Epstein’s Work for Leon Black Deserves IRS Probe, Wyden Says

(Bloomberg) – A key Senate Democrat expanded the Trump administration’s attack on the financing of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex smuggling network, and called on the internal income service to investigate the tax and real estate planning activities for private capital Titan Leon Black.

Ron Wyden, the best democrat of the Senate Finance Committee, wrote to IRS commissioner Billy Long on Thursday to question why Black did not control the payments of Epstein between 2012-2017 for complex tax-related transactions. Black spokesman rejected that he was injustice.

Oregon Democrat Wyden, “A known criminal Mega Rich Individual Dodge’in to help billions of taxes paid tens of millions of dollars in the amount of transactions of never control or investigated,” he wrote. “When the Americans think that the system is fraudulent, this is a kind of abuse they think.”

Wyden accelerates President Donald Trump’s attack on the Treasury department, as he could not publish more than $ 1.5 billion dollars in Epstein transactions flowing from a few US and Russian banks. The criticism of the Ministry of Justice is in the midst of the print of Epstein, who died in prison for sex purposes, and his long -term partner Ghislaine Maxwell, who has been sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment.

In 2021, Black has retired as the General Manager of Apollo Global Management Inc.

According to a spokesman of Black, an independent investigation by an external law firm for Black four years ago concluded that he did not make any mistakes ”. “Epstein is not aware of the criminal activity and that all paid fees are for legitimate tax, real estate and philanthropy planning services and are supervised and approved by foreign law firms”.

In 2022, when Joe Biden was president and the Democrats control the Senate, he began to investigate Black’s activities with Epstein.

Treasury department spokesman said in a statement on Friday: “IRS takes all the demands seriously and will review Senator Wyden’s letter. This clearly said that the senator was motivated politically.

Wyden’s staff followed the strategy of “Follow the Money” while investigating Epstein’s accounts before his death in 2019 prison. In a letter to the Chief Public Prosecutor Pam Bondi on July 21st, he said that his researchers found that the Treasury department documented 4,725 wire transfer.

Transfers are detailed by banks in the suspicious activity reports that should serve as an early warning system about possible crime activities. Some banks could not file reports until years later.

In his letter to Bondi, Wyden, the Ministry of Justice’s evidence in the Treasury files and Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Deutsche Bank called the court records in Epstein to “immediately investigate”. Bank of America and JPMorgan spokesman refrained from commenting. A Ministry of Justice Spokesman did not respond immediately to the request for comment.

“The bank regretted our historical connection with Jeffrey Epstein,” Deutsche Bank said. “We cooperated with the regulatory and law enforcement officers and we are transparent in addressing these issues in parallel.”

In 2023, JPMorgan reached an agreement of $ 290 million with Epstein’s victims. The US reached an agreement of $ 75 million according to Epstein, with the US Virgin Islands, where he was drawn to a special seclusion and took some of his victims. Deutsche Bank also agreed to pay 75 million dollars to Epstein’s victims. Black agreed to pay $ 62.5 million to the US Virgin Islands. This agreement agreement Epstein said that he used the money paid to him to partially finance his operations on the Virgin Islands ”.

Wyden spoke to journalists on Thursday and accused the Treasury department of the Treasury department under Trump of suppressing critical information about Epstein’s suspicious financial transactions, and that banks were “sleepwriter”.

“The longer this administration stops, the more open it is something to hide,” he said. “There has been a common effort by the Trump administration to show that these important records were in the Treasury department.”

Wyden said it is clear that banks help Epstein finance global sex trade operations.

Wyden, “I think they should ensure that this information is as possible as possible. I think everything should emerge. Period,” he said.

-Ava help from Benny-Morrison.

(Updates in the eighth paragraph with the Treasury’s interpretation.)

There are more stories like this Bloomberg.com