Epstein's work for Leon Black deserves IRS investigation, says Wygen | Company Business News

(Bloomberg) -An important Senate Democrat has expanded its attack on the Trump administration’s handling of records on the financing of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trading network and requested the Internal Revenue Service to investigate his tax and estate planning for private equity Titan Leon Black. Ron Wygen, the top democrat of the Senate Committee, wrote to IRS Commissioner Billy Long on Thursday to question why the agency did not audit at least $ 158 million in payments that Black made to Epstein between 2012 and 2017 for complex tax-related transactions. A spokesman for Swart denied that he had done wrong. “It is inconceivable that transactions amounting to ten millions of dollars paid to a well-known criminal, with the aim of helping a mega-healthy individual billions in taxes, never audit or investigate,” Wyden, a Democrat of Oregon. “If Americans think the system is targeting, this is the kind of abuse they think of.” Wide, his attack on President Donald Trump’s Treasury division is accelerating for not releasing information about more than $ 1.5 billion to Epstein transactions flowing through various US and Russian banks. His criticism comes amid a widespread pressure for the Justice Department to release criminal records on the investigations into Epstein, who died in prison when he faced charges of sex trade, and Ghislaine Maxwell, his long -time co -worker serving a 20 -year prison sentence. In 2021, Black as Apollo Global Management Inc. The long -standing CEO retired amid controversies. According to a Black spokesman, an independent overview conducted by an outdoor law firm for Black four years ago by an outdoor farm firm has been breach of Black. It is said that he “had no awareness of the criminal activity of Epstein, and all the paid fees were for legal tax, estate and philanthropy planning services and were purchased and approved by the law firms.” In 2022, when Joe Biden President and Democrats controlled the Senate, Joe Biden began investigating Black’s activities with Epstein. A Treasury spokesman spokesman said in a statement on Friday: “IRS will take all requests seriously and will review the letter from Senator Wygen. That said, is clear that the senator’s incidents were politically motivated. Wide staff pursued a ‘follow the money’ strategy as it investigated the flow of funds in and out of Epstein’s accounts before his death in prison in 2019. In a July 21 letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, he said his investigators found that the Treasury division was 4.725 thread transfers. The transfers were set out by banks in so -called suspicious activity reports that are supposed to serve as an early warning system for investigators on possible criminal activity. Some of the banks only filed the reports years later. In his letter to Bondi, Wygen requested the Department of Justice to “immediately investigate” evidence in the Treasury and subpoening records on Epstein of Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Deutsche Bank. Bank of America and JPMorgan spokesmen declined to comment. A spokesman for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. “The bank regrets our historical connection to Jeffrey Epstein,” Deutsche Bank said in a statement. “We worked with regulatory and law enforcement agencies regarding their investigations and were transparent to address these matters parallel.” In 2023, JPMorgan reached a $ 290 million settlement with the victims of Epstein. It separately reached a $ 75 million settlement over Epstein with the US Virgin Islands, where he had a private refuge and took some of his victims. Deutsche Bank also agreed to pay $ 75m to the victims of Epstein. Black agreed to pay $ 62.5 million to US Virgin Islands. The settlement agreement said Epstein “used the money Black paid to him to partially finance his operations in the Virgin Islands.” Wygen spoke to reporters on Thursday and accused the Treasury division under Trump of suppressing critical information about Epstein’s suspicious financial transactions, while saying that banks were ‘sleeping’ on the matter. “The longer this administration stands still, the more it becomes clear that there is something to hide,” Wygen said. “A joint effort by the Trump administration has been made to play that these important records are with the Treasury division.” Widen said it is clear to him that banks help to finance Epstein’s global sex trafficking operations. “I think they should make so much of the information available. I think everything should come out. Period,” Wygen said. -With help from Ava Benny-Morrison. (Updates in the eighth paragraph with comments on the Treasury section.) More stories like these are available on Bloomberg.com © 2025 Bloomberg LP