The chief executive of French luxury house Hermès said he rebuffed Jeffrey Epstein’s efforts to cultivate a relationship, describing the late financier and sex offender as a “financial predator.”
Hermès CEO Alex Dumas told Reuters that Epstein approached him in 2013, as the company was defending itself against a hostile takeover attempt by LVMH.
“I think I was a target, I was a young CEO and we were in the middle of the LVMH affair. He was a financial predator,” Dumas was quoted as saying. “He already had a hateful reputation.”
Documents released by the Justice Department showed that Epstein sent several messages to Dumas’ assistant in 2013 and 2014 asking for meetings with the CEO.
Epstein also sought the company’s help in designing his private jet, but Hermès refused.
Dumas told Reuters that he met Epstein once in March 2013 during a company event at an atelier, where the brand makes its products.
According to Dumas, Epstein was not on the guest list. Instead, he joined a group that included award-winning film director Woody Allen and his wife.
Allen was not immediately available for comment.
Dumas told Reuters that Epstein kept trying to get an audience with him.
“After that, he tried three times to meet with me and I refused every time,” the exec recounted.
“I can’t tell you exactly what we knew about him or not, because I can’t remember 13 years ago, but he already had a loathsome reputation.”
The DOJ files, including email receipts of purchases made at Hermes stores in Paris, show Epstein was a fan of the French brand that caters to the ultra-wealthy and had emailed to ask if it could “design my plane”.
In one email to his assistant, Epstein writes: “Track down Axel Dumas in hermes [sic] headquarters paris [sic].”
The emails show Dumas’ own assistant politely refusing Epstein’s invitations to meet him in November 2013 and January 2014, citing a “prior engagement” and “a very tight agenda.”
Epstein had a track record of cozying up to the ultra-wealthy elite, who gave him enormous sums of money while conferring a veneer of legitimacy upon him.
Beginning in the mid-1980s, the Victoria’s Secret billionaire Les Wexner granted Epstein extraordinary authority over his finances — including a sweeping power of attorney in 1991 that allowed Epstein to manage vast sums with minimal oversight.
Over more than 20 years, Epstein earned in excess of $200 million in fees from Wexner, more than from any other known client, and gained control of prime assets including Wexner’s Manhattan mansion.
Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black paid Epstein roughly $170 million between 1999 and 2018 for what Black has described as tax and estate planning advice — an unusually large sum that later drew scrutiny from lawmakers and investors.
After details of the payments became public, Black stepped down as Apollo’s CEO in 2021, though he has maintained that he was unaware of Epstein’s criminal conduct and has denied any wrongdoing.
In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to state felony charges of procuring a minor under 18 for prostitution and solicitation of prostitution.
The guilty plea was negotiated by then-US Attorney Alex Acosta, who was criticized for leniency shown toward Epstein given the fact that federal investigators identified as many as 36 underage victims.
The deal between Acosta and Epstein was made without notifying the victims, violating the Crime Victims’ Rights Act.
Epstein, who was required to register as a sex offender, served 13 months of an 18-month sentence at Palm Beach County jail.
He was arrested again in 2019 on federal charges of sex trafficking of minors. His 2019 death in a Manhattan jail cell was ruled a suicide.
The Post has sought comment from Hermès.
With Post Wires
