
Billionaire retail tycoon Leslie Wexner told a US House panel on Wednesday that he visited the private Caribbean island of convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but claimed he had no information about the disgraced financier’s sex-trafficking operation at the time.
According to Wexner’s testimony before congressional investigators, which was seen by Bloomberg, the billionaire claimed that he once visited Epstein’s island with his wife and children for “a few hours.”
However, Wexner claimed in his deposition that he “never witnessed or knew of Epstein’s criminal activity” and “never saw or heard of Epstein being in the company of an underage girl.”
The billionaire also told the panel that he was not a “participant or co-conspirator” in any of Epstein’s crimes.
Wexner’s response comes after law enforcement officials working on Epstein’s prosecution in 2019 identified the 88-year-old billionaire as one of 10 “co-conspirators,” according to an email released by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in December.
That means the billionaire was not charged in the case and the House Oversight Committee decided to subpoena him instead.
At the time, Wexner’s representative said the billionaire would “cooperate fully with any government investigation into Epstein, just as he did with the U.S. Attorney’s investigation into Epstein, in which Mr. Wexner was told he was neither a co-conspirator nor a target in any respect.”
Wexner, currently worth over $10 billion, was a former longtime executive at L Brands Inc. based in Columbus, Ohio, which over the years has owned brand stores such as Victoria’s Secret, Bath & Body Works and Abercrombie & Fitch.
(This is a developing story. Check back for updates)