This episode contains graphic content that may not be suitable for all ages.

Listener discretion is advised.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available.

Call or text 988 or chat with someone at 988 lifeline.org. Those outside of the U.S. reach out to someone at your local

crisis center or hotline. Please do not suffer in silence. In 1991, in Columbus, Ohio, Leslie H. Wexner signed a general power of attorney that gave

Jeffrey Epstein authority to act on his behalf in nearly all matters of business and finance.

The document allowed Epstein to sign checks,

open and close bank accounts, buy and sell property, and borrow money in Wexner's name. It was filed

quietly in the state of Ohio, the home state of Wexner's retail empire, the limited. For those

familiar with corporate law, the scope of this power of attorney was

extraordinary. Powers of attorney are common for narrow functions, but rarely do they extend

to the total management of a billionaire's fortune. The language in this case made Epstein,

at least on paper, a legal extension of Leslie Wexner himself.

Investigative journalists who examined the document decades later described it as an unusual

level of control for a non-family advisor.

The agreement formalized what had already been true in practice.

By the late 1980s, Jeffrey Epstein had become Wexner's exclusive financial advisor, overseeing

personal and corporate investments through a network of private companies.

Wexner had met Epstein through mutual acquaintances and had grown to regard him as unusually

capable, a man who seemed to grasp complex financial structures intuitively.

In interviews years later, Wexner said that Jeffrey Epstein had extraordinary talent for managing

money.

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