TLDR
Les Wexner testified under deposition that he was "conned" by Epstein, despite appearing 1,000 or more times in released files, transferring a Manhattan mansion for zero dollars, granting power of attorney over his finances, and maintaining the relationship for over 15 years. The corpus tells a story that five hours of testimony struggled to explain (House Oversight Committee, 2026a; PAPER TRAIL Project, 2026a).
The Deposition
On February 18, 2026, Les Wexner sat for approximately five hours before the House Oversight Committee. He was compelled by subpoena, alongside estate executors Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn. PBS NewsHour broadcast the full video (PBS NewsHour, 2026). His central claim was simple: he was conned.
The word carries weight. It implies a sophisticated deceiver and an unwitting victim. It implies that once the deception was discovered, the relationship ended. The documents in the corpus test each of those implications.
What 1,000 Mentions Look Like
Wexner's name or entities appear more than 1,000 times across the released files, spanning financial records, corporate filings, and correspondence (PAPER TRAIL Project, 2026b). This is not the profile of a peripheral figure. It is the profile of someone whose financial life was structurally entangled with Epstein's operations for the better part of two decades.
The entanglement began with real estate. Nine East 71st Street Corp., filed August 25, 1989 under Wexner's control, held a Manhattan townhouse that would become Epstein's most recognizable address. The property transferred first to NES LLC, then to Maple Inc. (a U.S. Virgin Islands entity), for a recorded consideration of zero dollars. Epstein signed for both sides of the transaction. The building was valued at approximately $77 million (PAPER TRAIL Project, 2026a; PAPER TRAIL Project, 2026c).
Rep. Robert Garcia called Wexner the "single most responsible" person for enabling Epstein's financial power, pointing to this property transfer and the ongoing financial support that sustained the network through its most active years (PAPER TRAIL Project, 2026d).
Power of Attorney
The "conned" narrative requires that Wexner's involvement was passive or uninformed. But Wexner granted Epstein power of attorney over his financial affairs — a legal instrument that gives one person the authority to act as another in all financial matters. This is not a dinner invitation that went wrong. It is the deepest expression of financial trust that exists in American law (PAPER TRAIL Project, 2026a).
Senator Wyden's Treasury investigation documented the broader financial landscape: $1.08 billion in wire transfers through Epstein accounts across multiple banks (Wyden, 2025). How much of that volume was transacted under authority that originated from Wexner's power of attorney remains an open question — one that the Treasury records, not in the public corpus, could answer.
The Foundation Trail
The financial relationship extended beyond real estate. C.O.U.Q. Foundation, with Epstein as President and Indyke as Vice President, transferred $14.2 million to YLK Charitable Fund (a Wexner entity) in 2008 before shutting down circa 2012. The direction of this transfer is notable: money flowing from an Epstein-controlled foundation to a Wexner fund, not the other way around (PAPER TRAIL Project, 2026a).
NYSG LLC, formed January 13, 2000, operated as a financial advisory firm for ultra-high-net-worth clients with portfolios exceeding $1 billion. It billed the Wexners for its services. The firm shipped 199 FedEx packages from its offices at 457 Madison Avenue, Floor 4 — the same Villard Houses address that served as the operational shipping hub for Epstein's logistics network (PAPER TRAIL Project, 2026e).
The Problem with "Conned"
A confidence trick has a beginning and an end. The mark discovers the deception and the relationship terminates. Nine East 71st Street Corp. was filed in 1989. It was dissolved on May 14, 2015. NES LLC remains active to this day, with its registered address having moved to the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2013 (PAPER TRAIL Project, 2026a).
That is a 26-year arc. The zero-dollar property transfer, the power of attorney, the foundation flows, the advisory firm billing, the 199 FedEx shipments — these are not the artifacts of a con. They are the artifacts of a partnership.
Wexner's five-hour testimony used the language of victimhood. The 1,000 or more documents in the corpus use the language of infrastructure. The committee will decide which language they believe. The files will remain available for anyone who wants to read them.
What the Corpus Cannot Answer
The corpus shows the structure of the Wexner-Epstein financial relationship. It does not show what Wexner knew about Epstein's crimes, when he knew it, or whether the financial entanglement was willful or negligent. Those questions live in the sealed portions of the deposition, in the Treasury records not yet public, and in the 42% of the corpus that the DOJ has not released (PAPER TRAIL Project, 2026f).
The claim of being "conned" is not refuted by documents alone. But it is tested by them. And the documents ask harder questions than the committee did.
References
House Oversight Committee. (2026a). Deposition of Les Wexner, February 18, 2026 [Congressional proceeding]. Washington, DC.
PAPER TRAIL Project. (2026a). Entity ownership research — corporate entities, officer maps, and property transfers [Data]. research/ENTITY_OWNERSHIP.md
PAPER TRAIL Project. (2026b). Corpus search — Wexner entity mentions [Data]. Database: epstein_files, entities table.
PAPER TRAIL Project. (2026c). Corroboration report — property transfer verification [Data]. research/CORROBORATION_REPORT.md
PAPER TRAIL Project. (2026d). Congressional actions, February 2026 — Rep. Garcia statements [Technical report]. research/congressional_actions_feb2026.md
PAPER TRAIL Project. (2026e). FedEx shipments — NYSG LLC, 199 packages [Data]. Database: epstein_files, fedex_shipments table.
PAPER TRAIL Project. (2026f). DOJ compliance status — 42% release gap [Technical report]. research/doj_compliance_status.md
PBS NewsHour. (2026, February 18). Watch Les Wexner's full deposition before the House Oversight Committee [Video]. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/watch-les-wexners-full-deposition
Wyden, R. (2025, July 17). Wyden reveals Treasury Department records on Jeffrey Epstein [Press release]. U.S. Senate Committee on Finance. https://www.finance.senate.gov/ranking-members-news/wyden-reveals-treasury-department-records-on-jeffrey-epstein