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Billionaire investor Leon Black was reportedly hit with subpoenas from the House Oversight Committee midway through testimony on his relationship with late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The move came after Black, the co-founder of Apollo Global Management, refused to answer lawmakers’ questions about possible non-disclosure deals between him and women connected to Epstein, according to Politico.
Black is now set to come back to Congress for videotaped testimony under oath on July 16, per one of the subpoenas. The other one demands the possible NDAs.
“We believe that information is vital to our investigation,” Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky) was quoted as saying.
“We want to know, was Jeffrey Epstein involved in the NDAs? … Was he involved in awarding [of] funds to the women for the NDAs? What was the reason for the NDAs?”
The investor earlier told the committee in a closed-door deposition that he’d played no part in Epstein’s sex-trafficking scheme, according to a copy of his prepared remarks obtained by The Post.
A lawyer for Black voiced outrage over the subpoenas.
“Mr. Black came here voluntarily to assist the Committee. This was nothing more than a planned political stunt. Mr. Epstein had no involvement with any NDA’s, whether they exist or not,” attorney Susan Estrich said in a statement.
“Let me reiterate, the Committee did not ask a single question about the legitimate payments to Epstein for professional services on tax and estate matters.”
One of Epstein’s biggest clients, Black told the committee he’d been deceived by a man he had hired for tax advice.
“I have never abused a woman,” he said, according to the prepared remarks. “I have never been with an underage woman. I have never engaged in sex trafficking.”
Black also denied paying Epstein for access to women, insisting he had never been blackmailed.
“I was not involved with, and had no knowledge of, any of Epstein’s heinous conduct,” he said.
The 74-year-old, worth an estimated $13.5 billion according to Forbes, paid Epstein $158 million over five years for estate and tax-planning.
He told the committee that he thought he was paying far less. Black’s drafted testimony claimed that Epstein falsely promised the fees were tax-deductible, or “60-cent dollars.”
What Black believed were $95 million in net fees turned out to be $158 million, he said, while admitting that the late pedophile “solved a massive estate problem” that lawyers could not.
He fired the financier in 2018 after a dispute over fees and an unpaid $30 million loan. Black stepped down as Apollo’s chief executive in 2021. The company is now led by Marc Rowan.
Black’s testimony cited a review by the law firm Dechert, which found he paid Epstein the massive sum but uncovered no evidence he took part in any crimes. Black said Dechert examined 60,000 documents and interviewed 20 people over three months.
He called himself the only figure in Epstein’s orbit to commission an independent investigation and make the results public.
The Wall Street bigwig said he met Epstein in the mid-1990s and gave him a second chance after his 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor.
He said Epstein told him the case was an isolated incident involving a fake ID.
“I knew Jekyll,” Black said. “I didn’t know Hyde.”
He said he did not learn of Epstein’s sex trafficking of minors until the financier was charged for the crime in July 2019.
The Justice Department alleged that Epstein created a vast network of girls, some as young as 14, for him to sexually abuse between 2002 and 2005.
FBI files released by the Trump administration over the past year have deepened the scrutiny of Epstein’s ties to the elite of US finance, politics and media.
One Epstein victim told agents in 2019 that Epstein directed her to give massages to Black and others. But New York prosecutors examined the claim and never charged him.
Black devoted much of his Friday statement to three civil suits brought by the Wigdor law firm, calling them “baseless” and “fabricated.”
The first two were dismissed with prejudice. In the third, the ex-Apollo CEO said a federal judge issued a 76-page ruling last month sanctioning the plaintiff, her lawyer and the firm for submitting false evidence.
He said the plaintiff testified she bore four of Epstein’s children, three of them kidnapped at birth.
“As a result of this torrent of lies and misrepresentations, I have received death threats, and my family now feels unsafe. For the first time in my life, I’ve had to deploy a bodyguard,” Black said, according to the prepared remarks.
Before the session began, Comer told reporters he believed it might be the most “groundbreaking” hearing yet in the committee’s nearly year-old Epstein probe.
“This could be a pretty significant deposition as we try to get answers,” he said.
The committee is investigating how the federal government handled Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, the socialite daughter of a British newspaper tycoon.
Epstein died by suicide in jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial. His British madam Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for crimes including sex trafficking of minors.
The panel previously interviewed former President Bill Clinton and billionaire Bill Gates, who both denied wrongdoing. Black and his family own about 14% of Apollo.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the top Dem on the Oversight Committee, voiced support of subpoenaing Black.
“There’s no question that as soon as this interview started, that the witness was not going to answer critical questions,” he told reporters.
English (US)