'So sick, so cunning, so depraved' - Victoria's Secret boss Les Wexner is speaking out about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein
- The boss of Victoria's Secret has said he's "embarrassed" by his close relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who served as his personal financial adviser.
- L Brands founder and CEO Les Wexner told analysts he was "taken advantage of by someone who was so sick, so cunning, so deprived," and described Epstein's behavior as "abhorrent" and "peculiar."
- Wexner entrusted millions of dollars to Epstein, who reportedly posed as a talent scout for Victoria's Secret models and bought two mansions and a private plane from Wexner and his companies, according to the New York Times.
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The boss of Victoria's Secret has said he's "embarrassed" by his close relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who served as his personal financial adviser.
Les Wexner, the founder and CEO of L Brands, entrusted Epstein with millions of dollars between the mid-1980s and the mid-2000s, when he cut ties with the financier. Epstein reportedly posed as a talent scout for Victoria's Secret to lure young women, according to the New York Times. He also obtained two mansions and a private plane - valued at about $100 million today - that were previously owned by Wexner or his companies, the newspaper said.
"Everyone has to feel enormous regret for the advantage that was taken of so many young women," Wexner told analysts at an investor update meeting this week. "That's just unexplainable, abhorrent behavior, and clearly is something we all would condemn."
"At some point in your life we are all betrayed by friends," Wexner continued, adding that "people have secret lives" and hide them so well they can have relationships without revealing their "peculiar" behavior. "Being taken advantage of by someone who was so sick, so cunning, so deprived is something that I'm embarrassed that I was even close to."
L Brands didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Markets Insider.
Epstein was arrested and charged with sex trafficking of minors in July. He pleaded not guilty to paying dozens of underage girls to engage in sex acts. He was found dead in his jail cell in August.
Wexner denied any knowledge of Epstein's crimes in a memo to employees in July. "I would never have guessed that a person I employed more than a decade ago could have caused such pain to so many people," he said, according to the Wall Street Journal. "I have searched my soul … reflected … and regretted that my path ever crossed his."
Epstein "misappropriated vast sums of money" while serving as Wexner's adviser, the executive wrote in a letter to his foundation in August.
