- Les Wexner, the CEO of Victoria’s Secret parent company L Brands, has come under intense scrutiny for his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
- Epstein was arrested and charged with sex trafficking of minors in July.
- Epstein was Wexner’s financial advisor, but their relationship often went beyond the parameters of professional colleagues, a Wall Street Journal report said. A 2002 lawsuit described the two as “close personal friends.”
- In a letter to his namesake Wexner Foundation on Wednesday, Wexner said that Epstein had “misappropriated vast sums of money” from his fortune while he was his financial advisor.
- Here’s a timeline of the complicated relationship between Wexner and Epstein.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
It’s hard to talk about Jeffrey Epstein without mentioning Les Wexner.
Wexner is the CEO and founder of L Brands, the parent company to Victoria’s Secret. Epstein, who was arrested and charged with sex trafficking in July, was once the billionaire CEO’s financial advisor. Wexner was one of Epstein’s only known clients.
The two men maintained a decades-long relationship, in which Wexner reportedly handed over an unusual amount of money and power to his financier. Epstein is said to have received millions of dollars from Wexner, and a private plane and two mansions that had previously been owned by Wexner or his companies fell into Epstein’s hands.
Epstein was even involved in the process of selecting models for Victoria's Secret, the Wall Street Journal reported.
With the charges against Epstein coming to light, Wexner's relationship with his former financier is being questioned. The two were described as "close personal friends" in a 2002 lawsuit, but Wexner has claimed recently that he regrets any association with the convicted sex offender and cut off contact over a decade ago.
The relationship between Epstein and Wexner is long and convoluted. In an effort to make sense of it all, we traced the relationship using reports about their first introduction in the late 1980s to the present day:
It began in the late 1980s. Les Wexner had spent years building up his chain of stores called The Limited, which he started in 1963. In 1982 Wexner bought a small chain of San Francisco lingerie shops called Victoria's Secret for $1 million.
Source: The Telegraph
Victoria's Secret grew as Wexner formed the chain into what it is today. By the early 1990s Victoria's Secret was soaring, and sales exceeded $1 billion. It was around this time that Wexner met Jeffrey Epstein.
Source: Town and Country, The New York Times
With his massive success in Victoria's Secret, Wexner wanted to expand his business ventures outside of retail. Robert Meister, an insurance executive, reportedly introduced Wexner to Epstein in the mid-to-late 1980s. Thus began a decades-long relationship.
Source: The New York Times
Wexner and Epstein reportedly began spending a lot of time together. It would later emerge that Wexner was one of Epstein's only clients.
Source: The New York Times, Business Insider
Former colleagues and friends of Wexner told The New York Times that they noted a change in their relationship to the CEO once Epstein came into the picture. Wexner's full trust seemed to be placed in his financier.
Source: The New York Times
In the late 1980s, Epstein managed the construction and design of Wexner's 316-foot yacht, Limitless, a job that seemed beyond the bounds of his role as financial advisor.
Source: The New York Times
Epstein regularly flew to Ohio on a private plane and was often seen at Wexner's parties and events, The New York Times reported. When Wexner got involved in a real-estate development in New Albany, Ohio, Epstein became involved with the project and reportedly acquired a mansion there for $3.5 million in 1992.
Source: The New York Times
In July 1991 Wexner granted Epstein power of attorney, which included the "full power and authority to do and perform every act necessary” on behalf of Wexner, The New York Times reported.
Source: The New York Times
By the time Wexner married his wife, Abigail, in 1993, Epstein was already deeply entrenched in the CEO's personal life, according to The New York Times. It was not uncommon for Epstein to be involved in the Wexners' personal family matters.
Wexner paid Epstein millions of dollars in fees over the years. And there were other perks as well. In 1998, Epstein bought Wexner's New York townhouse for around $20 million, The Wall Street Journal reported. L Brands also reportedly sold Epstein a plane for $10 million at some point as well.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
In 2002 Epstein attempted to gift Wexner with a $339,000 portrait of the Wexner family. This move led to a lawsuit between Epstein and the artist regarding the payment for the painting. In the lawsuit Wexner and his wife were described as Epstein's "clients and close personal friends."
Source: Business Insider
Epstein was also involved in Wexner's personal charities and served on some of Wexner's charity boards. In 2004 the Wexner Foundation reportedly gave Epstein's foundation over $10 million, according to tax returns reported on by the Wall Street Journal.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Through his connection to Wexner, Epstein reportedly meddled in the model selection process for Victoria's Secret. His bond with Wexner put him in a powerful position among young women hoping to model for the company. Around the mid-to-late 1990s, a woman filed a police report against Epstein alleging sexual assault in Wexner's Ohio mansion.
Source: The New York Times
In 2006 Epstein was charged with multiple counts of molestation and unlawful sexual activity with a minor in Florida. A plea deal kept Epstein from federal prosecution, but he pleaded guilty to the state charges of solicitation of prostitution and procurement of minors for prostitution. Wexner didn't immediately cut ties with Epstein in 2006, reports say.
Source: Business Insider, The New York Times
In July, Epstein was arrested and charged with sex trafficking. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Source: Business Insider
Wexner spoke up about the charges after the arrest and said he didn’t know about any potential wrongdoing during his two-decades-long relationship with Epstein. In a memo to company employees. Wexner reportedly wrote, "I have searched my soul... reflected...and regretted that my path ever crossed his." He also claimed to have cut ties with Epstein 12 years ago.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Following the arrest, L Brands said it hired an outside law firm to investigate the company's relationship to Epstein. An L Brands spokeswoman told Business Insider that the company does "not believe he was ever employed by nor served as an authorized representative of the company."
Source: Business Insider
In August, Wexner sent a letter to members of his Wexner Foundation saying that Epstein had misappropriated funds from him and his family.
"This was, frankly, a tremendous shock, even though it clearly pales in comparison to the unthinkable allegations against him now," Wexner wrote in the letter.
Wexner did not specify how much money was recovered from Epstein's financial mismanagement, but according to the Journal, tax records indicate that Epstein made a $46 million contribution to a Wexner charitable fund in January 2008. In his letter, Wexner alleged that this amount represented only a "portion" of the total sum mishandled by Epstein.
