Ben Black, who now oversees a $205 billion U.S. investment agency, maintained personal and business connections to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein for years, according to Department of Justice records and emails reviewed by news organizations.
Black heads the Development Finance Corporation, a government lending arm that has recently seen its authority sharply expanded. The agency now operates globally, including in wealthy nations, and its lending cap was tripled by Congress. As the agency's leader, Black wields significant influence over how taxpayer dollars are deployed overseas.
The connections run deep. Black's father, Leon Black, was Epstein's largest client, paying the convicted sex offender roughly $170 million for tax advice and other services. In 2011, Ben Black invested in Environmental Solutions Worldwide, a diesel emissions company where Epstein held a stake. Company records show both Ben and his brother Joshua became directors of ESWW that same year, the same year Epstein wired $1 million into the company.
Beyond the shared investment, records reveal scheduled meetings between the two men. In 2012, Ben Black was scheduled to meet Epstein as his father's guest. A year later, Epstein's staff coordinated a tour of Google's New York offices that included Ben Black and his girlfriend. By 2013, after a family estate planning meeting, Epstein obtained Ben Black's direct contact information.
In July 2014, Epstein told an associate he had flown to the Hamptons to celebrate Ben Black's 30th birthday. Two days after that gathering, Epstein weighed in on Ben Black's purchase of an $11.5 million Manhattan townhouse, offering himself as a resource for any questions the younger Black might have. The transaction was structured to minimize tax exposure, emails show.
In February 2016, Epstein's assistant asked both Ben and Joshua Black if they would sit for portraits as a gift to their father. The brothers agreed to a photography session. A Korean painter commissioned for the work told reporters he received a scholarship from Epstein and was obligated to paint at least one portrait for donors.
Ben Black's lawyers have contested the characterization of these interactions. A spokesperson for Black stated flatly: "Ben Black had no personal or professional relationship with Jeffrey Epstein." When confronted with evidence of Epstein's claims about attending the 30th birthday party, Black's legal team shifted positions, arguing that Epstein was prone to "exaggeration, lies, and embellishments" to inflate his importance.
Black is not the only Trump appointee with Epstein connections. Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, traveled to Epstein's private island, he testified before Congress. Lutnick sits on the DFC's board alongside Black and six other Trump appointees who must approve the agency's investments.
The scope of Ben Black's relationship to Epstein has not been previously disclosed. Black has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection to Epstein or any other matter. The DFC declined to comment, and the White House issued a statement defending Black's fitness for the role.
Black's appointment to lead the DFC came swiftly after he and Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale published an essay in January 2025 calling for a "pro-market" approach to foreign aid and highlighting opportunities in places like Greenland. Three weeks after publication, Trump named the 41-year-old to run the nation's largest government investing vehicle.
Public records suggest limited experience in international development finance. Black studied history at the University of Pennsylvania and earned dual master's degrees in business and law from Harvard, plus a taxation degree from NYU. His professional background includes work at his father's private equity and credit firm, Apollo Global Management, one of the world's five largest.
Leon Black and Trump have a history spanning decades. The two were in Moscow together in 1996 on business, where they may have visited a strip club together, according to Leon Black's later account to Senate investigators. They knew each other as wealthy New York real estate investors in the 1990s, competing for some of the same deals. Leon Black's lawyers said the two have "known each other socially" as fellow Manhattan residents and denied any business dealings between them.
Author James Rodriguez: "The emails paint a picture of proximity and opportunity that Black's legal team can't simply deny away, especially now that he controls how billions in taxpayer money flows to overseas projects."
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