Jeffrey Epstein’s connection to New Albany’s transformation

NEW ALBANY, Ohio (WCMH) — The development of New Albany, an affluent community further bolstered by a looming Intel semiconductor plant, can trace its evolution to the richest man in Ohio. But documents from years ago show its rise wasn’t without influence from a dark presence.

The little farming community with under 500 people before the 1980s is scarcely recognizable in 2023, thanks to a project by billionaire Leslie Wexner, the founder of L Brands and a mogul with brands like Bath & Body Works, Abercrombie & Fitch and Victoria’s Secret. He joined forces with developer Jack Kessler as the 1990s approached to form the New Albany Company, and their vision for “a Shangri-La for the wealthy” in the village, according to the firm’s website.

“The old saying that New Albany used to be a one-stop-sign town and then a billionaire moved to town and everything changed; that is kind of true, right?” New Albany Mayor Sloan Spalding said in a 2022 NBC4 interview. “Mr. Wexner came in and started purchasing land for what was going to be his estate and then started thinking bigger.”

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New Albany Co. would eventually go on to manage the New Albany International Business Park, a 6,000-acre plot with the headquarters of Abercrombie & Fitch as a key tenant. It was New Albany’s largest employer as of 2022, and the park as a whole helped usher in unprecedented growth for the city.

As Kessler and Wexner began their plans for New Albany in the mid-1980s, however, Wexner also met and subsequently hired his new personal financial manager: Jeffrey Epstein. Now known in death as a sex trafficker who socialized with some of the world’s most powerful figures, Epstein was named Wexner’s power of attorney in 1991, giving him the ability to make hires, sign checks and buy and sell properties on the billionaire’s behalf. This legal relationship between the pair continued until 2007, around the same time that Wexner said he severed ties with Epstein, according to documents from the Franklin County Recorder.

While wielding Wexner’s power, Epstein was seemingly closely involved with the company responsible for New Albany’s transformation as well. Business records from the Ohio Secretary of State showed Epstein named as president of the New Albany Co. alongside Wexner in 1998. While Wexner was largely the main financier of his developments in New Albany, a 2002 profile of Epstein in New York Magazine said he contributed a few million dollars of his own capital to the project as well. The article also quotes an investigator who called the groundwork of the New Albany construction “a mess” before Epstein’s arrival and subsequent clean-up.

Throughout the 1990s and as he took part in New Albany Co.’s project, Epstein owned at least two properties in the town. One home at 7558 King George Drive was an apparent gift from the billionaire to his financial manager; documents from the Franklin County Recorder showed Epstein received the property in a trust in 1990. NBC4 also obtained Franklin County Auditor records, which showed he later bought the house for $364,636 and resigned from the trust in 1995. Leslie’s wife, Abigail Wexner, took Epstein’s place as trustee, but auditor records also showed Epstein sold the home to the billionaire’s wife for $0 in 2007.

Epstein’s second New Albany property would be the focal point of a civil lawsuit with claims of sexual assault. He bought the home at 5025 East Dublin Granville Road for $3.5 million from JW & CPK & Co., a Kessler and Wexner company, according to Franklin County Auditor records. The building is around half a mile away from Wexner’s mansion and massive plot of land.

A former Epstein employee’s lawsuit accused him and his longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, of sexually assaulting her while visiting this home in 1996. Plaintiff Maria Farmer said in an affidavit that she had come to Epstein’s home in New Albany to work on an “art project.” When she tried to run away from the home, Farmer said security guards from Wexner’s team refused to let her leave for around 12 hours.

The lawsuit prompted calls on Ohio State to investigate Wexner’s wife, who was a university trustee at the time. Her term on the board ended in May. A source close to the billionaire said in 2019 that Wexner himself had no knowledge of the situation Farmer described.

While not part of the billionaire’s property, a Wexner family guard told the Washington Post in 2019 that his security team monitored the home on Dublin Granville Road when Epstein owned it. Since 1991, it has been surrounded in nearly every direction by property personally owned by Wexner, or one of his or Kessler’s companies like Whitebarn Organics and JW & CPK & Co. Whitebarn acquired the land on the west border in 2010. To get to the home, Franklin County Auditor records showed a visitor has to take roads through either Wexner or JW & CPK & Co. land.

Epstein sold the house in 1998 for $8 million to HHD & B LLC. Business records from the Ohio Secretary of State showed this entity has the same mailing address as the New Albany Co.

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In 2008, Wexner’s former financier made a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to charges of prostitution and prostitution involving a minor in Florida. After being arrested again in 2019 on child sex trafficking charges and with new attention on his clientele, Epstein died by suicide in jail.

With the turn of the new year, documents unsealed from another victim’s lawsuit shared some previously known and unknown associates of Epstein, as well as some of the figures he met in passing. Wexner, while not accused of any wrongdoing in the documents, was mentioned six times in testimony and legal filings within the 943 pages.

Wexner denied knowledge of any of Epstein’s actions in 2019. Around the same time as Epstein’s 2008 conviction and when Wexner said he ended his relationship with his former financial manager, other famous acquaintances like former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump also abandoned him. However, Epstein continued to mingle with the rich and famous leading up to his arrest and death, often through philanthropic work.

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