Latest news with #LesWexner
New York Post
05-08-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Jeffery Epstein-linked billionaire pays $37M for former Obama rental home on Martha's Vineyard
A Martha's Vineyard estate once favored by the Obamas as a summer retreat has quietly changed hands for $37 million — $2 million below its May asking price. The buyer is a trust tied to billionaire retail magnate Les Wexner, the longtime head of L Brands and founder of Victoria's Secret, according to the Real Deal. Known as Blue Heron Farm, the 28.5-acre Chilmark property had been off the market for more than a decade, following an extensive transformation under its previous owners, British architect Norman Foster and his wife, Elena Ochoa Foster. 9 The Martha's Vineyard estate once rented by Barack and Michelle Obama as their summer retreat has sold for $37 million. Evan Joseph Studios 9 The home sold to a trust linked to Ohio-based billionaire Les Wexner, founder of L Brands and former close associate of Jeffrey Epstein. The couple bought the estate in 2011 for $22.4 million and overhauled it into a secluded compound blending historic charm with sleek modern amenities. It was listed this spring for $39 million with agents Brian Dougherty and Maggie Gold Seelig of Corcoran, and went under contract just weeks later. The deal closed on July 10, according to public records. 9 Known as Blue Heron Farm, the 28.5-acre waterfront compound hosted the Obamas for three summers starting in 2009. Evan Joseph Studios 9 The Obamas reportedly paid $50,000 a week during their time in the home. Evan Joseph Studios During the Obama presidency, the secluded property served as the family's vacation home for three consecutive summers beginning in 2009. At the time, they were said to have paid roughly $50,000 a week to rent it. The Obamas stopped returning after the Fosters bought the home and ended its rental availability. The estate includes a 7,000-square-foot main residence with a wraparound porch, plus a guesthouse, a design studio, a gym, a tennis court, equestrian facilities and a private dock. 9 After architect Norman Foster and his wife, Elena Ochoa Foster, purchased the property in 2011 for $22.4 million, they renovated and withdrew it from the rental market. Evan Joseph Studios A barn originally constructed in Pennsylvania over 150 years ago now anchors the entry drive. Under Foster's tenure, a new pool house was added, echoing the clean lines of his firm's more urban projects, including London's Gherkin and the new Wembley Stadium. The buyer, according to records, is a trust managed by Matthew Zieger, Wexner's longtime attorney. While Wexner did not comment, the 87-year-old tycoon has deep real estate ties in Ohio, where L Brands is headquartered, and in Jupiter, Fla., where he owns additional property with his wife Abigail. 9 The estate, listed for $39 million in May, features a 7,000-square-foot main home, a guesthouse, a modern pool house, a gym, a tennis court, stables and a relocated 150-year-old Pennsylvania barn. Evan Joseph Studios His name has also resurfaced in recent years due to his decades-long personal and professional relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, who served as his financial adviser until 2007. Though no longer renters, the Obamas remained fond of Blue Heron Farm. According to Foster, the former president once made a lighthearted attempt to reclaim it. In a New Yorker interview, Foster recalled the former president applied 'jokey pressure' to resume the rental arrangement. 'Sadly, no,' Foster told him at the time, politely declining. 9 The Obamas, drawn by the property's privacy and serenity, later bought their own $11.65 million Martha's Vineyard home in 2019 and also maintain residences in Washington, DC, Chicago and reportedly Hawaii. AFP/Getty Images Afterward, the Obamas pivoted to another Martha's Vineyard rental before purchasing their own home on the island in 2019 for $11.65 million — a nine-bedroom, 8.5-bath residence formerly owned by Joe Lockhart, a former White House press secretary. Michelle Obama later joked about the layout on 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show,' saying, 'He got so shortchanged on this whole deal. He doesn't have enough closet space, sorry! He's got the smallest room for his office.' The couple also owns homes in Washington, DC's Kalorama neighborhood and in Chicago's Kenwood, which they bought in 2005. 9 The deal closed July 10, marking a rare high-end transaction in the area and further expanding Wexner's already sprawling real estate portfolio. Evan Joseph Studios 9 Les Wexner. Courtesy Hulu In addition, they are rumored to be connected to a beachfront compound under development in Oahu by longtime friend Marty Nesbitt. One of three homes on the $8.1 million site is believed to be intended for the Obamas. For the Fosters, parting ways with Blue Heron Farm marks the end of a deeply personal project. A statement from the listing described it as 'a historic estate with notable farming roots' that had been 'meticulously updated and modernized … with significant investments made in timeless renovations, extensive foliage planting and build-out for new amenities.' But for the Obamas, its draw was more emotional. In a previous statement, Dougherty and Gold Seelig explained, the family initially chose the property 'for its incredible privacy, serenity and significance.'
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Trump Was Attempting to Block Publication of Embarrassing WSJ Jeffrey Epstein Story
Sources tell Variety that the White House attempted to block the publication of a Wall Street Journal article about President Donald Trump allegedly writing a letter to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003 that contains suggestive language. The White House threatened legal action against the paper if it went to print with the story, which published on the paper's website Thursday afternoon. According to the Wall Street Journal story, the letter for Epstein's birthday, which was part of an album from several people, 'is bawdy — like others in the album. It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. A pair of small arcs denotes the woman's breasts, and the future president's signature is a squiggly 'Donald' below her waist, mimicking pubic hair. The letter concludes: 'Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.'' (Epstein was a close friend and business associate of former Victoria's Secret CEO Les Wexner and a fixture at the lingerie line's fashion shows.) More from Variety Nick Offerman Goes Full 'Parks and Recreation' and Scolds Trump for Cutting $267 Million From National Parks Budget: 'That's Called S--ting the Bed' Justice Department Fires Manhattan Prosecutor Who Worked on Diddy and Epstein Cases Democrats to Intro 'Presidential Library Anti-Corruption' Bill After Paramount, Disney Lawsuit Settlements With Trump On Wednesday, Variety reached out to the White House and the Wall Street Journal for comment about the imminent story as well as the ensuing back and forth between the two parties. Both declined comment. But the Wall Street Journal spoke on Tuesday night with Trump, who denied writing the letter. 'This is not me. This is a fake thing. It's a fake Wall Street Journal story,' he told the paper. The story hit at a time when Trump's MAGA base is divided over the White House's handling of documents related to an investigation into Epstein, the late financier who was arrested for sex trafficking of minors in 2019 and died under mysterious circumstances while in custody weeks later. His death was ruled a suicide but has long been the subject of conspiracy theories given his ties to powerful government officials, including Trump and former President Bill Clinton. The purported letter at the center of the Wall Street Journal story predated Epstein's arrest in 2019. It also would have been written five years before Epstein pleaded guilty for soliciting prostitution from girls as young as 14 in 2008. It is known that the two men were friends, though they reportedly had a falling after Epstein hit on the teenage daughter of a Mar-a-Lago club member in 2008, months before the financier pleaded guilty to the solicitation charge. Trump revoked his membership in the posh club immediately. The MAGA backlash stems from Attorney General Pam Bondi's decision not to release the Epstein investigation files in full. Bondi's move opened the floodgates on a news cycle that has put Trump on the wrong side of some of his most ardent followers. Many famous backers of Trump including Tucker Carlson, Roseanne Barr and Steve Bannon appear to have turned on the president in recent days over the White House's handling of the Epstein files. Others like Megyn Kelly and Theo Vonn have been more muted in their criticism but still skeptical and have spent hours on the subject on their various podcasts and platforms. For the past several days, Trump has downplayed the significance of Bondi's decision and dismissed calls from politicians to influencers for more transparency into the Epstein investigation, calling the case 'pretty boring stuff.' In a social media post on Wednesday, Trump blamed Democrats for pushing a 'scam' and 'hoax' with regards to his relationship with Epstein. 'Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this 'bullshit,' hook, line, and sinker,' he wrote. In an previous post, he wrote: 'We're on one Team, MAGA, and I don't like what's happening,' the president wrote. 'Let's not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.' Later in the day on Wednesday, the Justice Department fired Maurene Comey, the top prosecutor in the 2019 Epstein case, adding fuel to a story that doesn't appear to be dying down. Even after his first stint in jail, Epstein enjoyed long-cultivated relationships within the government — both U.S. and Israeli — as well as New York media circles, academia and even Hollywood, which allowed him entry into events where the richest and most powerful people converge. The Justice Department and FBI said in a memo last week that they found no evidence that Epstein kept an 'incriminating 'client list.'' The memo added: 'There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.' But Epstein certainly kept a little black book that became part of the public record following his first arrest. Among the Hollywood notables whose contact information appeared in the book were Alec Baldwin and Kevin Spacey. (Spacey, for one, has called on the White House to release the full Epstein files, saying he has nothing to hide.) In 2015, Gawker published the flight logs from Epstein's private jet, which showed that Clinton had flown on the private aircraft dubbed the Lolita Express. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts? Final Emmy Predictions: Talk Series and Scripted Variety - New Blood Looks to Tackle Late Night Staples
Forbes
10-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How Victoria's Secret's Les Wexner Made Billions From AI Giant CoreWeave
F ive years ago, Ohio's most revered entrepreneur Les Wexner stepped down as chairman of L Brands and soon began to sell off his stake in Victoria's Secret's parent company amid controversy over his close relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Many believed that Wexner, then age 82, would quietly retire to his 340 acre estate in New Albany, Ohio. Instead, the fashion mogul has more than doubled his fortune thanks in large part to some savvy bets in a different industry: technology. Over just the past three months, the mogul's net worth–which includes assets held in his children's and wife Abigail's names–has soared to $10.1 billion from $7.9 billion, according to Forbes' estimates. The biggest driver of this increase: a 4% stake in CoreWeave, one of the buzziest artificial intelligence companies around. On Monday, CoreWeave announced it is buying crypto miner Core Scientific in a roughly $9 billion all-stock deal. Coreweave's market capitalization has almost tripled since its March IPO to nearly $73 billion today, and Wexner's stake is now worth $2.8 billion. Forbes previously reported on how Wexner scored his stake in CoreWeave, which was founded in Livingston, New Jersey in 2017. Thanks to a savvy investment by Wexner's money manager at the time, a trust established for the benefit of his four children – Sarah, Hannah, David and Harry – apparently invested $1 million in CoreWeave in 2019; it put in another $600,000 in the startup's Series A funding round in 2021. Wexner's CoreWeave shares were already worth $730 million when the company went public in March. The eight-year-old CoreWeave helps companies build data centers and loans out cloud access to much-sought-after graphics processing units, or GPUs, which firms like Microsoft, IBM and Meta pay to use to build AI models. With no shortage of customers, the company recorded $982 million in revenue during the first quarter of this year, a 420% increase versus the same quarter last year. However, it's yet to turn a profit and reported a net loss of $315 million during the same period. Nonetheless, CoreWeave's valuation continues to shoot up, minting three-comma fortunes for its largest shareholders though they can't cash out until the IPO lock-up period ends in September. Its success has producedat least four new billionaires, including CoreWeave's three cofounders: Michael Intrator (estimated net worth: $9.9 billion), Brian Venturo ($6.1 billion) and Brannin McBee ($4.5 billion). Early investor and board member Jack Cogen is also a new billionaire, worth an estimated $3.5 billion. Forbes discovered the Wexner family's stake in CoreWeave in a lawsuit filed by the wealth management firm Florence Capital Advisors in the United States District Court in the Southern District of New York in May 2024. In the lawsuit, Florence Capital Advisors claimed they were owed a nearly $7 million fee for advising Wexner's family trust to invest in CoreWeave in its very early days. A representative for the trust responded in a counterclaim that accused the wealth manager of 'fraudulent conduct' and 'multiple breaches of fiduciary duty.' The case is still ongoing. A representative for Wexner did not respond to Forbes' request for comment for this article while Florence Capital founder and CEO Greg Hersch declined to comment due to the ongoing litigation. Wexner and his family, who are estimated to have pocketed more than $2 billion after-tax from selling their L Brands shares between 2020 and 2021, likely have other startup investments we don't know about. Outside of their stake in CoreWeave, the Wexners own a New Albany-based real estate development firm with an estimated $950 million worth of land across Central Ohio, an estimated $1.4 billion art collection, a nearly 300-foot yacht, a Ferrari collection and a roughly $300 million portfolio of luxury homes around the world. Wexner's development firm, The New Albany Company, transformed the city of New Albany in the late 1980s and '90s. © 2019 Bloomberg Finance LP W exner may seem like a surprising pioneer in the fast-changing world of AI. However, he's actually spent years preparing his home state of Ohio to be at the cutting edge of the tech revolution. Wexner owns the New Albany Company, a powerful real estate development firm in Central Ohio that led the transformation of New Albany, which was still a small rural town in the early 1980s, into an economic powerhouse housing the manufacturing facilities for his many fashion brands and employing tens of thousands of people. 'Because The Limited was here, Columbus was the distribution center,' explains Kevin Cox, an Ohio State University associate professor and author of 'Boomtown Columbus,' a 2021 book about economic development in and around Ohio's capital. Since 2019, the New Albany Company has sold thousands of acres of land to tech giants like Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and Google to build data centers in the area. These projects, often propped up by generous state or local tax breaks, have generated some controversy due to the lack of jobs they tend to create. Wexner's New Albany Company also played a crucial role in securing nearby Johnstown, Ohio as the location where Intel announced in January 2022 it would build a more than $28 billion semiconductor production facility intended to help bolster domestic production of crucial computer chips. Intel's project, once slated to open this year, has stalled amid broader problems with the tech firm's money-losing chip manufacturing business. The latest update from the company indicated it will end construction five years behind schedule and is expected to open in 2031. Still, Wexner has continued to benefit from a flood of tech interest in New Albany and surrounding areas. In January, AI military juggernaut Anduril announced it is setting up a $1 billion 'hyperscale' plant near Columbus where it plans to produce tens of thousands of weapons and autonomous systems each year. In the past few months alone, Google, Meta and biotech firm Amgen have all announced expansions of their facilities in the area. Wexner's firm is often the selling end of these massive land transactions. These big tech companies are paying top dollar for large swaths of land: Last month, Google paid $741,000 an acre for nearly 85 acres in New Albany's Business Park. Former President Joe Biden spoke at the groundbreaking of the Intel semiconductor manufacturing facility near New Albany, Ohio on September 9, 2022. AFP via Getty Images The New Albany Company is also currently in the process of its own expansion. According to Columbia Business First, a subsidiary of the development firm has spent the past two and a half years quietly amassing more than 1,200 acres of land in Marysville, a small rural city about 40 minutes drive from New Albany where it plans to build two massive business parks for industrial and innovation uses. Through his New Albany Company, Wexner still owns more than 3,200 acres across Central Ohio, worth an estimated $950 million. During a May board meeting for the Wexner Medical Center and Nationwide Children's Hospital, Wexner, who is the board's chair, reportedly predicted 'probably the largest AI investment in the world will happen in Columbus.' 'Columbus is the largest city in Ohio,' he said during the meeting, as reported by The Columbus Dispatch . 'We don't publicize that – and I know in the real estate business that I'm in, people are always shocked at how big we are and how fast we've grown.' With additional reporting by Iain Martin. More from Forbes Forbes What America's Foreign-Born Billionaires Think About Trump's Immigration Policies By Matt Durot Forbes America's Richest Immigrants 2025 By Matt Durot Forbes Mamdani Doesn't Think We Should Have Billionaires. Here's Why That Will Never Happen. By Kyle Khan-Mullins Forbes Elon Musk's Robotaxi Dream Could Be A Liability Nightmare For Tesla And Its Owners By Alan Ohnsman Forbes This Secretive Company Built An Empire By Hawking Bad Financial And Health Advice On Facebook By Emily Baker-White
