Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein in Cambridge, MA in 2004. Epstein is stuck with several prominent people including politicians, actors and academics.
Rick Friedman | Corbis News | Getty Effigies
Victoria’s Secret owner, L Brands, has hired outside counsel to review the company’s relationship with accused woman sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, a company spokesperson said on Thursday.
Epstein was arrested earlier this month on an indictment recorded by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which charged him with trafficking dozens of underage girls. The backer had prior close ties with L Brands founder and Chairman Les Wexner, which included a $46 million present to Wexner’s nonprofit foundation and living in a New York townhouse once owned by Wexner.
L Brands has said it cut ties with Epstein precisely 12 years ago and called his alleged crimes “abhorrent.” A spokesperson for the company said on Thursday that while the assembly “[does not] believe he was ever employed by nor served as an authorized representative of the company,” it has “engaged outside counsel to conduct a encyclopedic review” of the company’s ties to him, at the direction of its board.
The review comes amid an already disrupting year for L Brands. In April, it reached a agreement with activist fund Barington Capital, which had urged the company to split its struggling Victoria’s Secret identify from its stronger Bath & Body Works store.
As part of the deal, L Brands welcomed on Barington Capital as a unique advisor. It also nominated to its board Anne Sheehan, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s investor advisory cabinet, and Sarah Nash, CEO of Novagard Solutions.
The deal with Barington allowed Wexner, who is both chairman and CEO of L Brands, to proceed with on the board, despite Barington’s original contention the dual role gave him too much power.