Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Mega Edition: Leon Black And The Direct Line To Jeffrey Epstein (7/7/26)

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Mega Edition: Leon Black And The Direct Line To Jeffrey Epstein (7/7/26) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

0:01
Speaker 1: They were talking about Leon Black and how he is
0:05
being subpoenaed over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein by Denise George.
0:11
In the Virgin Islands. We talked a little bit about
0:14
how close Epstein and Leon Black were and how they
0:20
were tied together financially for sure. But tonight we're going
0:25
to add a little bit more context. We're going to
0:27
read an article tonight from twenty nineteen that originally appeared
0:32
in Bloomberg and it talks about how Epstein had deep
0:38
ties to Leon Black and also how Epstein had the
0:44
inn at Apollo, Leon Black's company. We've talked about Leon
0:48
Black here on the podcast before, and he falls right
0:51
into the category of the smarmy sobs. I've been talking
0:55
about these bankster types, these people that were in charge
0:59
of facilitating these loans, these people that were in charge
1:02
of facilitating Jeffrey Epstein's finances. All of these people must
1:07
be held accountable for their role in the ongoing criminal enterprise.
1:14
And to see Denise George subpoena Leon Black here, even
1:18
though it's just a civil subpoena, it is still good
1:21
progress and it gets these people on their toes because
1:25
they thought they were going to avoid all of this, right,
1:27
They never thought this was going to come back to
1:29
haunt them. Do you really think Jess Staley, when he
1:32
took that Barclay's job, thought that Epstein was going to
1:34
get arrested for a second time and that he'd have
1:37
to answer for all of this all over again, and
1:39
not only for previously, but for even strength for making
1:44
those ties even stronger after the fact. And that's exactly
1:48
what these people have done. And they tried to distance themselves,
1:52
They try to act like they weren't close to Epstein,
1:55
and they try to minimize the fallout the best they can,
1:59
and they're being assisted by the legacy media. Well, the
2:04
good thing is that we don't have to worry about
2:06
that for the most part anymore. There are enough independent
2:10
outlets and enough independent journalists who have taken interest in
2:13
this case that we can bypass the legacy media for
2:18
the most part and get directly into the meat and
2:21
the potatoes of the situation. The way the mainstream media
2:26
covers this case is basically by piggybacking on the work
2:31
of independent content creators and investigative journalists. They haven't put
2:37
the resources forth to really dig in deep. So they're lazy, basically,
2:42
and it just shows that they don't really care about
2:45
justice in this case or exposing relationships like Leon Black
2:51
and Apollo. Now the New York Times has done the
2:55
piece today, and that's a good thing, right, But why
2:58
are we waiting until the subpoena before we dig in?
3:02
We have Bloomberg, who was interested in the case for sure.
3:06
In twenty nineteen, they did a bunch of stuff about
3:11
Leon Black and his relationship to Jeffrey Epstein, and that's great, right,
3:15
But why did we have to wait until twenty and nineteen?
3:19
What was the hold up? Well, we know the fact
3:23
of the matter is the legacy media was protecting their friends.
3:27
They were protecting very powerful people, and they understood that
3:32
they didn't want to lose their access by going after
3:35
these people. I mean, we heard Amy Roebach admit that.
3:40
So the legacy media for all of these years thought
3:46
it was not important enough to really dig in deep
3:49
to relationships like this, to really go the extra mile.
3:55
Now again, you have some outlets like the financial lets
4:00
like Bloomberg and Financial Times, who obviously have an interest
4:05
in the financial world, so they're going to cover it.
4:08
I'm not talking about an outlet like this I'm talking about.
4:11
You don't think the relationship between Leon Black and Jeffrey
4:14
Epstein deserves an expose on CNN or Fox or MSNBC
4:19
or one of these network television stations. Of course it does,
4:23
but we will never see that for some reason or another.
4:27
I'll leave that up to you to decide. The legacy
4:30
media has protected Jeffrey Epstein and his co conspirators for decades. Tonight,
4:38
we're going to add a little bit more meat to
4:41
the bone as far as Epstein's relationship with Leon Black
4:45
and with Apollo. And this article originally appeared in Bloomberg
4:52
July thirty first of twenty nineteen, and we're reading it
4:56
from Cranesnew York dot Com, who picked it up and
5:00
ran it afterwards. The author Bloomberg News. Now Bloomberg, like
5:07
I said, has done a very good job as far
5:11
as the financial aspect of all of this. They have
5:14
done a good job covering people like Leon Black and
5:21
Dubin and the rest of the people who have ties
5:25
to Jeffrey Epstein in the financial world Jess Dally. So
5:29
they've been all over it, and I really appreciate the
5:33
work that they have done in that regard because nobody
5:36
else is really covering this. And as you all know,
5:40
these financial ties are the ones that bind. These are
5:43
the ties that are going to connect all of these
5:45
people to Jeffrey Epstein and the criminal enterprise. So it's
5:49
important that it's added to the catalog, right so that
5:52
it's on record, so that we have talked about it
5:55
and we understand what goes into it. Because when you
6:00
connect all of these people financially and all of that
6:04
money is going back to a criminal organization, well, that
6:09
money becomes funds that are ill gotten gain. And once
6:14
that's the case, then everybody who has enriched themselves from
6:18
that money, they are now also at risk of becoming
6:23
a target in a criminal investigation. So that's why I
6:26
think it's so important to wrap up all of these
6:29
finances and to make sure everything's tied together. So tonight
6:35
our article headline Epstein had door to Apollo, his deep
6:39
ties to Black. Almost a decade after Jeffrey Epstein was
6:44
first accused of praying on young women, he still had
6:47
access to the inner sanctum of Apollo Global Management. Of
6:51
course he did, because Leon Black knew what Jeffrey Epstein was,
6:55
he didn't care, just like any number of others. So
7:00
members of polite society, they understood what Epstein was, They
7:05
knew what he was and what he was doing, and
7:07
they did not care. Leon Black, Apollo's billionaire chairman, met
7:14
with the financier Pedophile from time to time at the
7:17
company's New York offices, and he allowed Epstein to pitch
7:20
personal tax strategies to the firm's executives, according to people
7:24
familiar with the matter. And remember all of this when
7:28
Leon Black and Apollo come out in the next few
7:31
days and try and distance themselves from Jeffrey Epstein and
7:35
from this criminal enterprise, because you know they're going to
7:38
do that. That's why I think it's important to add
7:40
this context and to keep this conversation going and to
7:44
put just a little bit more meat on that bone
7:46
so that we understand why Leon Black and Apollo were
7:51
the ones that were subpoenaed. This wasn't just like you know,
7:54
a situation where Denise George woke up and you know,
7:57
threw a dart at the at the dart board and
8:00
landed at on Leon Black. Right, this is something there's
8:04
a reason why he's being subpoenaed, and his very very
8:09
very deep ties to Epstein financially and otherwise needs to
8:14
be something that is discussed in a more forthright manner.
8:20
The executives were puzzled, why invite Epstein, a registered sex
8:25
offender since two thousand and nine, into one of Wall
8:27
Street's most powerful private equity firms. What services could he
8:32
possibly provide? And that's a great question, right. You have
8:36
this company, Apollo, where they have some of the top
8:41
minds in the financial world, right, some real whiz whiz
8:44
type people. We're talking people people like Taylor from Billions,
8:47
Quants and whatnot. But they're going to bring in Jeffrey Epstein,
8:51
who never even got his degree, and he's coming in
8:54
as some kind of a great mathematician who's going to
8:58
bring in all this money. I'm sorry, I'm not buying it.
9:01
I am not buying it. Black sixty eight has belatedly
9:07
provided one answer. For years, he himself occasionally turned to
9:12
Epstein on financial matters like taxes, estate planning, and philanthropy.
9:17
Black disclosed in a memo to his employees last week.
9:20
So remember that also when they try and distance themselves
9:24
from this, Black says himself in the memo sent to
9:28
employees of his firm that he turned to Epstein on
9:32
matters of financial on taxes, on estate planning issues, and
9:37
about charity. So would you be turning to somebody you're
9:40
not that close to when it comes to spending your
9:43
money or spreading it around or whatever it might be
9:46
that Black was up to. Do you really think that
9:49
somebody you're not close to, somebody you don't know, is
9:52
who you're going to to manage your money? Most certainly
9:55
not at these levels, folks. Okay. Epstein cultivated a number
10:03
of prominent Wall Street figures over the years, yet his
10:06
association with Black stretches back more than two decades and
10:10
ran deeper and longer than even some at Apollo initially believed.
10:15
For instance, in twenty fifteen, Black dispatched Apollo co founder
10:20
Mark Rowan to attend a meeting at Epstein's Manhattan mansion
10:23
with Edmund d Rothschild Group to discuss how the two
10:26
firms could work more closely. To people said, and remember,
10:31
Lynda Rothschild is the one that Dershowitz is always bringing
10:35
up as well, like she's some another pillar of the community, right,
10:39
somebody that you should be bringing up as a witness
10:44
to your character when in reality, her own family and
10:47
I'm sure her herself in one way or the other,
10:50
was still working with Epstein after Epstein was already arrested
10:54
and convicted. You see, folks, these people do not care
10:58
about the survivors or justice, or that Jeffrey Epstein was
11:01
involved in a huge human trafficking sex scheme. They don't
11:05
care about any of that. All they care about is
11:08
they got caught up in it. Now that they're caught
11:10
up in it, well it's damage control time. It's not
11:12
about taking responsibility for their bad choices. It's not about
11:16
standing up and saying, well, I was wrong for being
11:19
around Jeffrey Epstein, and I realize that now, and I
11:22
would like to help. It's all about putting distance between
11:25
themselves and Jeffrey Epstein and relying on the legacy media
11:30
to help them cover up and promote that fallacy you.
11:38
Arianda Rothschild and Cynthia Tobiano represented the European banking dynasty
11:43
at Epstein's home. The people said, though no follow up
11:46
meetings or deals ensued that we know of no deals
11:49
on the books. But again, would you have me to
11:54
believe or would I have you believe, which is even
11:57
more important, that these people are meeting at Epstein, they're
12:01
trying to hammer out some financial deals, and that they're
12:04
all gonna walk away without wetting their beak, All of
12:07
these greedy, disgusting sobs are gonna walk away without eating
12:12
at the trough. Highly doubt it. I do not know
12:17
what you were referring to, said Florence Gobert, a spokeswoman
12:20
for Edmund de Rothschild, adding that the bank has no
12:24
business links with Apollo or Epstein. So this is even
12:27
more sinister, right. This means there's something going on behind
12:30
the scenes. This means that they're working, they're doing something
12:33
that is off the books, which is always even more
12:36
dangerous for society at large, especially when we're dealing with
12:39
people like this. Right, So, I don't know what Florence
12:44
Gobert is trying to say or do here, But the
12:46
fact of the matter is these people were at Epstein's.
12:49
They were around Epstein Epstein all the time. And to
12:52
think that the Rothchild family has no relationship with Epstein
12:56
or that they know nothing about Epstein, well that is
12:59
a very naive to look at things. At least one
13:03
Apollo executive was invited to listen to Epstein's tax pitch. Meanwhile,
13:08
he also pursued co founder Josh Harris, who rebuffed the
13:12
approaches one of the people said. Charles Zarin, a spokesman
13:16
for Apollo, said in a statement Tuesday, that Black never
13:20
promoted Jeffrey Epstein's services regarding tax and to state planning
13:24
to other Apollo senior executives. Well, that might be the truth.
13:28
I don't know one way or the other right, but
13:31
I find it unlikely that Black wouldn't be sitting around
13:34
with his confidants counting his coins and swimming around in
13:37
his money like Scrooge McDuck, and he wouldn't be giving
13:41
his buddies a tip about Jeffrey Epstein. If Epstein had
13:44
a way to park their money somewhere or create more
13:47
wealth from the original amount given to Epstein, if he
13:51
can make more money out of that, of course they're
13:53
going to be interested in it, because at the end
13:55
of the day, they're greed is what drives them. Blacks
14:01
links to Epstein have become a source of fascination and
14:04
concern to some Apollo employees and investors, including the California
14:08
public Employees Retirement System, which has committed more than five
14:12
billion to eleven Apollo funds and is its second largest shareholder.
14:17
Think about that, folks. The California Public Employees Retirement System
14:22
is tied to Leon Black in eleven Apollo funds. How
14:26
much of the public money from California was siphoned to
14:30
Jeffrey Epstein. Now again, I don't have any direct evidence
14:33
of that. I am not a forensic accountant, but logically,
14:36
a guy like Jeffrey Epstein supposedly he Pilford forty something
14:40
million from Wexner. What makes you think he wasn't getting
14:43
a taste from all of these deals. When you're a crook,
14:46
a criminal, and a scam artist like Epstein, you're always
14:50
getting a taste. Cowpers takes this issue very seriously. Wayne Davis,
14:56
a spokesman for the Sacramento based pension, set in an
14:59
email last week, the actions our general partners take, both
15:02
in professional and private contexts, impact our assessment of which
15:06
firms we desire as long term partners. We consider any issue,
15:11
including reputational risk, a serious matter. If it impacts a
15:15
firm's ability to be successful. Well, that's all fine and well, right,
15:20
But I think if you took a poll of the
15:22
people's money who you were managing, I'm pretty sure the
15:26
vast majority of them would not want their money parked
15:29
with anybody who has our relationship previously, now, before, after,
15:35
whenever with Jeffrey Epstein. He said Tuesday that the pension
15:41
fund is in the process of contacting Apollo to discuss this.
15:45
During Apollo's earnings conference call Wednesday, Black responded to a
15:49
question from an analyst about how the firm is handling
15:52
the fallout from potential ties with Epstein. And this is important.
15:56
Let's listen to what he has to say here, because
15:59
we know that he's going to try and distance himself.
16:01
That's what he has done. That's what all of these
16:04
people have done. And it is gross really that they
16:09
would think were that's stupid and that were that naive,
16:12
and that we're going to buy into their BS narrative.
16:15
They really believe their own bullshit. Sometimes we take this
16:20
all extremely seriously. Black said, yes, so serious that you
16:24
had a relationship with a convicted sex offender after the fact, right,
16:29
so serious that you were still close with Jeffrey Epstein, right, Lion,
16:33
sob there's been a virtual tsunami in the press on
16:36
this subject. It seems to be the gift that never
16:39
stops giving for the press. It's sillacious. It involves elements
16:42
of politics, of me too, of rich and powerful people.
16:46
And my guess is it will continue for a while.
16:50
Not one mention of the survivors, not one mention of
16:53
the fact that Epstein got away with this for so long,
16:56
Nothing like that at all. Basically, he's just deriding the
16:59
whole thing. Oh, it's salacious, It involves elements of politics,
17:03
me too, rich and powerful people. It will continue for
17:06
a while. Yeah, bitch, it's going to continue for a
17:08
while until you and all your disgusting friends are held
17:11
responsible for the part you played, you snid, arrogant, hubris
17:17
filled piece of trash. Still, it isn't affecting our relationship
17:22
with investors, Black said, adding we have a pretty open
17:25
dialogue with them. Well, I hope that after this subpoena
17:29
that I hope that they reevaluate their relationship with you.
17:32
There are plenty of other places to park your money, folks.
17:36
You don't need to park it with Apollo. You don't
17:38
need to be with this dude, black In. Epstein's ties
17:43
have come under renewed scrutiny after the disgraced financier Pedophile
17:47
was arrested July sixth on federal charges that he molested
17:51
and exploited teenage girls. After conducting a review of emails
17:55
and documents, Apollo said it established that Epstein's sixty six
18:00
never worked at the firm. He's being held in a
18:03
Manhattan jail and pleaded not guilty to the latest charges.
18:06
Black told employees last week that he was completely unaware
18:10
of and am deeply troubled by the conduct that is
18:13
now the subject of the federal criminal charges brought against him.
18:17
He is such an absolute bs artist. And imagine being
18:21
an employee working for this guy and this clown, this moron,
18:25
this degenerate. Tried to pitch that line to you, I
18:29
would laugh right out of the boardroom. This is an
18:32
absolute joke. You were unaware, huh, And deeply troubled, so
18:36
unaware that you continued the relationship right, So deeply troubled
18:41
that you didn't lose one night of sleep over it, huh,
18:44
So deeply troubled that you couldn't even find it in
18:46
your heart to have some compassion for the survivors. Nah,
18:52
not you not me, not Leon Black. Black isn't alone
18:58
in continuing a professional relationship with Epstein years after his
19:02
first conviction, although Epstein's biggest benefactor, Les Wexner, the billionaire
19:07
behind Victoria's Secret, said he severed ties more than a
19:10
decade ago. JP Morgan Chasing Company had maintained a relationship
19:15
with Epstein for years after, while Deutsche Bank ag cut
19:18
him loose in recent months. And we know how that's
19:21
worked out for the both of them. JP Morgan also
19:24
having their bank records examined, Deutsche Bank paying a huge
19:27
fine hundred and fifty million dollars, of course, a pittance
19:30
to them, but again it's the message that is sent.
19:33
So all of these institutions have come under scrutiny, all
19:38
of these institutions have had to pay a fine or
19:41
suffer some sort of penalty in the public sphere. And
19:46
now it's Apollo Global and Leon Black's turn to take
19:52
some heat to catch the smoke. Epstein and Black have
19:56
been acquaintances since at least the early nineties. The relationship
20:00
deepened as Black became one of the wealthiest and most
20:02
powerful people in finance. Black is worth six and a
20:06
half billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Having built Apollo,
20:10
along with Rowan and Harris, into one of the world's
20:13
largest private equity firms, The company reported that it raised
20:17
more than twelve billion in the second quarter, bringing assets
20:20
under management to about three hundred and twelve billion. Apollo
20:24
shares fell three point eight percent to thirty three point
20:27
seventy two to thirty three dollars and seventy two cents
20:30
at eleven forty three am, pairing this year's gains to
20:33
thirty seven percent. And I have not looked at the gains.
20:37
Remember this is an article from twenty nineteen. I have
20:40
not looked at their gains during this coronavirus epidemic, but
20:44
I would not be shocked if they've made a bunch
20:46
more money, because all of the rich people in the
20:48
world have been making money hand over fist while you
20:52
and I are worried about our next meal. Along the way,
20:58
Black has become among the world's foremost art collectors. Ah,
21:01
what do you know, another connection to the art world, folks.
21:03
It's just a coincidence though, right, None of this stuff
21:06
is tied together. Stop looking into it. Art world, Bah,
21:10
you're crazy. Why are you being so crazy? There's not
21:15
a pervasive problem in the art world. There aren't predators
21:19
littering the landscape. Expanded his investments outside Apollo through his
21:25
family office of Elysium Management, and became a philanthropist with
21:29
a particular focus on melanoma research after his wife, Deborah
21:33
was diagnosed with the skin cancer. All right, well, hey,
21:36
I'm not gonna malign him for that. I get it.
21:39
If anyone understands about dealing with your loved one with cancer,
21:42
it's me that said. It doesn't give you a shield
21:45
to protect yourself. You're not gonna use that to deflect
21:51
fire coming down range your way. Epstein was a director
21:56
of the Leon Black Family Foundation from at least two
21:59
thousand and one, according to disclosure forms filed with the
22:02
US government. His name appeared on these forms until twenty twelve.
22:07
That was an administrative error. A spokeswoman for Black said
22:10
last week Epstein was asked to resign in two thousand
22:13
and seven, but records weren't kept up to date. She said, well,
22:16
why was he asked to resign in two thousand and seven?
22:19
I thought Black had no idea about what he was
22:21
up to. Why would he be asked to resign then
22:24
if he had no idea what Jeffrey Epstein was up to,
22:27
why would he be asked to resign? You see, folks,
22:32
their stories are so full of holes, and they're not
22:35
dealing from the alleyway of truth. They are dealing from
22:40
the den of lies. So keeping their story together is
22:43
going to be much more difficult than say, the story
22:46
that Maria is telling us, or the story of Virginia
22:49
is telling us, or the story that Sarah is telling us,
22:52
or any of the survivors. Because they're telling the truth.
22:56
They're telling you what happened, and these scumbags they're trying
23:00
to cover their tracks. And I think that's another reason
23:04
why it's so important that we continue to read these
23:07
articles on a daily basis. I think it's very important
23:10
that we keep up to date and we make sure
23:12
that we fill in all the holes that are possible
23:15
and add as much meat to the bone and as
23:18
much context as we possibly can, so that when these
23:21
assholes try and lie and pull one over on us,
23:24
we can say, wait a minute, we already covered the
23:27
fact that you said something completely different previously. And then
23:31
they'll try and lie their way out of it again.
23:33
And the legacy media will not call them on their bullshit,
23:36
and around and around we go. Black and Epstein were
23:42
still doing some business in twenty fifteen. That year, BV
23:46
seventy LLC, a charity Can Control by Black, donated ten
23:50
million dollars to Epstein's foundation, Gratitude America. On a few occasions,
23:55
I donated money to certain charitable organizations with which mister
23:59
Epstein was a affiliated, and he made contributions to certain
24:02
charitable organizations that are meaningful to me. Black said in
24:06
a memo to employees. So yeah, when they try and
24:10
tell you in the next couple of days, folks, and
24:12
the blitz begins, the the fix our reputation blitz begins
24:19
for Black and Apollo. Remember what we talked about tonight.
24:23
Remember the type of man who that he is, and
24:26
remember that he showed no remorse and not a care
24:29
in the world about what happened to the survivors. Remember
24:33
that when they're attempting to gaslight you into thinking that
24:37
Leon Black and Jeffrey Epstein were not deeply connected. If
24:43
you'd like to contact me, you can do that at
24:45
Bobby Kapucci at Protonmeil dot com. That's Bo b b
24:49
y c ap u c c I at ProtonMail dot com.
24:53
You can also find me on Twitter at bo bb
24:56
Y underscore c ap U c c I. All of
25:00
the links that go with this episode will be in
25:02
the description box. I'm going to watch some what's up everyone,
25:07
and welcome back to the Epstein Chronicles. On this edition,
25:11
we're going to talk about Leon Black and the new
25:13
allegations that he's making, that he was part of a
25:18
corporate coup, that his old partner at Apollo Global put
25:23
Miss Ganijeva up to making these accusations, and that Josh
25:29
Harris was doing it all to try and get rid
25:32
of Leon Black because of their issues behind the scenes.
25:35
Now there's an article out in the Daily Beast today
25:38
by Kate Bricklett, who is discussing this. Now, if you've
25:42
noticed over the I don't know last few hours from
25:47
last night into this morning, I posted a bunch of
25:51
episodes dealing with Leon Black and the situation we're about
25:55
to talk to. As you all know, I love context,
25:59
so I wanted to provide a little bit more context
26:02
for you because I knew that there was going to
26:04
be some significant news this morning breaking about Leon Black.
26:09
So we're not gonna spend too much time here in
26:12
the monologue. We're gonna dive right into this article and
26:16
we're gonna see what sort of nonsense Leon Black is
26:20
now up to. All Right, this article is from The
26:23
Daily Beast and the author is Kate Bricklett. Headline Jeffrey
26:28
Epstein pal Leon Black claims rape accuser was part of
26:32
a corporate coup. Now we all know that the allegations
26:38
against Leon Black are heinous, disgusting, disturbing, and we all
26:43
know that he was real good friends with Jeffrey Epstein
26:46
to the tune of one hundred and fifty eight million
26:48
dollars at least. So when these claims were first brought forward,
26:55
I was not surprised at all. Now him trying to
26:59
fight back and blame Harris for this kind of ridiculous
27:04
on his part. To be honest with you, I don't
27:06
think it's gonna go anywhere. Harris is not some shrinking
27:09
violet that Leon Black's gonna be able to bully like
27:13
he's always done. Harris is another very powerful hedge funder
27:17
owned sports teams, helped create Apollo Global, Big time Player.
27:21
It's gonna take a lot to, you know, rattle his tree.
27:26
And we're gonna see what Leon Black is bringing to
27:28
the table here. But it looks like another one of
27:31
these attempts to try and deflect blame from himself and
27:36
put it onto somebody else. And we've seen that strategy
27:39
from these people for a very, very long time, especially
27:42
in the Epstein case. As billionaire Leon Black fights a
27:48
former model's rape lawsuit in a Manhattan court, he's roping
27:51
in other high profile men and claiming someone secretly bankrolleder
27:55
case in order to stage a coup at his former firm,
27:59
Apollo Global Management. And make no mistake about it, folks,
28:04
he is looking to weasel his way back into Apollo.
28:08
He cannot abide by the fact that the power was
28:11
taken away from him, the reins were taken away from him.
28:14
He cannot do. He can't live like this, right, He
28:18
has to be in control. So he's come up with
28:20
this idea. If he can, you know, you know, make
28:24
the picture look like he was being blackmailed and it
28:27
was a corporate coup, then the board members will have
28:29
to accept him back. Meanwhile, has he forgotten his relationship
28:34
with Jeffrey Epstein? This is a separate issue here. If
28:38
he thinks we're gonna forget about his cozy relationship with
28:41
Epstein and the one hundred and fifty eight million dude's crazy. Furthermore,
28:45
I don't believe a word he has to say about
28:48
the situation here with miss Ganieva. I believe what he
28:52
has to say is true. To be honest with you.
28:56
Last June, Guzelle Ganieva filed a defamation suit against Black,
29:01
the seventy year old friend and client of wealthy sex
29:03
offender pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, claiming he sexually abused her for
29:07
years and coerced her into signing a non disclosure agreement
29:11
to keep her silent about the assaults. Typical of these people.
29:15
Oh you know, I'll give you a bazillion trillion dollars
29:18
and I'll assault you, but just can't say anything about it. Cool,
29:21
And that's the way they do it, right. They have
29:24
all of these non disclosure agreements, and they use their
29:27
money and power to make sure that people never say
29:30
a word about their abuse. And then if somebody does
29:33
say something about their abuse, oh, the counter lawsuits begin.
29:37
We had a non disclosure agreement. Nothing about the fact
29:40
that you're a sick bastard who abused people only about
29:43
the fact that your stupid agreement wasn't fulfilled. Black, who
29:49
denies any wrongdoing and says they had consensual affair, is
29:53
attempting to subpoena Ganieva's phone records and those of New
29:56
York Public Relations executive Steven Rubinstein, who the unbattled mogul
30:01
claims was enlisted by Apollo co founder Josh Harris the
30:05
plant negative stories about him in the press. So if
30:09
you go back to the beginning, when we first started
30:12
talking about Leon Black, I told you guys that my
30:15
sources had told me that there was a battle royale
30:18
going on in the boardroom. I have an episode dealing
30:21
with that, and I'm going to post it from a
30:24
year ago, two years ago at this point, But some
30:27
of my former colleagues from when I worked at Caner
30:29
Fitzgerald had told me about the situation and the buzz
30:33
that was going on about the battle that was happening
30:35
between Harris and Black, even before the Epstein allegations came
30:41
to light. So this has been a brewing problem behind
30:45
the scenes, and it's starting to come to a head now.
30:50
In court filings this week, Black unveiled shocking accusations against Harris,
30:54
describing him as an ARC rival who backed Ganieva's litigation
30:58
behind the scenes after losing a multi billion dollar succession
31:02
fight to replace Black as Apollo CEO in twenty twenty one. Well,
31:07
that whole entire deal was tilted against Harris from Jump Street.
31:13
You had a Rowan and Leon Black who were talking
31:19
behind the scenes about making sure Rowan got that position
31:22
from the beginning, and Josh Harris was never going to
31:26
be considered for that position because Leon Black knows him
31:29
and Harris have issues. He knows that Harris is not
31:32
going to bend to his will, and Rowan, on the
31:34
other hand, well, Rowan will. So this has been something
31:38
that has been in the making for quite some time. Now.
31:41
Did Harris do this? I don't know. I wasn't there,
31:45
but I would think that this is just a deflection
31:49
from Leon Black because he knows how serious these claims
31:52
are and he knows the jeopardy he's in not only
31:55
for that, but his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein as well.
32:00
The pleading accuses Harris of enlisting Rubinstein to help shape
32:04
his own media profile and to help seed harmful stories
32:07
about Black. It also alleges Harris attempted to oust Black
32:11
in twenty twenty and twenty twenty one by spotlighting the
32:14
financial arrangements with Epstein, whose sexual abuse of girls had
32:18
been widely reported on four years. Well, you blame Harris.
32:24
I mean, imagine you helped found this company. And then
32:27
Leon Black thinks it's a good idea to go and
32:29
hang out with Epstein. Give him one hundred and fifty
32:32
eight million dollars for I'm using air quotes here advice,
32:36
hang out with Epstein, fly to Epstein's house, and, according
32:39
to miss Ganievo, well a lot worse. You blame Harris
32:42
for being pissed off. Now, don't get it twisted. I
32:45
don't think Harris is a good guy either. Another one
32:47
of these billionaires, destroy you at all cost types of
32:50
hedge fund m efforts. But in this case he's certainly
32:54
the lesser of two evils. Black seeks to show communication
32:59
between missus Ganieva's camp and mister Rubinstein's camp, between his
33:03
accuser and the public relations teams that work for his
33:07
art rival, further demonstrating that miss Ganieva's claims are nothing
33:11
but fabrications stitched together from whole cloth his lawyer, Daniel
33:16
Perry said in the pleading, So they've been saying that
33:18
from the beginning that Miss Ganieva and her accusations here
33:22
are bunk, that they are not true, and that it
33:25
was all a push to get some money. Now I
33:29
don't buy that for a minute, to be honest with you,
33:33
people don't go after people like Leon Black unless they
33:36
have the goods, unless they have some evidence, right, because
33:40
if not, you're looking to get destroyed. Because that's exactly
33:44
the kind of man Leon Black is. He's made a
33:47
career out of destroying people and companies. The private equity
33:55
titan resigned from Apollo last March, two months after an
33:58
internal review found that he had paid at Epstein one
34:00
hundred and fifty eight million dollars from twenty twelve to
34:04
twenty and seventeen for tax and estate planning and other
34:07
financial advice. It just beggars the mind, right, how are
34:11
you going to pay one hundred and fifty eight million
34:13
dollars for financial advice? If you have one hundred and
34:17
fifty eight million dollars, you're the man who created Apollo,
34:20
You really need to go to an outside source for
34:23
financial advice. What were you really giving that money to
34:26
Epstein for mister Black. Black also stepped down as chairman
34:35
of the Museum of Modern Art in wake of protests
34:38
over his ties to the late sex trafficker Blake's file.
34:42
Black's filing states that Harris, enraged that Apollo passed him over,
34:46
then forged ahead with a malicious campaign to take mister
34:50
Black down. And this is going to be the gist
34:53
of it, right, It's all Josh Harris's fault. I want
34:56
you to pay attention to Harris. He's coming after me.
35:00
I won't look at what I'm doing though, Don't look
35:01
at my relationship with Epstein. Don't look at the fact
35:04
that miss Gannieva is leveling some serious charges against me.
35:08
It's all Harris's fault. Mister Harris convened a team of
35:17
media experts, including prominently mister Rubinstein, not only to manage
35:22
his own reputation, but to also impune and indeed attempt
35:26
to destroy mister Black, Perry said in the court filing.
35:29
Both Harris and Rubinstein have denied Black's accusations, with Harris's
35:33
spokesperson calling them desperate and absurd. The claims in mister
35:38
Black's legal memorandum are baseless, untrue, and unsupportable. Jonathan Rosen,
35:43
a spokesman for Harris, told The Daily Beast, mister Harris
35:47
does not know miss Ganieva, has never met or spoken
35:50
with her or anyone representing her, has no financial or
35:54
any other dealings with her or her representatives, that no
35:58
involvement of any kind in the filing in the filing
36:01
of any claims by her. Simply put, mister Harris has
36:05
nothing whatsoever to do with the deeply troubling situation mister
36:08
Black finds himself in, and any statement or implication otherwise
36:13
is unhinged at best. So Harris right here is flatly
36:16
denying it, saying, Look, your situation is your own. Don't
36:20
try and drag me into the muck with you. You're
36:22
the one who's being accused of serious sexual assault charges.
36:26
You're the one who is paling around with Jeffrey Epstein,
36:28
not me. Don't bring me into this. And of course,
36:32
what Leon Black is attempting to do is exactly that.
36:36
Let's move this spotlight a little bit over to the
36:38
left here on the Harris boys. Evan Farber, an attorney
36:43
for Rubinstein, told us mister Rubinstein in his firm have
36:47
absolutely no relationship with Miss Ganieva past present, formal or informal.
36:52
They have never met or communicated with her or any
36:55
of her representatives. These and the rest of the claims
36:58
filed by mister Black's attorneys offer a concocted, ever evolving
37:03
conspiracy theory, packed with false information and are not based
37:07
in reality. So let's not forget and you know, lose
37:11
the plot here. The plot is Miss Ganieva has leveled
37:15
serious sexual charges against Black, and now Black, in return,
37:18
is attempting to destroy Miss Ganieva like they always do,
37:22
and by doing that, what he's doing is bringing Josh
37:25
Harrison to it as well, So he's looking to get
37:29
rid of two of his rivals in one fell swoop. Here.
37:36
Genie Christiansen, a lawyer for Ganieva and partner at Whigdor LLP,
37:40
also denied Black's accusations. Rather than responding to our clients
37:44
serious allegations of sexual assault and rape as alleged in
37:47
her complaint, Leon Black is deflecting from his own conduct
37:51
by infusing his personal strife with former partners at Apollo
37:55
into her case, she told The Daily Beast, And that's
37:58
one hundred percent where I'm at as well. Look, these
38:01
guys are the masters of manipulation. They're the masters of
38:04
making moves behind the scenes, and Leon Black is certainly
38:08
not an apprentice. This guy has been destroying careers and
38:11
people since Junior Soprano is wearing short pants, folks. While
38:19
Black concedes that he paid Ganieva one hundred thousand dollars
38:22
a month from October twenty fifteen through March of last
38:26
year and forgave one million dollars in loans to her
38:28
as part of their NDA, he argues she lacks any
38:31
apparent independent means of supporting herself. So what what does
38:35
that have to do with anything? You're the one who
38:40
gave her all of this money, right, Why did you
38:42
give her all of this money? Oh? It was a
38:43
consensual affair, dude? Your wife was sick, bro all right,
38:47
So throughout the whole time your wife was ill, you're
38:49
cheating on her, and then you have the audacity to
38:52
make the person you cheated on her with sign an
38:54
NDA after you allegedly sexually assaulted her. Yeah, you're a
38:58
hell of a guy. Pal, It is not hard to
39:03
infer that she is being bankrolled by someone with deep
39:05
pockets Perry Black's lawyer alleges and Tuesday's filing. Meanwhile, her
39:10
false claims are seated and amplified by mister Rubinstein, the
39:14
same pr guru who already has done mister Harris work
39:17
in spreading rumors about mister Black's alleged sexual misconduct. What
39:21
do you mean spreading rumors? These are court filings that
39:24
we're looking at. Nobody spread these rumors. There's nobody out
39:28
there on the pitch trying to get the rumor mill
39:31
going on. Leon Black. You're doing it all for yourself,
39:34
all right. You don't need any help. Everything's swirling and
39:38
falling down on you in a radioactive fashion because of
39:42
your own decisions. All of these people who are supposedly
39:46
so much smarter than the rest of us, sure seem
39:48
like a bunch of dumbasses, don't they. The filing doesn't
39:53
refer to any specific evidence or exhibits of the alleged
39:56
smear campaign, but instead points to a circumstantial timeline as
40:00
twenty twenty turned into twenty twenty one, with an independent
40:04
investigation into mister Black's relationship with mister Epstein underway. Mister Rubinstein,
40:09
despite being on retainer with Apollo works specifically on mister
40:13
Harris's behalf. Perry alleged this work included being in communication
40:18
with mister Harris on talking points and media statements relating to,
40:22
among other things, mister Black and mister Epstein. Well, none
40:26
of this would have happened. You wouldn't have to worry
40:28
about that if your client, mister Black, wasn't hanging out
40:32
and enabling Jeffrey Epstein. Pretty simple. Mister Black is entitled
40:39
to probe the timing and prove that it is no coincidence.
40:42
Just as mister Rubinstein prepared and fed allegations to media
40:46
to further mister Harris's ambitions, so too were the allegations
40:51
relating to Miss Ganijeva. His attorneys stated, I mean, come on,
40:55
this is really going to be your defense. They're not
40:59
going to bring any thing stronger to the table. Here's
41:02
what they think is what they're gonna do. They think
41:04
they're gonna steamroll over missus Ganieva because she's not some
41:07
high profile person, and they think that if they drag
41:10
this out, they'll litigate it long enough she won't be
41:13
able to afford it. So I hope some lawyer takes
41:15
it pro bono and really sticks it to Leon Black.
41:20
Black's team underscored that Rubinstein previously worked with The New
41:24
York Post, where Ganieva gave an exclusive interview months before
41:27
her lawsuit was filed, and it beggars belief to suggest
41:31
that Gazelle Ganieva herself, without professional public relationship help, convinced
41:36
Ronan Farrow and other prominent reporters to sign on as
41:40
the first three followers of her new Twitter account. Black's
41:43
legal team continued as if Twitter is a real place,
41:46
I can't stand when people bring up Twitter like it's
41:48
a real place. Like twenty percent of adults use Twitter.
41:52
That's it. It's for the loudest voices amongst us. It's
41:55
for the water carrying tribalists. That's what Twitter is. That's
42:00
not a representation of the rest of the country. Come on.
42:03
Nevada State Van Kanieva first came forward with acting with
42:07
accusations of abuse in a series of tweets in March
42:10
twenty twenty one weeks later, Black denied her claims and
42:13
said I have been extorted by miss Ganieva for many years,
42:17
and I made substantial monetary payments to her based on
42:20
her threats to go public concerning our relationship in an
42:23
attempt to spare my family from public embarrassment. Here's an idea.
42:27
Don't engage in the behavior in the first place, and
42:29
you don't have to worry about sparing your family from embarrassment.
42:33
See how that works, and you'll be a little bit
42:35
richer as well. We all know that's your favorite thing,
42:37
right Leon Black, being a little bit richer. So if
42:40
you don't get involved in this sort of shit in
42:42
the first place, you don't have to worry about it.
42:44
Thanks for coming to my ted talk. Ganieva then filed
42:49
her defamation suit against Black, which said she was a
42:52
single mother from Russia when she met him in two
42:54
thousand and eight, and she believed he would help her
42:57
career move beyond modeling. Instead, she said, a Black trapped
43:00
in a cycle of intimidation, abuse and humiliation. Sure sounds
43:05
like the m O Jeffrey Epstein used, isn't it all
43:08
of a sudden, Leon Black is using the same strategy,
43:10
according to miss Ganievo over here so she later updated
43:16
her lawsuit to add accusations that highlighted an especially close
43:19
relationship between Black and Epstein. In an amended complaint, Ganieva
43:25
claimed black Fluor to Florida in two thousand and eight
43:28
and encouraged her to have sex with his best friend Epstein,
43:31
who was on work release from jail, but she refused.
43:35
While visiting Epstein's Palm Beach Lair, Ganieva said she met
43:38
his former assistant and alleged co conspirator, Sarah Kellen. According
43:43
to Ganieva, Kellen said that Black and Epstein were sex
43:46
addicts and warned they are very powerful and if you
43:48
don't do what they want you to do, there will
43:50
be consequences that I do not want for you. Sounds
43:53
about right. Sarah Kellen getting in the mix, trying to
43:57
smooth things over, get these girls in it for a
44:00
Epstein and his buddies to abuse, certainly fits with the pattern.
44:05
Ganieva also claimed Glenn Maxwell, Epstein's recently convicted accomplice, approached
44:10
her in twenty thirteen and offered to help her get
44:13
a passport. We know that was something they were doing too.
44:17
They had the scam marriages going on with Dyke and Khan,
44:20
and they were getting a citizenship for people via that scam.
44:26
So these guys, Epstein and his friends, they had their
44:29
fingers in many pies, folks. Since Ganieva came forward, Black
44:34
filed a short lived counterclaim alleging he was the victim
44:37
of an extortion scheme. He dropped that state court action
44:40
in September. In October, Black sued Ganieva and Whigdoor LLP,
44:46
the law firm representing her, for racketeering and defamation in
44:49
federal court. Aside from Ganieva and her lawyers, Black named
44:53
three other public defendants, John Doees one and two, and
44:57
he described as public relations and social media professionals, and
45:01
John Doe three, a funder who was supposedly covering the
45:05
cost of the litigation and alleged PR campaigns against him.
45:09
Now I said at the time that Josh Harris was
45:12
a likely suspect for this sort of thing, and if
45:16
anyone was going to be fingered for it, it would be
45:19
Harris considering the animosity that has been built between him
45:25
and Black at this point, the defendants here created an
45:33
enterprise to extort and cancel one of the world's most
45:35
prominent business leaders. Black's racketeering suit claims, and again it's
45:40
galling right. Black has a racketeering suit against Harris and
45:44
the Ganieva but we don't have a racketeering suit against
45:48
Maxwell go Figure. In response, Whigdor LLP asked the court
45:53
to sanction Black and this legal team for allegedly filing
45:56
the suit for improper purposes, namely retaliating against the firm
46:00
for representing Ganijeva and attempting to interfere with their ability
46:04
to represent her. It's no surprise that a billionaire faced
46:07
with allegations of sexual assault would want to use his
46:10
fortune to change the subject by retaliating against his accuser
46:14
and her representatives in a very public manner, Rivkin Radler LLP,
46:18
lawyers for Wigdor, stated last week and a memorandum seeking sanctions. However,
46:25
zealous representation does not equate to or excuse the filing
46:29
of frivolous harassing or retaliatory litigation. So they're saying it's
46:33
all bs, and that Black's team filed it as a
46:38
intimidation method to tell these people, look, if you try anything,
46:42
we will crush you. I'm Leon Black, and I'm coming
46:45
for everything you own if you attempt to even bring
46:48
these charges against me. And that's what they've done forever,
46:51
and they've been able to intimidate people for a long
46:53
time doing that. Wigdor's lawyers added that no amount of
46:59
investigation could possibly have led Black or his counsel to
47:02
a good faith belief that the firm was involved with
47:05
a funder. They said Black's legal team knew Wigdor was
47:08
representing Ganieva on a contingency agreement in her state court lawsuit.
47:13
No one has paid or reimbursed Wigdor for anything in
47:15
connection with its representation of miss Ganieva, they said, So
47:19
it looks like it's pro bono here, which is a
47:21
great thing, and I'm glad Wigdor is doing that because
47:25
when you're dealing with high profile people like Black, it's
47:28
very hard to litigate against them in court if you
47:31
don't have a huge bankroll. Lawyers for Wigdor also denied
47:37
the firm or Ganieva had enlisted a public relations specialist
47:42
to publicizer accusations. It is frivolous for Black to allege,
47:45
as he does, with the improper of his counsel, that
47:49
miss Ganieva needed the assistance of a flak to use
47:53
the hashtags me too or Leon Black, they wrote, meaning
47:57
she didn't need to hire somebody to use those hashtags,
48:01
and you know, talk about these people on our own
48:03
on social media. Black, with his billions of dollars, may
48:08
believe that he can levy baseless and legally defective RICO
48:11
and defamation claims against opposing council with impunity in an
48:15
attempt to interfere with Whigdoor's ability to represent Miss Ganieva
48:19
and gain an advantage in her first filed state court action.
48:23
Wigdor's lawyers added, however, his lawyers should have refused to
48:27
go along with that wrongful approach. In a letter to
48:31
the court last week, Black's lawyer, Susan Estrich, indicated he
48:34
will file an amended racketeering complaint by January twenty eighth.
48:39
Estrich added that Wigdor's motion for sanctions should be denied
48:42
as moot once the updated lawsuit is filed. So kill
48:46
them with filings, kill them with court appeals, kill them
48:50
with technicalities and loopholes. That's what he's trying to do here.
48:54
He's trying to use his great power, his great wealth,
48:58
to make this too much of a long and drawn
49:01
out war and financially not feasible for anybody to engage in.
49:08
Earlier this month, Ganieva's lawyers filed a motion to quash
49:11
Black subpoena to AT and T for her phone records,
49:15
calling it a clear and unnecessary invasion of privacy and
49:18
a transparent attempt to intimidate and harass Miss Ganieva. Black
49:23
is simply fishing for evidence for use in the federal lawsuit,
49:27
despite having received sworn statements from Miss Ganieva that she
49:31
has not spoken to any public relations firm or agent.
49:34
Wrote Whigdoor attorney Lindsay M. Goldbrum. So the back and
49:39
forth is on right. You know that Black wants everything
49:41
he could possibly get, and Miss Gannieva's lawyers they're not
49:45
having it. They're pushing back saying this is unfounded, this
49:48
is bs and it's going to be interesting to see
49:51
what the court says. Black believes wrongly that plaintiff conspired
49:58
with other people to file the action against Black for
50:01
the sole purpose of embarrassing him and ruining his reputation.
50:04
Goldbram added, he is not entitled to continue on a
50:07
quest that has yielded no information and that unquestionably will
50:10
continue to do so. And furthermore, his reputation was already
50:14
ruined by his association with Epstein. That's a ridiculous argument.
50:19
Rubinstein's lawyer. Farber also moved to defeat a subpoena for
50:23
his phone records, calling it brazenly over broad and improperly invasive.
50:27
Black only seeks not only seeks Rubinstein's phone records in
50:31
texts from October twenty twenty to September twenty twenty one,
50:35
but records for each of his agents, representatives, and employees.
50:39
Farber said, So that's a big ask that Leon Black
50:42
is making here, and I don't think it's gonna go
50:45
over so well. We'll have to see though. All Right, folks,
50:48
that's gonna do it for this episode, and I wanted
50:50
to get it added to the catalog considering we had
50:53
those other Leon Black episodes that I uploaded last night.
50:57
Want to make sure we have, you know, as much
50:58
context as possible. I have a few other episodes dealing
51:02
with Leon Black, such as the Battle Royale in the
51:05
Boardroom episode. I'm gonna upload that one as well. All right, folks,
51:10
if you'd like to contact me, you can do that
51:12
at Bobby Kapuchi at ProtonMail dot com. That's b O
51:15
B bu y c A p U C C I
51:18
at ProtonMail dot com. You can also find me on
51:22
Twitter at bo bbu y underscore c A p U
51:26
c c I. The link that we discussed can be
51:29
found in the description box. All right, everybody,