Julie Carr Smyth
The billionaire behind the retail empire that once blanketed shopping malls with names such as Victoria’s Secret and Abercrombie & Fitch is telling members of Congress that he was “duped by a world-class conman” — close financial adviser Jeffrey Epstein. Les Wexner also is denying knowing about the convicted sex offender’s crimes or participating in Epstein’s abuse of girls and young women.
“I was naïve, foolish, and gullible to put any trust in Jeffrey Epstein. He was a con man. And while I was conned, I have done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide,” the 88-year-old retired founder of L Brands said in a statement submitted to the House Oversight Committee before his interview. Democrats had subpoenaed him after the latest release of Justice Department documents about Epstein raised new questions about Wexner’s relationship with the well-connected financier.
Wexner, in his statement, described himself as a philanthropist, community builder and grandfather who always strove “to live my life in an ethical manner in line with my moral compass.” He said he was eager “to set the record straight” about his ties with Epstein and dispel “outrageous untrue statements and hurtful rumour, innuendo, and speculation” that have shadowed him.
In an unusual move, the lawmakers travelled to Wexner’s home in New Albany, Ohio, for the interview. Bloomberg reported that in the interview, Wexner said he visited Epstein’s private Caribbean island once with his wife and children “for a few hours” while the family was in the area on their boat.
As one of Epstein’s most prominent former friends, Wexner has spent years answering for their decades-long association. In court documents, prominent Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre claimed that Wexner was one of the men Epstein trafficked her to.
Wexner has denied any knowledge of or involvement in Epstein’s crimes and says he never met Giuffre. He told L Brands investors in 2019 that he was embarrassed that he ever got close to someone “so sick, so cunning, so depraved.”
Wexner has never been charged with any crimes in connection with Epstein.
Wexner’s name appears more than a thousand times in the Epstein files, which his spokesperson said is not unexpected given their long-running ties. The documents shed new light on his relationship to Epstein, which ended bitterly after Wexner and his wife Abigail learned that he had been stealing from them.
‘A most loyal friend’
Epstein first met Wexner through a business associate around 1986.
It was an opportune time for Wexner’s finances. The Ohio business owner had grown a single Limited store in Columbus into a suite of 1980s mall staples: The Limited, Limited Express, Lane Bryant and Victoria’s Secret. Abercrombie & Fitch, Lerner, White Barn Candle Co. and others would follow.
Within a couple of years, Wexner had turned over management of his vast fortune to Epstein. He gave his now-trusted associate his power of attorney in 1991, allowing Epstein to make investments and do business deals and to purchase property and help develop what would become the vast Wexner estate in then-rural New Albany, documents show.
Epstein had “excellent judgment and unusually high standards,” Wexner told Vanity Fair in a 2003 interview, and he was “always a most loyal friend.”
Epstein recalls ‘gang stuff’
In one of the newly released documents, Epstein sent rough notes to himself about Wexner saying: “never ever, did anything without informing les” and “I would never give him up.” Another document, an apparent draft letter to Wexner, said the two “had ‘gang stuff’ for over 15 years” and were mutually indebted to each other — as Wexner helped make Epstein rich and Epstein helped make Wexner richer.
A spokesperson for Wexner said he never received the letter.
“It appears Epstein was furious that Mr. Wexner refused to meet with him years after Mr. Wexner terminated Epstein and cut off all ties with him following Mr. Wexner’s discovery of Epstein’s theft and criminal conduct,” the spokesperson, Tom Davies, said. “The draft appears to fit a pattern of untrue, outlandish, and delusional statements made by Epstein in desperate attempts to perpetuate his lies and justify his misconduct.”
A relationship unravels
Wexner did not publicly reveal until after Epstein’s arrest on federal sex trafficking charges in July 2019 that he had severed their relationship. In a Wexner Foundation letter that August, he said that happened in 2007. But the Justice Department’s newly released records show the two were in touch after that.
Wexner emailed Epstein on June 26, 2008, after a plea deal was announced that would require him to serve 18 months in a Florida jail on a state charge of soliciting prostitution from a minor in order to avoid federal prosecution. He wound up serving 13 months.
“Abigail told me the result… all I can say is I feel sorry. You violated your own number 1 rule…always be careful,” Wexner wrote. Epstein replied: “no excuse.”
Davies said the 2007 date Wexner cited in 2019 applied to firing Epstein as financial adviser, revoking his power of attorney and removing his name from Wexner’s bank accounts.
Wexner also said in the 2019 letter that Epstein had misappropriated “vast sums” of his and his family’s fortune while overseeing his finances. An investigative memo from the latest document release says that Wexner’s attorneys told investigators in 2008 that Epstein had repaid him $US100 million ($141.9 million), thought to be just a portion of what he stole.
Continuing fallout for Wexner
The documents emboldened sexual assault survivors in ways that have increased pressure on Wexner.
Epstein survivor Maria Farmer has said she was vindicated by a redacted FBI report contained in the documents, which confirms that she filed one of the earliest complaints against Epstein.
Though the complaint reported his possession of nude photos of underage girls, the records have drawn new attention to the harrowing account of an alleged sexual encounter forced on her by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in the summer of 1996 at Epstein’s home in New Albany. The home was close to the Wexners’ home. The Wexners have said they had never heard anything about Farmer’s account of the crime until it appeared in news accounts years later.
Meanwhile, survivors of another sexual predator — the late Dr. Richard Strauss, a team doctor at the Ohio State University who was found to have sexually abused at least 177 male students over years — are citing Wexner’s association with Epstein to try to get his name removed from a campus football complex built with his contributions. Their request is pending before a university committee. Davies declined comment.
The alumni group scored a legal victory last week, though, when a judge said it can compel Wexner to testify in their lawsuit against the university. Wexner sat on Ohio State’s board of trustees during the period when Strauss, who died before his deeds came to light, committed his crimes.
