What do we know about Les Wexner and Epstein as deposition approaches?

 

What do we know about Les Wexner and Epstein as deposition approaches?

Max Filby   Columbus Dispatch

https://eu.dispatch.com/story/news/local/2026/02/16/les-wexner-ties-to-jeffrey-epstein-relationship-before-house-oversight-committee/88646107007/#:~:text=Epstein%20and%20Wexner%20reportedly%20first,still%20in%20touch%20in%202008.

 

Story Summary

Billionaire Les Wexner is set to be deposed by Congress for his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Wexner and Epstein had a long financial relationship, which Wexner said ended in 2007.

Wexner has not been charged with any crimes in connection to his association with Epstein.

Members of Congress are set to depose Ohio retail billionaire Les Wexner on Feb. 18 behind closed doors at his New Albany mansion in Ohio.

 

Wexner, 88, and the founder of L Brands, will testify about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, his former financial adviser and an accused child sex trafficker who died in 2019.

 

While it's unclear exactly what members of Congress will ask Wexner during the deposition, much is already known about the the retail mogul's long relationship with Epstein and how it ended.

 

Here's what we know about Wexner, his ties to Epstein and the upcoming deposition.

 

Why will Les Wexner be deposed in Ohio instead of on Capitol Hill?

When the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued a subpoena in January for Wexner's testimony on Epstein, the committee originally summoned Wexner to a 10 a.m. meeting on Feb. 18 in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C.

 

It's unclear when, but at some point, the deposition was moved from Washington, D.C., to Wexner's mansion in New Albany. Members of Congress and their staff will travel to central Ohio for the deposition, a congressional spokesperson told The Dispatch.

 

Rep. James Comer, R-Kentucky, leads the committee deposing Wexner and The Dispatch reached out to a spokesperson asking why the deposition location was moved, how many members of Congress would be meeting with Wexner and who was paying for travel.

 

A spokesperson for Comer did not directly answer The Dispatch's questions but instead provided the following statement.

 

“The House Oversight Committee will conduct a deposition with Mr. Wexner on February 18 in Ohio. As is standard with all deposition subpoenas, Committee staff coordinated in good faith with Mr. Wexner’s legal counsel and are proceeding in accordance with established House and Committee procedures.”

 

How did Les Wexner and Jeffrey Epstein know each other?

Epstein and Wexner reportedly first met in 1986 in Palm Beach, Florida, after being introduced to each other by insurance executive Robert Meister and his wife.

 

A year later in 1987, Epstein became a financial adviser for Wexner, whose company already included brands such as The Limited, Express and Victoria's Secret.

 

In 1991, The Dispatch reported its first story linking Epstein to Wexner.

 

Wexner donated 10 million shares of the Limited's stock valued at more than $230 million to create the Ohio Higher Education Trust, The Dispatch reported at the time. Epstein was identified as "a financial advisor in New York" and was listed as the group's trustee.

 

In 1992, Epstein paid $3.5 million for a new 10,639-square-foot home at 5025 Dublin-Granville Road, on 30.4 acres on the north end of Wexner's estate.

 

Wexner also granted Epstein power of attorney in 1991, a measure that would remain in place until their relationship ended in 2007. Recently released emails, however, show that the two were still in touch in 2008.

 

Why did Les Wexner end his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein?

Wexner has long claimed he ended his relationship with Epstein in 2007 as his financial adviser was under investigation for sex crimes in Florida and when he discovered that Epstein had stolen money from him.

 

In 2007, Epstein told Wexner that he was "having legal problems" due to what he described as an "overly aggressive police chief and some sort of massage." Epstein later pleaded guilty to soliciting sex with someone younger than 18 in Florida in 2008.

 

Epstein, however, claimed he was being blackmailed and suggested Wexner's wife Abigail Wexner take over the family finances, the memo stated. When Abigail Wexner began looking into their finances, she found that Epstein had stolen or misappropriated hundreds of millions of dollars.

 

"Epstein tried to convince Wexner's wife that she did not understand the financials and insisted that he had the Wexners' best interests at heart," stated a memo detailing a 2019 meeting with Wexner's attorney that was released by the Department of Justice in January.

 

The Wexners withdrew the power of attorney they had granted Epstein.

 

Instead of taking action publicly, the memo stated they hired an attorney to negotiate a "private settlement" to avoid "unnecessary public attention." As a result of those negotiations, Epstein returned $100 million to the Wexners in January 2008, the memo stated.

 

Although Wexner has long maintained he ended his relationship with Epstein in 2007, an email between the two shows they communicated later.

 

Four days before Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to soliciting sex with someone younger than 18, Epstein received an email from Wexner.

 

“Abigail told me the response,” Wexner wrote, referring to his wife. “All I can say is I feel sorry. You violated your own number 1 rule … Always be careful.”

 

Epstein only replied: “no excuse.”

 

Did Les Wexner know about Jeffrey Epstein's alleged sex crimes?

Files that Congress ordered the DOJ to release as part of its Epstein investigation have repeatedly named Wexner a co-conspirator of Epstein. But Wexner has long maintained he did not know about Epstein's crimes before he ended his relationship with him.

 

An email released Dec. 23, 2025, that was sent by an FBI agent in New York on July 7, 2019, listed Wexner while asking for an "an update on the status of the 10 co-conspirators."

 

An Aug. 15, 2019, FBI email released on Jan. 30 also labeled Wexner and others as "secondary co-conspirators." But the email said only that there was "limited evidence regarding his involvement," that investigators were in touch with Wexner's attorney and a subpoena had been served.

 

Wexner also is listed in a December 19, 2019, memo written by assistant U.S. attorneys titled "Investigation into potential co-conspirators of Jeffrey Epstein." The memo details Wexner's fallout with Epstein in 2007.

 

In each instance, Wexner has been mentioned alongside other Epstein associates, such as Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving time in federal prison for her involvement in Epstein's crimes. Maxwell was deposed Feb. 9 and declined to answer questions by invoking her Fifth Amendment right to not incriminate herself.

 

Despite the documents, representatives for Wexner have said the retail mogul was told he was never a target of the Epstein investigation.

 

“The Assistant U.S. Attorney told Mr. Wexner’s legal counsel in 2019 that Mr. Wexner was neither a co-conspirator nor target in any respect. Mr. Wexner cooperated fully by providing background information on Epstein and was never contacted again," a spokesman told The Dispatch.

 

Wexner representatives have also long pointed to a 2019 news conference in which Brad Edwards, an attorney who has represented a number of Epstein accusers, said that he had doubts about claims that Wexner was aware of Epstein's crimes. Edwards called Wexner's denial that he knew about Epstein's activities "very highly likely to be true."

 

Were there any revelations about Les Wexner's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein in the DOJ files?

In what appeared to be an undated draft letter from Epstein to Wexner, the former financial adviser wrote that the two men had "gang stuff" for 15 years and that they owed each other a debt.

 

It's unclear exactly what Epstein was referring to or whether the undated letter was ever sent to Wexner.

 

Epstein wrote that he had suggested to a representative of Wexner's that the two meet. But the letter stated Epstein was rebuffed.

 

"I have never once, not once, done anything, but protect your interests. I owe a great debt to you, as frankly you owe to me," Epstein wrote. "I was not surprised by your reticence to sit with me when my bad judgement [sic] with women became a cause celebre."

 

In the letter, Epstein also wrote that he had "sat with Abigail," who asked questions and made what he described as "unfair, aggressive and false accusations." While Epstein wrote that while he answered some of those questions, he said he couldn't answer them fully "without violating a confidence with you."

 

"You and I had 'gang stuff' for over 15 years. A great deal of it, that she was unaware of," Epstein wrote. "I had no intention of divulging any confidence of ours, no matter what accusations she made. And she made quite a few."

 

A Wexner representative told The Dispatch that Wexner never received the letter.

 

"It appears Epstein was furious that Mr. Wexner refused to meet with him years after Mr. Wexner terminated Epstein and cut off all ties with him following Mr. Wexner’s discovery of Epstein’s theft and criminal conduct," the representative said in a prepared statement. "The draft appears to fit a pattern of untrue, outlandish, and delusional statements made by Epstein in desperate attempts to perpetuate his lies and justify his misconduct."

 

Has Les Wexner been charged with a crime in connection to Jeffrey Epstein?

Wexner has not been charged with any crimes stemming from his relationship with Epstein.

 

In early February, members of Congress noted that Wexner's name had been redacted on a document naming co-conspirators of Epstein and demanded answers from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi as to why the retail mogul has not been prosecuted.

 

"At what point did the FBI and DOJ decide that Les Wexner is not a co-conspirator because our Epstein files transparency act requires you... to release the internal decision about whether to prosecute him or not and it's not in the files, it's not in the files for any of these other men," Rep. Thomas Massie asked Bondi in a Feb. 11 congressional hearing.

 

Bondi responded by saying Massie was acting as if "everybody's trying to cover up Wexner's name." The mistaken redaction of Wexner was corrected within 40 minutes of it being pointed out, Bondi said.

 

Bondi also told the House Judiciary Committee that Wexner's name appears more than 4,000 times in the Epstein documents released by the DOJ in recent months.

 

Dispatch investigative reporter Max Filby can be reached by email at mfilby@dispatch.com. Find him on X at the handle @MaxFilby or on Facebook at @ReporterMaxFilby.