Episode Details

Les Wexner has portrayed himself as one of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, claiming Epstein gradually gained his confidence, secured extraordinary control over his personal finances and ultimately misappropriated enormous amounts of Wexner family money. Wexner said the scheme became apparent in 2007, when Epstein’s legal problems in Florida were escalating and Abigail Wexner began examining the family finances more closely. Wexner publicly said Epstein had taken “vast sums,” while information later provided by his attorneys to federal investigators described the amount as several hundred million dollars; Wexner has said at least some of that money was recovered. Roughly $46 million in securities transferred from Epstein-controlled entities to an Abigail Wexner foundation was characterized as only part of the repayment. Wexner’s account was essentially that Epstein had used the sweeping power of attorney entrusted to him to enrich himself, manipulate transactions and exploit a relationship Wexner believed was legitimate. By 2026, Wexner was describing Epstein as an extraordinary con man who had deliberately cultivated his trust before abusing it.

That explanation deserved considerably more skepticism than simply accepting Wexner as another unsuspecting mark. Epstein did not acquire temporary access to Wexner’s affairs; Wexner gave him power of attorney for roughly 16 years and allowed him extraordinary influence over virtually every aspect of his personal financial life, including properties, trusts, philanthropy and major transactions. Epstein’s rise to immense wealth was deeply intertwined with that relationship, and one of the most valuable assets associated with him—his Manhattan townhouse—also originated in Wexner’s financial orbit. Just as importantly, if Wexner discovered in 2007 that a man controlling his fortune had stolen or misappropriated an enormous amount of money, the public record has never produced a particularly satisfying explanation for why such an alleged theft did not immediately result in an aggressive criminal complaint and a public financial reckoning. Wexner was pressed on that point during his 2026 congressional deposition and did not provide a straightforward explanation for why the alleged massive theft was not reported to law enforcement. None of that proved Wexner knowingly participated in Epstein’s crimes, but it made the simple story that he was merely deceived increasingly difficult to accept without serious scrutiny—especially given the length, depth and financial intimacy of a relationship that did more than almost anything else to provide Epstein with the wealth, property and legitimacy he later wielded.


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