Ghislaine Maxwell claims Epstein ‘ran New Albany’ in recent testimony, says Les Wexner was his ‘closest friend’
In a recently released Department of Justice interview transcript, Ghislaine Maxwell, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse minors, shed light on Epstein’s connection to Les Wexner and New Albany, OH.
Maxwell told Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that Epstein set up trust funds for all of Wexner’s children and helped “design” New Albany. “He restructured, when I was there, Wexner’s business in its entirety, as I recollect. And then not only that, but there were business interests, so Wexner owned or build, or designed, or I don’t quite know how to characterize it, but New Albany, which is a center outside of Ohio, Columbus, Ohio, specifically,” said Maxwell via the DOJ transcripts. She said that Wexner was, in her opinion, Epstein’s “closest friend in this time period from when I met him in ’91, right, all the way until, well, I don’t know.”
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Regarding Wexner’s gigantic New Abany home and his neighborhood, Maxwell said, “He built himself a very large house, truly enormous and it’s one of the biggest private homes I’ve ever been to. And he built all the houses around him, and I’m like, this is so random, why would you do that? And he said to me, well, because I want to make sure that the people around me are my friends — I want my friends around me and my neighbors.”
A New Albany country club and golf club were also mentioned. She said, “But Epstein ran New Albany, which included 9 a country club and a golf club and a — I mean, gosh, your boss is one of the all-time great, you know, businessmen in this area. You know what that is. And he certainly does.”
Forbes Magazine reported that Epstein owned two properties in New Albany. He purchased 5025 East Dublin Granville Rd. less than a mile from Wexner’s main residence. He sold the home for $8 million in 1998 to a company with the same mailing address as Wexner’s New Albany Company, who still owns the house today, said Forbes. Epstein also owned a smaller home in New Albany at 7558 King George Drive. He bought it for $365,000 in 1994, and according to Forbes, transferred it for $0 to a trust for Wexner’s wife Abigail. She sold the home for $365,000 in 2011.
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