Senate Panel Probes Leon Black’s Financial Ties to Epstein, Tax Maneuvers

livemint.com:

The U.S. Senate Finance Committee is investigating former Apollo Global Management Chief Executive Leon Black’s tax strategies and dealings with the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, pressing the private-equity billionaire for information on Epstein’s high-price tax advice. Committee Chairman Ron Wyden on Tuesday released a letter to Black that made public the panel’s investigation, which has been going for a year.

In the letter, Wyden asked Black whether trust arrangements improperly moved assets out of his estate and why he paid Epstein—who wasn’t an accountant or tax lawyer—$158 million for advice over six years. “Due to the limited information you have provided the Committee, a significant number of open questions remain regarding the tax avoidance scheme you implemented with Epstein’s assistance," Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, wrote in the 16-page letter dated Monday to Black. A spokesman for Black said he has “fully paid all taxes" and defended the transactions Wyden asked about as legal and vetted by law firms and other advisers.

“As a foundational matter, the letter repeatedly insinuates something illicit or untoward in the professional relationship between Mr. Black and Mr. Epstein," Black’s lawyers said in a reply to the committee reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

“Any such insinuation is without basis." In the reply, Black’s lawyers said that he wouldn’t provide any more information and that the inquiry appears designed to embarrass and criticize individual taxpayers rather than conduct oversight. Black, 71 years old, had more than 100 meetings, including lunches and dinners, scheduled with Epstein over several years, the Journal has reported. Black said that he hired Epstein to advise his family