Latest / The Epstein Chronicles / Mega Edition: Leon Black Is Chased From The Apollo Boardroom By The Epstein Allegations (7/1/26)

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Mega Edition: Leon Black Is Chased From The Apollo Boardroom By The Epstein Allegations (7/1/26) · The Epstein Chronicles

0:00
Speaker 1: Hey, what's up everybody. Welcome to the program. I had
0:04
an absolutely epic day to day. Now. We had something
0:10
at current in Las Vegas today that is not something
0:14
that happens very often here. You know that stuff that
0:17
falls from the sky around the world in most places,
0:21
you know, the water stuff. I think it's called rain. Yeah,
0:24
we didn't have that for two hundred and fifty plus
0:26
days at one point, a measurable amount anyway, But some
0:29
of that stuff was falling out of the sky today
0:32
in the Las Vegas Valley and then up on the
0:36
western edge of the city when you got to about
0:39
two thousand feet in elevation, there was actually this white
0:43
stuff falling out of the sky too. Oh. Its unbelievable.
0:46
I have no idea what it is. I think it's
0:48
called snow. Yeah, I think that's what it is. But
0:52
all kidding aside, it's very rare that it snows in
0:56
Las Vegas, especially for a measurable amount. But on the
1:01
west side of town, that's certainly what happened today. And
1:04
up in the mountains where I was at, I was
1:06
getting absolutely bombarded and I loved every second of it.
1:11
I've been waiting for winter to creep up here in Nevada,
1:14
in Las Vegas especially, and it has not come. It's
1:19
always just an epic experience to go out and check
1:25
out the desert in the winter when it's covered in snow.
1:29
Just a different look, a whole different feel, a whole
1:32
different place almost. So I'm very thankful that I was
1:36
able to spend so many hours up there this morning.
1:39
I'm just getting home a little while ago, and it
1:43
was just such an epic adventure today for the one
1:47
for the record books, any my record books anyway. So
1:52
here I am now though, and come to find out,
1:56
when I'm on my way home from the mountains, you know,
1:58
taking a look at the the old news, and wouldn't
2:02
you know it, mister Leon Black is stepping down as
2:08
the CEO of Apollo Global. Now we knew the writing
2:14
was on the wall, right. We've talked about that for
2:16
quite some time here on the podcast, and this seems
2:19
to be the route that all of these people end
2:23
up going. Just take a look at every single person
2:27
that was intimately involved with Epstein, all of these business
2:32
people that were very close to him, besides Jess Staley
2:36
now have had to step back from the companies they've
2:40
built from the positions that they were in. And I
2:46
would think that somebody like Leon Black might also be
2:49
facing some sort of civil, if not criminal investigation as
2:55
well as all of this begins to unfold. But this,
3:00
this is always the first step, right, these guys deciding,
3:03
oh well, I have decided that I'm going to step
3:06
down for my company, and this is all my own choosing.
3:11
It's in the best interest, No, bitch, the best interest
3:14
would have been you never paldling around with Jeffrey Epstein,
3:17
or the fact that you were dishonest with how much
3:21
money you really sent Jeffrey Epstein. And in fact, I'll
3:24
go a step further, I'm of the opinion that it's
3:27
even more money than we're going to discuss in this article.
3:33
This is just what they could find, or what this
3:35
law firm could find. I suspect that it's a lot
3:39
more money, and I wouldn't be shocked if a lot
3:43
of that money is untraceable running through shell companies and
3:47
LLCs and all of the other different levers that these
3:50
idiots use to continue to steal from society and continue
3:55
to be involved in their decades long criminals Breeze. These
4:02
people are all all definitely involved with Epstein. Okay, there's
4:12
no disputing that. I mean, there was no disputing that
4:15
when we had the first bit of evidence come out.
4:19
But people did, right. Oh well, these ties are tentative
4:22
at best, you know, I mean, come on, maybe they
4:26
were just maybe they just were in business together. Yeah.
4:29
Out of all of the people in the whole entire
4:32
financial world, you mean to tell me that, Leon, don't
4:37
call me slim shady black. Couldn't find anybody else to
4:42
get advice from besides the Coney Island hot dog vendor
4:46
Jeffrey Epstein. Come on, man, as President Biden would say,
4:52
come on, man, it's it's laughable at best. Right. So look,
4:59
I'm I'm not going to sit here and tell you
5:01
that I know what they're behind the scene business was,
5:05
but I will tell you this, I'm pretty damn sure
5:08
it had nothing to do with charity. I'm pretty damn
5:10
sure it had nothing to do with anything besides these
5:14
two idiots enriching themselves once again. And the sad part
5:19
is all of these banks like Deutsche Bank, JP, Morgan,
5:23
all of the rest of them were all in on
5:25
the take. They were all in on the con and
5:30
they just get slapped with some weak ass penalties institutional penalties,
5:35
by the way, not even penalties slapped on the actual
5:40
people involved, you know, the management. I'm not talking about
5:43
the frontline people who don't have any power, the regular workers.
5:47
You know. It's just like the frontline FBI agent. You know,
5:50
he puts together a case or she puts together a case,
5:53
and they bring it to their superior and the superior
5:56
throws it up the chain and it either you know,
5:59
gets legs, he gets stepped on. So it's never the
6:02
front line worker's fault for the most part. I mean,
6:05
I guess you could say they could quit and find
6:07
something else to do. But my point is the people
6:12
who are in charge, all of these people who were
6:14
in charge at these banks, the personal wealth financier folk
6:21
what's her name, like the lady who was lending Donald
6:24
Trump all of that money from Deutsche Bank. All of
6:27
these people that are involved with these billionaires and these
6:34
people who eventually get nailed for some sort of financial crime.
6:37
If you were the one facilitating those transactions as their
6:41
banker or their advisor or their go to person, then
6:47
I think that you should have to answer for these
6:50
crimes as well. You helped facilitate them. What makes it
6:54
makes these people or these institutions get off the hook.
6:59
I was helping you commit some sort of crime, you
7:03
better damn well I'd be charged. So I want to
7:05
see the same thing for these people there. They're not
7:08
above the law. These banks aren't above the law. They
7:10
think they are after the two thousand and eight two
7:14
thousand and nine Great recession in the collapse, and none
7:17
of them went to jail. They were all emboldened, right,
7:20
very brazen. It was real good and real nice for
7:25
all of us to bail them out when they were
7:28
absolutely wiped out by their own poor decision making. But now,
7:34
what is it? Eight million New Americans or fifteen million
7:38
New Americans have slipped into poverty throughout this pandemic. And
7:43
have any of these banks stood tall before the wagon
7:46
to help these people out? Oh yeah, no. You could
7:48
throw your rent onto the back end of your loan,
7:52
or they'd give you a balloon payment or some other nonsense.
7:55
How about just the straight up rent freeze for a year?
7:59
I know would really kill some of these banks, right
8:03
and again, usually I'm not for that kind of thing,
8:06
I don't you know. I'm not big on regulation for
8:10
the most part in most sectors. But these banks have
8:12
just proven themselves to be such scoundrels and such just
8:17
evil people, almost right, with no moral compass whatsoever. Look,
8:23
it's one thing to be a shark in the business
8:24
world and make some money. It's another thing all together
8:28
to aid in a bet basically a sexual predator like
8:33
Jeffrey Epstein, and lord knows who else. I mean, look
8:37
at what the Fins and Files has knocked loose from
8:40
the tree, all the different scumbags that these banks are
8:43
in bed with, and you know, the Paradise papers and
8:46
the Panama papers, and we can go on and on
8:48
and on. How many more examples are needed that these
8:52
people don't have the best interest of the vast majority
8:57
of us in their minds. Oh, they're more worried about,
9:01
you know, consolidating power and enriching themselves more and more
9:05
and more. I mean, Leon Black has a billion dollar
9:09
art collection. What the do you need a billion dollar
9:14
art collection for. I mean, okay, I get it, it's
9:18
your money, cool, whatever, But when you're somebody like him,
9:23
who is obviously playing in shadowy areas of the world,
9:27
hanging out with Jeffrey Epstein, being involved in lord knows
9:30
what else. Well, I don't have you know, I don't
9:35
feel the same way I would if it was somebody
9:37
who made their money on their own and was, you know,
9:40
somebody who is a decent human being, then it's ay, whatever,
9:43
you want to have a billion dollar art collection, great,
9:45
But it's obvious that Leon Black is one of those
9:49
so called elites who really does not care about nothing
9:55
but increasing his own wealth and his own power. And
10:00
even a scumball like Jeffrey Epstein who was set a
10:05
light with radiation and a fallout from his scandals, even
10:10
somebody like that was acceptable if it meant a couple
10:14
more dollars could be made, or a door or two
10:18
could be opened. But now Leon Black is facing the music.
10:24
He's stepping down as of July, and you know, we'll
10:29
see what we see. Right. This is always the first step, though,
10:34
and I think it's a significant step when we're dealing
10:37
with somebody as powerful as Leon slim shady Black. So
10:42
let's jump into this article from the New York Times
10:46
and see what the New York Times has to say
10:49
about what happened in the Apollo Global boardroom. Headline Apollo
10:56
CEO to step down after firm finds more payments Tojeffrey Epstein. Boy,
11:01
isn't that nice? More payments? Huh? So, not only are
11:04
you a scumbag for hanging out with Jeffrey Epstein, you
11:07
obviously lied about the extent of your relationship with Epstein,
11:11
the extent of your financial support of Epstein. Just like
11:15
I said here on the podcast, right, how long have
11:18
I been telling you guys that, in my opinion, this
11:21
dude's telling big gigantic tall tells. You can tell when
11:28
you started reading between the lines. You read enough of
11:30
these articles and you start to understand the picture starts
11:34
to really come into view. And it was very obvious
11:38
to me that Leon Black was in with Jeffrey Epstein
11:41
a lot deeper. Fifty million dollars is one thing, right,
11:45
It's a lot of money. So when you start saying
11:47
to yourself, all right, fifty million, how much more was
11:50
he in to Epstein? For? How much more did he
11:53
have invested in Epstein? Because you know that number is
11:57
going to balloon? And here we are are with the
12:00
New York Times, who I gotta tell you, I'm very
12:03
critical of a lot of Times, but they've done a
12:07
good job with this Leon Black story. They've been very,
12:11
very on the hunt when it comes to Leon Black,
12:15
and I think that that is a good thing when
12:18
we're talking about this case. So the New York Times
12:20
has continued their pursuit of this Leon Black angle and
12:26
they have not let him off the hook, and I
12:29
think that's promising right the Leon you know, for people
12:33
who aren't familiar with the financial world really or who
12:36
don't follow the financial sector, and I am no, you know,
12:42
no genius about it either, not somebody who follows it
12:45
religiously either. But Leon Black is a very very very
12:50
powerful man. I mean him and his two partners built
12:55
Apollo Global into just an absolute juggernaut, an absolute passe
13:00
in the financial sector. And for a guy like this
13:03
to seed power in any way, it's a huge development,
13:08
a huge development. And I believe that with the writing
13:14
on the wall, we're going to see and hear a
13:16
lot more damning stuff about Leon Black as all of
13:20
this continues to mushroom mushroom, cloud out and drop radiation. Now,
13:27
I don't think Leon Black was involved in abusing any
13:30
of the girls, we have not heard anything like that.
13:33
But financially, I mean his ties with Epstein financially and
13:37
how close they were personally as well. You see, like
13:41
the rest of the scumbags that we're hanging out with,
13:44
Jeffrey Epstein, Leon Black has not been truthful, So why
13:50
should we believe him about anything he has to say
13:53
if he can't be truthful about the very basics. This
13:59
article was authored by Matthew Goldstein and Katherine Rosman, the
14:07
founders of Apollo Global Management, one of the world's biggest
14:10
private equity firms, engaged in a brief power struggle this
14:14
weekend over control of the firm, a riff that opened
14:18
up after an inquiry revealed that one founder, Apollo's chief
14:22
executive and chairman, Leon Black, had paid more than one
14:26
hundred and fifty million dollars to the convicted sex offender
14:30
Jeffrey Epstein one hundred and fifty million dollars for advice.
14:38
Come on, give me a break. The Coney Island hot
14:42
dog vendor Jeffrey Epstein is not dropping knowledge that's worth
14:47
one hundred and fifty million dollars, As Michael Corleone would say,
14:55
He's not even a wartime consigliari. One hundred and fifty
14:59
eight dollars. What you insane. Come on, who's buying that?
15:03
What the hell was that money really for? That's the
15:06
real question, right if we want to get down to it,
15:09
if we want to just push away all of the
15:12
garnish and all of the side dishes and dig right
15:15
into the meat of the situation, what in the hell
15:18
was all of that money really for. On Monday, mister
15:24
Black announced a plan to step down as chief executive
15:27
this year. I have advised the Apollo board that I
15:31
will retire as CEO on or before my seventieth birthday
15:35
in July and remain as chairman. He said in his statement.
15:39
Oh that sounds familiar, doesn't it if you recall, don't
15:43
you remember our good buddy Les Wexner thought he was
15:48
going to remain chairman as well. Yeah, it's not gonna
15:51
work out so well for him, and I have a
15:53
funny feeling it's not going to work out so well
15:56
for mister Black either. We talked about a second ago
16:00
how there was a boardroom battle basically, and the fact
16:06
that it leaked out means it was a bigger blowout
16:09
than even talked about in this article. You see, these
16:14
are well kept secrets when it comes to these sorts
16:17
of Wall Street firms and companies. Things do not leave
16:20
those boardrooms. It's like the Pentagon people are real tight lipped.
16:24
We're talking about a firm that has a four hundred
16:27
and thirty four billion dollar steak. These people are tight lipped.
16:32
And the fact that it leaked that there was a
16:34
struggle in that boardroom is just bad news for Leon Black.
16:39
And the writing is on the wall, folks. And I
16:41
will go as far to say I don't see him
16:43
being the chairman of this company for much longer either.
16:48
I think that he's going to get pushed out. It's
16:51
only a matter of time, and it's only a matter
16:55
of when the other partners decide that it is chopping hour.
17:05
The review ordered by the firm's board at mister blacks
17:08
behest in October after The New York Times detailed at
17:12
least seventy five million in payments, found that mister Black
17:15
it paid mister Epstein one hundred and fifty eight million
17:19
in a five year period ending in twenty and seventeen.
17:23
So let me get this straight, Leon Black paid Jeffrey
17:26
Epstein as much money as Deutsche Bank was fined. So
17:32
what in the hell could he possibly have been paying
17:36
for that cost as much as what the federal government
17:40
find Deutsche Bank for money laundering and other scumbaggery tactics
17:46
one hundred and fifty eight million dollars. What in the
17:48
f was that money for? Where did it go? There's
17:53
no explanation for it. Oh, he'll say it was for
17:55
services rendered, right, Oh, it was for advisory services, fair taxes.
18:02
Oh yeah, this is exactly the guy that you want
18:04
to hire. You're Leon Black, bro, You're in charge of
18:09
everybody else's pensions. You're in charge of billions and billions
18:13
of billions and hundreds of billions of dollars, and you're
18:15
going to Jeffrey Epstein for personal advice about finances. You
18:20
dumb dick. Why would I park one single dollar with you?
18:28
Speaker 2: So?
18:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, probably a good idea to step down. He had
18:37
also lent mister Epstein more than thirty million dollars, only
18:41
ten million of which was paid back, the report found.
18:43
Oh yeah, only ten you know, thirty million, but I'll
18:46
pay you back ten million. Oh, Leon, no big deal, right,
18:49
here's a little ten million. Why would Jeffrey Epstein need
18:52
to borrow thirty million dollars if he was paid one
18:54
hundred and fifty eight million dollars for services rendered. Survey
18:59
says the shit don't add up, and the deeper we
19:03
get into this, the less any of it makes sense,
19:06
especially on this paper chase, especially on this winding road
19:12
we find ourselves on that is following the money. And folks,
19:18
let me tell you what. There used to be a
19:20
basketball game when I was growing up called NBA Jam
19:24
And when one of the players would hit a bunch
19:26
of shots, it would say he's eating up. And then
19:30
the guy would hit another shot, and the announcer in
19:33
the game would go, He's on fire. That's how I
19:36
feel right now. We're on fire. With this financial portion
19:39
of this case, we are turning all kinds of corners here, folks,
19:47
And with people like Leon Black having to step down
19:51
and face the music in his own boardroom, it only
19:55
goes to show that we are on the correct path
19:58
with this financial chase. One hundred percent mister Black's payments
20:06
effectively bankrolled the lifestyle of mister Epstein, who mister Black
20:10
viewed as a confirmed bachelor with eclectic tastes. Oh yeah,
20:14
you know, I'm sure that's what they said about Hannibal
20:16
Lecter two at all of the dinner parties, according to
20:20
the report, in the years after his two thousand and
20:23
eight guilty plea in Florida to a prostitution charge involving
20:26
a teenage girl. Yeah, because you know, Jeffrey Epstein's just
20:30
the bell of the ball, isn't he just the greatest
20:33
guy ever? The Coney Island hot dog vendor from Nathan's
20:40
Leon Black, you have no business managing anybody's money. And
20:44
if I was one of your partners forget a boardroom blowout,
20:48
I would have been at your front porch and been like, bitch,
20:51
you talked shit at eight, I am on your porch
20:53
at nine. This porch is now mine. Because this guy
20:57
is absolutely toxic to the company. Everything about him is
21:01
going to blow up and Apollo's face. If Apollo was smart,
21:06
they would cut ties completely with him, and then they
21:09
would try and get involved in, you know, setting up
21:12
some sort of fund for survivors of this sort of
21:16
behavior or something. Because it's obvious that Leon Black was
21:22
pouring oodles and oodles of money into Jeffrey Epstein and
21:30
my friends. It wasn't for one hundred and fifty eight
21:33
million dollars worth of advice in my opinion. Also, mister
21:40
Black believed that mister Epstein had served his time for
21:43
that case and deserved a second chance. Of the report said, boy,
21:47
isn't that nice? A second chance for a convicted sex
21:50
offender who was trying to pay underage girls to have
21:55
sex with him. Hell of a guy, certainly the kind
21:58
of guy that deserves a second chance, said Richard Ramirez,
22:03
the Nightstalker. I mean, are you kidding me right now?
22:06
Second chance? How about no? How about buried under the
22:10
jail chance? How about chemically castrated chance? Second chance byfon
22:17
gul Are you kidding me right now? And this is
22:21
the sort of slot we're supposed topect supposed to accept
22:24
from these people, the most powerful amongst us, the movers
22:28
and the shakers, more like the moronic and the stupid.
22:37
It found there was no evidence that mister Black had
22:39
participated in any of mister Epstein's criminal activities, or that
22:44
mister Epstein had ever introduced mister Black to any underage girl. Now,
22:50
I've never seen any evidence of that either, to be
22:52
honest with you, and you know that we're not LARPing
22:55
on this show. We're not playing fantasy here. This isn't
22:59
an episode of Dungeons and Dragons. This isn't an episode
23:03
of I Want it to be true. This is the
23:07
case as it happens and as it unfolds, and from
23:11
where I'm sitting, mister Black doesn't have anything to answer
23:16
for when it comes to the girls being abused, as
23:19
in being personally responsible. Mister Black, on the other hand,
23:24
his crimes, if there are any here, which certainly seems
23:28
like there might be, would be financial. And that's again
23:32
why RICO is so crucial. But remember, Denise George has
23:36
a SECU case going in the Virgin Islands, so that's
23:40
a civil RICO case and it affords her a lot
23:43
of mobility in how she applies to the law and
23:47
how she pursues things. So Leon Black is He's in
23:52
serious jeopardy here, folks. And I don't just mean civilly.
23:55
I think that if there is a real look at
23:59
the financial portion of all of this, that there'll be
24:03
no doubt that Leon Black and Jeffrey Epstein were involved
24:07
in some shady financial dealings together. I mean, we've already
24:11
talked about the art world. We've established how dark and
24:15
how dirty the money is in the art world, and
24:19
now we're talking about the man with the largest art
24:21
collection in the world hanging out with Jeffrey Epstein one
24:24
hundred and fifty eight million to Jeffrey Epstein, thirty million
24:27
in a loan to Jeffrey Epstein ten million, which only
24:31
ten million was paid back. I mean, come on, all right,
24:34
where there's smoke, there's fire. This dude is obviously a
24:39
fellow traveler at the very least the details of their
24:45
financial dealings. Mister Epstein's advice was worth perhaps two billion
24:49
in tax savings to mister Black, according to the report.
24:53
All right, so perfect one of those needs to be
24:55
looked at stringently. They should all be subpoenaed, and they
24:58
should all be entered as evidence in the case. And
25:01
if mister Black cannot provide the receipts for this stuff,
25:06
well then he is in big trouble because then the
25:08
Irs can move in and audit him and go after
25:12
him for tax evasion and all kinds of other wild shit.
25:15
And folks, when they have probable calls and they get
25:17
just a little bite into you, oh they're gonna try
25:20
and take out a whole chunk. So mister Black talking
25:24
about how Epstein's advice was worth two billion in savings.
25:29
My dude, you better have some receipts. The report created
25:38
friction between mister Black and one of Apollo's other founders,
25:42
Joshua Harris. According to three people briefed on the discussions, again,
25:47
that's insane. You never hear this kind of stuff leaking
25:50
out of a boardroom. It just doesn't happen, not a
25:54
boardroom like this, And for it to be one of
25:56
the other founders, a powerful dude like Joshua Harris, Yo,
26:00
Leon Black is in for the fight of his life.
26:03
He is not going to remain chairman. I highly doubt
26:07
this dude is going to remain chairman when all is
26:10
said and done. He's already given up the CEO title
26:14
and he feels like, well, maybe if I sacrifice this title,
26:18
I'll be able to hold on to some remnant of power.
26:21
But in reality, what he has done now he's shown
26:24
his belly to these dudes, And when you show your
26:27
belly to the other wolf that you're fighting, you're bound
26:32
to end up disembowled and speaking professionally, that's what's occurring here,
26:40
because let's not act like these guys aren't you know wolves,
26:45
These guys who work in the financial district are most
26:48
certainly wolves, and that's not a joke or hyperbole. They're
26:56
in it to win it, and Leon Black is now
26:59
a liab ability and he can no longer lead the pack.
27:06
In recent months, Apollo investors had begun openly questioning the
27:09
financial ties between mister Black and mister Epstein, who died
27:14
in twenty nineteen. One of the people said mister Harris
27:18
believed that mister Black showed poor judgment in consorting with
27:22
mister Epstein, and that the new findings would further hurt
27:25
Apollo's reputation. Yo Joshua Harris knows the deal. He's basically
27:31
saying in a shorter version of what I was just
27:35
talking about. Leon Black is now toxic. He is not
27:41
somebody that is going to be around for much longer
27:45
in any capacity at Blackstone. And I don't care if
27:49
he created the company. Just take a look at Wexner,
27:52
the longest running CEO in the business. Acts to see
27:55
you later. And and if anyone thinks that Leon Black
28:02
is going to avoid this, he is not. You see,
28:05
the people around him have ing circled the wagons to
28:07
protect him. He hasn't been given an endorsement by the board.
28:13
In fact, that's where he's getting his most pushback. So
28:19
when that happens, it is bad news for these people
28:23
in the financial sector and these people who are involved
28:27
in a boardroom atmosphere like this. It's basically a hostile takeover.
28:35
Apollo's board held a video conference on Sunday to approve
28:39
the findings of the review. According to two people briefed
28:42
on the discussions. At the meeting, mister Black also announced
28:46
his plans to step down this year and hand over
28:49
the chief executive job to Mark Rowan, Apollo's third founder,
28:54
which I find a little bit weird because Mark Rowan
28:57
was basically on like some sort of like aticle since
29:01
last July, and now all of a sudden he's sliding
29:04
back into the CEO role. Why not, Harris? There's a
29:10
lot going on here, folks, behind the scenes, and if
29:13
this is what's leaking out, you can only imagine the
29:17
tea that's dripping within that boardroom. Mister Black intends to
29:26
remain chairman of the New York firm, which manages four
29:29
hundred and fifty five billion for institutional investors, including pension
29:34
plans and sovereign wealth firms funds. During a series of
29:38
meetings on Sunday evening, including with individual board members, mister
29:43
Harris raised objections to mister Black's timeline for stepping down,
29:47
believing that the reputational threat was so serious that mister
29:51
Black should relinquish the chief executive role without delay. The
29:55
people said, yep, this is a hostile takeover. We're talking
30:00
talking about like you know, I always reference the show Billions.
30:02
This is some straight up Bobby Axelrod shit right here.
30:06
Joshua Harris is making his move, folks. That's what's going on.
30:10
They're trying to get rid of Leon Black. This is
30:12
their way to do it, and they're gonna shoehorn this issue,
30:15
and Harris especially, and he's going to make sure that
30:19
Black is gone. You know how much money these guys
30:22
have lost because of Black's piss poor decision making. Talk
30:28
about a liability. Mister Harris also made his case to
30:35
his co founders that night in discussions with Apollos executive committee,
30:40
which consists of the three of them. In the end,
30:43
mister Harris's objections fell on deaf ears said to the people,
30:46
who requested anonymity to discuss private deliberations, now that goes
30:52
to show you just how much power Leon Black has. Right,
30:56
people are still scared. People aren't going to let anything out.
31:00
They're gonna try and be as quiet as possible. But
31:04
what will happen is people from Harris's camp and the
31:07
people who were on the let's get rid of this knucklehead,
31:11
meaning Leon Black, those are the people who are gonna
31:14
leak little tidbits out. And eventually the seas are going
31:17
to get very very choppy, as if they're not choppy enough,
31:22
and Leon Black is gonna find out that he's navigating much,
31:27
much too close to the reef, and eventually he's gonna
31:30
have to bail. Mister Rowan, who built Apollo's insurance business
31:36
but had largely stepped away from the firm's day to
31:39
day operations in recent years, will take over when mister
31:43
Black steps down. And again the Rowan situation, this is weird.
31:46
I'm gonna have to dig a little bit deeper into
31:48
this and go back and re up on how Rowan
31:54
stepped down and why Roan was stepping back and what
31:56
the issues were. I remember there were some stuff there,
31:59
but not another to dig to go deep right now,
32:03
But it's just odd that of all the people that
32:06
could have stepped into the leadership role, they're calling Rowan
32:09
out of basic retirement. Why not Harris? Very interesting. Mister
32:17
Black informed Apollos clients of the succession plan and the
32:20
findings of the review in a letter on Monday evening.
32:24
Mister Harris will continue in his current role as senior
32:26
managing Director, focused on the firm's financial performance and working
32:31
closely with mister Rowan, according to the letter, the contents
32:34
of which were reviewed by The Times. The letter also
32:38
informed clients of other proposed governance changes, including adding four
32:43
more independent directors. It also laid out mister Black's plan
32:48
to donate two hundred million dollars to charities that support
32:52
gender equality and fight sex trafficking. Talk about cover your ass,
32:59
and that's exactly what he's doing here. If you really
33:03
wanted to fight against sex trafficking and you really cared
33:05
about gender equality, you never would have been covorting with
33:09
a convicted sex offender in the first place. So go
33:14
ahead and donate the money and hopefully it goes to
33:17
a good use. But that doesn't absolve you of what's
33:20
going on here, and that's certainly not going to make
33:22
us shrug our shoulders and walk away and say, oh, well,
33:25
he donated some money, so let's not dig any deeper.
33:28
Let's just forget this all happened. Sorry, pal, that's not
33:32
going to cut it. The review, conducted by the law
33:37
firm Deckert, began after The Times reported that mister Black
33:41
had paid mister Epstein at least seventy five million in
33:43
the years after his two thousand and eight case in Florida.
33:47
Mister Epstein killed himself allegedly inside of Manhattan jail cell
33:52
while facing federal sex trafficking charges, which were filed amid
33:55
widespread scrutiny of the plea deal he had reached a
33:59
decade or Yeah, widespread scrutiny. All of that right, perfect,
34:03
So now's the time to change it. We can fix it.
34:06
The ball is in your court, Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
34:10
Don't you see all of this other shit that's happening
34:12
around you, all of this other stuff going on in
34:15
the case. Doesn't that lead you to believe that this
34:21
non prosecution agreement was garbage and should be done away with.
34:25
I really hope that the Eleventh Circuit Court does the
34:28
right thing here. Dekker's review found that mister Epstein had
34:32
provided legitimate advice. Oh yeah, I'm sure legitimate advice. Again,
34:37
this guy needs to go to Jeffrey Epstein to get
34:39
advice about financial matters. So does that mean he was
34:44
investing his client's money on Jeffrey Epstein's advice. If so,
34:49
and I was one of those people whose money was
34:51
being invested, I would be livid. Okay, I'd be calling
34:57
there and I'd be asking to speak to Josh what
35:00
Harris directly and letting him know that I one hundred
35:03
percent had his back, and I want him to continue
35:07
to pursue getting rid of Black right away. It's an
35:11
absolute joke on trust in the state, planning, tax issues
35:23
and matters related to mister Black's extensive art collection and
35:27
other subjects. So Jeffrey Epstein was an art appraiser as well. Man,
35:31
This dude sure wore many hats. Very talented man, very talented.
35:36
Mister Jeffrey Epstein, like Vanity Affair called him, right, gives
35:40
me a break. Okay, where was the money really going?
35:44
What were you paying for? Not for advice about art? Okay,
35:49
I can give you some advice about art. You paid
35:51
too much for it, all right, sell your art collection
35:55
and go feed the homeless. You epic idiot, you moron,
35:59
you jack off Off. Deckert said the value of the
36:04
tax savings to mister Black was at least one billion
36:07
and possibly as much as two billion, though at the
36:11
same time, the law firm noted mister Epstein also would
36:14
seek to take credit for good ideas regardless of his
36:18
level of involvement, which likely was intended to bolster his
36:21
perceived value to Black. What they're trying to do is
36:25
insulate Black here, Like I said, they would, Deckert, give
36:28
me a break, Okay, give me a break. Oh, it
36:33
was just Jeffrey Epstein. Was this just absolute arch criminal
36:37
and he was just out smarting everybody. Hey, how's smarter
36:40
the people who tell us every day how smart they are?
36:45
So I guess from going forward, all of these idiots
36:47
who told us how smart they are, we can just
36:50
put a stamp on it now and file it as
36:52
a done deal that they're not as smart as they
36:54
thought they were. Huh. Jeffrey Epstein obviously bamboozled all of them.
36:58
That's what they'd have us believe, when in reality we
37:02
know that's not the case. We know they knew, eyes
37:05
wide open, what was going on. They knew what's sort
37:09
of vermin they were in bed with when they got
37:12
in bed with Jeffrey Epstein. And now when it comes
37:17
time to pay the bill, nobody has any money. It
37:21
would seem the relationship began to deteriorate in twenty sixteen,
37:28
the report said, amid a payment dispute over tens of
37:31
millions of dollars in fees. The two men did not
37:35
communicate after twenty eighteen, according to the review, Oh that's convenient.
37:41
I'm sure Leon Black didn't hear anything in the pipeline
37:44
about Jeffrey Epstein getting in trouble and started to distance himself.
37:48
I'm sure he knew nothing about it. And it was
37:51
just a coincidence that this is the timeline when they
37:54
stopped talking, right, give me a break, Okay, give me
37:58
a break. Leon Black was trying to put some distance
38:01
between himself and Jeffrey Epstein all the way back in
38:04
twenty and eighteen. He knew the deal, he knew the
38:07
writing was on the wall, and he knew that Julie K.
38:09
Brown and the Miami Herald had picked up the gauntlet
38:13
and were pursuing a story about Epstein and his associations.
38:18
So Leon Black knew the deal, and that, in my opinion,
38:22
is why he broke off ties with Epstein. If he did.
38:29
Mister Epstein did not invest in any Apollo managed funds,
38:32
according to the report, but it found that his companies
38:36
had bought more than two hundred thousand shares in the
38:38
private equity firm's initial public offering and held that stake
38:42
until at least September twenty and nineteen, a month after
38:46
mister Epstein died. Yeah, you know, they weren't really close
38:50
or anything. Two hundred thousand shares of Apollo Global. Just
38:53
go ahead and pop onto the internet and take a
38:55
look at how much those shares are. And I'm sure
38:58
when it went when when Jeffrey Epstein got the shares,
39:02
he got him at the HOMY hookup price. Too. Pretty
39:05
odd for a guy that's not friends with Leon Black,
39:08
Isn't it pretty odd? Many of Apollo's biggest clients, including
39:17
major pension funds, charitable foundations, and sovereign wealth funds, had
39:22
been awaiting the results of the report. The sixty three
39:25
billion dollar Pennsylvania public school employees retirement system had said
39:30
it would not invest any additional money with Apollo until
39:33
the review was complete. CalPERS, the California Public Employees Retirement System,
39:39
one of Apollo's biggest clients, had said it expected its
39:43
outside investment managers to follow the fund's own values. Other
39:48
pension funds in Texas, Illinois, and Ontario also said they
39:53
would be watching the investigation closely. Now we talked about that,
39:57
We talked about how these pension funds are going to
39:59
be running for the hills if there was any sort
40:02
of bad news in this new report, and folks there
40:10
certainly is so I would not be shocked if their
40:14
pension funds ran for the hills. It's not going to
40:18
be enough that Jeffrey that Leon Black just steps down
40:23
from CEO. He's gonna have to go in all capacities.
40:28
In his three page letter to investors on Monday, mister
40:32
Black acknowledged that heightened media scrutiny of Apollo has generated
40:35
unwelcome attention for those investors. I personally regret any distraction
40:41
that may have caused, he wrote. Mister Black said Apollo
40:44
had hired a law firm Wilmrhell to look into its
40:47
reputational risk management practices and suggest improvements. Again, not good
40:54
enough in an outside company. Yeah, hired by you. Here's
40:59
an idea going speak with the FBI. Under oath. Apollo
41:05
grew out of the ashes of Drexel Burnham Lambert, the
41:07
investment bank that collapsed in nineteen ninety amid a trading
41:11
a trading investigation that sent since pardoned Michael Milk into prison. Yeah,
41:18
one of those firms, folks, That's exactly what we're dealing with.
41:21
The kind of people we're dealing with. So it shouldn't
41:23
shock anybody that Leon Black and Jeffrey Epstein were so close.
41:28
It shouldn't shock anybody at all. Although mister Black started
41:34
Apollo with his younger partners mister Harris is fifty six
41:37
and mister Rowan fifty eight, he has long been the
41:40
face and the voice of the firm. In building Apollo
41:43
into a global financial powerhouse, mister Black has made himself
41:47
and his co founders immensely rich. His personal fortune is
41:53
estimated at more than eight billion, and he owns a
41:56
massive private art collection, including a version of Edward Munch
42:00
is The Scream, and is the chairman of the Museum
42:03
of Modern Art. The Scream huh. I'm sure that's what
42:06
Leon Black's going to look like when he's staring at
42:09
himself in the mirror and he realizes all of his
42:12
power and all of his place within so called polite
42:18
society is crumbling before him. I hope he stares at
42:22
his picture, his fantastic piece of art, the Scream, and
42:29
I hope that his face looks exactly the same. But
42:34
when Apollo held its most recent earnings call late in October,
42:38
there was already signs his dealings with mister Epstein were
42:41
causing ripples both in the firm and among investors. In
42:46
an unusual move, mister Black read a brief statement about
42:49
the Epstein matter before handing over the meeting to Harris
42:52
and mister Rowan. It look, there is a lot of
42:57
weirdness that went on with Leon Black and the whole
43:02
lead up to this, plenty of lies and misdirection, in
43:09
my opinion, and all of the signs have led up
43:13
to mister Black at some point having to leave the company.
43:18
That is exactly what all the signs have led to,
43:20
and that's exactly where we find ourselves now. I don't
43:24
know if it's how long it's going to be before.
43:27
He is not the chairman anymore either, But it's coming, folks,
43:30
let me tell you, it is certainly coming. In my opinion,
43:32
he's not going to remain as the chairman, not with
43:35
all of this going on, and certainly not with Joshua
43:38
Harris looking to push him out. Still, Apollo is long
43:42
specialized in buying up distressed companies and retooling them, but
43:47
it also boasts large credit, infrastructure and real estate businesses.
43:52
Mister Rowan was the driving force behind Apollos thriving insurance
43:56
business and its insurance subsidiary, Athene Whole, which is few
44:01
of the Wall Street firms earnings in recent years. At
44:05
one time, both mister Rowan and mister Harris were seen
44:08
as the heir apparents to mister Black, but with mister
44:12
Rowan's decision to pull back from day to day affairs,
44:15
many on Wall Street assume the job would fall to
44:17
mister Harris, who has the run, who has run the
44:21
nuts and bolts of Apollo's vast buyout operation. Pretty crazy,
44:26
right that they're trying to that he's trying to bypass
44:28
Harris here, And folks, I think that's something that needs
44:30
to be focused on because Harris isn't going to sit
44:33
down and just take that. Joshua Harris is going to
44:36
fight back. He's not the kind of guy that's going
44:38
to just be meek and be like, oh, okay, well,
44:40
I'll just get steamrolled by Leon Black here. It's not
44:44
going to happen. And I think Leon Black understands that
44:48
too and knows that he is just acting on borrowed
44:52
time at this point. Mister Harris, who is an owner
44:57
of the Philadelphia seventy six ers basketball team, when the
45:00
New Jersey Devil's hockey team, said he would fully support
45:03
mister Rowan as chief executive. I will focus on expanding
45:06
our global search for investor returns, which is at the
45:10
core of our success, he said in a statement. Of course,
45:15
Rowan's going to say all the right things. We're still
45:17
talking about his money here, right. He doesn't want the
45:19
firm to collapse. He doesn't want there to be all
45:22
kinds of you know, tumbling of the stock and people
45:27
bailing with their money. That's not what he's trying to do.
45:29
What he's trying to do is force black out and
45:32
leverage the situation so that he can try and mitigate
45:36
the fallout from all of this, and the only way
45:39
to do that, he understands, obviously, is for Black to go.
45:46
As the only three members of Apollo's executive committee, the
45:49
founders hold considerable sway over the company. As of now,
45:53
the decision to name mister Rowan as mister Black's successor
45:56
does not need approval of the company's board, and three
46:00
men who have much of their net worth tied up
46:02
in the company have a vested interest in the stability
46:06
of the firm. And that's what I was just talking about.
46:09
The end of the day, Harris isn't trying to wreck
46:12
his own company, right. What he's trying to do is
46:15
get rid of Black to mitigate the damage and to
46:18
try and keep people with their pensions and their money
46:21
from bailing and leaving Apollo leaking from too many holes
46:26
to fix. Now, will that occur, I don't know, but
46:31
I will say this, If Leon Black is not completely
46:35
forced out, then I highly doubt any of these pensions
46:39
that have been waiting to dump money with Apollo are
46:43
going to go through with it. I think they're going
46:45
to take their money elsewhere. They don't want to be
46:48
involved with anybody that is involved with Jeffrey Epstein and
46:52
until Apollo cuts ties with him completely, then I think
46:57
they're going to continue to run into and Epstein problem.
47:03
As for Leon Black, I guess he won't be doing
47:06
any more rap songs in the near future. Willie talk
47:12
about a fall from grace and much deserved. If you'd
47:16
like to contact me, you can do that at Bobby
47:18
Kapucci at ProtonMail dot com. That's b O b b
47:22
Y c ap u Cci at ProtonMail dot com. You
47:26
can also find me on that cesspool Twitter at Bobby
47:31
Underscore c ap u Cci. All of the links that
47:36
go with this episode can be found in the description box.
47:39
All right, everybody, I will be back tomorrow and we
47:43
will pick up where we left off. Have a great night.
47:47
Speaker 2: Lake Meat, our water supply is in the worst drow
47:50
ever and has hit a historic low. An official water
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shortage was recently declared for Lake Meat, which will reduce
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the amount of water available for southern Nevada. So what
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can you do? Change your watering clock now to three
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days a week. You'll save money and avoid costly waterways fines.
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This isn't kid stuff, it's the law. Find your mandatory
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for profit water agency.
48:17
Speaker 1: Raising Kaines presents the Other Rules of Football Rule number one.
48:21
Any broadcast without the express edition of hand battered good
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to order Canes chicken fingers is prohibited on game day
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and everyday Canes Rules. Raising Canes Official chicken Fingers of
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the UNLV Rebels One Love