Report: Epstein had no interest in foundation
Accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was a longtime trustee on a Leslie H. Wexner foundation focused on Jewish education and leadership.
But a report commissioned by the Wexner Foundation found that Epstein was involved in name only.
He did not participate in the foundation’s day-to-day activities or set policy, according to the report, released Wednesday.
And Wexner Foundation leaders and staff members said they didn’t recall seeing Epstein at the foundation’s offices or attending foundation events, the report said.
“The review represents what is widely regarded as best practice in cases like this and is part of our ongoing effort to be transparent and appropriately responsive,” Rabbi B. Elka Abrahamson, the foundation’s president, wrote on its website. “Completing this work in a thorough fashion required time.”
The review was commissioned by the foundation after news accounts detailing the once close and long relationship between Wexner, the founder of L Brands, and Epstein, raised concern among some of those who benefited from the foundation’s work that Epstein funds might have gone to the foundation.
L Brands, operator of Bath & Body Works and Victoria’s Secret, is undergoing a similar review.
Epstein was Wexner’s financial manager for years and in 1998 was identified as president — along with Wexner — of the New Albany Co. in Ohio business records. He owned property in the New Albany development.
At one time, Wexner gave Epstein power of attorney and great latitude to use it.
Epstein, 66, killed himself last August while awaiting trial on charges that he sexually exploited and abused dozens of underage girls between 2002 and 2005. Epstein previously pleaded guilty in 2008 in Florida to state charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution, a step down from a previously issued 53-page federal indictment that could have resulted in a lengthy prison sentence.
Wexner has said previously that he severed his relationship with Epstein more than a decade ago and that he was unaware of Epstein’s alleged crimes.
Epstein served as a foundation trustee from 1992 to 2007 but did not contribute any money to it, the report found.
The foundation said it employed the law firm of Kegler Brown, a firm that had not been used before by the foundation or the Wexner
family.
The firm said it reviewed thousands of pages of documents, including tax filings by the foundation and Epstein’s foundation along with criminal documents against Epstein. It also interviewed the foundation’s leaders, trustees and employees.
“From our review, the foundation was not of any particular interest to Epstein, and the people we interviewed who met Epstein described him as showing no interest in philanthropy or the foundation,” the report said.
The report also included a review of 1,500 pages of criminal documents and those tied to a lawsuit against Epstein. That review found no evidence that Epstein used the foundation to commit sexual assault or other crimes.
Separately, the report looked at another Wexner-related foundation set up in 2007 that received $47 million from Epstein. That entity, called the YLK Foundation
and run by Wexner’s wife, Abigail, was closed in 2010, according to a Dispatch accounting of the foundation last summer.
Leslie Wexner said in a letter last summer to the Wexner Foundation that the $47 million represented money that Epstein had stolen from the Wexner family.
Abrahamson, the Wexner Foundation president, said on the website that he asked Abigail Wexner why legal action wasn’t taken against Epstein.
“She explained that given the financial discoveries and what the Wexners were learning about the allegations of sexual misconduct against Epstein being raised in Florida, the Wexners concluded it was in the best interest of their family to avoid ongoing litigation entanglements and to terminate all association with Epstein immediately,” he said.