Billionaire Leslie Wexner said on Wednesday he once visited the \u200bisland of late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein but denied having knowledge of his criminal activity. Wexner, \u200b88, said he cut all ties to Epstein nearly \u200b20 years ago. He has not \u2060been accused of criminal wrongdoing. The U.S. Justice Department’s recent release of millions of internal documents \u200brelated to Epstein \u200chas shed light on his ties to many prominent people – both before and after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to prostitution \u200bcharges, including soliciting an underage girl. His 2019 death in a Manhattan jail cell was ruled a suicide. “And, let me be crystal clear: I never witnessed \u200cnor had \u200cany knowledge of Epstein’s criminal \u200bactivity. I was never a participant nor co-conspirator in any of Epstein’s illegal activities,” Wexner said in a written testimony to U.S. lawmakers. He was questioned for six hours behind closed doors by congressional investigators \u200bon Wednesday. Wexner,
a former CEO and founder of Victoria’s Secret-owner L Brands, hired Epstein as his personal money manager starting in the 1980s. He has accused Epstein \u200bof using his money to buy properties and goods and says he severed ties around 2007, after Epstein was first criminally charged. “To my enormous embarrassment and regret I, like many others, was duped by a world-class con man. I cannot \u200cundo that part of my personal history even as I regret ever having met him,” he added. U.S. Representative Robert Garcia, the top-ranking Democrat on the House of \u2060Representatives oversight panel, said “there \u200bwas no single person that was more involved in providing Jeffrey Epstein with the financial support to commit his crimes than Les Wexner.” Wexner said he visited Epstein’s island once, \u2060shortly after Epstein had purchased \u2060it, and stopped there \u2060for a “few hours” one morning with his wife and children while on a cruise on their boat. Wexner said Epstein stole “va<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Billionaire Leslie Wexner said on Wednesday he once visited the \u200bisland of late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein but denied having knowledge of his criminal activity. Wexner, \u200b88, said he cut all ties to Epstein nearly \u200b20 years ago. He has not \u2060been accused of criminal wrongdoing. The U.S. Justice Department’s recent release […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n