Epstein's Riches: Forbes Reporters Break Down How He Made His Millions
Forbes Talks
Forbes Media LLC
5 • 4 Ratings
🗓️ 8 August 2025
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this special episode of Forbes Talks, reporters John Hyatt and Giacomo Tognini break down the key findings from their investigation into how Jeffrey Epstein really got rich. Backed by public financial records and court documents, they reveal how Epstein generated over $800 million in revenue, largely from just two billionaire clients. They also explore Epstein’s use of the US Virgin Islands tax program to legally pay just 4% in taxes, saving an estimated $300 million.
The episode dives into his close financial ties with Les Wexner and Leon Black, how much they paid him, and what services he actually provided. Plus, they discuss new revelations about Epstein’s transactions and the Senate’s efforts to uncover where his money really came from. It’s a rare, in-depth look at the numbers behind the headlines—and how wealth, power, and secrecy protected Epstein for so long.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm John Hyatt, a staff writer at Forbes, and I'm here with my colleague, Jacamo |
| 0:06.6 | Tonyini, and we're here to talk about our article, How Jeffrey Epstein Got So Rich. |
| 0:11.1 | Hey, Jocomo, how are you today? |
| 0:12.5 | Good, John. How are you? |
| 0:13.5 | Good. |
| 0:14.5 | So let's start high level. |
| 0:16.8 | Who was Jeffrey Epstein, and how did he make his his fortune and what was the size of his fortune |
| 0:22.7 | when he died in 2019? |
| 0:24.4 | All right, so as is pretty well known, Jeffrey Epstein was a convicted sex offender and, |
| 0:31.1 | you know, a wealthy financier. |
| 0:33.1 | And what we know about how much he was worth when he died, we know from his estate, which |
| 0:38.0 | put out a filing after his death in August 2019. |
| 0:41.9 | And his net worth in that statement was around $578 million. |
| 0:47.8 | You know, much of that was sort of in cash, you know, investments in private equity hedge |
| 0:52.7 | funds and stocks and various things like that. And in terms of how he got rich, you know, investments in private equity hedge funds and stocks and various things like that. |
| 0:55.8 | And in terms of how he got rich, you know, there's obviously a lot that we don't know, but |
| 0:59.4 | the crux of our article that we wrote together, right, was sort of digging into what we do know, |
| 1:05.0 | you know, what's out there from court filings and various, you know, financial records. |
| 1:12.1 | And so we know, thanks to, in large part to these financial records |
| 1:17.4 | they were obtained by the public records request |
| 1:19.9 | from the New York Times a few years ago |
| 1:22.0 | that looked into Epstein's firms in the US Virgin Islands, |
... |
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