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Les Wexner May Be Forced To Testify In Jeffrey Epstein-Related Case

Les Wexner
Jay LaPrete
/
AP

A hearing on Monday will determine whether billionaire and former L Brands CEO Les Wexner can be compelled to testify in a case related to Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.

Wexner, who stepped downfrom the company in May, is neither a defendant nor plaintiff in the case.

Epstein’s former lawyer Alan Dershowitz claims one of Epstein’s alleged victims, Virginia Giuffre, is trying to extort him and that she threatened Wexner in a similar manner.

Giuffre and Dershowitz are embroiled in dueling defamation suits, and both want to question Wexner in the course of the litigation.

Epstein and Wexner had a close financial relationship, with Epstein serving as Wexner's financial manager in the 1980s. Wexner says that he cut ties in 2007 after Epstein misappropriated millions of dollars from his family, and maintains he knew nothing about Epstein's alleged abuse.

Wexner's lawyer says he has no relevant information to be used in trial.

Clare Roth was former All Things Considered Host for 89.7 NPR News. She joined WOSU in February of 2017. After attending the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, she returned to her native Iowa as a producer for Iowa Public Radio.