By Ateev Bhandari
Feb 18 (Reuters) – Apollo Global Management said on Wednesday that CEO Marc Rowan had neither a business nor personal relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, as the unfolding of the late sex offender’s correspondence continues to fuel tumult across corporate America.
“Neither Marc Rowan nor anyone else at Apollo (excluding Leon Black) had either a business or personal relationship with Jeffrey Epstein,” Apollo said in a letter sent to clients and partners.
The Epstein documents do not accuse Apollo or its executives of any engagement or awareness of Epstein’s illicit activities.
The Apollo response comes as two teachers’ unions, which hold financial interests in Apollo through their pension funds, asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday to investigate what they believe were “misleading” statements by Apollo to its investors.
Billionaire Leon Black, a cofounder at Apollo, left the company in early 2021, in a move that capped corporate governance changes, triggered by a review of his ties to financier Epstein. Rowan who took over as CEO after Black stepped down.
The review by law firm Dechert LLP, previously made public by Apollo, cleared Black of any wrongdoing and concluded that while Black tried to introduce Epstein to his co-founders Rowan and Josh Harris, no company employee other than Black “ever seriously considered hiring Epstein.”
The latest Epstein document dump reveals correspondence between Rowan’s office and Epstein’s office discussing at least five scheduled meetings between the men. Reuters could not immediately verify if the scheduled meetings ever took place.
“From an Apollo perspective, there’s nothing new in these documents,” said Apollo. “In select instances, Mr. Rowan and other Apollo employees provided information to Epstein in connection with his tax work for Mr. Black.”
The document dump also shows Brad Wechsler, who led Black’s family office, had asked Apollo staff in emails, to keep Epstein marked on materials related to tax matters for family offices of the three Apollo founders, including Rowan, for his “substantive expertise.”
EPSTEIN APPROACHES ‘DECLINED AT EVERY TURN’
“While Mr. Epstein sought to do work with the Apollo co-founders other than Mr. Black, it was declined at every turn,” Apollo said.
The latest Epstein documents have sparked renewed scrutiny of Apollo top officials in the aftermath of Epstein’s 2008 conviction on prostitution charges, including one involving an underage girl. Epstein’s 2019 death in a Manhattan jail cell was ruled a suicide.
“As the Epstein files make clear, Apollo partners Rowan and Harris appear to have consulted with Epstein on numerous personal and professional matters,” American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and American Association of University Professors President Todd Wolfson wrote in a joint letter to the SEC.
Under congressional orders, the U.S. Justice Department has released a trove of documents that tie Epstein to prominent people in politics, finance, academia and business, both before and after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to prostitution charges.
The revelations have engulfed a number of big banks including UBS and Morgan Stanley, which opened accounts for Epstein’s trusts between 2015 and 2019, years after he was convicted and registered as a sex offender.
The scandal has proven a persistent political headache for U.S. President Donald Trump, who long fanned the flames of suspicions around Epstein and has been dogged by criticism that his administration was failing to fully disclose all that the U.S. government knew about the case.
The Republican president, who socialized extensively with Epstein in the 1990s and 2000s, has denied any knowledge of the financier’s crimes and says he broke off ties in the early 2000s, before Epstein’s plea deal.
Despite the escalating outcry and global condemnation, the consequences for those implicated in wrongdoing in the U.S. have been largely limited, with Americans generally having low expectations that elites will be held accountable.
(Reporting by Ateev Bhandari in Bengaluru; Editing by Michael Perry)
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