My name is. I will be doing most of the questioning for the minority today. We appreciate your time. As you know, our conversation today will focus on your relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. We'll touch on probably your financial and business relationship with him. We'll also discuss your personal relationship with him. You already discussed with our colleagues the way that you originally met Jeffrey Epstein. I would just like to ask a couple of questions on that topic. When you first met Epstein, how did he originally present himself to you? What services did he say he was offering?
Well, when I first met him, it was just alone. He didn't represent anything and I didn't ask anything. I was just meeting a friend's acquaintance.
As that business relationship became closer and you eventually hired him, I assume he pitched his services in some way. What was his way of framing what he was offering to you?
I think it was his experience at an industrial level, like working for a big company like Bear Stearns, and then he had done personal work for the Rothschild family in France.
Personal wealth management essentially?
We've seen some reports that he would present himself as a bounty hunter, that he would find people's missing money. Do you recall him saying anything like that?
One of the articles that my colleagues already introduced, I won't make you look back through it, but it was the Vanity Fair article. I will just read you a paragraph out loud. It's the only paragraph I have a question about. That article reported that during a conversation, Jeffrey Epstein asked Mr. Meister to introduce Epstein to you, Mr. Wexner. And Epstein told Meister that Epstein had learned that Wexner's current money manager was stealing from him. And the article identifies Harold Levin, I think, as your previous financial adviser. Do you have any recollection of whether Mr. Epstein ever claimed that Mr. Levin was stealing from you?
Objection to the article on hearsay grounds. You can answer.
As I recall, Jeffrey never thought Harold was stealing, and I didn't think Harold was stealing.
Okay. Did anybody ever say that Harold was stealing?
Okay. No recollection of that.
That article also describes a story where you sent Mr. Levin to meet with Mr. Epstein and just discuss an investment opportunity, but Mr. Levin came back to you and told you to stay away from Mr. Epstein. Do you have any recollection of that type of a warning from Mr. Levin?
Objection.
Okay.
When you initially hired Mr. Epstein, do you recall, and some of this may be repetitive, so you have my apologies. Do you recall what year you initially hired Mr. Epstein?
Would it be right to say that it may have been either 1989 or 1990?
Okay.
Do you recall anybody warning you not to get involved with Jeffrey Epstein when you first hired him?
I'd like to talk about Epstein's roles and responsibilities while he worked for you. You touched on this in the last hour. The total amount of time that he worked for you, how long was that approximately? It started maybe in 1989 or 1990, and I think you testified it ended in 200... What year did you say?
Okay. Well, what year do you recall the relationship ending?
Would your statement help with fresh recollection? Yeah, but what I said in the statement would be the correct date. And so, whatever period that 89 or 90, it would have been about then, and it ended when it ended.
Was that upon his final plea in 2008?
Whatever I said in the statement is accurate. I remembered this being convenient. He was stealing from us.
In terms of the different things or roles that he would play for you, is it right to say that he acted as an investment adviser or a money manager? What would be the right term for that role?
The term wasn't part of my vocabulary, but he was kind of like the family office manager. And so where they oversaw investment, oversaw people getting paid, made sure taxes were done, and talked to accountants. Just, I had in hindsight a very... because I had done so well and I was dating Abigail and we were engaged and I was married and running 20 businesses. I was very busy and just all that stuff that was in my personal life was either managed or wasn't managed by me. It was like my admin was like the, which sounds kind of crazy, was the closest thing I had to any kind of supervision.
Would he be making investments on your behalf the way a traditional investment advisor would?
I must have known at the time. I don't recall specifically asking him about investment.
I would like to introduce minority exhibit A. And this is an article from the Wall Street Journal titled 'Epstein flourished as he forged bond with retail billionaire.' Okay, next one. And you don't have to read through this whole article. It's just helpful to have it in front of us. But on the bottom of page three, I will read just a single sentence to you. And the article starts with the word 'soon.' It's the very last sentence on the bottom of page three. And that sentence, I'll read it out loud as well, says that 'soon Mr. Epstein was presenting Mr. Wexner with a variety of investments including apartment buildings and a development involving a former post office building,' says Mr. Maroski, and we understand that to be Robert Maroski, a former vice chairman of your company. Is that consistent with what you remember Epstein doing for you?
Objection, hearsay. You can answer.
No. Okay. Do you have any recollection of Epstein presenting you with investment opportunities such as these?
I'm sure he did, but they weren't apartment buildings or post office. Could have been. Yeah. I'm... Do you remember?
No, I don't remember.
Is it that you don't recall at all or that as far as you recall that statement is just not accurate?
