Leon Black resigns as Apollo boss after claims of payments to Epstein

Leon Black, CEO of Apollo Global Management, will step aside as chief of the private equity outfit after it was alleged that he made larger payments than previously known to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The announcement was made on Monday following that claimed Black had paid $158m to Epstein over a five-year period that ended in 2017, according to a report by the law firm Dechert.

The monies were “intended to be proportional to the value provided” by Epstein’s advice on issues ranging from trust and estate planning to Black’s yacht and private plane.

According to the Financial Times, Black believed that Epstein’s advice had “conferred more than $1bn and as much as $2bn or more in value”.

Black said the findings “confirm the key facts I have previously disclosed concerning my relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, including that I was completely unaware of Epstein’s abhorrent misconduct that came to light in late 2018”.

The leadership change will take place “on or before” 31 July, the company said.

Apollo will also elevate to its board the two “co-presidents”, Scott Kleinman and James Zelter, who assumed day-to-day responsibility for many investing activities in 2017.

The company will also add four new independent directors including Siddhartha Mukherjee, the oncologist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

Black will remain chairman at Apollo.