Leon Black, President, CEO and Director of Apollo Global Management, LLC, speaks at the 21st World Conference at the Milken Institute in Beverly Hills, California, on May 1, 2018.
Lucy Nicholson | Reuters
Apollo Global Management said Monday that CEO Leon Black, who was tainted by his financial involvement with the late sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, has left the firm months earlier than previously announced.
Black, who is also stepping down as president, said the “health issues” of his wife and his own played a key role in his decision to step aside now.
Apollo had said in January that the 69-year-old black man would leave in July.
Apollo co-founder Marc Rowan has taken over as CEO, part of a planned succession announced in January.
The investment management firm also said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton has been appointed non-executive chairman of the board. Clayton has been the principal independent director of Apollo.
Apollo revealed in January that Black paid Epstein $ 158 million in financial advice from 2012 to 2017, despite learning that the money manager had pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution on a girl under the age of age in Florida in 2008.
Those payments, which were discovered after Apollo hired a law firm to investigate the men’s relationship, were three times more than the $ 50 million in payments reportedly reported by Black in October in Epstein.
Less than three months before the higher-than-disclosed payments were revealed, Black said in a statement: “Knowing everything I’ve learned in the last two years about Epstein’s reprehensible and despicable behavior, I deeply regret having had any involvement with he. “
“With the benefit of hindsight, working with him was a horrible mistake on my part,” Black said at the time.
In January, Black said he had decided that “one way to start addressing the serious mistake” of having a professional relationship with Epstein was to commit $ 200 million to gender equality initiatives and support survivors of domestic violence. sexual assault and human trafficking. .
In a statement Monday about his earlier-announced departure, Black said: “In recent months, we have not only announced a transformative merger with Athene, but we also expect to report that our first-quarter earnings will exceed consensus. from analysts relevant measures and that first quarter fundraising is tending towards the high end of our annual range of $ 15-20 million. “
“So I see this as the perfect time to take a step back and focus on my family, my wife Debra and my health issues, and my many other interests,” he said.
Referring to Rowan, Black said: “Marc has gone perfectly into the role of CEO and I am confident that Apollo will rise to new levels under his leadership.”
“For the past 30 years, my co-founders, Marc, Josh Harris and I, have worked very hard to turn Apollo into a franchise built for lasting success,” Black added. I firmly believe that the best days of Apollo await us. I intend to continue to be Apollo’s largest shareholder and strongest supporter. “
The price of Apollo shares in the last twelve months, as well as in the previous year, has risen much less in percentage terms than a number of similar large investment companies.
Epstein, a former friend of Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, was arrested in July 2019 on charges of child sex trafficking. He died a month later in Manhattan Federal Prison, due to what has been officially ruled a hanging suicide.
At the time of his arrest, Epstein was a registered sex offender because of his previous conviction in Florida.
His ex-girlfriend and real estate manager, British Socialist Ghislaine Maxwell, was arrested last summer on federal charges related to the alleged recruitment and preparation of underage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein. She is also accused of perjuring herself by allegedly lying about her Epstein-related activities in deposition by a lawsuit from a woman who accused them of sexual abuse.
Maxwell, who has pleaded guilty to her criminal case, is being held without bail in a Brooklyn, New York, jail. He is scheduled to stand trial this summer.