Speaker 1: Let's jump into this Vanity Fair article and let's do
part one today roughly, not like I said thirty minutes
or so. And let's see what the author, Gabriel Sherman
has come up with headline, the Mogul and the monster
inside Jeffrey Epstein's decades long relationship with his biggest client.
Now again, remember, for those of us who have been
following this case rabidly the way we have been, there's
a lot of this stuff we all know already, but
it's nice to see it in print. It's nice to
see one of these legacy outlets diving in and doing
their job and not leaving it to the handful of
content creators who actually have a clue about what's going on.
In the fall of nineteen eighty two, a money manager
named Harold Levine got a phone call that would change
his life. A lawyer representing Leslie H. Wexner, the founder
and CEO of the women's apparel retailer The Limited, said
Wexner was looking for a financial advisor. Would Levin be interested.
Levin most certainly was in Columbus, Ohio, where Levin lived.
Wexner was a legend. Wexner grew the Limited from a
single Columbus store into a global retail empire that included
mall fixtures, Abercrombie and Fitch, Victorious Secret, and Bath and
body Works. Now, there's no doubt, we can't even begin
to doubt that what Les Wexner built was pretty magnificent
as far as a retail empire goes. And kudos for that, right,
But that's where it stops. Everything else that I know
about this man, everything else that he did, everything else
he was involved in, is pretty much reprehensible, to be
honest with you. And the way that he conducts himself
and the way he controls things down in Ohio like
it's his own little fifedom and he is this feudal
leader that can call his banners whenever he wishes is
disgusting and disturbing. You would think that there would be
a lot more interest into what less Wexner was in
his home base of Ohio. Levigne landed the job after
six months of grueling interviews. He wasn't making Masters of
the Universe money. Wexner paid a salary of two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars a year. Damn two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars a year in nineteen eighty two. Not
Masters of the Universe money, but big money, no doubt.
I mean, just take a look back at what the
prices were in nineteen eighty two and what the cost
of living was. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars goes
a damn long way, folks. Wexner paid a salary of
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, but it
wasn't enough for Levin Levin to move his family into
a six thousand square foot house across the street from
Wexner in Bexley, Columbus's most exclusive suburb. So this gentleman
who ended up working as a financial advisor for Les
Wexner not only worked for Les Wexner, but he lived
right across the street from him. So this is one
of the guys that was with Les Wexner for quite
some time, somebody who knew him, knew him personally, and
somebody who worked with him before and during the whole
entire Epstein escapade. So this is good work finding this
gentleman to talk to and adding this story to the catalog,
because again, look, folks, there are so many levers to
this so I mean levels to this, so many different
chambers in the warrant that if you don't explore everything,
then you're not going to understand anything. By nineteen eighty six,
Wexner ranked six on the Forbes four hundred list of
richest Americans, with a net worth estimated at one point
four billion dollars. In New York, I had bankers constantly
taking me out to dinner, Levin told me. Once a
banker arranged a private tour of Le Bernardine. The kitchen
was so clean you could eat off the floor, Levin remembered.
So I'm guessing that Lay Bernardine was some kind of
a haughty, towdy, fancy restaurant in New York back in
the day. I'm not too familiar with it, never heard
of it. But then again, it's not like I'm some
you know, fine dining establishment expert. You know, I like
a nice steakhouse as much as the next guy, like me,
a great Italian joint as much as the next guy.
But as far as you know, knowing the top chefs
in the business and all of that stuff, no idea.
I know guys that are on the show Top Chef maybe,
But besides that certainly not some sort of food critic.
But I guess this is a big deal considering. Levine
was pretty impressed. He remembered Wexner entrusted Levin Levin with
increasingly ambitious projects. Starting in the mid nineteen eighties, Levin
purchased thousands of acres of farmland in New Albany population
four hundred and fourteen, on the outskirts of Columbus, where
Wexner planned to build his very own town modeled on
an eighteenth century Georgian village. Less sent me to Richmond,
Virginia to look at architecture he wanted to copy. Levin said,
so again, this is at the very beginning, right when
Les Wexner was first building up his empire. Levin was
there riding shotgun as an advisor, as a basically Jeffrey,
I mean Less, Wexner's right hand man, taking care of
what needs to be taken care of, going out looking
at the architecture plans. You know, that's a confidant, right, folks,
that's somebody that's around you. You're breaking bread with them,
their families, hanging out with your family, and it's more
than just oh this is my employee and That's what
happens a lot of times with these powerful men. They
get themselves a right hand man or a woman, and
that person becomes integral to everything they do. And that's
what Levin was for Les Wexner. On one of Levin's
trips to New York in nineteen eighty nine, Wexner asked
him to meet a brilliant young financier who wanted to
pitch an investment opportunity. So this is Levin's first meeting.
First experience with Jeffrey Epstein was in nineteen eighty nine,
when his then boss, Les Wexner wanted to introduce them.
Levin never heard of the man Jeffrey Epstein, which was odd.
After working for Wexner for seven years, Levin knew virtually
every player on Wall Street. A few months earlier, Levin
says he met with Ivan Bowski. Levin's skepticism was confirmed
as soon as he arrived at Epstein's Madison Avenue office.
There were no visible signs of a trading operation, just
Epstein sitting behind a desk that didn't even have a computer.
So the grift was on even then, folks. And it
begs the question, why would somebody like Les Wexner get
involved with somebody like Jeffrey Epstein with no Jeffrey Epstein
who had no sort of credibility in the industry, no
sort of contacts, no sort of track record, just some
guys sitting behind the desk, and Les Wexner, who is
the mogul of this huge business empire, is going to
get in business with them. And not only that, but
nobody on the street even really knows who Jeffrey Epstein is.
And this is the guy who Less Wexner decides to
park his money with. This is the man Wexner decides
to give the keys to the castle. Why that is
the real question. Nobody's been able to answer it. Oh,
of course, You've had people who have, you know, shout
out some hypothesises on what's going on, or some guesses
and some speculation, but nobody's really been able to hammer
down the nexus of this relationship. And that is an
ongoing theme until we get to that point and we
figure out how Wexner and Epstein truly came into contact,
how they really became buddies. The rest of it's going
to be a bit muddled. Epstein was trying to explain
a currency trade he wanted to do. I have an
MBA from the Ohio State, and I didn't understand the
word the man said. Levin recalled. Levin went back to
Columbus and reported that Epstein was a fraud. I told
Les stay away from him. Levin remembered. Wexner agreed not
to do the trade. So Wexner had his right Levin
down there taking a look meeting Epstein, doing an intro,
getting an idea of who the guy is. Comes back
after one sesshon and says, look, oh, boy is a fraud.
You shouldn't get in business with him. Less stay away
from him. He has no idea what he's doing. He
is not a real financial advisor. So what does Les
Wexner do? And all of his infinite brilliance hops right
into bed with Jeffrey Epstein. So again when we talk
about the relationship that Epstein built with Wexner or these
other people, and people try and pitch that oh they
had no idea, Well what Epstein was, I say, absolute bs.
I don't buy it for a minute. The warning signs
were there. He was warned by his own guy Levin,
And I'm sure there were a bunch of other people
that warned them as well, just like Bill Gates's wife
warned him. Levin was shocked when Epstein showed up in
Columbus a few months later and announced Wexner had put
him in charge of his finances. Levin tried to protest,
but says Wexner wouldn't take his calls. Levin couldn't stand
having Epstein as a boss. He was an asshole, the
most arrogant person I ever met, Levin recalled. A few
months later, Levin quit. So whatever happened, whatever transpired right
in those few months between the meeting between Levin and
Epstein and then Epstein and Wexner, whatever happened in that
small period of time was enough to knock Levin off
of the chest board and firmly plant Epstein upon it.
Now I think those few months are crucial. I think
we need to find out what happened in those few months.
What sort of compromant does Epstein have on Wexner? Is
one avenue were they working in tandem? Certainly another avenue,
Levin said, Epstein taunted him on his way out. On
my last day, Epstein walked into my office and held
up a piece of paper. He bragged that Less had
given him power of attorney over his money. What is
this the movie with Matt Damon and Ben Afflack Goodwill
Hunting where he gets the girl's phone number and then
goes up and puts it on the window afterwards. You
like apples? How about them apples? Is that basically what
Epstein was doing. I'm trying to rub it in here.
So not only that right, not only is rubbing it in,
but he is now in charge of the whole entire operation. Folks.
All of Wexner's money goes through Epstein at this point.
Epstein's the man, He's the king, he is the prince
of Ohio at this point. And for Levin he wasn't
having it. See you later. I'm not working for this douche.
This guy's a fraud. He's an asshole. And I warned
you Less Wexner. I worked for Less for seven years,
and I never had general power of attorney, Levin, said Epstein.
Levin continued even ordered him to surrender equity in Wexner's
town project, likely costing Levin millions. Epstein basically said, if
you want, you can fight it out, but I have
a lot of lawyers and I'll make sure it costs
you a fortune. Yeah. Well, right there. Again. When we
go through this stuff, folks, and we read these articles,
sometimes we get some nuggets, right, things that confirm other
things we might have thought. Stuff like that. And when
you hear Epstein out of his own mouth talk about
how he has a lot of lawyers and he'll make
it cost you a fortune, it shows you the strategy
that they used when it came to civil suits, when
it came to accusations from survivors, what they would do
is parayed out their lawyers and army of them, and
an unlimited amount of dark money pumped into their bank accounts,
and then they'd go on to thrash you in the
legal system, because, as we all know, the legal system
is corrupt as well. Levin's life unraveled. He couldn't find
a job. Friends told him Epstein was spreading rumors around
Columbus and on Wall Street that Wexner had fired him
for misappropriating funds. His wife filed for a divorce, Levin said,
and was granted custody of their children. I had a
nervous breakdown. I was living out of my car for
a while, Levin said, he applied for jobs using computers
at the library and showered at state parks. Epstein ruined
my life. I lost everything, Levin said. So, Look, Jeffrey
Epstein was just a straight up monstrous individual. He didn't
care about anybody. He was willing to destroy anybody who
got in his way, anybody who he thought was an impediment,
and most certainly willing to destroy anybody if it meant
a little bit more money, a little bit more power,
and certainly if it meant more information, and if Levin
had to be the person being destroyed, then so be it.
Whatever it took to get closer to Wexner, whatever it
took to really get into Wexner's year, that was what
Jeffrey Epstein was willing to do. Two years after guards
discovered Epstein's unconscious Epstein unconscious in his Manhattan prison cell,
the pedophile's life and mysterious death remained a subject of
fevered speculation and conspiracy. Theorizing was that I've steen an
intelligence asset, a debased financial genius, a sociopath con man
who fleeced billionaires and politicians with sexual blackmail, all of that. Honestly, look,
let's be real. The first, Uh, the first question, was
he an intelligence agent? I don't know about an agent.
I've said that, and I've been pretty clear with how
I feel. An asset is what I feel, right, I
think that Epstein was an asset being run in one
way or the other by the intelligence apparatus. Definitely think
that that was a part of it. Debased financial genius,
nah No, not a genius debased for sure, But I
don't mean financially. A sociopathic con man who fleeced billionaires
and politicians with sexual blackmail, for sure. Definitely that. So
the author of this article, mister Gabriel, is definitely on
the right path in a search for answers. I spent
the past six months investigating the Epstein mystery that could
unlock others. How did he get his money? I appreciate
the six months of invested time hare Pal, but six months, Huh,
you're gonna be playing catch up unfortunately, because six months
in this case is just a drop in the bucket.
There are that many rabbit holes, there are that many
different warrens in chambers, and every time you pull on
one thread, another one pops up. For it was Epstein's
half billion dollar fortune that enabled him to sexually abuse
in traffic hundreds of girls on multiple continents. There's no
question that Epstein could not have done what he did
without the support of people that provided him money. Set
attorney David Boyce, whose firm represents numerous Epstein accusers, including
Virginia Roberts. Yeah, and that's just obvious, right. We don't
need David Boys to tell us that you can't do
something like this on your own. This is a whole
group of people involved, the whole entire situation unfolding with
many moving parts. That's why it's obviously a Rico conspiracy.
For some reason or another, our fantastic government hasn't went
down that route. But this is obviously intercontinental conspiracy. And
I don't mean conspiracy theory. Okay, we've passed that this
is to the cover up phase at this point. But
David Boys, he's spot on. There's no way that Jeffrey
Epstein could have done this by himself. He had help.
We know he had help, and we even have the
names court documented of the people that allegedly were doing
the helping. All we're waiting for now are the indictments.
Epstein burnished his own myth telling people preposterously that he
only accepted clients with assets of one billion dollars or more.
But until recently, epstein only publicly named client was Wexner.
When I asked Jeffrey who else he worked with, He'd say,
I can't talk about it. An Epstein friend recalled, Look,
we know Lean Black, we know Jess Staley, we know
Les Wexner, and we know that there was probably a
shit ton more. Those are only the only ones that we,
you know, we have on WAX so far. Those are
the ones that we can document so far, but I'm
sure there are a ton of other people that were involved.
Wexner paid Epstein's predecessor about six hundred thousand dollars a
year in today's dollars. Epstein, a former high school math
teacher from Coney Island, Brooklyn, was worth a report at
five hundred and fifty nine million. His estate included a
fifty one thousand square foot Manhattan townhouse bought from Wexner,
a private jet formerly owned by the limited Wexner and
a helicopter, a Caribbean island, a Paris apartment, a Palm
Beach mansion, and a ten thousand acre New Mexico ranch,
which still hasn't been rated, by the way, which nobody
has showed up at to kick in the door. Nobody's
waved in a four to four. Nobody's done anything of
the sort. Meanwhile, none of these legacy media outlets have
any questions about that. None of these hard charging reporters
over at the New York Times have anything to say
about that. Oh, they shared a lot to say about
Gary Webb. Oh they had a lot to say about that. Right.
Epstein's Brothers real estate company also had the majority ownership
of a Manhattan condo building on East sixty sixth Street
where Epstein allegedly housed girls. The building was formerly owned
by Wexner. Prosecutors say that Epstein built his vast sex
trafficking ring throughout the nineties and early eighties. In other words,
Epstein became Epstein during his long association with Wexner. All right, folks,
we're gonna wrap it up for the first part of
this article. Right there seems like a good place to segue.
We'll be able to pick up for part two of
this later on and continue on with this conversation. But
as you see already from the very beginning, the author
of this article is putting the pieces together that we
have all had put together for quite some time. But
the good thing is Vanity Fair has a much much
longer reas each than I could ever hope to have.
So good on you, Gabriel, the author of the article,
for stepping up to the plate and at least attempting
to bring the facts to the people, because many of
your colleagues haven't had the courage to do the same.
So props for that for sure. As for the rest
of this article, well, we're gonna pick it up and
we're gonna have the next episode tomorrow morning for the
morning update. All right, If you'd like to contact me,
you can do that at Bobby Kapuchi at ProtonMail dot com.
That's b O b b y c ap you Cci
at ProtonMail dot com. You can also find me on
Twitter sometimes at Bobby underscore c ap you Cci. All
of the links that go with this episode can be
found in the description box. On today's episode, we're going
to continue discussing the Vanity Fair article profiling the relationship
between Jeffrey Epstein and Les Wexner. This article was published
by Vanity Fair and the author of this article is
Gabriel Sherman. When Epstein pleaded guilty to two counts, including
soliciting a minor for prostitution in Palm Beach in June
two thousand and eight and registered as a Level three
sex offender in New York, Wexner refused to discuss him.
Of course he did. Why would Wexner want to talk
about Jeffrey Epstein, a Level three sex offender, by the way,
who he is still buddies with, who he is still
paling around with, who he still has business dealings with,
and who had the keys to his whole entire kingdom.
Why would he want to talk about that? The real
question is, though, why didn't the legacy media press him correctly? Oh,
we know that when the legacy media wants to be
a thorn in your side, they most certainly can. And
when they don't want to be a thorn in your side,
well you have to ask yourself why you don't think
an x bose unless Wexner would move papers, you don't
think an x bose on the relationship revealing how deep
and how dark it was between Wexner and Epstein, wouldn't
move units in any other circumstance, the legacy media would
be digging in. But you haven't seen much of that,
have you. In twenty nineteen, a Wexner spokesman told The
Washington Post that the Wexner's had severed all ties with
Epstein in two thousand and seven. They condemned Epstein's actions.
The spokesman said it was only after Epstein died that
Wexner described their relationship, and even then in opaque terms.
For sure, Wexner has never been forthcoming about his relationship
with Epstein and what occurred in New Albany at his property.
According to Maria, how has he gotten away with all
of this? If that was to occur these days, someone
came out and said that they were locked in insert
billionaire's mansion here, you would think there'd be a hubbub
about it, right, But for decades and decades and decades,
the legacy media laid cover for people like Les Wexner.
There's a big problem, folks, when a handful of people
control all of the media in the country, hell in
the world. It was only after Epstein died that Wexner
described their relationship, and even then in opaque terms. In
Wexner's telling he was another Epstein victim preyed upon by
a devious mastermind, and it was calculated that he didn't
discuss Epstein while he was alive, Right, why would he
bring Epstein up while Epstein's alive? Considering the length of
their friendship, you would think that Epstein most certainly has
some compromant on less Wexner, or had at the very least,
and that would keep less Wexner definitely cowed and silent
for sure. Then you get into the you know, all
of the questions, what other sort of dealings were these
guys engaging in, what sort of financial crimes were committed?
So you have, you know, a whole entire smorgas board
of potential crimes committed between these two knuckleheads. So it
doesn't shock me for a minute that Wexner was always
so mum about Jeffrey Epstein and then Jeffrey Epstein dies
and now, well, oh well we have a statement now,
of course we do. It's so transparent when you look
at it, when you take a look from the cheap seats,
right when you're looking at it from the bleachers perhaps,
and you're looking down and you're watching it all unfold
It's very transparent that all of these guys were connected,
and the connections ran so much deeper than was ever
let on. Being taken advantage of by someone who is
so sick, so cunning, so depraved is something that I'm
embarrassed that I was even close to, Wexner said during
a speech in September twenty nineteen. In a letter to
his charitable foundation, around this time, Wexner claimed Epstein had
misappropriated vast sums of money from me and my family.
Epstein reportedly transferred back nearly forty seven million dollars to
a Wexner controlled charity fund in two thousand and eight.
You know all of that stuff, none of it's been explained, right,
And to just level it as, oh, yeah, well forty
seven million was transferred back, No big deal. You don't
go to the cops. Someone gets you for forty seven
million dollars and you don't go to the police. You're
less Wexner, mister big shot, mister Abercrombie and Fitch and
victorious secret mister feudal lord of Ohio himself, and you
let this dude snatch your bag like that. Yeah right,
I don't buy it for a second, I don't buy
it for one single second. In fact, I'm gonna go
out on a limb here, and I'm gonna speculate, because
I don't have any evidence of this, but I'm going
to speculate that that money was given to Wexner's charity
from Jeffrey Epstein sort of as a cover. Right. Oh yeah, Well,
if things go south, we could say that he embezzles
money from us, or he stole money from us, and
we have this whole story concocted. And I know, again,
it sounds cynical, right, and it sounds almost like we're
rock and tinfoil hats and shit. But when you look
at the way these people conduct themselves, you look at
their psyche and their mo they always have interwoven plots
inside of their schemes, and they're always looking forward to
the future on how they're going to avoid getting caught
up in this mess if things go south. And you
see that with all the charitable stuff as well. You see,
once the curtains pulled back a little bit and you've
had a chance to peek into the dark, disgusting room
that's inhabited by these people, there's no going back, right,
It's like when Morpheus gives Neo the choice to take
the blue pill or the red pill. Once you've taken
a look behind the curtain, folks, there's just no going
back to sleep. These people, they're devious, they're sick, and
they don't give one rip about you, your family, your
loved ones, or anything besides their own power and their
own chase of more wealth. That's all they care about.
But Wexner's belated attempts to explain himself only raise more questions. Why,
for instance, did Wexner not report Epstein's alleged forty seven
million dollar theft to the FBI, like I just stated
earlier a second ago. I mean, come on, forty seven million.
You don't call the FBI, You don't call whoever the
head of your own security apparatus for your company is.
You don't reach out to one of the congressmen who
you've donated a ka trillion dollars to. You don't do
none of that over forty seven million dollars. I don't
care how rich you are, Getting beat for forty seven
million dollars does not sound like a good time, And
especially when you're dealing with somebody who's power hungry like
Les Wesner. I guarantee you you would need a vice
and a pride bar to remove one single penny from
this guy's hand, never mind forty seven million dollars, and
he doesn't go to the FBI. There's no recourse. No
one even knows about it until Epstein dies. Huh, okay,
sure right, Les Wexner, that all sounds like it's kosher.
Or how could Wexner claim to be blindsided by Epstein's duplicitousness.
I told Les I wouldn't trust Epstein to cross the street.
Why are you trusting him with your money? We're called
Jerry Merritt, a former Ohio State highway patrolman who served
as the limited security chief for more than twenty five years.
You know, I just was talking about their internal security, right,
and here we are with this gentleman, Jerry Merritt, saying
he wouldn't trust Epstein to cross the street. Never mind
Park is money with him. So now you have two
high ranking officials within less Wexner's own inner circle warning
him against Jeffrey Epstein, against the relationship, and against the nonsense.
What does Les Wexner do pals around with Epstein anyway.
So again, remember these people have made their own beds.
I feel no sympathy for any of these people that
are being put on blast on this podcast. If you
were mentioned in those court documents, if you were fingered
by one of those survivors as somebody who abused them,
you better expect an absolute barrage of coverage of your activity,
at least here on this podcast. For the little bit
that we can do, the little bit of reach that
we have, everybody who listens to this podcast will understand
very clearly who was participating in these alleged crimes. In
reporting this article, I spoke to more than thirty people
who had first hand encounters with Epstein or Wexner. Wexner,
who announced he was stepping down from the board of
his company in March, declined numerous interview requests. The story
that emerged is a deeply strange one. Sources say Epstein
ocupie different roles in Wesner's life depending on the audience.
Jeffrey compartmentalized. He told you what you wanted to hear.
Epstein's former lawyer, Alan Dershowitz told me, and ever the
lawyer right. Dershowitz is very very careful anytime he mentions
Jeffrey Epstein's name. He understands the stakes. He knows what
he's up against. Even if he acts like he doesn't
like it's no big deal, right, he knows the jeopardy
that he finds himself in being embroiled in this case.
And remember, let's be very clear, My problem with Dershowitz
is not that he defended Jeffrey Epstein. Everybody who is
indicted on a crime, who is alleged to commit a crime,
deserves the best lawyer that they possibly can get. So
my beef isn't that Dershowitz defends reprehensible people. There's a
place for that. We got to have people that are
willing to do that. My problem with Dershowitz is the
other stuff. The fact that Virginia has named him, the
fact that he is obviously not being completely truthful about
his relationship with Epstein, the fact that he got a
massage over at Epstein's house, but he kept his underpants on,
so that's cool, right. All of those things are the
reasons I have beef with Alan Dershowitz. Now again, I
don't speak for anybody else. I only speak for myself.
But I don't think you need to worry about who
the guy defends. If you want to think that Dershowitz
is a reprehensible human being, just take a look at
the other things he engages in. Epstein sometimes betrayed himself
as a surrogate son to a lonely billionaire. He told
some people he was Wexner's fixer. Dershowitz said that he
became Epstein's criminal lawy in two thousand and seven. Epstein
boasted that Wexner would not testify against him, whatever the
nature of their relationship. Epstein's long standing connection to one
of America's richest men inarguably aided his public profile, adding
to his air of legitimacy and thus his power. Facts,
big facts. All of these guys that were rolling around
with Epstein, all of these dudes like Wexner and Trump
and Clinton and the rest of them, they all lent
credibility to who Jeffrey Epstein was and in turn the
actions he was involved in. You gotta do better, right
if you're especially if you're a high profile individual. You
gotta know who you're with. You gotta know who you're
hanging out with, and you can't get caught up in
any nonsense. But you see, less Wexner, he was right
at the center of that nonsense. He was the one
that really was with Epstein from the Jump Epstein's Ride
or Die, and I'm sure Epstein's confidant. So the fact
that Less Wexner has been able to avoid real scrutiny
up until now is mind boggling to me, because anybody
who put any bit of effort into learning what really
went on here, anybody who listened to the actual survivors
who were abused by Epstein and the others, then you
knew from Jump Street that Less Wexner played a huge
role in Jeffrey Epstein's rise and his continued criminal enterprise.
Wexner met Epstein sometime around nineteen eighty six. They were
introduced by Wexner's close friend, the insurance mogul Robert Meister,
who's handled insurance for the limited. I spoke with Measter
in April, and he opened up for the first time
about the origins of Wexner and Epstein's relationship. It was
history that Measter seventy nine found difficult to revisit. I
walked away from Epstein a long time ago, and I've
been trying to erase him from my mind ever since.
He said. And while I find that the laudable right
that you walked away from, Epstein, why did you walk
away and not alert anybody? You don't you know? These
are all very powerful people, and a whisper in the
riot ear could have really turned things on its head.
But instead everybody just went along to get along, right
where the get along gang here in the super elite. Oh,
you're a level three sex offender. That's cool, as long
as you still got some money. Because the biggest sin
to these people, remember, is not abusing your children. It's
not human trafficking or any of that. The biggest sin
to these people is being broke. And that's just the
reality of the situation. We're not even human beings to
these people, folks. We are chattel. And the sooner everybody
figures that out, and the sooner everybody understands that none
of these people, none of them in the political class,
care about you, then then and only then will we
be on the right path to maybe fixing this. Epstein
struck up a conversation with Measter on a commercial flight
the Palm Beach Measter remembered being impressed with the young banker.
In reality, Epstein lived in a one bedroom apartment and
ran a fledgling investment firm. And that's why I call
them the Coney Island hotbug vendor. Really what he should
have been, right, You know the guys that are out
there selling the hot dogs down on Coney Island at
Nathan's or maybe out of a cart. Probably not Nathan's
because a sick bastard like that can't work around other individuals. Huh,
how long before he's, you know, trying to dill one
of his coworkers. So Measter was impressed by the Coney
Island hot dog salesman, right, And I'm sure Epstein had
a good line. I'm sure his pitch was fantastic. These
con men are good at what they do, and you know,
the best lies, right, they always have just a little
bit of truth sprinkled in, and Epstein was a master
at that. According to people close to him, Epstein had
been forced to leave bear Stearns in nineteen eighty one.
He told Securities in Exchange Commission investigators he had been
penalized after letting a friend borrow money to buy stock
that there were irregularities with his expense account, and that
there were rumors at the firm about his relationship with
a secretary. I buy all of that, honestly. Now, the
rumors about the secretary. Who knows right, Guys like Epstein,
they'll always try and have a cover of having a
older woman, perhaps with them, Gielan Maxwell, while they're engaging
in their disgusting, disgusting, gross behavior on the side, and
it all goes to building that profile, It all goes
to building up this this fake person basically right, who
the world sees in one way but behind closed doors,
is an absolute monster. But you see, Jeffrey Epstein was
the kind of guy. He couldn't keep it behind closed doors.
He was so brazen about it. He had to drop clues.
He had to let people know that, you know, he's
a sick bastard, and people chose to ignore it. If
you want the truth, that's what it really is. These
people that were around him chose to ignore his behavior.
They chose to ignore the warning signs, and they chose
to continue having a relationship with a level three sex offender.
That's really all you need to know about all of
the other people around him. He was a great bullshit artist,
Mester said. People who knew Epstein remarked at his savant
like skills at impressing powerful older men. And here's where
we get into a lot of speculation. Now, there's a
lot of speculation that Les Wesner was someone who was
attracted to men, and that he and Epstein might have
had something going on. You've heard that from several sources.
There's a lot of people who talk about that. So
there's definitely some speculation there. And then you hear stuff
like this, and I definitely don't find it out of
the realm of reason to think that Jeffrey Epstein was
perhaps trying to manipulate someone like Les Wexner, the seduction perhaps. Again, look,
when we're dealing with somebody who has the psyche of
Jeffrey Epstein, I think everything's on the table any kind
of manipulation, be it sexual or otherwise, to try and
get to the point he's trying to get to. So
I definitely would be remiss if I didn't mention those rumors. Now,
none of that's substantiated, right, we don't know for sure,
at least I don't know for sure, but it's certainly
something out there in the world and in the conversation
when discussing Epstein and less Wexner's relationship. Amongst people in
the know, Jeffrey was a flatterer. Set interior designer Robert Cottorier,
who met Epstein in the nineteen eighties. Jeffrey would call
me every day and say, oh, you're so brilliant, You're
the best. Epstein's friend, Stuart Pavar, a founder of the
New York Academy of Art, set Epstein's magnetism was almost
impossible to resist. If you had hundreds of millions of
dollars and you knew Jeffrey, there's a high likelihood that
you'd give it to him. He was that good of
a con man. There is as much chance of me
break dancing on Mars as there is of me giving
Jeffrey Epstein one reed scent, and you could take that
shit to the bank. I have an uncanny ability to
sniff out conmen. There is zero chance that's somebody like
Jeffffrey Epstein, crude, ridiculous, boisterous, would ever be able to
pry one single cent out of your boy's hand. See
here's the thing where I grew up the people. I
grew up around a lot of con men folks, all right,
you grow up in the inner cities, you grow up
in the streets, tell you what you run across quite
the assortment of characters. So I have always had my
head on a swivel and I have never, ever, ever
bought into the bullshit. So it's amazing to me to
think that people like Les wexner're all of these super
powerful people, can let somebody like Jeffrey Epstein wiggle their
way into their lives and absolutely take control. There is
no way that I believe that Epstein was that good
of a manipulator. These people that were in bed with him,
all of these moguls and magnates, they knew what they
were doing. In hindsight, Measter suspects Epstein aggressively cultivated him
in the hope that meister would open doors to his
billionaire friends like Wexner. And that was the mol right,
That's what Epstein was doing. He would shower everybody with praise.
He would, you know, tell you you're the greatest thing
since sliced bread, and he try and get into your
circle so that he could jump on your back and
cultivate your friends, bring more people into his circle, more
people that he could get compromand on. And we haven't
even begun talking about the scientists, right, nobody's talking about this. Really,
all of those scientists that were in Jeffrey Epstein's orbit,
in his atmosphere, how many of them were working on
classified projects? How much of that classified information found its
way into Jeffrey Epstein's hands, and then from Jeffrey Epstein's
hands god knows where, Because we know he was a
free agent. We know that he was willing to deal
with whoever had the right kind of dough. So I
wonder when we're gonna get around to that. Not long
after Epstein met Meister, Epstein invited Meister to play a
racquetball and started turning up in the steam room at
his gym while he was using it. I'd be having
a steam, and Epstein would come in. Measter said, I'd
be having a steam. I'd be having a steam. Huh?
Is it anything like the Russian mobsters? You're in there,
you're having a steam, and then they come in and
they beat you with that piece of bush that they use.
What does that even mean? I'm having a steam? You
want to have a steam pal, come to Las Vegas
and take a walk to the corner store. That's a
steam for you. During one conversation, Epstein asked Meister to
introduce him to Wexner. Epstein falsely said he had learned
that Wexner's money manager was stealing from him. Epstein, a
self described financial bounty hunter, offered to help recover the funds.
And to remember, Epstein said that he worked for the
government in that capacity, recovering funds for the government as
a financial bounty hunter. See Epstein has dropped a lot
of clues when he was alive about his involvement with
this organization or that organization or this three letter government bureaucracy.
And you gotta put it all together. It's a puzzle, right,
That's exactly what This is a gigantic puzzle, and you
got to start from the corners like any puzzle, and
work your way in. It was convincing enough that Mester
arranged a meeting for Epstein at Wexner's house in Aspen.
Epstein was such a liar, Mester said. In Wexner's twenty
nineteen letter to his foundation, He wrote that he hired
Epstein because friends recommended him as a knowledgeable financial professional,
which friends exactly, not Mester, not the head of security,
So which friends exactly, said Hey, you should get with
Epstein because it sure sounds like everybody was telling Les
Wexner to run for the hills, and did he do that?
No business with them keys to the castle, you know,
the whole line, the whole, the whole kitty was handed
over to Jeffrey Epstein. Soon after introducing Wexner and Epstein,
Meister started hearing disturbing stories about Epstein's sexual proclivities. Think
of whatever, the worst thing anyone can do, and Epstein
did them all. Measter said so right away Meister was
hearing this. Everybody knew what was up. Everybody knew Epstein
was a sick bastard who had gross proclivities. Even back then,
You mean to tell me less Wexner had no idea,
Mister Ohio had no idea, mister a big shot down
at the Ohio State University, had no idea that Jeffrey
Epstein was out here playing diddler on the roof. No idea.
Huh okay, I guess if that's what you want me
to believe, then I guess I'm just gonna believe your narrative,
no questions asked wrong. I don't believe any of it. Okay,
not one word mentioned by these people do I believe.
And it's a damn shame that the prosecutors don't have
the backbone to go as far as they need to go.
Merrick Garland's a joke. The breaking point came when Epstein
showed up unannounced at Mester's Park Avenue apartment with five
models for Measter's sexual entertainment. Epstein thought he was bringing
me a gift. Mester recalled. I told him, get the
f out of here. I never want to see you again.
So Epstein knew that Mester was on to him. This
is my speculation, folks, knew he was on to him.
So what does he do? Let me bring five girls over?
So now I got some compromand on him. And of
those five girls, how many of them you think we're
under age? I guess is a good number of them.
And that was Epstein's mo folks, he'd get you locked
into that spider web. Right, Yeah, come down to the island,
Come hang out. We got a good thing going on
down here. We're gonna discuss theoretical physics. You get down there.
You're some pencil neck dork ass pocket protecting wearing scientists
and never had no hot girls in your life, right,
No girls were flocking to you while you were in
high school with your pimple ass face. You didn't play sports,
you didn't know how to talk to girls. And now
you're on this island with all of these billionaires and
he offers you hot girls. Oh they're all in right,
And that's what he tried to do with Measter, and
Mester was onto him. Old boy knew the deal. He
was like, look, take your girls and beat it. I
want nothing to do with you. So good on Measter
for that. But that's a typical Epstein move, folks. A
lot of guys don't have the wearithal to turn that down.
A lot of guys can't see the forest through the trees, right,
hot girls everywhere? Oh shit, whoa, I don't know what
to do. It's almost like a switch goes off in
your head and you become some sort of animal, almost
right for these people. Meanwhile, in the rest of society,
most of you know, normal people look at that. Oh yeah,
pretty girls, great, that's awesome, keep it moving, right, Not
these people. It was almost like you know, at ty
at Christmas dinner or Thanksgiving dinner, the centerpiece is like
the turkey or you got a nice roast or whatever
it is. That's what Epstein would do with these girls.
They'd be the centerpiece, right, He'd bring them in and
display them. And these sick bastards. Well, you know what happened.
I don't need to go into the story again, what
happened on that island. Measter, whose estimation of Epstein had
done a total one eighty, gave his friend a general
warning about his character. Mester said, he and his wife
Wendy warned Wexner to stay away from Epstein. We begged him,
don't get involved. Mester recalled, it was too late. Wexner
had hired Epstein as his financial advisor. He thought Epstein
was brilliant. Measter said, all right, folks, that's gonna conclude
part two of our Vanity Fair article. Now. I'm trying
to keep these all to thirty minute clips here. That
way they're more digestible for you. I don't want to,
you know, fire off like a two hour episode that
you're gonna have to pause and get back to, and
all of that jazz so we're gonna stop it here,
wrap up Episode two and episode three will be coming
your way tomorrow morning. If you'd like to contact me,
you can do that at Bobby Kapuchi at ProtonMail dot com.
That's b O B B Y c A p U
C c I at ProtonMail dot com. You can also
find me on Twitter at b O B B Y
underscore C A p U C c I. All of
the links that go with this episode can be found
in the in the description box. All right, everybody, I
will be back later on and I hope that all
of you have a great day.