There was a floor in Les Wexner's building where nobody was allowed to go.
Not the janitors. Not the stylists. Not the executives who worked one floor below. The 12th floor was sealed off, and when employees asked why, nobody could explain it. No answer. Just a locked elevator and a rule that everyone understood without being told: don't go up there.
This isn't conspiracy lore. It's FBI testimony.
The Witness
On July 18, 2020, a woman called the FBI's National Threat Operations Center. She had worked inside the Victoria's Secret ecosystem — close enough to see Epstein and Wexner together, close enough to staff their private events, close enough to notice what was wrong. A year after Epstein's death, she decided to talk.1
What she described wasn't a story about Jeffrey Epstein using Les Wexner's brand without his knowledge. It was a story about Wexner being in the room.
"She said that often she would see Epstein with Les Wexner. She stated that often Wexner would have models who could not have been over 18 years old do private viewings for him and Epstein. She said the models would be wearing swim suites and some were in lingerie."
Read that again. Wexner would have the models do the viewings. Not Epstein pulling strings behind the scenes. Not a rogue associate exploiting a brand. The richest man in Ohio, the CEO of L Brands, arranging private viewings of teenage models in lingerie — with Jeffrey Epstein standing next to him.
The Compound
The witness described Wexner's compound like a secured facility. She had helped get people hired to work at parties there — catering, service staff — and the protocol was unusual for a private residence.1
Background checks for every worker. ID verification at the gate. Approved escorts required to move between areas of the property. Certain zones off-limits, no exceptions.
This wasn't a billionaire protecting his art collection. This was an operational security posture — the kind you build when what's happening inside can't survive outside scrutiny.
The Watchers
Then there was the mannequin incident.
The witness and another stylist were dressing mannequins. Bras and underwear spread across the floor — a normal part of their job. They were bent over, working. And then that feeling. The one your body registers before your brain does.1
"She said that while they were bent over it felt like someone was watching them. When they stood up and turned around Epstein and Wexner were watching them. Wexner asked them if that is what their rooms looked like with the bras and panties everywhere."
Two grown men. Standing in a doorway. Watching women bend over in silence. Then Wexner — the CEO, the billionaire, the patriarch — makes a comment about their bedrooms.
This wasn't a joke between colleagues. It was a power display. We're watching you. We can watch whenever we want. And you're going to smile when we comment on your underwear.
The Handler
The witness noticed one more thing. At these parties and events, there was always a woman she didn't recognize — someone who didn't fit the corporate structure, who wasn't VS staff, who seemed to exist outside the normal org chart.1
"There was always a woman who she did not know that was around at these parties and seemed to be in charge of the models."
An unnamed woman. In charge of the models. At Wexner's compound. Present at every event.
The FBI report doesn't name her. The witness apparently didn't know who she was. But every element of the description — managing young models, appearing at Wexner-Epstein functions, operating outside the formal company structure — maps to a role that the broader Epstein investigation has documented in exhaustive detail.
Ghislaine Maxwell's 2025 DOJ proffer described Wexner as Epstein's "closest friend."2 She was the bridge between Epstein's world and the worlds he parasitized. If she was managing models at VS functions in the 1990s, she was doing what every other witness described her doing everywhere else: sourcing.
The Recruiter
The VS model pipeline wasn't a secret Epstein kept from Wexner. It was a feature both men used.
The New York Times reported — in a story preserved in the Epstein files — that company executives in the mid-1990s learned Epstein was pitching himself as a Victoria's Secret model recruiter.3 He was approaching young women and telling them he could get them into Victoria's Secret. The lure of the brand was the hook.
This was known inside the company. L Brands executives heard about it and did nothing — or couldn't do anything, because the man doing it had total power of attorney over their CEO's fortune and fiduciary control over every trust and foundation Wexner owned.4
How do you fire someone who can sign your boss's checks?
The Bodyguard
The FBI witness from 2020 wasn't the only person who saw what was happening.
Richard Adrian served as Les Wexner's personal bodyguard from 1991 to 1992. When Epstein was arrested in July 2019, Adrian called the FBI within days.5
He told them three things:
One: Epstein got all of his money from Wexner.
Two: Wexner sold his Manhattan townhouse to Epstein for $20.
Three: He had been to Epstein's Palm Beach home and there were young girls there. He assumed they were family. Another bodyguard told him to "keep to yourself and not ask questions."
Adrian lasted about a year in the job. Whatever he saw was enough to make him call the FBI the moment there was someone on the other end who might actually listen.
The Retirement
Ed Razek built Victoria's Secret into a cultural phenomenon. The annual fashion show. The Angels. The catalogs. The billion-dollar lingerie brand that put supermodels on network television. For decades, Razek was the CMO who decided which women represented the brand — who got the wings, who walked the runway, who became a household name.
In August 2019 — weeks after Epstein's arrest — Wexner told L Brands employees that Razek was "retiring."3 The same announcement that L Brands had hired outside lawyers to conduct "a thorough review" of Epstein's role.
The review's findings have never been made public. Razek has never been charged with anything. But the timing tells its own story. The man who selected VS models for decades stepped down the moment the company started asking questions about what Epstein was doing with VS models.
The Pattern
Here is what the documents establish, without inference or interpretation:
Les Wexner gave Jeffrey Epstein total power of attorney, fiduciary control over all trusts and foundations, and management of up to 7% of L Brands stock.4 He gave him a Boeing 727 and a $13.2 million mansion for $20.5
Jeffrey Epstein used the Victoria's Secret brand as a recruitment lure for young women — and L Brands executives knew about it in the mid-1990s.3
An FBI witness described Wexner personally arranging private viewings of underage models in lingerie, with Epstein present.1
A forbidden floor existed in a Wexner building with no explanation offered to employees who asked.1
An unidentified woman managed models at Wexner-Epstein events, operating outside the corporate structure.1
The CMO who selected VS models for decades resigned weeks after Epstein's arrest.3
A victim who reported to the FBI in 1996 identifies as an "Epstein/Maxwell/Wexner victim."6
This wasn't a financial advisor who happened to have connections to a lingerie company. Victoria's Secret was infrastructure. The brand was the bait. The private viewings were the product. And Les Wexner wasn't a victim who discovered the truth too late.
He was in the room.
This article draws on the "Absolute Control" — Wexner-Epstein Investigation research dossier. It is the first in the Wexner Machine series.
Sources & Documents
- EFTA01249593 — FBI NTOC intake, July 18, 2020. VS employee witness statement describing underage model viewings, forbidden 12th floor, and unidentified handler. View →
- Maxwell Proffer, Day 2 — Ghislaine Maxwell DOJ proffer, July 25, 2025. Describes Wexner as Epstein's "closest friend." View →
- EFTA00172284 — New York Times, August 7, 2019. Wexner's "misappropriated vast sums" letter; VS recruiter pitch; Razek retirement. View →
- EFTA01365971 — New York Times/WSJ investigation. Power of attorney, fiduciary control, 7% stock management, "absolute control" quote. View →
- EFTA01249191 — FBI NTOC intake, July 16, 2019. Bodyguard Richard Adrian: $20 mansion, young girls at Palm Beach, "keep to yourself." View →
- EFTA01649902 — FBI email chain, September 30, 2019. Victim self-identifying as "Epstein/Maxwell/Wexner victim" who reported in 1996. View →
