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