House panel probing Epstein asked Leon Black about birthday book and their friendship

Billionaire financier Leon Black’s voluntary interview with the House Oversight Committee on June 26 ended abruptly after the panel served him with subpoenas for copies of nondisclosure agreements and a second interview while the first interview was still underway, a transcript confirmed.

On Friday, the House Oversight Committee released the transcript of Black’s interview, which lasted less than an hour before his attorneys ended the session. 

After the interview, Susan Estrich, an attorney for Black, decried the subpoenas as “a planned political stunt.” 

The committee is seeking copies of some nondisclosure agreements Black has signed. Emails previously released by the panel show Epstein weighed in on Black’s personal affairs. According to court records, Black had a six-year affair with a Russian model named Guzel Ganieva. When Black was negotiating an NDA with her, Epstein offered him advice in an email written on Sept. 21, 2015.

Black admitted to the panel that he told Epstein about the affair and the woman’s alleged “blackmail and extortion.” After Ganieva signed the NDA, she unsuccessfully sued Black for rape and defamation, denying his claims of extortion. 

“Black has never been ‘extorted by Ms. Ganieva,’ her lawyers wrote in the lawsuit. 

Black denied Epstein was involved in negotiations and said Epstein was not aware of any other NDAs that Black had signed. Black also told the committee the terms of the NDAs prevented him from speaking on the record about them without a subpoena. 

Black denied in his opening statement that he was involved in or had any knowledge of Epstein’s alleged abuse of women, sex with underage women or sex trafficking, except for what he learned from Epstein’s 2008 plea deal for solicitation of prostitution from a minor. Black said he never paid Epstein for access to women.

Black testified that he was introduced to Epstein by a mutual friend in the 1990s and continued to associate with him because of the influential connections Epstein provided. According to Black, Epstein introduced him to numerous high-profile figures, including Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

A 2021 report commissioned by Apollo Global Management, the firm Black founded, concluded that he paid Epstein approximately $158 million for tax and estate planning services. The report found that the work was legitimate. In the interview, Black defended the payments but said that Epstein had misled him into believing the fees were tax-deductible, causing him to underestimate the total cost. 

He said he initially believed he would pay about $95 million but still suggested the higher amount was a bargain, estimating Epstein’s advice saved him between $1 and $2 billion. In 2023 he paid the U.S. Virgin Islands a $62.5 million settlement after he was sued over his financial support of Epstein.

A committee staff member also questioned Black about a poem he wrote for a book compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell to commemorate Epstein’s 50th birthday. The book included letters, drawings and messages from dozens of Epstein’s friends and business associates, many of which referenced his relationships with women. Black’s contribution included the lines, “Blond, red, or brunette spread out geographically, with this net of fish Jeff’s now the old man and the sea.”

Asked what he meant, Black testified, “Because he seemed to know women all over the world. He traveled. He was in Paris. He was in Santa Fe. He was in his island. And he enjoyed the company of good-looking women, and he was a bachelor.”

Although Black referred to Epstein in the book as his “best friend” and signed the note, “Love and kisses, Leon,” he denied that the two were as close as the message suggested. Black told the committee, “We were never best friends. Was I friendly with him from the point of view of enjoying his Rolodex? Yes. Did I think he was very smart as a professional adviser? Yes.”

Epstein had been appointed by Black to the board of directors of his family’s foundation in 1997, but Black told the committee that he removed him from that role after Epstein’s arrest and conviction in 2008. Prior to that, he said that he saw Epstein roughly once every three to four weeks and regularly attended gatherings at Epstein’s townhouse. However, it wasn’t until 2018 that Black and Epstein completely broke ties, which Black attributed to Epstein’s “relentless pursuit of more and more money from me for professional services, his mistruths and misrepresentations” as well as “his failure to repay most of a $30 million loan.”    

Black is scheduled to return before the committee under subpoena in September.