Epstein Was Fixer for Leon Black's Deepest Secrets

The Justice Department’s largest release yet of the Epstein files shows that Jeffrey Epstein was Leon Black’s stealthy do-it-all fixer. Beyond mere estate planning, the convicted sex offender arranged family portraits, helped the billionaire co-founder of Apollo Global Management leverage up a vast art collection, dug into his investment in the storied publishing house Phaidon and obscured some of his most sensitive secrets. Bloomberg News Finance Reporter Max Abelson joins Bloomberg Businessweek Daily to discuss. He speaks with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec.  Jeffrey Epstein left little doubt about the value he placed on a Norwegian diplomat and his ambassador wife to tap a network of officials with ties to the United Nations and the Nobel Peace Prize.
In his will, the pedophile financier bequeathed the couple’s two children $5 million each. It was signed two days before his death.
There are thousands of references to “Terje” in the latest cache released by the US Department of Justice that detail an enduring friendship: Epstein helped Terje Rød-Larsen with apartment purchases as well as flights and visits to his private island in the Caribbean. There was also advice and gifts for Rød-Larsen’s children — now in their mid-twenties.
Right up to Epstein’s suicide in 2019, the files suggest that Rød-Larsen was useful to the disgraced financier by connecting him with dignitaries, bankers and politicians when the Norwegian was at the helm of the International Peace Institute, located just across from the UN headquarters in New York. 
Those in Rød-Larsen’s orbit include Hardeep Puri, who served as India’s ambassador to the UN, and Kevin Rudd, a former Australian prime minister who eventually was elected chair of the IPI board. The paper trail also draws in Norway’s elite, to varying degrees: a former prime minister, foreign ministry officials, and even the crown princess. The common denominator linking them to Epstein is often Rød-Larsen. 
For example, he put Børge Brende, a former Norwegian foreign minister and president of the World Economic Forum, in touch with Epstein in 2018 after the financier requested a meeting. Brende said in a statement that he was unaware of Epstein’s past and criminal activities.
The IPI, the cache shows, offered Epstein a pretext to mingle with senior officials from many countries. He was a generous donor and Rød-Larsen made introductions and organized events.
Puri met Epstein about three or four times over a period of about eight years in New York, his office said in an emailed response to questions. They met as part of official business, his office said. Rudd cannot rule out the possibility that he and Epstein might have attended the same event at some stage but said he never corresponded with Epstein or visited any of his houses, according to a statement by his office. 
Broadway Play
Rød-Larsen, along with his wife Mona Juul, was one of the architects of the 1993 Oslo Accords — the historic but failed peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. 
Their role in the Mideast peace process was celebrated in an award-winning play that focused on the couple’s human touch and secret back-channeling and had a successful run in Broadway in 2017.
On the international circuit, and in political circles, this afforded Rød-Larsen the kind of fame that meant he was in a position to open doors for Epstein.
The emails are quoted as they appear in the DOJ release, including spelling and grammatical errors.
“Can you ask your buddy Kurtz in Austria. If he would like to meet with bannon,” Epstein wrote to a person only identified as “Terje” in May 2018, likely referring to Austria’s then-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Steve Bannon, a former advisor to Donald Trump. “Kurtz important. As he will host trump and Putin,” Epstein wrote.
A spokesperson for Kurz declined to comment.
Rød-Larsen took on several roles at the UN, including as a special advisor to then-Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and he served briefly in Norway’s government under Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland. It was likely during his time at IPI that he came into contact with Epstein.

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