Astrid Stawiarz/Stringer and Patrick McMullan/Getty Images
Les Wexner, left, and Jeffrey Epstein, right, were once described as "close personal friends."
- Les Wexner, the CEO of Victoria's Secret parent company L Brands, has come under intense scrutiny for his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
- Epstein was arrested and charged with sex trafficking of minors earlier this month, The Daily Beast reported.
- Epstein was Wexner's financial advisor, but their relationship often went beyond the parameters of professional colleagues, a Wall Street Journal report said. A 2002 lawsuit described the two as "close personal friends."
- From their reported first meeting in the late 1980s to Wexner's decision to cut ties between the two, here is a timeline of the complicated relationship between Wexner and Epstein.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
It's hard to talk about Jeffrey Epstein without mentioning Les Wexner.
Wexner is the CEO and founder of L Brands, the parent company to Victoria's Secret. Epstein, who was arrested and charged with sex trafficking in July, was once the billionaire CEO's financial advisor. Wexner was one of Epstein's only known clients.
The two men maintained a decades-long relationship, in which Wexner reportedly handed over an unusual amount of money and power to his financier. Epstein is said to have received millions of dollars from Wexner, and a private plane and two mansions that had previously been owned by Wexner or his companies fell into Epstein's hands.
Epstein was even involved in the process of selecting models for Victoria's Secret, the Wall Street Journal reported.
With the charges against Epstein coming to light, Wexner's relationship with his former financier is being questioned. The two were described as "close personal friends" in a 2002 lawsuit, but Wexner has claimed recently that he regrets any association with the convicted sex offender and cut off contact over a decade ago.
The relationship between Epstein and Wexner is long and convoluted. In an effort to make sense of it all, we traced the relationship using reports about their first introduction in the late 1980s to the present day: