When Leslie Wexner raised his right hand for a deposition digging into the crimes of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, he also opened up a unique window into the life of a multitasking billionaire retailer.
“I was raised in a very poor family and we had no money, and I had an Aunt Ida and she gave me — loaned to me — her life savings, which was $5,000,” Wexner said at the deposition, held at his home in New Albany, Ohio. “And on the understanding I could put it in the bank so it would appear that I’d have money and I could borrow money from a bank.”
Wexner opened a store in 1963 and it did well enough that the Limited had six stores in 1969, when the company went public.
“I took that company public not to raise money — because it was remarkably successful — and I wanted the associates of the business to own a piece of the business, so I gave stock to virtually everybody that worked in the stores and the back rooms and cleaning people. I’m very proud of that.
“And then [the company] opened more stores and more stores and I figured out at one point that there was a limit to how many Limited stores I could open,” he said. “So I invented a second business called Express and opened up more and more stores.”
That evolved into a mammoth retail business that at various times included not just the Limited and Express, but Victoria’s Secret, Bath & Body Works, Abercrombie & Fitch, Henri Bendel and more.
“In hindsight, I kind of invented multistore national and international store retailing,” said Wexner, explaining a feat that others have also given him credit for. “As I look back, I don’t know how I did it, but probably in my lifetime I opened 10,000 stores around the world, probably 20 different brands.”
But Wexner’s retail chops were not the focus of the deposition, which Democrats from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform initiated and then posted on YouTube.
While Wexner has not been accused of any wrongdoing, he is a central figure in the Epstein drama, which prompted the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, King Charles III’s brother, and has rippled across high-society and high-business circles.
Wexner was an early client of Epstein and gave him sweeping control over his personal finances.
That put Epstein in a position to have allegedly stolen at least $200 million from Wexner. The relationship also helped give Epstein a kind of social currency to make more connections.
Ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) said in a press conference last week: “We should be very clear that there would be no Epstein Island, there’d be no Epstein plane, there’d be no money to traffic women and girls — Mr. Epstein would not be the wealthy man he was — without the support of Les Wexner.”
Wexner, of course, had a different spin on the relationship and said Epstein’s money came not just from him, but from an extensive network of clients.
“I don’t think I ever went to lunch or dinner or a movie or had a cup of coffee with Jeffrey,” Wexner said. “I’d say the same thing about my attorney. I’d never been to his office, my current attorney who’s been our family attorney for 30 years.
“What’s really important for this group to understand is that, as I look back at it, I was conned by the world Olympic all-time con artist. I read in the news all the people he knew — royalty, kings, princes and all that — an incredible con artist.”
When asked why, after being robbed of hundreds of millions of dollars, he didn’t pursue any charges against Epstein, Wexner recalled how he fell into the habit of listening to the advice of experts.
“One of the things my dad told me is that, ‘You don’t get into a pissing contest with an elephant,’ and running a public company for a long time — I’m not good at public relations or financial public relations,” Wexner said.
“So I would answer questions to analysts, I’d call people up and I’d tell them the truth. And what I learned in the course of my business career is, whether it was my chief of staff, the company lawyer, personal lawyers, what should I do? The advice is, ‘Let us handle it.’
“So I am happy that today is happening because I want to help and I would do everything I can to nail that son of a b—h,” Wexner said.
But depositions are almost never easy and Wexner was pressed with very personal questions at times, including whether or not he had a sexual or romantic relationship with Epstein.
“Absolutely not,” Wexner said. “Or any man ever. I’m very straight, super straight, thank you. That’s wacky.”
Certainly the whole affair, which had Epstein jetting around the world — often with a bevy of young women in tow — connecting influential people, has plenty of wackiness. But Wexner said he never saw anything inappropriate.
Introduced as a friend of a friend in the 1980s, Wexner hired Epstein to help manage his personal financial affairs.
“Jeffrey would call the office and my admin would say, ‘Mr. Epstein’s on the phone, he has to talk to you right away.’ And I’d pick up the phone, ‘What is it?’ And he’d say, ‘Well, I’m in Switzerland talking to a Swiss bank about something.’ And he’d try to explain it to me. He said, ‘Well, you wouldn’t understand the transaction. It’s really complex and I’m really busy, but I needed to tell you this or know that.’
“And I’d say, ‘I’m in the middle of a meeting. ‘I’d hang up and then 15 minutes later, he might call me back and I’d look at it,” Wexner said.
This was when Wexner was at or near his peak and spinning many retail plates.
“At the time, I probably had 20 CEOs reporting to me, and so I was used to having business relationships with people, whether it’s attorneys, accountants, investment banks…but I never had personal relationships with people that I worked with,” Wexner said. “I was pretty much a loner.”
Even so, as chief executive officer of the high-profile fashion company that became L Brands Inc. and owned Victoria’s Secret, Wexner was in proximity to both Epstein and many models.
Wexner said Epstein never requested introductions to any models, although he did show up to at least one fashion show and was accused of presenting himself as a recruiter for Victoria’s Secret.
“I called him up and said, ‘Jeffrey, what is going on?’” Wexner said. “He said, ‘Do you think I’m stupid?’ I said, ‘I hope not because if not, you’ll be dead.’ It was a very brief conversation. I remember him being definite about it didn’t happen.”
On another occasion, Wexner’s chief of staff told him that Epstein was being sued by a woman for being aggressive.
“He said, ‘I was being shaken down by a hooker,’ and I believed him,” Wexner said. “The follow up to that conversation was, ‘I hope you’re not bulls–tting me because if it is, the party’s over.’ He said, ‘Absolutely not. Do you think I’m stupid?’”
While Wexner repeatedly presented Epstein as a business associate only, he was asked about a note he wrote for the financial adviser’s birthday book.
“I wanted to get you what you want, so here it is. Happy birthday your friend, Leslie,” the note read.
Wexner went further. “He was a bachelor, so I drew a pair of boobs as kind of a joke, and offhandedly, I’d say.”
He acknowledged the letter and joke was not something he would commonly send to business associates.
“I was trying to be funny,” he said.
Wexner also traveled to Palm Beach, Fla., to see Epstein’s home there and later to his island, but said he wasn’t impressed.
“It was a pretty modest house, nothing special,” he said of the Palm Beach visit.
And on Epstein’s island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Wexner recalled: “There was like a pueblo building, like maybe one room and a bathroom or something. It was pretty crummy and the island was crummy, no trees, there was no sand, there was no beach. It was just basically kind of a peculiar thing. It was an island, but it was like a pile of rocks. It was just, I was kind of shocked that anybody would buy it for any purpose.”
With millions of documents released from the Justice Department’s investigation into Epstein, who died in prison in 2019, the affair seems destined to continue to whip around the world.
“Mr. Wexner honestly answered every question put to him,” a spokesperson said after the deposition. “Mr. Wexner reiterated that he has no knowledge of, and did not participate in, Epstein’s illegal conduct. He stands by that fervently.”
