Latest / The Epstein Chronicles / IRS Blindness, Billionaire Bribes, and Epstein’s Empire

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IRS Blindness, Billionaire Bribes, and Epstein’s Empire · The Epstein Chronicles

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Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
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Epstein Chronicles. You ever notice how the IRS is relentless
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when it comes to you and me. If you accidentally
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misplace a decimal point, forget to report a couple hundred
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bucks from selling old furniture on line, or miscalculate your
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mileage deduction, they'll come after you like you're the al
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Capone of Craigslist. They'll slap you at penalties, interests, threats,
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bleed you dry over pocket change. But when it comes
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to Epstein, the convicted sex offender, the man moving millions
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of dollars through a labyrinth of shady accounts, the soul
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called financier with no legitimate business model, they acted like
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you didn't even exist, Like their enforcement radar magically went
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blank the moment his name appeared on a transaction. Epstein
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wasn't hiding. His dealings were right there in black and white,
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woven into the financial system like a Neon sign flashing fraud.
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Leon Black alone paid him over one hundred and fifty
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million dollars in advisory fees. Advisory fees for what. Epstein
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wasn't a Wall Street titan, He was an attack savant.
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He was a predator who had already been convicted in
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Florida in two thousand and eight. His name was toxic,
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his presence was radioactive, and even a half conscious regulator
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should have been asking why is a billionaire CEO wiring
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hundreds of million dollars to a registered sex offender for advice?
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But the IRS they never asked, not once. They looked away,
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as if their job was to protect them, not police them.
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And that's the bitter irony. Epstein weaponized the very indifference
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of institutions like the IRS. He turned their silence into currency,
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and those transactions weren't just about money, they were about legitimacy.
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Every unexplained wire transfer that passed unchallenged made him look untouchable.
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If the IRS wasn't calling them out, if the government
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wasn't investigating his income streams, then the message to everyone else,
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the banks, the billionaires, the elites, was clear, it's safe
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to keep doing business with them. He's been given a pass.
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And we're not talking about oversight here, because oversight implies
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they didn't see it. No, they saw it. Every wire,
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every fee, every dollar had to have been visible. It
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all went through the system that the IRS claims to
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monitor like hawks. But when it came to Epstein, they
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became pigeons, flapping around pecking at crumbs. For attending, the
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loaf of bread didn't even exist. He moved money through foundations,
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shell companies, offshore havens, classic red flags, and the watchdog
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stayed asleep. Meanwhile, you better not forget to carry the
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one and look, let's be honest. Epstein's dealings with Leon
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Black or just the tip of the iceberg. He had
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financial connections with Less Wexner, Glenn Dubin, hedge funds, private banks,
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you name it. Each of those networks involved millions of
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unexplained dollars flowing into the hands of a man who
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was supposed to be radio active. Yet somehow that radioactivity
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never set off alarms at the IRS. It's almost as
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if there was an unspoken policy don't look too closely,
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don't touch them, don't open that file. Now contrast that
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with how they treat the rest of us. You file
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your taxes late one year because of a family emergency
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and your drowning in penalties and interest. They garnish wages,
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seize accounts, drag you into compliance with a choke hold.
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But Epstein, he lived like a king on blood money.
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He bought private islands, maintained Manhattan mansions, flew private jets,
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and paid hush money, all through channels that should have
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triggered red alerts. The IRS didn't just fail, they enabled.
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Because here's the thing. The IRS loves to scare the
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working class. They love to terrify small business owners and
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middle class families into compliance. But when it comes to
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the rich, the connected, the predators like Epstein, they transformed
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into meek little clerks, rubber stamping paperwork while pretending not
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to see the rot in front of them. They'll audit
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a waitress for claiming too many tips, but let Epstein
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rake in millions in fees from billionaires without batting an eye.
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And this isn't just a story about negligence, It's about complicity.
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Every dollar the IRS let slide was another brick in
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Epstein's empire of abuse. Every unexplained transaction that passed through
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without scrutiny was another shield he could wield against exposure.
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The IRS's indifference wasn't passive, it was active fuel for
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his criminal machinery. They made it possible for him to
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operate with impunity long after he should have been finished.
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So when you hear the IRS brag about fairness, about accountability,
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about nobody being above the law, remember Epstein. Remember the
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hundreds of millions in dealings with men like ly on
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Black that slipped through without a whisper. Remember that while
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your sweating bullets over a mistake on a ten forty form,
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Jeffrey Epstein was running a global black mail operation under
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the government's nose, financed by money that should have set
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off alarms in every office of the IRS. The truth
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is simple and it's ugly. There are two tax systems
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in this country. One for you, where every dime is squeezed,
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every mistake punished, every corner cut, treated like a federal offense,
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and one for them, for men like Jeffrey Epstein and
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his billionaire soul call clients, where millions can vanish into
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thin air, and the IRS is more than happy to
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look the other way. Today's article is from Art News
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and the headline US Senator Ron Wyden calls for investigation
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into Jeffrey Epstein's work for collector Leon Black. This article
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was authored by Alex Greenberger. Leon Black, a billionaire investor
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and our collector, is once again the subject to scrutiny
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for his relationship to Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier convicted
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of sex trafficking. At the end of July, Ron Wyden,
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a Democratic Senator from Oregon who sits on the Senate
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Finance Committe, called on the Internal Revenue Service to investigate
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what Widen described as suspicious transactions involving alleged tax planning
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work performed by Jeffrey Epstein for Leon Black. And I
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told you at the time that this was nothing but fraud.
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There is zero reason for a guy like Leon Black,
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who was at the helm of Apollo fucking Global, to
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need any kind of advice from Jeffrey Epstein about anything.
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Apollo Global is one of the most massive companies in
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the whole last world, and they have more money than
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they know what to do with. You really think that
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somebody like Leon Black needs Captain egg Dick to help
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him with his taxes, unless, of course, you mean to
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help him hide that money so he doesn't have to
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pay taxes, because that's obviously what was going on here.
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It's the same thing they do with the high end
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art market. They buy all these paintings, they buy all
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this art, and then they have no kind of accountability
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for where their money's at. And of course that money
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can't be tracked, so it can't be taxed. And it's
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laughable to think that the IRS had no idea what
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was going on. They most certainly did. They looked the
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other way. The question is why. In a letter to
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the IRS submitted on July thirty first, Widen accused the
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organization of having failed, over the course of many years
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to audit major tax transactions involving Epstein and denounce what
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he described as transactions amounting to tens of millions of
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dollars paid to known criminal for the purpose of helping
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a megal wealthy individual dodge billions in taxes. Widen called
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for the IRS to supply more information by September. First,
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of all the investigations going on, or so called investigations
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going on, this is the one that could really lead
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to pay dirt. Follow the money. I know it's cliche, right,
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I know, we talk about it all the time pretty
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much no matter what's going on. But here, especially, if
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you follow the money, you're going to hit pay dirt.
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And the people that were transferring money in this kind
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of amount to Jeffrey Epstein, well, all of those people
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have some explaining to do as far as I'm concerned. Unfortunately,
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for me and for everybody else who's interested, I'm not
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in charge. But if I was, you better believe i'd
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have an army of forensic accountants diving into every bit
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of paperwork, looking at every transaction that's ever been made,
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and if there's anything that's illegal, I'd hold everybody accountable. Unfortunately,
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back in reality, that's not how things work. The letter
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was sent to Billy Long, who was appointed Commissioner of
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the IRS by Trump on August eighth. Trump replaced Long
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with Treasury Secretary Scott Bissin. Black has previously been the
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subject of Epstein related investigations. In twenty twenty, Black wrote
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in a letter to shareholders at Apollo Global Management, the
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investment firm he co founded, that he and Epstein had
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engaged in a state plan, tax and philanthropic endeavors. An
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investigation the next year found that Black was not involved
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in Epstein's criminal activities, though it did state that Black
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had paid one hundred and fifty eight million between twenty
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twelve and twenty seventeen. I'm sure that was just for
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the advice, right, What kind of advice. Do you think
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you're gonna get for one hundred and fifty eight million dollars?
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That's more than fortune five hundred CEOs are making. Right.
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Why is he sending so much money to Jeffrey Epstein,
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especially considering Epstein's not offering any kind of service. And
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as far as the investigation goes, it was an internal investigation. Oh,
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they hired an outside company, of course, but come on, really,
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does anyone really believe these internal investigations ever turn up
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anything worthwhile? Of course they don't. The idea is a
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cover story, just like with this whole congressional bullshit that
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we're seeing right now, same concept. A spokesperson and for
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Black directed Art News to the investigation and said in
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a statement that the inquiry concluded that mister Black had
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not engaged in any wrongdoing, had no awareness of Epstein's
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criminal activity, and all of the fees were paid for
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legitimate tax a, state and philanthropy planning services and were
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vetted and approved by outside law firms, outside law firms
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that they paid. They always like to leave that part
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out right. They hired these law firms to come in
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and quote unquote take a look. I'm sure there was
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no backroom deal, right. I'm sure nobody sat down and said,
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this is what I want you to find, and we'll
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give you X amount of dollars. Black is widely considered
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one of the world's top art collectors, appearing on Art
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News Top two hundred collectors list each year since nineteen
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ninety seven. He was formerly the chair of the board
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of the Museum of Modern Art, a position that he
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left as the Epstein proceeding continued on. He remains a
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trustee at the museum. Does anyone out there really believe
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that this man paid that cop money for advice from
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Jeffrey Epstein? And if so, let's see some documentation. Let's
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see the paperwork, and hopefully with this letter that was
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sent to the irs, we get to see some of that. Now.
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I don't know if we'll get to see it publicly,
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and considering that we have a big problem with transparency,
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I have my doubts that anything will come of this.
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But this is the right path to be on one
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hundred percent, because the money paper trail, it doesn't lie.
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It's going to lead you directly to the people that
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we're in business and that we're profiting from that business.
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When it comes to Epstein and those people, they should
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have to answer for all of it. The question is
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will they. All of the information that goes with this
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episode can be found in the description box