Author: Jonathan Stempel and Ella Binney
NEW YORK, March 2 (Reuters) – Shareholders sued Apollo Global Management and its billionaire co-founders Leon Black and Marc Rowan in a proposed class action on Monday, allegedly defrauding the private capital firm for nearly five years over its business dealings with disgraced sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.
According to the complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, shareholders claim the defendants falsely denied doing business with Epstein in several regulatory filings in 2021 and 2022, even though Epstein “actively participated in and frequently communicated with Apollo Global’s senior leadership” regarding Apollo’s business in the 2010s.
Shareholders said Apollo’s stock price fell about 15% in three weeks in February after the truth became known, wiping out about $12 billion in market value.
Spokespeople for Apollo and its CEO Rowan declined to comment. Black spokesman Whit Clay declined to comment. Rowan will succeed Black as CEO in 2021.
Apollo said in a Feb. 18 letter to clients that neither Rowan nor anyone else at Apollo other than Black had a business or personal relationship with Epstein.
It also said that “in certain instances,” Ron and other Apollo employees provided Epstein with information about his tax work for Black, but that when Epstein sought work for other co-founders, he “refused on each occasion.”
Black has denied wrongdoing and said he had no knowledge of Epstein’s criminal conduct.
Shareholders led by Solomon Feldman said in the lawsuit that Apollo’s regulatory filings mentioned a January 2021 review by Dechert Law Firm, which found that Black paid Epstein $158 million in tax and estate planning fees, but that Apollo never hired Epstein to provide any services, and Epstein never invested in funds managed by Apollo.
Apollo’s assurances were allegedly proven false after the U.S. Department of Justice released a trove of documents, videos and images related to Epstein on January 30.
The complaint cites media reports about Epstein’s alleged written and in-person communications with Apollo officials in the mid-2010s, as well as requests from teachers unions for the SEC to investigate Apollo.
Although the proposed class action period begins in May 2021, after Black resigned as Apollo’s CEO and chairman, the complaint alleges that as of April 2025, he remained liable as a “controlling person,” holding 7% of Apollo’s stock.
