Bill Gates, Leon Black Testimony Sought for Epstein Probe

Описание: The congressional committee investigating disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein is seeking transcribed interviews with Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black. The billionaires were among seven people House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer summoned in letters sent Tuesday for the panel’s investigation. “Due to public reporting, documents released by the Department of Justice, and documents obtained by the Committee, the Committee believes you have information that will assist in its investigation. Accordingly, we request your testimony at an in person transcribed interview,” the panel wrote in letters released to the public. Jamie Tarabay, Bloomberg News National Security Reporter, joins Bloomberg Businessweek Daily to discuss. She speaks with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec. The Federal Drug Enforcement Administration opened an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and a dozen other individuals in 2015 that centered on allegations of money laundering, drug trafficking and the procurement of Eastern European prostitutes for high-profile clients, according to five people familiar with the case.
The investigation, which grew out of a longstanding probe into organized crime, was conducted by a secretive intelligence and law enforcement unit of the DEA and a transnational crime-fighting task force. It began after an informant told authorities that Epstein was involved in the illicit funding and distribution of so-called club drugs, including ecstasy, ketamine and methamphetamines, according to the people, who asked not to be named to discuss sensitive law enforcement matters.
The individuals named in a document related to the investigation, according to the people, included Epstein’s accountants, attorneys and European women who worked as his assistants or fashion models. The DEA investigation also named two businesses.
None of the individuals were charged with any offenses as a result of the investigation. It’s unclear how long the investigation remained open and what authorities ultimately learned from it because the complete case files have not been released. Yet descriptions of the DEA probe add to questions about what federal authorities knew about Epstein before they arrested him in 2019. By that time, he’d victimized more than 1,000 people, the US Department of Justice has said.
Initial information about the 2015 investigation surfaced in January in a heavily redacted document that was released by the DOJ. These new details about the investigation deepen the mystery surrounding the serial sex abuser, and reveal a striking level of scrutiny into him that extended beyond the federal sex-crimes probe that has captured international attention for years. They also reflect a pattern: As Epstein famously cultivated high-profile connections with Wall Street executives, politicians and royalty, federal authorities secretly kept their eyes on him. Beginning in 2009, when Epstein was released from state custody in Florida after pleading guilty to charges that included soliciting a minor for prostitution, at least eight US government agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the DEA, the US Treasury Department and the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, conducted their own investigations into Epstein, according to various documents that the DOJ released in January.
The documents show that law enforcement agencies kept tabs on Epstein by tracking his movements, building dossiers on his connections and following his money as it moved through offshore accounts. Foreign governments did likewise. The US Secret Service’s White House division and Harvard University’s campus police conducted background checks on Epstein years after he was released from custody in Florida.
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