The Senate’s Finance Committee on Tuesday revealed an ongoing probe into personal fairness billionaire Leon Black’s monetary ties with disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein, and mentioned the investigation “uncovered critical tax points.”
“The investigation has uncovered critical tax points and different considerations with trusts and buildings Black executed to keep away from over $1 billion in future present and property taxes,” the panel mentioned in a press release on Tuesday, including its probe started in June 2022.
The Senate panel mentioned {that a} reported $158 million of funds in a number of installments from 2012 to 2017 by Black to Epstein for monetary recommendation appeared “inexplicably giant,” provided that Epstein was “neither a licensed tax legal professional nor an authorized public accountant.”
The panel additionally alleged Black “has refused to reply questions or present any paperwork that would reveal how Epstein’s compensation for tax and property planning providers was decided or justified.”
A spokesperson for Black mentioned the billionaire had “cooperated extensively” with the panel’s probe and supplied detailed info.
“The transactions referenced within the Committee’s letter had been lawful in all respects, had been conceived of, vetted and applied by respected legislation companies and tax and different advisors, and Mr. Black has totally paid all taxes owed to the federal government,” Black’s spokesperson mentioned in an emailed assertion.
Black had beforehand acknowledged he paid Epstein for “authentic monetary advisory providers.”
Last week, the New York Times reported that Black paid $62.5 million to the US Virgin Islands to keep away from any authorized claims tied to an Epstein sex-trafficking investigation.
Black is price $10.1 billion, based on Forbes journal.
He left Apollo Global Management, the personal fairness agency he co-founded, in 2021.
Epstein, a registered intercourse offender who as soon as counted former presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton as mates, killed himself in 2019 whereas awaiting trial on sex-trafficking expenses.
