Leon Black, the private equity billionaire, struck a defiant tone in a prepared testimony before a congressional committee on Friday, saying he was the victim of “demonstrably false” narratives about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
In a lengthy opening statement, Mr. Black said that he had been fooled by Mr. Epstein, the sex offender who is believed to have abused hundreds of teenage girls and young women.
He accused Mr. Epstein of having “exaggerated, embellished, manipulated and outright lied,” to him, concluding that he had a sinister side like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, according to a copy of his prepared statement shared with The New York Times. “I didn’t know Hyde,” he wrote.
Mr. Black told the committee he had never sexually abused women, never had sex with any underage teens and never paid Mr. Epstein to get access to women. He also said that Mr. Epstein had never blackmailed him, and he defended the hefty fees he had paid Mr. Epstein for tax and estate advice.
“I was not involved with, and had no knowledge of, any of Epstein’s heinous conduct,” Mr. Black told member of the House Oversight Committee, which has been scrutinizing the Justice Department’s investigation into the sex offender.
Mr. Black was one of Mr. Epstein’s closest friends and main financial benefactors. He paid Mr. Epstein $170 million for what he described as traditional tax and estate planning services from 2013 to 2017, and he also lent him $30 million, according to congressional records and government documents.
The revelations about the extent of Mr. Black’s professional and personal relationship with Mr. Epstein resulted in him stepping down in early 2021 from all executive posts at Apollo Global Group, the large private equity firm he co-founded.
In his testimony, Mr. Black said he was often lied to by the sex offender, including Mr. Epstein’s claim that a portion of the fees he paid to him were tax deductible.
Mr. Black also said he was frustrated that his relationship with Mr. Epstein had become the source of “baseless speculation” and he blamed some of the committee for falling prey to it.
“I don’t understand why people — including members of this committee — would accept baseless speculation about me without regard to the facts and spin such ugly and vicious narratives that are demonstrably false,” he said.
Mr. Black’s comments were included in an opening statement that he read at the start of a closed-door congressional hearing Friday morning. He arrived at the hearing with about a half-dozen lawyers.
The committee had asked Mr. Black to sit for a voluntary interview to answer questions about his friendship with Mr. Epstein, which began in the mid-1990s. The committee has been investigating the Justice Department’s handling of its investigations into Mr. Epstein and the powerful people tied to him.
Mr. Black is one of several people who once associated with Mr. Epstein that the committee has called in for questioning, including former President Bill Clinton and the billionaire Bill Gates. The committee has also scheduled interviews with James Staley, a Wall Street executive who for years was Mr. Epstein’s main champion at JPMorgan Chase, where Mr. Epstein did much of his banking.
Mr. Black’s decision to step down from Apollo came after an outside law firm hired by the private equity firm’s board found that while the fees Mr. Black paid Mr. Epstein may have been excessive, they were for legitimate tax advice. The report, by the Dechert law firm, also found no evidence of wrongdoing on Mr. Black’s part.
In his opening statement, Mr. Black said the Dechert report, which found $158 million in payments to Mr. Epstein, should have ended all inquires into his dealings with Mr. Epstein.
“The Dechert report also determined that I had no awareness of, or involvement in, any of Epstein’s criminal activities,” he said. “The rank speculation about me was proven to be just that: rank speculation.”
But the release of millions of pages of Epstein-related emails and documents by the Justice Department this year showed other aspects of Mr. Epstein’s relationship with Mr. Black. For example, Mr. Epstein advised Mr. Black on how to address issues that had arisen with several women with whom Mr. Black had sexual affairs.
Mr. Black, who is married, paid about $20 million to a dozen women, according to the recently released files and notes taken by congressional investigators and shared with The Times. A few of the women had affairs with Mr. Black, according to those records.
In 2023, Mr. Black paid $62.5 million to the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands to resolve potential claims arising from the territory’s investigation into the financing of Mr. Epstein’s sex trafficking operation. Mr. Epstein maintained a private island residence in the Virgin Islands for roughly two decades.
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