Leon Black Foundation Disputes Jeffrey Epstein's Role After 2008 Plea

(Bloomberg) -- Jeffrey Epstein resigned 12 years ago as a director of Leon Black’s family foundation, a spokeswoman for the organization said Wednesday, following published reports that the financier remained involved for years after his conviction as a sex offender.

“Jeffrey Epstein resigned in July 2007 at the family’s request from the Leon Black Family Foundation and has not been affiliated with or performed any duties for the Foundation since that date,” a spokeswoman for the private equity executive’s foundation said in an emailed statement. “Due to a recording error, Mr. Epstein’s name mistakenly appeared on Foundation 990 Forms from 2008-2012, after which the inaccuracy was discovered and corrected.”

The mistake was first noticed in 2013, the spokeswoman said, declining further comment.

The New York Post reported earlier Wednesday that Black, co-founder of Apollo Global Management LLC, kept Epstein as a director of his family foundation until 2012, four years after he pleaded guilty to two counts of soliciting a prostitute in Florida and served 13 months in prison. Epstein’s name appeared on annual disclosure forms filed with the federal government from 2001 to 2012.

Epstein also was among guests at a pool party held at Black’s Hamptons estate in 2015, according to the report, which cited an unidentified person who attended.

Black, who helped start Apollo in 1990 and serves as its chief executive officer, is also chairman of New York’s Museum of Modern Art. He has a net worth of $6.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Epstein, 66, was arrested July 6 by federal authorities on charges of sexual trafficking after flying from Paris to a New Jersey airport on his private jet. On Monday, he pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan court and remains in jail pending a bail hearing. The charges, which include sex acts with girls as young as 14, carry a minimum of 10 years in prison if he’s convicted.

To contact the reporter on this story: Suzanne Woolley in New York at swoolley2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Steven Crabill, Peter Eichenbaum

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