The U.S. Senate Finance Committee investigates the tax strategies and dealings between former Apollo Global Management CEO Leon Black and the late financier Jeffrey Epstein. The Chairman of the Committee, Ron Wyden, sent a letter to Black questioning whether trust arrangements were used to move assets out of his estate improperly and why he paid Epstein $158 million for tax advice over six years, despite Epstein not being an accountant or tax lawyer. The investigation revealed that Black had over 100 meetings with Epstein over several years and hired him to advise his family office. The independent investigation commissioned by Apollo, the private-equity firm co-founded by Black, found that Epstein provided advice that saved Black between $1 billion and $2 billion in taxes. Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019, proposed a transaction to push assets out of Black's taxable estate using a grantor-retained annuity trust.
