Investigation into Financial Dealings with Jeffrey Epstein

Dear Mr. Black,

As Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee ("the Committee"), I write regarding the Committee's investigation into your financial dealings with Jeffrey Epstein. This effort is part of an ongoing set of investigations by the Committee into the means by which ultra-high net worth persons avoid or evade paying federal taxes, including gift and estate taxes. These investigations include the avoidance of billions of dollars in income, gift and estate taxes through the use of tax shelters such as Private Placement Life Insurance; the possible circumvention of laws related to gift taxes and deductions involving the complementary use of private aircraft/superyachts by public officials; and the use of Swiss banks by wealthy taxpayers to expatriate from the United States and evade gift taxes while concealing offshore accounts from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

As you are aware, the Committee is investigating the $158 million in payments you made to Epstein for services related to a variety of tax and estate planning matters. In particular, the Committee seeks information on Epstein's participation in structuring trusts and other complex transactions designed to avoid federal gift and estate taxes on as much as $2 billion in wealth transferred to your children. The Committee also seeks information regarding Epstein's extraordinary compensation scheme, which involved amounts that far exceeded those paid to other professional advisors involved in your tax and estate planning.

Unfortunately, the inadequate responses you have provided the Committee only raise more questions than answers, and fail to address a number of tax issues my staff has uncovered over the course of this investigation. This includes understanding the amount by which you were overpaid income from assets placed in a trust while devising a scheme to ensure that those assets, worth billions of dollars, would remain outside your taxable estate. Additionally, you have refused to answer questions or provide documents related to payments you made to Epstein or substantiate how such payments were calculated or were compensation for services. Your failure to substantiate Epstein's compensation scheme has heightened the Committee's concerns about whether such payments were properly characterized as income or gifts for tax purposes.

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Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,