Ohio State leadership exposes desperate need for Wexner endowment
OSU may be heir to billions
Ohio State is dependent on receiving an inheritance from Les Wexner that could be in the billions.
This is circulating around OSU with employees, doctors and nurses. They are appalled that the 89-year-old’s name will remain in place after last week’s decision by university leadership to essentially absolve Wexner for being best friends with Jeffrey Epstein that certainly is a crime in the eyes of most students, staff and alumni.
Wexner’s name to remain on buildings
“It’s his will, that’s what they’re worried about,” said one OSU administrator not happy with Wexner’s shadow and dubious legacy still hanging over everything. There also could be a clause in his will demanding his name remains in perpetuity.
The lingerie tycoon’s net worth recently surpassed $9 billion according to Forbes. In 2024 his net worth was $6 billion and thus became $3 billon richer while under intense scrutiny for his close friendship with the world’s most infamous convicted sex offender.
Wexner has donated more than $200 million to OSU in his lifetime helping to fund the glimmering new 26-story University Hospital, for instance. Last week OSU’s executive leadership after conducting a “thorough analysis” didn’t find justification to remove his name.
Wexner labeled as Epstein co-conspirator
National and local right-wing media cheered the decision, arguing Wexner had never been charged with a crime. But these same police-state apologists never talk about how the FBI in 2019 labeled Wexner and Ghislaine Maxwell as un-indicted co-conspirators to Epstein.
Also ignored is the fact survivors of Epstein sued Wexner and the Wexner Foundation this year alleging they enabled Epstein to “build an international sex trafficking ring and to commit heinous acts of gender-motivated violence.”
In the 1990s, Free Press editor and investigative reporter Bob Fitraks was one of the first to reveal Wexner and Epstein’s close friendship. Their real estate dealings go back to at least 1989 when they jointly purchased a mansion in Manhattan followed by Wexner granting Epstein durable power of attorney over all his economic dealings in July 1991. By 1995, Epstein was the director of the Wexner Foundation.
In 1998, business documents identified Epstein as president, along with Wexner, of the New Albany Company. Epstein owned a house in New Albany from 1994 until December 2007 when he gave it to Wexner with no money exchanged. Also in 1998, Wexner transferred his interest in their Manhattan property for $20 million to Epstein.
The most disturbing allegation in the Wexner-Epstein saga was made by Maria Farmer. Her sworn affidavit alleges that Epstein sexually assaulted her at Wexner’s New Albany mansion in 1996. Wexner denies that he knew anything about the assault.
“With Epstein’s proclivities for underage girls, this seems a bit implausible,” wrote Fitrakis. “Many say he promised to help them with their modeling careers. Wexner is the owner of Victoria’s Secret and many of Epstein’s assaults occurred at their New York City residence.”
Wexner linked to organized crime, drugs and weapons
History suggests Wexner and Epstein were untouchable and “Teflon Dons” but that was not entirely the case. The Ohio Inspector General’s office in the 1990s investigated Wexner and Epstein for public corruption, bribery and information related to the murder of Columbus attorney Arthur Shapiro.
The “Shapiro Homicide Investigation: Analysis and Hypothesis” report confirmed that the name of Leslie Wexner was linked “with associates reputed to be organized crime figures.”
Shapiro was a partner in the now-defunct Columbus law firm of Schwartz, Shapiro, Kelm & Warren. The firm “represented the Limited,” according to the report, and “prior to his death, Arthur Shapiro managed this account for the law firm.”
Just prior to his murder, Shapiro “was the subject of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service because he had failed to file income tax returns for some seven years prior to his death, and he had invested in some questionable tax shelters,” the report stated. His death “occurred one day prior to Shapiro’s scheduled appearance before a Grand Jury in the I.R.S. investigation, and there was some conjecture that Shapiro was in position to provide information to the Grand Jury that would have been damaging to some other party.”
Wexner and Epstein brought Southern Air Transport to Columbus – a CIA-linked airline with a colorful past including running opium as Air America during the Vietnam war and transporting cocaine and weapons during the Iran-Contra scandal.
In an apparent effort to mend his relationship with Wexner, Epstein wrote him asking to remember they had been involved in “gang stuff.”
Telling is how Wexner responded when Epstein tried to regain his loyalty: “All I can say is I feel sorry. You violated your own number 1 rule…Always be careful.”
Wexner remains unscathed, for now
In comparison to Wexner, many other rich and powerful linked to Epstein who also were never charged with sex crimes have lost careers. They were fired or resigned or under investigation after the Epstein files did nothing more than reveal a friendship with him.
Ohio State University students, employees and faculty continue to actively advocate the removal of Wexner’s name from campus buildings by submitting formal requests, protests, and walkouts. However, college administrators continue to deny their demands, presumably unwilling to shame their biggest donor.