Ohio billionaire Les Wexner issued a statement Wednesday ahead of his scheduled deposition before a congressional committee at his New Albany home regarding his relationship with convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
The statement submitted to the committee reads in part, "I am pleased to testify today. Pleased because it is an opportunity to set the record straight. Over the years, I have been the subject of outrageous untrue statements and hurtful rumor, innuendo, and speculation. Let me state from the start: I was naïve, foolish, and gullible to put any trust in Jeffrey Epstein."
Wexner also spoke about Epstein's victims in his statement saying, "I want to acknowledge the survivors of Epstein’s terrible crimes and the devastation that each of them has endured as a result. The pain he inflicted upon them is unfathomable to me. My heart goes out to each of them."
Wexner is slated to be deposed in New Albany this morning.
The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subpoenaed Wexner last month to testify. Committee ranking member Robert Garcia, a California Democrat, said in a statement Wexner was part of Epstein's inner circle.
At the time, Wexner’s legal representative said in a statement Wexner would cooperate fully with any governmental inquiry into Epstein.
Epstein was Wexner's money manager for several years as the billionaire built up his retail empire with companies including Victoria's Secret, Bath and Body Works and Abercrombie and Fitch.
Earlier this month, newly released FBI documents written days after Epstein died by suicide in 2019 name Wexner as one of Epstein's co-conspirators, but the documents state there was "limited evidence" against the billionaire.
In his statement Wednesday, Wexner called Epstein a "con man." Wexner said he has done nothing wrong and has nothing to hide.
"I completely and irrevocably cut ties with Epstein nearly twenty years ago when I learned that he was an abuser, a crook, and a liar," Wexner said. "And, let me be crystal clear: I never witnessed nor had any knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activity. I was never a participant nor co-conspirator in any of Epstein’s illegal activities."
Wexner also said he did not give Epstein his New York City townhouse; " he purchased it form me for what I was told was the appraised value," Wexner said.
Epstein gained new credibility by representing the billionaire. In the late 1980's, Epstein posed as a talent scout at one of Wexner's companies, Victoria's Secret. By the late 1990s, Epstein began sex trafficking, grooming and abusing hundreds of teenage girls and young women.
Wexner also faces a subpoena in the lawsuit against Ohio State University by former athletes at the school who were assaulted by former team doctor Richard Strauss.
Wexner was chair of OSU's Board of Trustees during some of Strauss' career at the school. Part of his time on the board coincided with Strauss getting approved for a tenured position and Strauss' 1998 retirement.
Strauss died by suicide.
