July 21 (Reuters) – Apollo Global Management Inc (APO.N) co-founder Leon Black paid $62.5 million to the U.S. Virgin Islands to avoid any legal claims tied to a Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking investigation, the New York Times reported on Friday.
The Times obtained a copy of the settlement agreement from the Virgin Islands government through a public records request. The settlement was reached in January.
A spokesperson for Black confirmed in an emailed statement to Reuters that Black had settled with the Virgin Islands, noting that there was no suggestion in the settlement “that Mr. Black was aware of or participated in any misconduct.”
The spokesperson went on to say that, as previously known, Black had paid Epstein for “legitimate financial advisory services” and that Black had “resolved the (Virgin Island’s) potential claims arising out of the unintended consequences of those payments.”
Word of Black’s settlement follows a demand earlier this month from the Virgin Islands that JPMorgan Chase pay at least $190 million, and possibly more, to resolve its lawsuit accusing the largest U.S. bank of ignoring the disgraced late financier Epstein’s sex trafficking. The bank has denied that it knew about abuses by Epstein, who was a client from 1998 to 2013.
Epstein killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
A New York state judge in May dismissed a lawsuit accusing Black, 71, of defaming a woman by falsely claiming she tried to extort him after accusing him of rape, which he denied.
Black still faces a lawsuit from another woman, Cheri Pierson, who has accused him of raping her two decades ago in Epstein’s mansion in Manhattan. Black has denied any wrongdoing.
Black is worth $10.1 billion, according to Forbes magazine. He left Apollo in 2021.
Reporting by Brad Brooks in Lubbock, Texas, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien
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