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Case 1:19-cv-03377 Document 1-8 Filed 04/16/19 Page 13 of 16
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2003/03/jeffrey-epstein-200303
1989 deposition he said that he put in only $300,000 of his own money. Where did the rest come
from? Hoffenberg has said it came from him, in a loan that Nederlander and Toboroff didn’t
know about.
Two things happened that alarmed Nederlander and Toboroff. After the group signaled a
possible takeover, the Pennwalt management threatened to sue the would-be raiders. Epstein was
reluctant initially to give a deposition about his share of the money, telling Toboroff there were
“reasons” he didn’t want to. Then, after the opportunity for new investors was closed, co-
investors recall Epstein announcing that he’d found one at last: Dick Snyder, then C.E.O. of the
publisher Simon & Schuster, who wanted to put up approximately $500,000. (Neither Epstein
nor Snyder can now recall the investment. Yet in the 1989 deposition Epstein said that he had
recruited Snyder, whom he had met socially, into the deal.)
According to a source, Toboroff and Nederlander told Epstein that Snyder was too late, but,
without their realizing it, Hoffenberg has claimed, Snyder wrote a check to Hoffenberg and
bought out some of his investment. But then Snyder wanted out.
“Nederlander started to get these irate calls from [Snyder,] who wasn’t part of the deal, saying he
was owed all this money,” says someone close to the deal. Toboroff and Nederlander were
baffled.
Eventually, a source close to Hoffenberg says, Hoffenberg paid Snyder off.
Just as Nederlander and Toboroff were growing wary of Epstein, he became increasingly
involved with Leslie Wexner, whom he had met through insurance executive Robert Meister and
his late wife. Epstein has told people that he met Wexner in 1986 in Palm Beach, and that he
won his confidence by persuading him not to invest in the stock market, just as the 1987 crash
was approaching. His story has subsequently changed. When asked if Wexner knew about his
connection to Hoffenberg, Epstein said that he began working for Wexner in 1989, and that “it
was certainly not the same time.”
Wherever and whenever it was that Epstein and Wexner actually met, there was an immediate
and strong personal chemistry. Wexner says he thinks Epstein is “very smart with a combination
of excellent judgment and unusually high standards. Also, he is always a most loyal friend.”
Sources say Epstein proved that he could be useful to Wexner as well, with “fresh” ideas about
investments. “Wexner had a couple of bad investments, and Jeffrey cleaned those up right
away,” says a former associate of Epstein’s.
Before he signed on with Wexner, Epstein had several meetings with Harold Levin, then head of
Wexner Investments, in which he enunciated ideas about currencies that Levin found
incomprehensible. “In fact,” says someone who used to work very closely with Wexner, “almost
everyone at the Limited wondered who Epstein was; he literally came out of nowhere.”
“Everyone was mystified as to what his appeal was,” says Robert Morosky, a former vice-
chairman of the Limited.
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| Filename | HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_017783.jpg |
| File Size | 0.0 KB |
| OCR Confidence | 85.0% |
| Has Readable Text | Yes |
| Text Length | 3,144 characters |
| Indexed | 2026-02-04T16:33:01.735081 |