Les Wexner: the Merlin of the Mall loses his magic

Les Wexner built a retail empire from scratch and made a fortune in the process. He ended up placing his trust and many powers in the hands of disgraced tycoon Jeffrey Epstein. What went wrong?

When Jeffrey Epstein pitched up in Les Wexner’s life in the 1980s, some of those close to him were mystified as to why “a renowned businessman in the prime of his career would place such trust in an outsider”, says The New York Times. Wexner had shrewdly built a retail empire worth billions from scratch and was hailed as “one of the country’s most influential corporate titans”. Epstein, by contrast, had “a thin resumé and scant financial experience”. And yet within a few years he had “developed an unusually strong hold” over Wexner – assuming “sweeping powers over his finances, philanthropy and private life” while driving a wedge between the Victoria’s Secret tycoon and longtime friends and associates.

A grandmaster makes his move

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Jane writes profiles for MoneyWeek and is city editor of The Week. A former British Society of Magazine Editors editor of the year, she cut her teeth in journalism editing The Daily Telegraph’s Letters page and writing gossip for the London Evening Standard – while contributing to a kaleidoscopic range of business magazines including Personnel Today, Edge, Microscope, Computing, PC Business World, and Business & Finance.

She has edited corporate publications for accountants BDO, business psychologists YSC Consulting, and the law firm Stephenson Harwood – also enjoying a stint as a researcher for the due diligence department of a global risk advisory firm.

Her sole book to date, Stay or Go? (2016), rehearsed the arguments on both sides of the EU referendum.

She lives in north London, has a degree in modern history from Trinity College, Oxford, and is currently learning to play the drums.