The documented financial relationship between Leon Black, co-founder and then-chairman and CEO of Apollo Global Management, and Jeffrey Epstein cannot be explained on its stated terms. That conclusion does not originate with Senate investigators. It originates with the law firm Apollo’s own board commissioned to examine the relationship.
The Dechert LLP report, produced for Apollo’s Conflicts Committee and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in January 2021, is unambiguous on the central disparity: “It is clear that the compensation paid by Black to Epstein far exceeded any amounts Black paid to his other professional advisors.” [1] Black’s other advisors included some of the most expensive legal and accounting talent in the United States, among them partners at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison, and senior accountants at established firms with genuine licensed credentials in tax and estate planning. Epstein held none of those credentials. He was, as Senate Finance Committee investigators noted, a college dropout who held neither a CPA certification nor a bar license in any jurisdiction. [2]
The rates Black paid Epstein were 30 times higher than he paid the elite tax and estate advisors he already employed. [3] The compensation scheme ranged between $23 million and $26 million per year for a number of years, a figure that far exceeded the median CEO pay for Fortune 500 companies, which Fortune calculated at $15.9 million for 2021. [2] In two years alone, the payments reached extraordinary concentrations: Black paid Epstein $70 million in 2014 and $30 million in 2015. [4] The total figure, as identified by the Apollo board’s own investigation, was $158 million paid between 2012 and 2017. Senate Finance Committee investigators subsequently obtained documents establishing the true total at $170 million, $12 million higher than the Apollo board’s figure, with no explanation offered for the discrepancy. [5]
The Services Rationale Does Not Survive Scrutiny
Black has maintained throughout the investigation that the payments were legitimate compensation for sophisticated tax and estate planning services. The documentary record, including documents Black’s own legal representatives submitted to the Senate Finance Committee, substantially undermines that account.
On the most significant individual transaction for which Epstein was paid, a so-called step-up-basis transaction to which Black attributed $20 million, Black’s attorneys confirmed to the committee that “the idea was in the public domain and originated with Black’s other legal advisors” and that Epstein merely attempted to claim credit for their work. Black’s attorneys further stated they could provide no information clarifying how Epstein contributed any value to the transaction. [2]
The Dechert report itself, while generally favorable to Black’s account of the relationship’s legitimacy, documented that Epstein’s ideas “would appear plausible at face value, but did not hold up under scrutiny,” and that his advice was “vetted consistently by Black’s other advisors, including Family Office employees, Paul Weiss, and other outside legal, accounting, and tax professionals.” [1] The work product required independent validation by licensed professionals who were themselves being compensated, but at rates a fraction of Epstein’s.
Beginning in 2014, Black paid Epstein for his ongoing services on an ad hoc basis, without negotiating written service agreements. [1] Senate Finance Committee investigators established that for at least some of the years in question, no formal services contract existed at all. Black has not, at any stage of the investigation, produced documentation establishing how Epstein’s compensation was calculated or justified. [6]
The Charity Mechanism
Among the most significant structural findings in the financial record is the routing of at least $10 million of these payments through a charitable vehicle. Ten million dollars Black paid to Epstein was papered over with a sham 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity. Epstein’s lawyer Richard Kahn wrote in a contemporaneous email that routing the money through the charity would “avoid public disclosure” and “maximize deductions.” [3] The deliberate use of a tax-exempt charitable structure to conceal the payment’s destination and nature, and to generate a tax benefit for the payer, is not alleged by investigators. It was recorded by the parties to the transaction themselves in real time.
The Defective Trust and Potential Clawback
The financial exposure does not end with the payment structure. Senate Finance Committee investigators documented a separate problem within Black’s family trust arrangements that carries potentially far larger consequences. Black was overpaid $141 million by a family trust, and if that trust is ruled defective, it would result in billions of dollars being clawed back into his taxable estate under retained-interest provisions of federal tax law. [3] The records released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act contain new information regarding these defective trusts, which the IRS has not, as of the most recent available record, audited or examined. [7] Whether the absence of IRS scrutiny reflects institutional oversight failure or something else is not established by the current documentary record.
Epstein as Fixer: Payments to Women
Documents released by the DOJ as part of the EFTA corpus establish that Epstein’s role extended well beyond tax advisory functions. Emails indicate Black paid millions of dollars to women using Epstein as a financial intermediary. A yoga instructor emailed Epstein directly in October 2017 to ask when she would receive $100,000 that Black had promised her, writing: “He said that now he does it through you.” [8] Black paid approximately $20 million to around a dozen women, at least some of whom he had had sexual relationships with, according to the released files and notes taken by congressional investigators. [8]
Millions of dollars Black paid to these women were described as “gifts” in documents Epstein possessed. This raises direct questions about compliance with federal gift and estate tax law. [3] The federal gift tax applies when a donor’s cumulative lifetime giving exceeds a statutory threshold. Emails reviewed by Senate investigators show Black had surpassed that threshold by 2012, meaning any further large payments classified as gifts would have been subject to a 40 percent federal tax. Epstein was documented advising Black on how to structure these payments to minimize tax exposure and limit the women’s reporting obligations. [8] Black’s attorneys have stated that all payments to women and gift taxes “were vetted and approved by legal and accounting experts.” [8]
The Russian Government Contact
The most geopolitically significant finding in the documentary record concerns Epstein’s documented contact with a Russian government official in connection with women on Black’s payroll. Epstein provided the location of women on Black’s payroll to a well-connected Russian government operative and asked for suggestions on how to deal with them. [9]
The operative in question, identified in reporting drawn from the DOJ files as Sergei Belyakov, was a former deputy minister of economic development and a graduate of the Russian intelligence academy, described in reporting as a reputed FSB-linked figure. [10] Epstein emailed Belyakov in the summer of 2015 stating that a woman from Moscow had tried to blackmail “a group of powerful biznessman in New York. It is bad for business for everyone involved.” Epstein requested suggestions. Belyakov responded with personal information about the woman and suggested that limiting her access to the United States “would be a great threat to her business.” [8]
The woman in question is identified in multiple sources as Guzel Ganieva, a Russian former model who had been in a relationship with Black and who, by 2015, was alleging sexual abuse and demanding $100 million to remain silent. Black denies the abuse allegations. Ganieva’s civil lawsuit against Black was dismissed on procedural grounds relating to a non-disclosure agreement. [10]
The reason Epstein shared the locations and personal information of women on Black’s payroll with a Russian government official has not been established by the documentary record. The Senate Finance Committee letter to Black dated March 20, 2026 identifies this contact and asks Black to explain it. No public response from Black has been received as of the date of this report. [9]
Epstein’s broader documented connections to Russian government figures are relevant context. He was in regular contact with Vitaly Churkin, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, until Churkin’s death in 2017. He engaged in financial transactions with Russian banks, including Alfa-Bank and Sberbank, involving payments that triggered compliance reviews at Deutsche Bank. [10] Whether these connections constitute evidence of a formal intelligence relationship or reflect the opportunistic networking of a well-connected fixer has not been determined by any publicly available investigation.
The Surveillance Operation: Epstein and the Chairman of Paul Weiss
The documentary record establishes a parallel operational thread involving not only Epstein but Brad Karp, then-chairman of Paul Weiss, one of the most powerful law firms in the United States and the firm that served as Black’s primary outside legal counsel.
DOJ files released as part of the EFTA corpus contain emails from August 2015 in which Karp and Epstein coordinated the physical surveillance of Ganieva using the private investigation firm Nardello and Co. [11] Karp updated Epstein on Ganieva’s movements with specificity. “GG is in Moscow; the transcript should be completed tomorrow,” Karp told Epstein in one email. “I’ll send it to you as soon as I receive it.” [12] In a separate exchange, Karp described Ganieva being “snuck out through the garage, in a car with tinted windows” to JFK airport, noting that surveillance operatives had obtained license plate numbers. [12]
Epstein proposed having Ganieva arrested on extortion charges and potentially deported. “If Leon decides enough is enough,” Epstein wrote to Karp, could Ganieva be arrested “for extortion, high bail maybe deportation?” [13] Karp responded: “My strong belief is that the answer is yes,” and referenced Lorin Reisner, co-chair of Paul Weiss’s white-collar practice and a former head of the criminal division at the Southern District of New York. [13] Karp additionally noted he would look into the possibility of revoking Ganieva’s tourist visa, responding to that suggestion from Epstein with: “Both good ideas; will work on this.” [11]
Nardello and Co. confirmed it had conducted surveillance work in connection with the matter for Black’s legal counsel. The firm stated that no one at Nardello had any contact or communication with Epstein and that it was unaware that its work product was being shared with him. [12] This statement, taken at face value, establishes that Karp was sharing Nardello’s surveillance intelligence with Epstein without the knowledge of the firm conducting the surveillance.
The fallout from these disclosures was immediate. Brad Karp resigned as chairman of Paul Weiss in February 2026 following the release of the emails, citing “a distraction” that was “not in the best interests of the firm.” He remains at the firm as a partner. [14] Paul Weiss has stated that Karp “attended two group dinners in New York City and had a small number of social interactions by email” with Epstein, “all of which he regrets,” and that “the firm was adverse to Epstein” in all its interactions on Black’s behalf. [14] That characterization is in tension with the email record as described across multiple credible sources.
Separately, Bloomberg reported that Karp reviewed and praised a draft filing in 2019 related to Epstein’s attempt to challenge his non-prosecution agreement, including favorable comments about a legal argument characterizing victims as having “sat on their rights for their strategic advantage.” Karp wrote of the draft: “The draft motion is in great shape. It’s overwhelmingly persuasive.” [14] Paul Weiss has maintained that neither Karp nor the firm ever represented Epstein. That position is directly tested by the content of the 2019 email.
What the Record Leaves Open
The Senate Finance Committee has, at every stage of this investigation, been unable to obtain the foundational documents that would either corroborate or refute Black’s account: written statements of work, fee schedules, and contemporaneous records establishing how Epstein’s compensation rates were negotiated or determined. Black has refused to answer questions or provide documents that could demonstrate how that compensation was justified. [6]
The IRS has conducted no audit or investigation of the transactions or trust structures at the center of this case, a failure that has drawn direct and documented criticism from the Senate Finance Committee. [7] The DOJ has not brought charges against Black in connection with any matter documented in this report. Black has not been charged with any crime.
Why Epstein contacted a Russian government official with information about women connected to Black’s finances has not been explained. Why those communications were not identified by the Apollo board’s own investigation of the Black-Epstein relationship, conducted by Dechert and based on a review of over 60,000 documents, is not established by the public record.
The documents are available. The questions remain open.
Sources
- Dechert LLP Report on Leon Black and Jeffrey Epstein, Apollo Global Management Conflicts Committee, SEC Form 8-K Ex. 99.1, January 2021 — sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1411494/000119312521016405/d118102dex991.htm
- Senator Wyden to Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan, Senate Finance Committee, June 22, 2022 — finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/wyden_to_apollo_global_management_62222.pdf
- Wyden Questions Leon Black over New Revelations in Epstein Files, Senate Finance Committee, March 23, 2026 — finance.senate.gov/continuing-epstein-investigation-wyden-questions-leon-black
- Senator Wyden to Leon Black, Senate Finance Committee, July 24, 2023 — finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/rw_lb_lttr.pdf
- Wyden Releases New Information on Financing of Epstein’s Operations by Leon Black, Senate Finance Committee, March 12, 2025 — finance.senate.gov/ranking-members-news/wyden-releases-new-information-on-financing-of-jeffrey-epsteins-operations
- Wyden Unveils Investigation into Black’s Tax Planning and Financial Ties with Epstein, Senate Finance Committee, July 25, 2023 — finance.senate.gov/chairmans-news/wyden-unveils-ongoing-investigation
- Wyden Probes IRS Failure to Investigate Epstein’s Tax Planning Work, Senate Finance Committee, July 31, 2025 — finance.senate.gov/ranking-members-news/continuing-epstein-investigation-wyden-probes-irss-failure-to-investigate
- How Epstein Helped Solve Billionaire Leon Black’s Problems With Women, New York Times / GV Wire, March 25, 2026 — gvwire.com/2026/03/25/how-epstein-helped-solve-billionaire-leon-blacks-problems-with-women
- Senator Wyden to Leon Black (redacted), Senate Finance Committee, March 20, 2026 — finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/senator_wyden_letter_to_leon_black_redacted.pdf
- Moscow Has Girls: Inside Epstein’s Network from Palm Beach to the Kremlin, Associated Press, March 2026 — hanfordsentinel.com/news/national/moscow-has-girls-inside-epsteins-network
- Jeffrey Epstein and Brad Karp Worked Together to Surveil Woman’s Alleged Extortion Attempt, Business Insider, February 11, 2026 — dnyuz.com/2026/02/11/jeffrey-epstein-and-brad-karp-worked-together-to-surveil-womans-alleged-extortion-attempt
- Epstein and Paul Weiss Chair Plotted Woman’s Deportation, Boing Boing / Guardian, February 10, 2026 — boingboing.net/2026/02/10/epstein-and-a-top-wall-street-lawyer-plotted-to-have-a-woman-deported
- Leon Black Allegedly Colluded with Epstein and Paul Weiss Head to Silence and Destroy Accusers, Wigdor LLP lawsuit via Yahoo News, March 2026 — yahoo.com/news/articles/leon-black-allegedly-colluded-epstein-232503671
- Brad Karp’s Paul Weiss Reign Ends With an Epstein-File Plot Twist, Above the Law, February 5, 2026 — abovethelaw.com/2026/02/brad-karps-paul-weiss-reign-ends-with-an-epstein-file-plot-twist