{"id":21140,"date":"2026-02-20T01:15:54","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=21140"},"modified":"2026-02-20T01:15:58","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:15:58","slug":"wexner-gave-epstein-about-a-billion-dollars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=21140","title":{"rendered":"Wexner gave Epstein &#8216;about a billion dollars&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div><span class=\"dateline\">NEW ALBANY, Ohio (WSYX) \u2014 <\/span>Lawmakers questioned Columbus billionaire Les Wexner on Wednesday at his home in New Albany about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, who died in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RECAP: Watch Wednesday&#8217;s briefing below:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Wexner, the founder of L Brands, is mentioned repeatedly in the Epstein files. A spokesperson said after the deposition that Wexner &#8220;honestly answered every question put to him today by the Committee,&#8221; and reiterated that he &#8220;has no knowledge of, and did not participate in, Epstein\u2019s illegal conduct.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MORE WEXNER COVERAGE<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Wexner and Epstein\u2019s Rise<\/h2>\n<p>Rep. Robert Garcia argued Wexner played a central role in financing Epstein. &#8220;There is no single person that was more involved in providing Jeffrey Epstein with the financial support to commit his crimes than Les Wexner,&#8221; Garcia told reporters. He said survivors have raised concerns about the scale of money transfers connected to Wexner and Epstein.<\/p>\n<p>Garcia pointed to what he described as a billion dollars in value moving to Epstein. &#8220;To be very clear, we know that approximately over a billion dollars, it looks like\u2014it&#8217;s about a billion dollars\u2014that was either transferred, provided in stocks, or given directly to Mr. Epstein by Wexner,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Garcia said Wexner claimed he was unaware of how much money moved between them and was trying to minimize how close the two men were over roughly two decades.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cWe should be very clear that there would be no Epstein island, there would be no Epstein plane, there would be no money to traffic women and girls, Mr. Epstein would not be the wealthy man he was without the support of Les Wexner,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n<p>Wexner reportedly told the committee he was never on Epstein\u2019s plane and visited Epstein\u2019s island only once during what he described as a family cruise on their boat. Rep. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona said she questioned him about that trip. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe claimed he was on the island for one hour, and that he walked around with his family. I asked if any other individuals were there and he said no,\u201d Ansari said.<\/p>\n<h2>Wexner Addresses Relationship<\/h2>\n<p>Ahead of the deposition, Wexner\u2014largely out of the public eye in recent years\u2014issued a rare statement calling Epstein a &#8220;world-class con man&#8221; and saying he cut ties with Epstein nearly 20 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Wexner said he met Epstein in the \u201cmid-to-late 1980s\u201d and eventually hired him to manage his personal finances at the recommendation of other businessmen. He said he gave Epstein \u201cpower of attorney\u201d to manage transactions quickly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat is so clear only now is that Epstein lived a double life,\u201d Wexner said, adding, \u201cAt no time did I ever witness the side of Epstein\u2019s life for which he is now infamous.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wexner said that in 2007, as Epstein was accused of soliciting prostitution in Florida, a review of his finances revealed \u201cEpstein had stolen vast sums from our family.\u201d Wexner said, \u201cEpstein agreed to, and did, return a substantial amount of money.\u201d He added, \u201cIn light of his eventual guilty plea and deception of our family, we completely severed our relationship with Epstein.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wexner also addressed questions about his travel and contact with Epstein, saying, \u201cI was never on his airplane,\u201d and that he \u201cvisited Epstein\u2019s island only once\u201d with his family during a cruise on their boat. He said he never saw or heard about Epstein being in the company of a minor girl.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am the father of two girls, now women, and the thought of what he did makes me sick,\u201d Wexner said. He also addressed Epstein\u2019s survivors, saying, \u201cThe pain he inflicted upon them is unfathomable to me. My heart goes out to each of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the Epstein files, a 2019 FBI document alleges Wexner was a co-conspirator. Wexner denied that, saying, \u201cI was never a participant nor co-conspirator in any of Epstein\u2019s illegal activities.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Wexner\u2019s statement does not directly mention prominent Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, who claimed Epstein trafficked her to Wexner. Wexner said any suggestion he was ever unfaithful to his wife is \u201cabsolutely and entirely false,\u201d and described \u201cenormous embarrassment and regret,\u201d saying he was \u201cduped by a world-class con man.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Dave Min of California said he did not find Wexner\u2019s account believable. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can basically say that he has basically alleged that he \u2018saw no evil, heard no evil,&#8217; despite being in the room with Jeffrey Epstein over and over and over. And it&#8217;s really just not credible. I realize he&#8217;s an elderly gentleman; memories fade. But the reputation of Jeffrey Epstein is very clear,\u201d Min said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/abc6onyourside.com\/news\/local\/house-oversight-committee-panel-les-leslie-wexner-jeffrey-epstein-billion-dollars-l-brands-limited-victorias-secret-new-albany-billionaire-columbus-ohio\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW ALBANY, Ohio (WSYX) \u2014 Lawmakers questioned Columbus billionaire Les Wexner on Wednesday at his home in New Albany about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, who died in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. RECAP: Watch Wednesday&#8217;s briefing below: Wexner, the founder of L Brands, is mentioned repeatedly in the &#8230; <a title=\"Wexner gave Epstein &#8216;about a billion dollars&#8217;\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=21140\" aria-label=\"Read more about Wexner gave Epstein &#8216;about a billion dollars&#8217;\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Wexner-gave-Epstein-about-a-billion-dollars.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21142,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21140\/revisions\/21142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}