Beth Ponsot
@bponsot
Les Wexner, the CEO of L Brands (owns Victoria's Secret) purchased the townhouse at 9 E 71st Street in 1989.
In 2011, it was transferred to Jeffrey Epstein's Virgin Islands-based Maple Inc. for $0
[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-08/the-mystery-around-jeffrey-epstein-s-fortune-and-how-he-made-it]
Mystery Around Jeffrey Epstein's Fortune and How He Made It
By Tom Metcalf , Caleb Melby , and Sophie Alexander
July 8, 2019, 2:08 PM EDT Updated on July 8, 2019, 4:01 PM EDT
-He managed money for Victoria’s Secret founder Les Wexner
-Prosecutors say Manhattan mansion worth more than $77 million
"For all his infamy, there are scant details of how he made his money. While he’s frequently been called a billionaire, his net worth is hard to ascertain. He ran a money management firm catering to the ultra-rich, primarily for Victoria’s Secret founder Les Wexner, but its assets were never made public and few on Wall Street have dealt with him as a financier or money manager.
According to his lawyers more than a decade ago, he had a net worth in excess of nine figures. Today, so little is known about Epstein’s current business or clients that the only things that can be valued with any certainty are his properties. The Manhattan mansion is estimated to be worth at least $77 million, according to a federal document submitted in advance of Epstein’s bail hearing.
He also has properties in New Mexico, Paris and the U.S. Virgin Islands, where he has a private island, and a Palm Beach estate with an assessed value of more than $12 million. He shuttles between them by private jet and has at least 15 cars, including seven Chevrolet Suburbans, according to federal authorities.
…
Epstein’s money management business had an exclusive focus: It would serve only billionaires. Epstein reportedly made all the investment calls.
Since the 1990s, the company has been incorporated in the U.S. Virgin Islands and is now called Financial Trust Co. A person answering the phone at the Saint Thomas-based company hung up after a request for comment was made.
The main client was Wexner, the founder of underwear maker L Brands. Epstein started managing his money in the 1980s and a 2003 Vanity Fair profile noted the pair had a close relationship, close enough for Epstein to acquire the Manhattan mansion from Wexner.
It’s unclear how much Epstein paid and when he actually took ownership.
Wexner had purchased the property from the Birch Wathen School, a Manhattan prep school in 1989, according to city records. He sold it in 1998 to a Virgin Islands entity called NES LLC, according to a person familiar with the matter. Epstein is affiliated with NES, public records show.
There are no New York property records documenting a transfer until 2011, when the company that Wexner used to purchase the townhouse transferred it to Epstein’s Virgin Islands-based Maple Inc. for $0. Epstein signed for both sides of the transaction.
“People have said it’s like we have one brain between two of us: each has a side,” Epstein said in the 2003 profile.
Wexner, who has a $6.7 billion fortune on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, declined to comment. He cut ties with Epstein more than a decade ago as suspicions about Epstein swirled, with alleged victims saying Epstein used his employees to bring local teen girls to his Florida mansion for sex and paid them to recruit new victims. The girls were as young as 13-years-old."