared with CNBC.
Black is expected to be interviewed later Friday morning by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has been investigating Epstein’s ties to many wealthy and powerful people.
Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., told reporters that Black’s interview “may be the biggest tip ever.”
“It’s very important,” Comer said.
In his prepared statement, Black says, “I come here today voluntarily to set the record straight about my relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, and, in particular, why I paid him the money I did.”
“I’m not saying frankly that I’ve never abused a woman,” said Black.
“I have never lived with a young woman. I have never engaged in sex trafficking. I have never paid Epstein to access women,” he said. “I was never arrested by Epstein. I was not involved in, and had no knowledge of, any misconduct by Epstein.”
“I knew Jekyll. I didn’t know Hyde,” Black said.
In his statement, he relied on the 2021 findings of the so-called Dechert report, named after the law firm that was retained to examine how much he paid Epstein for financial advice, the work Epstein did, and whether he knew about Epstein’s behavior before his 2019 arrest on child sex trafficking charges.
“The Dechert report concluded that I paid Epstein $158 million,” Black said, according to prepared remarks.
“And Dechert examined the services that Epstein had provided and determined that Epstein performed the most important and legitimate tax and property services in my family office; that the tax work was responsible for saving billions of dollars, and that all of Epstein’s work was audited by reputable law and accounting firms.”
Black said Epstein had told him the money he was paying him was “taxable, ’60-cent dollars,’ which I learned years later was not true.”
“Which is what I believed to be $95 million in salary over five years was actually $158 million,” Black said. That assurance was false.”
Black says he met Epstein in the mid-1990s when Epstein was on the board of Rockefeller University.
“His network included such respected luminaries as David Rockefeller; Ehud Barak, Larry Summers; George Mitchell, Bill Richardson, and Ace Greenberg,” Black said.
He said he had known Epstein for 18 years “before I ever paid him a dime.”
Black says he began paying Epstein in 2013 for his “genuine advice” on tax matters, insurance, trusts and estates, subjects he says Epstein was “remarkably knowledgeable” about.
“With the help of hindsight, I now know, and so does the world, that Epstein did some horrible, dirty work,” Black said.
“I feel bad for Epstein’s victims.”
This is the best news. Please refresh for updates.
