THE HOTEL FIRM, THE BILLIONAIRE ...AND EPSTEIN
THE company behind the hotel quarantine contact, Tifco, is owned by US investment fund Apollo Global Management, whose co-founder Leon Black stepped down from his role yesterday over his ties to the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
He will remain as Apollo’s single largest shareholder.
Mr Black, a billionaire, has always strongly denied any wrongdoing and was cleared of any inappropriate behaviour by an independent investigation. He resigned from Apollo citing ‘relentless public attention and media scrutiny’ over his ties to Epstein.
Apollo purchased the Irish hotel chain, Tifco, in 2018 for about €200million. Tifco won the contract to house people under mandatory quarantine at several of its hotels, including the Crowne Plaza near Dublin Airport and the Hard Rock Hotel in Dublin city centre. Apollo’s purchase price was much lower than the €600million industry estimates.
Tifco operates 24 hotels around the country, some of which it owns while others are under management contracts such as the Clontarf Castle hotel in Dublin, which will also be housing people under mandatory quarantine.
Mr Black had already said earlier this year that he would step down as Apollo CEO by July at the latest but was to have stayed on as chairman – a role he is now also quitting. It comes after an independent review of Mr Black’s links to Epstein, the billionaire investor who committed suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges.
The review, by law firm Dechert, found that Mr Black had paid Epstein $158million for advice on tax and estate planning between 2012 and 2017 and it cleared Mr Black of any wrongdoing
In a letter to Apollo’s board of directors, Mr Black said this week that ‘the last weeks and months have been deeply trying for me and my family’.
Apollo said the other co-founder, Marc Rowan, has taken over as CEO, succeeding Mr Black, part of a planned change announced in January 2021.
Former SEC chairman, Jay Clayton, has been appointed chairman replacing Black.
Tifco owns the Crowne Plaza hotels at Dublin Airport, Blanchardstown and Dundalk; the Hilton Hotel in Kilmainham; the Holiday Inn Express Dublin Airport, and 20 other hotels around the country.
‘Deeply trying for me’