Leon Black and Epstein: Mapping the Full Extent of Financial and Personal Entanglements (Part 3) (3/24/26)

What's up everyone and welcome to another episode of the Epstein Chronicles.

In this episode we're going to pick up where we left off with that New York Times article,

talking about Leon Black and his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

And once again this article was authored by Matthew Goldstein, Jessica Silver Greenberg,

Steve Eater, and David Enrich.

The same month as the deal with Ms. Garnieva, Mr. Black, and Mr. Epstein worked out an agreement

of their own.

It involved a payment of 20 million in fees to Mr. Epstein.

The plan appeared to be structured, at least in part, to avoid taxes.

Again, that's what they were doing.

The whole entire point of going to Jeffrey Epstein is to avoid taxes.

You don't have to be a genius to figure this shit out, you don't have to be Inspector

a gadget.

Mr. Black would pay 10 million to Epstein's primary company Southern Trust, but the other

10 million would be in the form of a donation to one of Mr. Epstein's charitable organizations

Gratitude America, which until then did not have any funds.

Gratitude America soon began dispensing the money in ways that could burnish Mr. Epstein's

reputation or strengthen his ties to figures in academia and other fields.

And if you were wondering why they didn't charge Epstein with Rico, here's just another

example of why they didn't want to catch all these big fish, all these big donors,

all these people, that keeps shit moving.

And it's really no more complicated than that.

They had everything they needed to make it a Rico case.

They chose not to.

That was the decision.

There were benefits for Mr. Black too.

Mr. Epstein's accountant Richard Khan noted in an email to a one of Mr. Black's advisors

that a goal of the arrangement was to maximize deductions and Mr. Black would be able to

write off the 10 million and potentially lower his tax bill.

The catch was that private foundations like Gratitude America have to file public reports

disclosing their donors.

In an effort to avoid public disclosure of Leon's name, this charitable donation should

be paid from your LLC that owns automobiles, Mr. Khan wrote to Mr. Black's advisor.

Ultimately the money would come from a different entity, BV70 LLC that had been set up to own

Mr. Black's yacht.

It's all one big-ass shell game.

And that's why it was laughable when they tried to tell you that Epstein was only worth

what?

$660 million?

Yeah, on the books.

If that's what he has on the books, how much do you think was off the books?

At least double, at least.

Because remember that money is a crewing interest?

He has it somewhere, and my guess is, it's, you know, offshore or something like that.

And it's a crewing interest as it sits there.

So not only is he not paying taxes on it, he continues to generate wealth on the deposit

and God only knows where that money is now or who is entitled to it.

My guess is that Conan Indyke, they know where all the money is, at least in my opinion,

you're around Epstein for that long, you're with them for that length of time and not

as some bystander either, right?

These guys were right in the mix.

The accountant and the house lawyer, pretty sure they know where the proverbial bodies

were buried.

While the emails between AIDS to Mr. Epstein and Mr. Black describe the donation as part

of a fee payment, the record report implied that it was simply an act of charity.

Mr. Black felt comfortable making this donation because he understood that Epstein was a strong

proponent of scientific innovation.

Oh yeah, that's exactly what was going on.

Epstein's a strong proponent of scientific innovation.

If that means abusing people and bundling money, then I guess Epstein's Einstein, short

of that, just a scumbag, that's it, dirty ass scumbag.

Mr. Wyden and his letter to Mr. Black said the emails pointed to possible illegal activity

intentionally disguising payments for our professional service as charitable contribution

to claim a tax deduction would constitute tax fraud, he wrote, and look, if you want to

get a guy like Leon Black, that's how you're going to have to do it.

It's not going to be the traditional way, you're not going to get them, you know, red handed,

involved in Epstein's bullshit, you're going to have to really dig.

But I think there's enough here as far as financials go that a true full blown investigation

should be initiated.

And the fact that we haven't seen that yet tells you everything you need to know about

the seriousness of the DOJ, the SEC and everybody else involved.

But here's the good news.

Mr. Wyden has sent a strongly worded letter to Leon Black.

That'll show him.

Mr. Wyden said in the interview that the Decorate report appeared to Whitewash some of Black's

actions.

And Apollo spokeswoman said Decorate's review was thorough and independent.

No, it wasn't.

Sorry, it wasn't.

And I called it out at the very beginning.

The second they announced it, I knew, I knew the fix was in.

You don't have these kinds of reports ever come back with bombshells ever.

And they choose a company like Deckard or a law firm like Deckard that they're familiar

with.

And they know that they can, you know, work with if you will.

And the whole entire goal was to calm down investors who were starting to panic a bit

about Epstein and Leon Black's relationship.

That's what the whole investigation was about, not about getting to the truth, not about

finding out what's what, but about applying some bomb to a wound that is gaping.

And I hope that the report would make it all go away, but there's just too much here.

And there is no way that that Deckard report can be taken seriously, at least in my opinion.

Mr. Black's voluminous gift giving drew the attention of the IRS starting in 2016.

The agency began auditing Mr. Black and a woman named Anastasia Sero, with whom he was

having an affair, according to Justice Department documents and two people familiar with the

relationship.

Mr. Epstein worked with Mr. Black's accountants on audits of the billionaire's taxes, but

he appeared to be especially involved in the audit of Miss Sero, a former model from

Ukraine, another person from Ukraine, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, all these countries.

Do you think that's a coincidence?

It most certainly is not.

After Epstein was now the first time here in America, he turned his attention to Eastern

Europe and to South America.

And all these girls he was bringing in were from these countries where they don't really

have recourse, right?

What are they going to do?

Go complain to Putin, go complain to insert dictator here.

Not going to work out so well for them.

And Jeffrey Epstein and his associates, they knew that.

And that's why they targeted people in places like Ukraine and Russia.

The only released record show that Mr. Black was paying her millions of dollars.

The IRS was focused in part on more than 600,000 that Miss Sero had received from one of

Mr. Black's trusts.

He had not paid taxes on the payments because she considered them gifts, the email show.

And IRS auditor wanted to review Mr. Black's gift tax return to see if he too had classified

them as gifts.

The auditor also sought to interview Miss Sero about a relationship with Mr. Black, who

had helped her set up as an art dealer record show, aw, come on.

You mean to tell me that they weren't reporting their money?

That would never happen for somebody like Leon Black, right?

That's a guy that really wants to be above board.

He really wants to pay everything he owes.

That's what the record shows, right?

The Leon Black is the kind of guy that's going to pay all of his taxes.

As Mr. Epstein sought to resolve Miss Sero's audit, he acted as a liaison between her and

Mr. Black's advisors.

Mr. Epstein arranged for Mr. Black's accountant to write a letter to the IRS auditor, confirming

that the payments had been gifts.

Mr. Epstein spent months dealing with the Sero audit and when it appeared to get resolved,

he took credit.

A spokesman for Miss Sero said Mr. Epstein helped with the audit because he was a tax expert.

After the audit was complete, she had nothing more to do with Epstein, he said, a tax expert,

huh?

Cool, and I'm an astrophysicist.

The fuck you mean a tax expert?

I think what you mean is a pilfering from the American people expert.

That's what you mean, right?

The report that Deckert prepared for Apollo noted that Mr. Epstein had helped deal with

a number of IRS audits of Mr. Black.

It did not mention his role in the audit of Miss Sero.

Again, just another Black mark on Deckert and this so-called independent review.

And I'll tell you what, it feels kind of indicating having this come out now because

I told you this from the jump and at the time it was my speculation, right?

I didn't have anything to go on, just my spidey sense and the history of these kinds of

investigations.

But now that we have the evidence, it all makes sense, doesn't it?

Mr. Epstein's involvement in personal matters was only increasing.

After Miss Black learned of one of her husband's extra marital affairs, Mr. Epstein suggested

to Mr. Black that he separate from her so he doesn't have a heart attack.

As Mr. Epstein put it in an email to Mr. Carp.

The blacks remain married.

Mr. Black's lawyers said he never asked Mr. Epstein for a marital advice, oh I'm sure.

I'm sure they never chopped it up.

Did he ask Epstein for advice about Russian women?

I'm guessing he did.

One of the other women with whom Mr. Black had a relationship was the yoga instructor.

Mr. Epstein was involved in paying her.

The woman who was originally from Siberia had known Mr. Epstein since at least 2009 when

she was in her late twenties, Siberia, look how far their net went all the way to Siberia,

all the way down to South America and everywhere in between.

But sure, tell me again that Epstein was a lone predator and he was just acting on his

own desires.

Emails indicate that Mr. Epstein tried to connect her to powerful men, including the then Prince

Andrew and a senior JP Morgan Chase executive, Jess Staley.

Mr. Staley has denied knowing her, a spokesman for Andrew Mountbatten Windsor didn't respond

to her request for comment.

In 2017, she reached out to Mr. Epstein after receiving 28,000 from him, not the 100,000

that Mr. Black had told her to expect.

I just wanted to ask if there was any misunderstanding she wrote.

She added that she previously had been paid directly by Mr. Black and didn't know how

the new system would work.

After some back and forth, Mr. Epstein confirmed that the full amount was on its way.

Next week you will receive, he wrote.

Mr. Wyden said in his letter that Mr. Black appeared to use Mr. Epstein as a middleman

raising concerns of potential money laundering, potential, huh?

I would say that there is a 100% chance that they were laundering money, and if you

crack the books just about every single person that we've talked about that was connected

to Epstein financially would be involved.

And again that's why we don't see Rico, despite or perhaps because of their close relationship,

tension had been building between Mr. Epstein and Mr. Black in 2017.

That's when it boiled over.

Mr. Epstein had received a $170 million by then, but complained that he was not getting

the money or gratitude that he deserved.

That spring Mr. Epstein mentioned to Mr. Carp that a rumor was circulating that Mr.

Black was using cocaine.

Mr. Black soon learned what Mr. Epstein said and he was furious.

In what Epstein later described as an ugly meeting, Black accused him of spreading the

cocaine rumor because he was dissatisfied with his compensation.

He said Mr. Epstein was out of control.

In their statement to the times Mr. Black's lawyer said other than experimenting with drugs

early in his life, Mr. Black cannot use illegal substances in more than 40 years.

I don't believe that.

Wall Street guys, they liked their blow.

So I have no doubt that these dudes were dabbling at the very least.

The men continued to meet and do business over the next several months, but signs of

a strain persisted.

That summer Mr. Epstein complained about incurring a steep financial loss while helping Mr.

Black save millions of dollars in capital gains on a complicated transaction involving a

geochemetti statue and Susanne painting.

Something's wrong, Mr. Epstein wrote in a long rambling email to Mr. Black in August

of 2017.

I'm not sure what it is, but it's clearly not the normal you.

Mr. Epstein lamented that despite everything he had done for Mr. Black, he had failed to

even buy me lunch.

Again, everything's transactional.

Keep that in mind.

Epstein didn't have friends.

Everything was about transactions.

Mr. Black did not appear to respond to the email.

Two months later, allegations about the movie producer Harvey Weinstein's sexual misconduct

were dominating headlines, and Mr. Epstein was viewing Mr. Black's situation with women

through that lens.

We live in a world where men in power cannot be seen to be taking advantage of young

20s women.

Mr. Epstein wrote in an email to Mr. Carp.

He said that some of the ways Mr. Black was handling his affairs with women were fraught

with danger and asking for trouble.

Mr. Black and Mr. Epstein kept working together for at least another year.

While the fallout was just so bad, they kept working together for another year.

Or the fallout story is a bunch of BS.

In the fall of 2018, Mr. Black asked Mr. Epstein to review his latest tax return.

He invited Mr. Epstein to participate in a planned investment.

Mr. Black also pushed Mr. Epstein to repay $30 million he had borrowed from Mr. Black

in connection with the art transaction.

Mr. Epstein wired $10 million to one of Mr. Black's companies, but did not repay the

rest.

On November 5, 2018, assistance to Mr. Epstein and Mr. Black emailed about rescheduling

a lunch the two men had planned.

After that, there do not appear to be any records of the men communicating with each other.

Though Mr. Epstein on occasion received emails in which acquaintances shared gossip about

Mr. Black.

Well, we only know about this email, right?

He could have had other emails, burner accounts that we don't even know about, and my guess

is that he did.

Later that November, the Miami Herald began publishing a series of articles about Mr.

Epstein.

In July of 2019, Mr. Epstein was arrested and charged with sex trafficking.

Mr. Black played down their ties.

Speaking to investors that month, he described the extent of the work that Mr. Epstein

had performed for him.

From time to time, Mr. Epstein has provided professional services to my family partnership

and related family entities involving tax, estate planning, and philanthropic advice.

Now, after everything that you just learned, after everything you knew already, are you

buying that narrative?

Do you really think that Jeffrey Epstein was only helping with tax advice or with estate

planning?

I have a very, very hard time believing that, and in fact, I don't believe it at all.

So what do you folks think?

Show me some emails and let me know what you think about Leon Black and the relationship

with Jeffrey Epstein.

All the information that goes with this episode can be found in the description box.