Leon Dark, a susceptible Wall Boulevard deepest fairness investor, on Thursday sued the Condominium Oversight Committee, seeking to quit the panel from enforcing its subpoenas against him in an ongoing probe of the leisurely disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
“The Committee is on a fishing expedition that oversteps its authority and entirely ignores its responsibility. That is now not about discovering the truth about Epstein. It is ready seeking to murder Mr. Dark. We had been left with out a resolution but to file this lawsuit primarily based completely on an abuse of Congressional vitality,” Dark’s attorney, Susan Estrich, mentioned in a assertion.
Dark had been living to appear sooner than the committee Thursday morning.
The lawsuit comes after Dark voluntarily sat for a closed-door transcribed interview with the Oversight Committee in leisurely June but left the listening to early.
Lawmakers savor for months sought extra data on the financial net that allowed Epstein to fund his intercourse trafficking operation and whether Dark was once in any admire involved or conscious of any illegal exercise. They specifically savor sought data about any nondisclosure agreements Dark signed with ladies.
Dark has denied any wrongdoing, involvement in or awareness of Epstein’s illegal exercise.
In Thursday’s assertion, she mentioned that Dark was once “misled” regarding the intentions of the committee’s chair, Gain. James Comer, R-Ky.
“Mr. Dark has cooperated with the Committee by voluntarily acting to respond to questions in a transcribed interview. No subject being misled regarding the intent of that interview, he then completely complied with the Committee’s subpoena connected to Epstein,” Estrich mentioned.
She added, “To point out misconduct on story of of the existence of a confidentiality settlement is entirely unjustified. Confidentiality agreements are mechanically used in alternate.”
Estrich went on to wholly stammer any allegations against Dark, announcing, “We want to reiterate that Mr. Dark had no awareness of the criminal actions that resulted in Epstein’s arrest in 2019. Mr. Dark never abused a girl. He never was once with an underage lady. He never engaged in intercourse trafficking. He never paid Epstein for access to ladies. He was once never blackmailed by Epstein.”
Dark’s name appears to be like bigger than 300 cases in recordsdata released by the Justice Department leisurely closing twelve months and early this twelve months connected to Epstein. His name appears to be like frequently in emails from Epstein’s assistant, directing the financier to name Dark. Better than 100 of the mentions of Dark are in emails from Epstein’s assistant, who wrote, “Leon Dark returned your name.”
In a assertion, Comer reacted to Dark’s failure to appear sooner than the committee Thursday, announcing, “It’s a disgrace Leon Dark is hiding within the abet of litigation as an different of present answers to the American of us.”
He added, “Mr. Dark’s testimony is major to our investigation as he was once one of Mr. Epstein’s rate paying clients and has plenty of non-disclosure agreements. Our deposition is transferring forward this morning for the document and there would perhaps be an empty chair for Mr. Dark. I will refer to our members about subsequent steps.”
Dark’s profession and his reputation savor been marred for years due to his relationship with Epstein, a convicted child intercourse wrongdoer who died in 2019.
In 2022, Dark was once sued over allegations that he raped a girl in Epstein’s New York Metropolis mansion in 2002. That case was once later dropped with prejudice after both occasions reached an settlement to raise out so and Dark denied the allegations against him. A separate but ongoing lawsuit, filed in 2023, accused Dark of raping a 16-twelve months-extinct lady at Epstein’s Long island townhouse in 2002. A attorney for Dark denied the allegations, calling them “frivolous and sanctionable.” In April, a desire overseeing the case wrote that the plaintiff and her attorney “engaged in severe, sanctionable misconduct in this case,” but allowed the case to proceed.
Dark in 2021 stepped down from the hedge fund he co-founded, Apollo World Management, after the firm completed an honest evaluate having a watch into his ties to Epstein. The evaluate stumbled on that Dark was once now not concerned with Epstein’s criminal actions.
Earlier this twelve months, he was once living to be deposed in a lawsuit filed by survivors of Epstein and his friends alleging that Financial institution of The usa facilitated and profited from Epstein’s illegal intercourse trafficking exercise. Financial institution of The usa later settled that lawsuit for bigger than $70 million and did now not admit any criminal responsibility in that case.
“Whereas we stand by our prior statements made within the filings in this case, alongside with that Financial institution of The usa did now not facilitate intercourse trafficking crimes, this resolution permits us to position this subject within the abet of us and affords additional closure for the plaintiffs,” a Financial institution of The usa spokesperson told NBC Records at the time.
In a assertion reacting to data of the lawsuit Thursday, Robert Garcia, the tip Democrat on the Condominium Oversight Committee, mentioned, “By refusing to testify this day, Leon Dark is now defying two Congressional subpoenas. Dark gave Jeffrey Epstein over $180 million over six years. He funded Epstein’s abuse and trafficking of women. A whole lot of women savor moreover accused Dark of sexual assault. His connections to Epstein and his unwillingness to cooperate are unacceptable.”
Garcia moreover is known as for conserving Dark in contempt of Congress.
