#wexner

Leslie H. Wexner, a longtime Harvard megadonor, was labeled a co-conspirator of convicted child sex offender Jeffrey E. Epstein in a previously redacted internal FBI document from August 2019.

The document was included in a cache of millions of files released by the Department of Justice in late January, though Wexner’s name remained redacted until Monday night, when Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) called for it to be disclosed.

The file lists Wexner as a “co-conspirator” alongside Ghislaine Maxwell and other known partners in Epstein’s criminal activities.

Wexner, a retail mogul, was for decades Epstein’s only publicly acknowledged client and the primary source of the financier’s wealth. Until his 2019 arrest, Epstein lived in a New York residence previously owned by Wexner.

Wexner, who was the former CEO of lingerie retailer Victoria’s Secret, was among Harvard’s most prolific donors. He gave more than $42 million to the Harvard Kennedy School before 2012, where one of six main campus buildings bears his name, and funded the $3.6 million construction of the Harvard Hillel building in 1994 — a deal Epstein facilitated.

Wexner publicly severed ties with Harvard in October 2023, citing what he called the University’s “dismal failure” to respond to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

A spokesperson for the Kennedy School did not respond to a request for comment on whether Wexner’s name would be removed from the building.

Despite their decades-long relationship, Wexner — who claimed he cut ties with Epstein in 2007 — has long maintained he was an unknowing victim of Epstein’s manipulation. In a 2019 letter, Wexner said Epstein “misappropriated vast sums of money from me and my family.” According to a document released in the January cache, Epstein paid Wexner $100 million in 2008, Wexner’s lawyers told prosecutors in July 2019.

Emails released by the DOJ in December show that Wexner was under investigation by the FBI that year. In one internal email chain, he appears to be among ten “co-conspirators” the FBI sought to locate, interview, and subpoena as part of a federal grand jury investigation into Epstein.

In a July 2019 email from “FBI New York” requesting an update on the “status of the 10 CO conspirators,” an agent — whose name was redacted — replied, “I do not know about Ohio contacting Wexner.” A follow-up email two days later again appears to reference Wexner, this time as “a wealthy business man in Ohio."

A month later, another internal FBI email concluded there was “limited evidence” regarding Wexner’s involvement in Epstein’s crimes. That same day, the FBI circulated the internal memo labeling him as a co-conspirator.

Wexner owns an estate in New Albany, Ohio, which has appeared in separate court filings related to Epstein. In one filing, an Epstein victim alleged she was “violently sexually assaulted” while living as an “artist in residence” at a guest house on Wexner’s property.

In a 2016 deposition, Epstein’s personal attorney, Alan M. Dershowitz, suggested that Wexner required a victim to dress in specific outfits — a claim also leveled against Epstein and his frequent accomplice Maxwell.

The Wexner Foundation did not respond to a request for comment.

As his financial manager, Epstein maintained near-total control over Wexner’s assets, including power of attorney. Epstein’s association with Wexner — his wealthiest and most visible client — helped propel Epstein into an elite stratosphere of clients, politicians, and bankers.

Renewed scrutiny of Epstein’s wealth and network has continued to ensnare Wexner. Photos of Wexner and his wife with Epstein were released in December under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, along with a letter Wexner wrote for Epstein’s 50th birthday.

—Staff writer Hugo C. Chiasson can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at hcc.35. Follow him on X @HugoChiassonn.

—Staff writer Elise A. Spenner can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @EliseSpenner.

Episode No. 289 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artist Nancy Rubins. It was recorded live at the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University in Columbus.

Rubins is included in "Grey Matters," an exhibition that opens Friday, May 19 at the Wexner. The show, curated by Michael Goodson, features the work of 37 contemporary women artists who have worked en grisaille. It is on view through July 30. The exhibition includes work by past MAN Podcast guests such as Carol Bove, Vija Celmins, Mickalene Thomas, Julie Mehretu, Mary Reid Kelley, Arlene Shechet, Amy Sillman, Xaviera Simmons and Lorna Simpson.

Rubins' often monumental sculpture amalgamates industrially produced objects into strikingly light, sometimes lyrical objects. Her enormous drawings, of built-up graphite on single sheets of paper often installed across multiple walls, are simultaneously minimal and baroque. Rubins has had solo exhibitions at museums such as the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Her public and institutional commissions include the University of Texas in Austin, MCASD, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, and the Université Paris Diderot in France.

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Les Wexner, and Ed Razek

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"Ed Razek, for decades one of the top executives at L Brands, the parent company of Victoria’s Secret, was the subject of repeated complaints about inappropriate conduct. He tried to kiss models. He asked them to sit on his lap. He touched one’s crotch ahead of the 2018 Victoria’s Secret fashion show.

Executives said they had alerted Leslie Wexner, the billionaire founder and chief executive of L Brands, about his deputy’s pattern of behavior. Some women who complained faced retaliation. One model, Andi Muise, said Victoria’s Secret had stopped hiring her for its fashion shows after she rebuffed Mr. Razek’s advances."

NY Times Feb. 1, 2020

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. https://youtu.be/OMOytUHtMbY?si=0UmliP2npYrpVEBO