Leon Black, billionaire accused of raping autistic teen at Jeffrey Epstein’s house, paid the late pedophile $158million over five years for ‘tax and estate planning advice’

Billionaire private equity titan Leon Black paid Jeffrey Epstein $158million between 2012 and 2017 in a series of ‘extraordinary’ transactions that are now being scrutinized by the Senate Finance Committee.  

Black, who is accused of raping an autistic teenage girl at Epstein’s townhouse in 2002, claimed the payments were for advice on trust and estate planning, tax issues and the operation of his family office.

All of them came after Epstein was jailed for soliciting prostitution from underage girls in Palm Beach, Florida. He was sentenced for those crimes in 2008 in a sweetheart deal and was released from prison in 2009. 

Now, investigators are probing whether or not Black owes taxes on the payments to the late pedophile, who killed himself in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. 

In a letter obtained by Bloomberg, Senator Ron Wyden said Black was not forthcoming about the ‘extraordinary’ payments to Epstein that ‘far exceeded those paid to other professional advisors’. 

There are resounding questions over why Black – a successful financier in his own right who is the co-founder of money management firm Apollo – turned to Epstein, whose credentials were less impressive, for advice. 

When investigated by a law firm hired by Apollo in 2021, Black said he was under the ‘misconception’ that the payments were tax deductible.

The report indicates that many of the transactions were to do with tax avoidance advice after Apollo went public in 2011. 

Black resigned from Apollo in 2021 after his deep ties to Epstein were revealed. 

The investigation by the law firm also revealed that Epstein advised Black on how to sell portions of his $1billion art collection. 

Part of the payments included a $20million fee Epstein was given for advice that the letter claims saved Black $600million. 

He had wanted three times as much – $60million – and a dispute over how much he was to receive helped end their friendship.  

Yesterday, Black was named as the defendant in a federal lawsuit filed in Manhattan by the unnamed woman who says he raped her in 2002 when she was 16 at Epstein’s home. 

Leon Black, 71, with wife Debra in 2017. He has dismissed three allegations of sex abuse by Epstein victims now as ‘frivolous’ lies 

One of Epstein’s massage tables in his home on the Upper East Side where the girl says Black raped her 

She says he pinned her down after requesting a massage – an Epstein M.O. – then sodomized her with sex toys until she bled.

In her complaint, she was described as having mosaic Down syndrome and a developmental age of 12. 

Black’s attorneys dismissed the lawsuit as ‘frivolous’, claiming he’d never met the woman in question.

‘He never met this woman,’ attorney Susan Estrich told Reuters.

‘He doesn’t know her at all. We’re confident the lawsuit is totally uncorroborated by any evidence. It has nothing to do with Leon Black.’

This is the third time he has been accused of sexual abuse. 

Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse, where he entertained the rich and famous, and abused young women

He was previously sued by Russian model Guzel Ganieva who claimed he raped her after years of sexual abuse, and Cheri Pierson who claimed he raped her in Epstein’s home. 

Both their lawsuits were dismissed. 

In the US Virgin Islands, where Epstein had another home and where investigations into his abuse of girls continues, Black reached a $62million settlement to avoid any possible lawsuits. 

His attorney did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment about the payments this morning. 

He has been married to his wife theater producer wife Debra since 1982 and the pair have four children together.