\n<\/p>\n
Retail tycoon Les Wexner has told lawmakers in the United States that he had been \u201cduped\u201d by the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and denied any knowledge of his former financial adviser\u2019s abuse of girls and young women.<\/p>\n
Wexner, a former CEO and founder of Victoria\u2019s Secret owner L Brands, made the statement on Wednesday in written testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which is investigating Epstein and his ties to the US elite.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The Democrats on the panel had subpoenaed the 88-year-old billionaire after the latest release of Epstein-related documents by the Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed new details about his relationship with the well-connected financier.<\/p>\n Five committee members travelled to Wexner\u2019s home in Ohio to take a deposition from him in a closed-door session. He was questioned for six hours, and a video and transcript are to be released soon.<\/p>\n In his written statement, Wexner described Epstein as a \u201cconman\u201d and said he had been \u201cnaive, foolish, and gullible to put any trust\u201d in the convicted sex offender.<\/p>\n Wexner said he was introduced to Epstein in the mid-1980s and later hired him to manage his vast wealth acquired as the founder of L Brands, which also operated leading brands like The Limited, Express, Bath & Body Works, and Abercrombie & Fitch.<\/p>\n Wexner said he had \u201cirrevocably cut ties\u201d with Epstein after learning that \u201che was an abuser, a crook, and a liar\u201d around 2007, a year after the late financier was first arrested for soliciting prostitution from a minor in the state of Florida.<\/p>\n Wexner said his wife, Abigail, had discovered that \u201cEpstein had stolen vast sums from our family\u201d, and following this revelation, he never spoke to his former adviser again.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile others visited Epstein in jail and associated with him after his release, I did not. Nor did I witness, condone, or enable his crimes in any way,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n Some Democratic lawmakers, however, pushed back on Wexner\u2019s narrative, given their long-running professional relationship.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no single person that was more involved in providing Jeffrey Epstein with the financial support to commit his crimes than Les Wexner,\u201d Representative Robert Garcia, the committee\u2019s ranking Democrat, told reporters outside Wexner\u2019s home.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have also directly heard from survivors about Mr Wexner, his involvement, and their concerns about the enormous amount of money that was transferred over and paid to Mr Epstein. We know of over a billion dollars that was either transferred, provided in stocks, or given directly to Mr Epstein by Wexner,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Garcia noted that Wexner appeared to be \u201cunaware\u201d of much of the money given to Epstein and had downplayed their personal ties.<\/p>\n The pair were close enough that at one point Wexner gave Epstein power of attorney, according to the tycoon\u2019s testimony. Wexner also admitted to visiting Epstein\u2019s properties, like his private island, Little Saint James, albeit on one brief occasion while accompanied by his family.<\/p>\n Wexner also responded to allegations by the late victim Virginia Giuffre, who claimed in court documents that the billionaire was among the men Epstein trafficked her to. Wexner testified to utter devotion to his wife of 33 years, saying he had never once been unfaithful \u201cin any way, shape, or form\u201d.<\/p>\n Wexner, whose name appears more than 1,000 times in the Epstein files, was investigated by the FBI at least once, according to an email released by the DOJ.<\/p>\n The email indicates that in August 2019, the month that Epstein died while awaiting trial, the FBI was looking into Wexner as a potential \u201csecondary coconspirator\u201d in his crimes. The FBI said it had been in contact with Wexner\u2019s lawyers, but there \u201cwas limited evidence regarding his involvement\u201d.<\/p>\n Epstein\u2019s death in 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell was ruled a suicide.<\/p>\n In one of the newly released documents, Epstein sent rough notes to himself about Wexner, saying, \u201cnever ever, did anything without informing Les\u201d and \u201cI would never give him up\u201d.<\/p>\n Another document, an apparent draft letter to Wexner, said the two \u201chad \u2018gang stuff\u2019 for over 15 years\u201d and were mutually indebted to each other \u2013 as Wexner helped make Epstein rich and Epstein helped make Wexner richer.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Wexner told The Associated Press news agency that Wexner never received the letter and characterised it as fitting \u201ca pattern of untrue, outlandish, and delusional statements made by Epstein in desperate attempts to perpetuate his lies and justify his misconduct\u201d.<\/p>\n Wexner did not publicly reveal until after Epstein\u2019s arrest on federal sex trafficking charges in July 2019 that he had severed their relationship. While he said that happened in 2007, the Justice Department\u2019s newly released records show the two were in touch after that.<\/p>\n 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 to avoid federal prosecution. He wound up serving 13 months.<\/p>\n \u201cAbigail told me the result. All I can say is I feel sorry. You violated your own number 1 rule always be careful,\u201d Wexner wrote.<\/p>\n Epstein replied, \u201cno excuse\u201d.<\/p>\n Wexner\u2019s spokesperson told the AP the 2007 date Wexner cited applied to firing Epstein as financial adviser, revoking his power of attorney and removing his name from Wexner\u2019s bank accounts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Retail tycoon Les Wexner has told lawmakers in the United States that he had been \u201cduped\u201d by the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and denied any knowledge of his former financial adviser\u2019s abuse of girls and young women. Wexner, a former CEO and founder of Victoria\u2019s Secret owner L Brands, made the statement on Wednesday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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