Trump appointee leading $205bn US agency had personal ties to Epstein, emails show

Key points

• Ben Black, the head of a little-known government investment agency funded by billions of dollars from US taxpayers, had personal and business ties to Jeffrey Epstein, according to emails and business filings released by the Department of Justice.
• His father, Leon Black, had once been the disgraced financier’s highest paying client – calling on the convicted sex offender for tax advice and to orchestrate payments to women, according to the New York Times and Bloomberg.
• A Guardian review of more than 5,000 records from Epstein’s private correspondence found that Ben Black invested in the same company as the financier in 2011 and that the two men had a relationship for several years afterwards.
• Epstein told a friend that he attended Ben Black’s 30th birthday, advised him on the purchase of an $11.5m townhouse and helped one woman compose messages to him.
• She wrote to Epstein to say that she and...