Epstein Colleague Les Wexner Can’t Escape the Spotlight
Les Wexner is back in the spotlight as new emails reveal he lied about his relationship with Epstein, and former Ohio State University athletes seek to subpoena him in an ongoing legal dispute.
Originally Published at The Last American Vagabond
Les Wexner, the American billionaire and former close associate of Jeffrey Epstein, is back in the spotlight as new emails reveal he lied about his relationship with Epstein, and former Ohio State University athletes seek to subpoena him in an ongoing legal dispute.
Jeffrey Epstein’s recently leaked Yahoo emails reveal previously unknown communications between the serial abuser and billionaire Les Wexner, including how Epstein handled the Wexner Foundation’s funds even after he was exposed for child abuse.
Les Wexner is the founder of retail giant L Brands Inc., now known as Bath & Body Works, and the former owner of Victoria’s Secret, Abercrombie & Fitch, Lane Bryant, and The Limited. Wexner and Epstein’s relationship has been well documented for over a decade. Wexner famously gave Epstein his 45,000-square-foot, eight-story mansion on East 71st Street in New York City.
The emails show that, despite the Wexner Foundation conducting an “independent review” that claimed Epstein had “no contact” with the foundation’s staff after September 2007, Epstein was regularly consulted for approval and advice on financial transactions. The review was released in 2020 after growing concerns regarding the relationship between the two men.
The emails were obtained by the nonprofit, Distributed Denial of Secrets, and then provided to Drop Site News.
The Wexner Foundation’s review made three main claims, including that Epstein:
“played no role in the management or administration of the Foundation’s operations,”
had “no meaningful role in the Foundation’s budget [or] finances,”
“did not make decisions regarding the use of Foundation’s funds.”
However, reporting by Drop Site News proves these claims are false. Drop Site News reports:
“The emails show that Darren Indyke, who served as both Epstein’s personal lawyer and attorney for the foundation, was the “middleman” in such communications, cloaking Epstein’s foundation-related activities with attorney-client privilege.
In email after email, Wexner financial controller Peg Ugland wrote to Indyke with account balances for a web of Wexner entities—charitable trusts, private investment vehicles, and personal trading accounts—with a recurring refrain: “Please ask Jeffrey if I can transfer.”
Peg Ugland repeatedly asked Epstein’s attorney to “ask Jeffrey” for approval of transfer requests totaling millions of dollars. These included an April 2006 request from Ugland to move $1 million from a Wexner Personal Holdings Corp account at Bear Stearns to a JPMorgan account. Drop Site News found similar transfer requests from 2005 to 2008.
The emails also highlight how Epstein was seen as the decision-maker for which expenses should be covered by Wexner’s numerous entities, how to move assets between entities, as well as approval for large funds transfers for the Wexner accounts. Epstein often advised on IRS filings and multi-million dollar transactions up until December 2007, two months after Epstein was said to have resigned as a trustee of the Wexner Foundation.
Les Wexner has long been known as a financial donor to Israeli causes. According to the emails, Epstein played a role in this funding by helping the Wexner Foundation finance pro-Israel charities like college Hillels and free “Birthright” trips.
One of the emails appears to indicate that Wexner may have been aware of Epstein’s abuse schemes. On June 26, 2008—just four days before Epstein would plead guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution as part of his infamous “sweetheart deal”—Wexner told Epstein:
“Abigail (Wexner’s wife) told me the result…all I can say is I feel sorry. You violated your own number 1 rule… Always be careful.”
Dodging Subpoenas by OSU Victims
Over the last several weeks, former Ohio State University (OSU) athletes and survivors have protested, demanding Les Wexner comply with a subpoena to appear for questioning in ongoing litigation related to sexual abuse by former OSU team doctor Richard Strauss. The protesters include survivors who allege to have been sexually abused by Strauss from the late 1970s through the 1990s.
At a December 4 OSU Board of Trustees meeting, the victims of Strauss silently protested in the back of the room, holding signs reading “Where’s Wexner?” and posters with images of Wexner and Jeffrey Epstein. Wexner served on the Board of Trustees from 1988 to 1997 (during part of the period when Strauss’ alleged abuse occurred) and was chairman from 1996 to 1997. He served a second term on the board from 2005 to 2012.
On Wednesday, protesters rallied at OSU, calling for Wexner’s name to be removed from university buildings—specifically the Les Wexner Football Complex within the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center has borne that name since 2012, following significant donations from Wexner and his family. Wexner and his wife Abigail Wexner’s names also appear on other buildings around Columbus, Ohio, including Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the Wexner Center for the Arts.
“Wexner’s name should not be on the Les Wexner football complex because he continues to defy subpoenas from lawyers representing students who are suing Ohio State for not protecting them from Strauss, and because of his association with Epstein,” former OSU wrestler Mike DiSabato told NBC News before the protest. “Epstein and Maxwell were directly involved in funding this facility.”
DiSabato is referring to a $2.5 million donation by Wexner in 2007, which was matched by a donation from the C.O.U.Q. Foundation—run by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Survivors of abuse by former team doctor Richard Strauss are currently suing OSU for failing to prevent the abuse. As part of the suit, they have subpoenaed Wexner to be questioned about his knowledge of Strauss’ actions. Wexner’s personal attorney, John Zeiger, is the chair of the OSU board of trustees.
Steve Snyder-Hill, one of the survivors, told WOSU that Wexner is defying the subpoena.
“A lot of stuff doesn’t line up. Zeiger represents Wexner. He sits in there on that board. He’s probably making a lot of the judgment calls on whether to settle, and this guy’s evading a subpoena. How is any of that right?”
Zeiger has thus far refused to comment on the litigation. However, his law firm released a statement claiming they do not understand why survivors want to question Wexner.
“Since early September, we have asked plaintiffs’ counsel on several occasions to identify what knowledge they believe Mr. Wexner has relevant to the Strauss matter so we could consider the request. In the past three months, plaintiffs’ counsel have failed to answer that question. We will address this issue with the court at the appropriate time.”
Lawyers representing the abuse victims have told a federal judge that Wexner’s private security has repeatedly prevented process servicers from serving him with the subpoena. They also argue that Wexner’s attorney has refused to accept the subpoena on Wexner’s behalf. The attorneys have asked for an alternate way to deliver the subpoena, but the judge has not yet ruled on the request.
Michael Carpenter, the lawyer representing OSU, filed a motion on December 10 declaring there is no need to subpoena Wexner because the university “has not identified Mr. Wexner as a witness in this litigation.” The motion states: “none of the discovery taken to date suggests that Mr. Wexner has any specific information ‘relevant to any party’s claim or defense’ in this litigation.”
“Specifically, Ohio State has not identified Mr. Wexner as a witness in this litigation, and none of the complaints in the litigation, none of the Discovery Plaintiffs’ fact sheets, none of the responses or documents produced by any of the parties in response to discovery requests, and none of the depositions taken to date contain any specific allegations, testimony, or information suggesting that Mr. Wexner interacted with Strauss or possesses any information regarding any plaintiff’s alleged interactions with Strauss.”
However, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit argue that because Wexner served on the board during the time Strauss’ abuse was said to have taken place, he may have relevant information.
Wexner’s Israeli and Potential Mafia Connections
As mentioned, Wexner is a prominent donor to Israeli causes and has numerous connections to powerful Israelis and Jewish financiers. It is these connections that some researchers believe may be another source of Jeffrey Epstein’s potential relationships with intelligence networks.
Wexner is considered to be one of the most prominent Jewish philanthropists. One of these efforts included organizing what was sometimes known as the “Study Group”, but more commonly known as the “Mega Group.” The Wall Street Journal reported in 1998 that the Mega Group was a “group of elite Jewish philanthropists” that was “formed in 1991 and developed as an effort to conduct a high-minded philanthropic discussion about the pressing issues of the Jewish people.” The Mega Group has been accused of being a front for Israeli intelligence.
The relationship between Epstein and Wexner has been explored extensively, both in Whitney Webb’s One Nation Under Blackmail and the mainstream press. In 1986, Epstein was introduced to Wexner in by Robert Meister, an insurance executive who provided insurance for Wexner’s clothing company, The Limited. It was Meister’s wife, Wendy, who introduced Les Wexner to his future wife, Abigail Koppel.
Koppel was a young Israeli-American attorney with her own connections to the state of Israel. Her father, Yehuda Koppel, was a former commander of a special-operations unit of the Haganah, the main Zionist paramilitary organization (comprised of various militias) that united behind the ostensible cause Zionism—establishing a Jewish homeland. The Haganah would ultimately be dissolved in 1948 and become the official army of the state of Israel, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Yehuda Koppel was a key player in the founding of Israel’s military intelligence network. Drop Site News reports that in his diary, David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s founding father, notes that Koppel served in SHAI, Haganah’s intelligence arm and the predecessor to Israel’s central military intelligence directorate, Aman.
In another example of the extensive relationship between Epstein and Les Wexner, it was Epstein who drafted the prenuptial agreement for Les and Abigail ahead of their marriage in January 1993.
Rumors of mafia connections have also hung over Wexner’s head for over two decades.
The rumors stem from the 1985 murder of attorney Arthur Shapiro. The murder was described as a “mob style” slaying and immediately set off an investigation by the Columbus Police Department. The day after Shapiro’s body was found, The Columbus Dispatch reported that he had been under investigation by the US IRS. The Dispatch quoted unnamed sources as saying Shapiro had not filed an income tax in seven years and that federal prosecutors were preparing to take the case to a grand jury.
The murder remains unsolved to this day. The main suspect was a man named Berry L. Kessler. He was found guilty in at least one other murder-for-hire plot and sentenced to death, but never admitted to killing Arthur Shapiro.
By 1991, the Columbus Police Department’s Organized Crime Bureau had researched and written a report on the Shapiro murder. The report, titled “Shapiro Homicide Investigation: Analysis and Hypothesis,” was not initially made public but later became known after it was revealed that Columbus Police Chief James G. Jackson had ordered its destruction. Jackson was temporarily suspended for his actions.
Despite the efforts to destroy the so-called Shapiro File, independent media outlet The Columbus Free Press released it in full in the late 1990s. Though the report was described as having “unsubstantiated allegations’, it specifically names Les Wexner and his businesses as having relationships with individuals believed to be associated with organized crime families.
The report noted that Arthur Shapiro had been a partner in the law firm of Schwartz, Shapiro, Kelm & Warren, which represented Wexner’s company The Limited, and that prior to his death “Arthur Shapiro managed this account for the law firm.” Wexner also had several other connections with individuals linked to organized crime families.
The report concluded, “Thus, it can be determined that Les Wexner, through the Limited, is associated with at least two organized crime figures who are associated with the Pittsburgh crime family.”
The Columbus Police report also states:
“From the predicate facts presented, it appears that Les Wexner had established contact with associates reputed to be organized crime figures, one of who was a major investment partner and another was using The Limited headquarters as a mailing address. It is not known whether there are other such figures among Wexner associates, but it can be hypothesized that the Genovese-LaRoca crime families might consider Wexner a friend. “
The report argues that Shapiro may have had incriminating information on a number of powerful individuals and “might have been forced to answer” questions in his “impending Grand Jury hearing.”
Les Wexner has repeatedly denied any knowledge of the Shapiro murder.
Excellent article. Those oligarchs must pay their debts sometimes...