Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Leon Black’s Epstein Fallout Stopped at the Museum Door (Part 1)

Transcript

Leon Black’s Epstein Fallout Stopped at the Museum Door (Part 1) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up everyone and welcome to another episode of the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. Whenever we talk about the upper crust or
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: higher society, I always tell you that the only sin
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: is not having any dough. And when we're talking about
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the art world, especially the higher end art world, that's
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: definitely the case. And I think that the situation with
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Leon Black and MoMA and the art world in general
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  Speaker 1: is shines a light on that because if you thought
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: that Leon Black was going to be ostracized by the
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  Speaker 1: other people that are in the quote-unquote high-end art world
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  Speaker 1: you have not been paying attention this man has billions
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  Speaker 1: of dollars of artwork this man is ensconced in that
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  Speaker 1: portion of society and I don't think there's anything that
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  Speaker 1: Leon Black could do to have those other people kick
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  Speaker 1: him out of the quote-unquote club Unless, of course, he
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: goes broke, because that's the only real sin when we're
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  Speaker 1: talking about these degenerates who call themselves elite. Today we
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  Speaker 1: have an article from Vanity Fair, and the headline, The
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  Speaker 1: Art World Has Tassily Decided, Leon Black Is Not Cancelled.
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  Speaker 1: This article was authored by Nate Freeman. In late June,
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  Speaker 1: Leon Black, co-founder of the hedge fund Apollo Global Management,
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  Speaker 1: and one of the world's biggest art collectors... walked into
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  Speaker 1: a congressional office building and talked about his relationship with
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  Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein. I mean, if you want to call it that.
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  Speaker 1: He was obstinate, said he was going to do whatever
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  Speaker 1: he wanted, and he wasn't going to answer any questions,
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  Speaker 1: at least not the ones that needed to be answered.
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  Speaker 1: So let's not act like Leon Black was this well
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  Speaker 1: of information where he showed up to Congress and gave
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  Speaker 1: everybody all the answers they were looking for. That didn't happen.
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  Speaker 1: And it's never going to happen. The only way to
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: go after somebody like Leon Black is to hit his
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: ass with a RICO charge. And that's what should have
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: happened the first time around. In 2019, all these people
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: that funded Jeffrey Epstein, all these people that were sending
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  Speaker 1: money to him on a regular basis and getting money back,
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  Speaker 1: breaking news, you're part of the conspiracy. For decades, Black
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  Speaker 1: had brought Epstein into every aspect of his finances. Now,
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  Speaker 1: seven years after Epstein's death, and six months after the
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  Speaker 1: release of all of Epstein's correspondence, the House Select Committee
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  Speaker 1: was putting Black back on the stand. In his opening statement,
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  Speaker 1: Black swore he never knew Epstein as a monster. He
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  Speaker 1: merely knew him as a money man, and had no
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  Speaker 1: inkling of how Epstein was apparently deceiving him. And this
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: is the out, right? Oh, well, I had no idea
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  Speaker 1: about the sexual assault. Bitch, you knew about the money
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  Speaker 1: laundering at the very least. You were involved in it.
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  Speaker 1: So what are we even doing here? Why are we
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  Speaker 1: avoiding the biggest part of the conversation. Now, I understand
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: it's not the most salacious part, but if you want
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: to hold these people accountable, this is the way to
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: do it. Unfortunately, that's not what this is about. Epstein
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  Speaker 1: falsely claimed I've been involved in decisions and my decisions
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  Speaker 1: about investments, Black told the House Committee, according to an
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  Speaker 1: official transcript. He asserted that he had influence over me.
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  Speaker 1: He said false and vicious things about my wife and children.
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  Speaker 1: He duped and deceived. And he did so repeatedly. In short,
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  Speaker 1: with the release of the Epstein files, I now appreciate
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  Speaker 1: the full extent to which Epstein was a despicable individual
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  Speaker 1: and a liar. This was a side of him I
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  Speaker 1: didn't know. I knew Jekyll. I didn't know Hyde. Bitch,
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  Speaker 1: you knew both of them. And you funded both of them.
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  Speaker 1: And you didn't care one single bit about the shit
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  Speaker 1: he was up to. You sure didn't care when you
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  Speaker 1: had him reaching out to his buddies in the FSB
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: about Guzel Ganieva, did you? you lying, reprehensible piece of shit.
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  Speaker 1: And I say that confidently, okay? Leon Black, in my opinion,
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  Speaker 1: gigantic piece of shit. What sort of dude is engaging
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  Speaker 1: in an affair while he has a sick wife at home?
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  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what kind of dude. The same kind
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  Speaker 1: of guy that's going to break bread with Epstein and
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  Speaker 1: be Epstein's buddy. That kind of guy. The hearing ended
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  Speaker 1: abruptly after the committee asked Black about the existence of NDAs,
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  Speaker 1: including one with a woman, with whom he had an
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  Speaker 1: extramarital affair. The woman broke the NDA to accuse Black
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  Speaker 1: of sexual impropriety. Black has denied the allegations. Of course
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  Speaker 1: he has. Not me. I would never do that. I'm just,
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  Speaker 1: you know, an old fellow who likes art. Black's lawyers
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  Speaker 1: decided to walk, anger seeping through their legalese. As Black
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  Speaker 1: and his legal team left the room, the committee's general
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  Speaker 1: counsel issued subpoenas for his return. Black has reportedly agreed
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  Speaker 1: to appear for a deposition in in September to produce
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  Speaker 1: the NDAs. A representative for Black did not respond to
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: VF's request for comment. Oh, I'm sure he's going to
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  Speaker 1: come up there and have a whole other bag of excuses.
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  Speaker 1: And the sad truth is, Congress is going to accept them.
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  Speaker 1: And that's because Congress was never interested in really holding
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  Speaker 1: people accountable. They want to play politics. That much is apparent.
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  Speaker 1: And believe me, I got a few things to say
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  Speaker 1: about that in an upcoming episode. But even as Black
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  Speaker 1: was under oath in Washington, he went about his life elsewhere.
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  Speaker 1: At two of New York's most prestigious museums. Yes, following
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  Speaker 1: the Epstein morass, Black, citing health issues, did walk away
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  Speaker 1: from every role he held at Apollo. CEO, the chairmanship,
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  Speaker 1: the director position. Yet in the years since Epstein's final
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  Speaker 1: days in Jail and Death, Black has remained a trustee
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  Speaker 1: at MoMA. The Midtown Institution Cinema Headquarters is still called
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  Speaker 1: the Deborah Leon Black Family Film Center. And this summer,
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  Speaker 1: visitors to the Met's Raphael Show, one of the season's
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  Speaker 1: biggest blockbusters, were greeted by a list of supporters, including
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  Speaker 1: Leon and Deborah Black. Oh, isn't that nice? Jeffrey Epstein's buddy,
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  Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein's financier, Jeffrey Epstein's fellow traveler. But sure, let's
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  Speaker 1: just welcome them to the event. Reason 436,556 that I
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  Speaker 1: don't want to be invited to any event that people
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  Speaker 1: like this are involved in. Talk about an eyes wide
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  Speaker 1: shut type of situation. Black personally owns two Raphaels, including
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  Speaker 1: drawing he bought at Christie's in 2009 for nearly $ 50 million.
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  Speaker 1: He loaned one from his collection to the show. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: isn't that nice? Can somebody ask Leon if he'll lend
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  Speaker 1: us one of the photos, one of the drawings for
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  Speaker 1: the show? Give me a break, $ 50 million. What a
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  Speaker 1: fucking joke. An absolute joke. Even after leaving Apollo, Black
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: retains one of the world's greatest private art collections. Christie's
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  Speaker 1: would at one point appraise it at $ 2. 7 billion. And
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: you know why he has so much art, right? Well,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: because it's non-taxable. He can just keep hiding it, keep
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  Speaker 1: moving it, keep funneling it, keep shuffling it. Isn't that
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  Speaker 1: enjoyable to know, as April 15th rapidly approaches once again?
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  Speaker 1: I spotted Black not long ago at Freeze Los Angeles.
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  Speaker 1: He was at Art Basel Miami Beach, hidden only by
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  Speaker 1: a pair of sunglasses, as recently as December of 2024.
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  Speaker 1: Last September, he sat in good seats at Flushing Meadows
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  Speaker 1: to take in the men's final at the U.S. Open.
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  Speaker 1: The next day, showed up at a private dinner at MoMA.
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  Speaker 1: Life is not going to change for these people. I
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  Speaker 1: hate to be the bearer of bad news, but until
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  Speaker 1: there's some kind of criminal action taken, forget it. And
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  Speaker 1: I think the most frustrating part is that there's so
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  Speaker 1: much there as far as criminality. And again, let's put
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: the human trafficking to the side. When we're talking about
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Leon Black, let's just focus on the money. and all
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: the other stuff will fall into place. But there is
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: no doubt in my mind that there was financial malfeasance
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  Speaker 1: occurring and criminality going both ways. The following week, he
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  Speaker 1: attended a dinner celebrating 60th anniversary of Gallery Gumrazinska on
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  Speaker 1: multiple occasions over the last few years while at a
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  Speaker 1: Knicks game, I've spotted him perched in his normal seats,
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  Speaker 1: not courtside, but in the third row opposite the bench.
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  Speaker 1: Must be nice to be Leon Black. Must be nice
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  Speaker 1: to do whatever you want and have zero consequences. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to step down from my CEO role. Big deal.
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  Speaker 1: How much money did you lose? Oh, that's right, none.
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  Speaker 1: What kind of repercussions have there been for your family? Oh,
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  Speaker 1: that's right, none. Isn't your son part of the president's administration?
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  Speaker 1: Black is frequently mentioned in the same breath as Epstein.
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  Speaker 1: But he hasn't been cancelled, exactly. Not in the New
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  Speaker 1: York social scene, and not in the art world, more broadly.
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  Speaker 1: Told you. How long have I been telling you? There
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  Speaker 1: is only one penalty. Being broke. That's the one thing
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  Speaker 1: they can't abide by. Oh, you can hurt kids, you
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  Speaker 1: can hurt women, you can traffic guns, you can be
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  Speaker 1: a dictator, you can be an oligarch, whatever it might be.
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  Speaker 1: But you better not be broke. Neither is Bill Gates.
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  Speaker 1: even if the tech mogul stepped away from his foundation
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  Speaker 1: after being exposed in the Epstein files. And neither, of course,
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  Speaker 1: has President Donald Trump, who once allegedly drew Epstein a
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  Speaker 1: lewd cartoon of a woman's body with a note reading,
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  Speaker 1: may every day be another wonderful secret. Trump is denied
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  Speaker 1: writing the card and drawing the cartoon. Oh, well, okay,
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  Speaker 1: he denied it, so we can just move on. And
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  Speaker 1: isn't it funny? There's no demand for somebody to authenticate this.
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  Speaker 1: You would think that if somebody's impersonating the president and
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  Speaker 1: turning over evidence they say was created by the president,
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  Speaker 1: that if the president thinks it's fake, he'd have some
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  Speaker 1: kind of investigation finding out who forged it. But we
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: don't see that, do we? Just the lawsuit. So it
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: looks like he's doing something. But the truth is, according
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  Speaker 1: to all the sources, according to all the evidence, certainly
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  Speaker 1: looks like that was a letter sent by Donald Trump.
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  Speaker 1: And if he's not telling the truth about that letter,
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  Speaker 1: that note, then what else is he not telling the
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  Speaker 1: truth about? My guess? A whole fucking bunch. There's no
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  Speaker 1: indication that Black has stopped buying art either. After the
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  Speaker 1: May evening sales at Christie's and Sotheby's in New York,
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  Speaker 1: Sources were buzzing that Black was among those chasing down
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  Speaker 1: a Miro from the collection of Condé Nast's owner, Cy Newhouse,
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  Speaker 1: which sold, for a record, $ 53. 5 million. Can you imagine
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  Speaker 1: the obscene wealth these people have to be able to
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  Speaker 1: blow that kind of money on art that's just going
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  Speaker 1: to sit there? Maybe not even in their house. Hell,
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  Speaker 1: probably not at their house. So do you think they're
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  Speaker 1: just buying this because, oh, we love art. It's so great.
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  Speaker 1: Or do you think there is an ulterior motive? Do
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  Speaker 1: you think they're trying to avoid taxes? Do you think
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  Speaker 1: they're looking to stash their money? Do you think they're
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  Speaker 1: looking to use a vehicle that's not available to the
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  Speaker 1: rest of us? I have a sneaking suspicion that Leon
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  Speaker 1: Black's love of art is really the love of stashing
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  Speaker 1: the bucks. That's what I think the art's all about.
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  Speaker 1: Black began collecting in earnest in the mid-90s when he purchased,
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  Speaker 1: among other trophies, a JMW Turner that had broken the
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  Speaker 1: record for the most expensive painting ever sold at auction
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  Speaker 1: in 1984. Early on, he bought Van Gogh's Quarry near St.
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  Speaker 1: Remy from Steve Wynn for $ 46 million. His collecting ramped
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: up right as Apollo began its era-defining, run-as-a-distressed-investing phenom, capitalizing
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  Speaker 1: on the collapse of the savings and loan industry. By 1995,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: its $ 1. 5 billion fund had attracted Main Street investors to
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: Wall Street. The General Motors pension fund was one of
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  Speaker 1: its primary backers. And look, there's no doubt that Apollo
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  Speaker 1: Global is very powerful when it comes to their positioning.
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  Speaker 1: And that's why it's so damning and dangerous to have
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  Speaker 1: a guy like Leon Black not face repercussions. Do you
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  Speaker 1: mean to tell me that if it was somebody, a
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  Speaker 1: teacher at a school, they'd be getting away with it?
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  Speaker 1: They wouldn't be canceled. They'd be invited to the neighborhood dinner.
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  Speaker 1: Of course not. But when you got the dough that
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Leon Black has, you have the pull that Leon Black has,
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  Speaker 1: and you know the people that Leon Black knows, it's
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: a whole ass different story. And unfortunately, when we're talking
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  Speaker 1: about the upper crust of society, they just don't care.
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  Speaker 1: They don't care about you. They don't care about your kids.
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  Speaker 1: They don't care about your life. And you know who's
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: included in that upper crust of society? All those lame
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: ass politicians you love to argue about. You think those
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: people care about you? Any of them? They do not.
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  Speaker 1: They care about winning re-election and finding a way to
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: pilfer our wealth. That's all they care about. And the
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: fact that so many people line up behind these folks
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  Speaker 1: and march to their insane tunes is crazy to me.
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  Speaker 1: I just don't understand it. Because one mantra that I've
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  Speaker 1: always lived by is this. If it's fuck me, then
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: it's certainly fuck you. So I'm under no illusions about
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: these people that call themselves high society, or these politicians.
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  Speaker 1: And I think one of the best examples of how
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  Speaker 1: little they care about what we think is by having
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  Speaker 1: people like Leon Black still be part of their little functions.
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  Speaker 1: And not just, you know, in the background, but a
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  Speaker 1: gigantic part of it. So for me, when people talk
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: about the Epstein class, this is what it means. The
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: men of always that continuously step on the neck of
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: the children of never. All right, folks, we're going to
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  Speaker 1: wrap up right here And in the next episode, we're
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: going to pick up with the second part of this
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  Speaker 1: article and finish it off. All the information that goes
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: with this episode can be found in the description box.