Leon Black Agreed to Pay $62.5 Million to Settle Epstein-Related Claims

The billionaire investor Leon Black agreed to pay $62.5 million to the U.S. Virgin Islands in January to be launched from any potential claims arising out of the territory’s three-year investigation into the intercourse trafficking operation of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, in line with a duplicate of the settlement settlement.

The beforehand undisclosed settlement got here after the Virgin Islands reached a $105 million deal in November with Mr. Epstein’s property. The subsequent month, the territory sued JPMorgan Chase in federal court docket over the financial institution’s 15-year relationship with Mr. Epstein, a registered intercourse offender who killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019.

The Virgin Islands authorities produced its settlement settlement with Mr. Black in response to a public information request by The New York Occasions. In January, representatives of the 2 events held a non-public mediation session to settle claims, in line with one other doc reviewed by The Occasions. The $62.5 million settlement adopted that session. Mr. Black agreed to pay in money, in accordance the settlement doc.

The settlement exhibits the extent to which Mr. Black, as soon as a titan of the personal fairness business, has gone to restrict scrutiny of his decades-long social and enterprise ties to Mr. Epstein. These dealings, together with the revelation that he paid $158 million to Mr. Epstein for tax and property planning providers, had turn out to be a supply of embarrassment for Mr. Black within the years after Mr. Epstein’s loss of life.

Mr. Black, 71, was forced to step down in early 2021 as chairman and chief government of Apollo World Administration, the enormous personal fairness agency he co-founded in 1990. A significant artwork collector who made information for his $120 million purchase of a model of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream,” Mr. Black additionally stepped down as chairman of the Museum of Trendy Artwork in New York.

The four-page settlement mentioned nothing in it ought to be construed as an “admission of legal responsibility” by Mr. Black.

Venetia H. Velazquez, a lawyer with the Virgin Islands legal professional normal’s workplace, which negotiated the settlement, mentioned, “For the previous a number of years, the Virgin Islands Division of Justice has made it a precedence to assist human trafficking victims and to implement the legislation to stop and deter human trafficking.”

Whit Clay, a spokesman for Mr. Black, mentioned: “Mr. Black engaged and made funds to Jeffrey Epstein for official monetary advisory providers, which, based mostly on every thing now identified, he very a lot regrets. Per settlements of different main U.S. banks, Mr. Black resolved the united statesV.I.’s potential claims arising out of the unintended penalties of these funds. There isn’t any suggestion in the united statesV.I. settlement that Mr. Black was conscious of or participated in any misconduct.”

The settlement occurred after a scheduled two-day mediation attended by attorneys for Mr. Black and the Virgin Islands, in addition to a plaintiffs’ lawyer who had represented lots of Mr. Epstein’s victims, in line with the doc reviewed by The Occasions.

Brad Edwards, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, mentioned he was “not at liberty to debate the subject.”

Mr. Epstein killed himself in August 2019 whereas being held in federal custody in Manhattan on intercourse trafficking fees. Attorneys for Mr. Epstein’s victims have mentioned at the least 200 girls — lots of them youngsters on the time — have been sexually abused by Mr. Epstein at his personal island residence within the Virgin Islands, in addition to his properties in Manhattan, Florida and elsewhere.

Some victims of Mr. Epstein who had acquired settlements straight from his property have been granted permission by the property’s executors to pursue claims towards a handful of males who had socialized with Mr. Epstein, in line with an individual with information of the matter. Mr. Black was a type of males, the particular person mentioned.

The settlement with the Virgin Islands didn’t cowl claims anybody else might need towards Mr. Black. However the settlement itself couldn’t be used as “proof of wrongdoing by Black,” the doc mentioned.

The Virgin Islands’ investigation of Mr. Black arose from an inquiry that led to the $105 million settlement with Mr. Epstein’s property and the territory’s pending lawsuit towards JPMorgan Chase. The territory had been weighing a go well with that will have accused Mr. Black of facilitating Mr. Epstein’s intercourse trafficking operation by paying massive sums of cash to Southern Trust, which was certainly one of Mr. Epstein’s primary corporations within the Virgin Islands, mentioned two folks briefed on the matter.

Mr. Black’s choice to step down at Apollo adopted an article in The Times that reported his ties to Mr. Epstein have been extra intensive than beforehand identified. Apollo subsequently employed the legislation agency Dechert to research Mr. Black’s relationship with Mr. Epstein. Dechert cleared Mr. Black of any wrongdoing. However the legislation agency discovered Mr. Black had paid $158 million to Southern Belief and in addition offered the enterprise with a $30 million mortgage.

In its report, Dechert famous that the compensation paid by Mr. Black to Mr. Epstein, a school dropout, “far exceeded any amounts” paid to his different skilled advisers.

Planning for the mediation session with Mr. Black started in December whereas Denise N. George was nonetheless legal professional normal of the Virgin Islands. However she was fired on New Year’s Eve by the governor of the U.S. territory — Albert Bryan Jr. — simply days after her workplace sued JPMorgan.

In its lawsuit towards JPMorgan, the Virgin Islands claims that the nation’s largest financial institution turned a blind eye to Mr. Epstein’s trafficking of teenage women and younger girls for intercourse. It’s in search of $190 million in penalties.

JPMorgan, which not too long ago reached a $290 million settlement with Mr. Epstein’s victims on comparable grounds, is opposing the lawsuit filed by the Virgin Islands. The financial institution claims the territory shouldn’t be entitled to any cash from it as a result of authorities officers did little to discourage Mr. Epstein’s actions.

In 2013, JPMorgan dropped Mr. Epstein as a buyer, after years of pink flags raised by financial institution compliance staff about it doing enterprise with a registered intercourse offender, in line with court docket filings within the lawsuit.

However different paperwork reviewed by The Occasions present that a number of financial institution staff continued to speak to Mr. Epstein after 2013 due to his position as a tax adviser to Mr. Black, who had additionally been a buyer of JPMorgan’s personal financial institution. These paperwork additionally present that the choice to proceed to work with Mr. Epstein as a result of he was Mr. Black’s adviser was permitted by prime executives on the financial institution.

Ms. Velazquez mentioned in her assertion, “In contrast to any single particular person, JPMorgan had detailed and complete monetary information on Epstein’s actions and a authorized obligation to share that data with legislation enforcement.”

A JPMorgan spokeswoman mentioned any assembly that financial institution staff had with Mr. Epstein after 2013 would have been in service of his purchasers.

A number of the settlement cash will go towards psychological well being packages and to fight intercourse trafficking on the Virgin Islands, the territory’s legal professional normal’s workplace mentioned.

Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Maureen Farrell contributed to this report.