- God must have a great sense of humor
if he can make, you know,
this kid from Columbus, Ohio so successful.
- [Margaret] That's Leslie Wexner.
He built an empire on fast fashion brands
like Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works,
and Abercrombie & Fitch.
The billionaire Midwesterner loves turning cornfields
into country clubs,
and by his own account,
he's got more money than he knows what to do with.
And who better to manage such a massive fortune
at the height of his success than Jeffrey Epstein,
Ghislaine Maxwell's boyfriend turned convicted pedophile.
I'm Margaret Cho, and this is the story
of the Merlin of the Mall.
(upbeat music)
On September 8th, 1937,
Leslie Wexner was born in Dayton, Ohio
to retailers Harry and Bella Wexner.
According to Wexner, Harry and Bella worked 80-hour weeks
to scratch out a living, but they never made 10,000 a year.
An allowance was out of the question,
so Wexner cut grass and shoveled snow to earn money.
"When it snowed, I was happy because I could work,
"not because I could go sledding," Wexner said.
"As I look back it seems kind of Dickensian,
"but it didn't feel that way to me at the time."
It probably didn't feel Dickensian because it wasn't.
The family had enough money to send him to private school.
His classmate Peter Halliday recalled that,
"Wexner certainly wasn't voted
"most likely to become a billionaire."
Joke's on them.
From a young age, Wexner was determined to become somebody.
- And I wanted to be successful, whatever that meant.
- [Margaret] When he was 15, the Wexners moved to Columbus
and invested their life savings
in a women's clothing store named Leslie's.
Maybe Harry and Bella thought their son
would inherit the store someday, but he had different plans.
Wexner dreamed of becoming an architect,
but his father convinced him
to study business administration at Ohio State instead.
After college, he enrolled at the law school,
but dropped out and returned to work at Leslie's.
One day, his parents went on vacation
and left him in charge,
so Wexner decided to take a closer look at the books.
Harry believed most of their profits came from coats
and dresses, the highest ticket items,
but the younger Wexner observed Leslie's
was actually making more on lower cost items
that were casual.
His father didn't believe him,
and this caused so much tension
that he decided to open his own store
called Leslie's Limited,
where he exclusively sold women's sportswear separates.
"My friends were going to be doctors,
"but they were gonna be specialists,
"not general practitioners.
"I began thinking about the business being a specialist.
"It was the only way I thought I could compete
"against the department stores
"that were dominant at the time."
On August 10th, 1963, Wexner opened
the first Limited stores.
It was funded by a bank loan and a $5,000 personal loan
from his spinster aunt Ida.
According to Wexner, in the first year he made more money
than his father had ever made in a single year.
The following year, his sales figures tripled.
Soon, Wexner bought the original Leslie's
and turned it into a Limited,
and his parents began working for him.
The company went public just six years after opening.
In 1978, the Limited was booming, but Wexner wanted more.
He risked it all on a 30 million investment
in the logistics firm Mast Industries.
With factories around the world
and control over production and shipping,
Wexner was able to grow his business
into a global phenomenon.
Vanity Fair called it a genius move
akin to McDonald's revolutionizing fast food.
In 1982, Wexner acquired a small lingerie chain
called Victoria's Secret.
The founder claimed its name was supposed to evoke
a dignity associated with the Victorian era,
but Wexner saw something different.
"It was Victorian,
"not English Victorian but brothel Victorian," Wexner said.
- And I remember saying,
"All the women I know wear underwear most of the time.
"All of the women I know would like to wear lingerie
"all of the time."
And I'm just driving down the highway laughing my butt off
and thinking what a funny thought that is.
- [Margaret] He expanded to Abercrombie & Fitch,
Lerner New York, and Lane Bryant,
and founded a number of notable brands,
including Limited Too, Express, and Bath & Body Works.
The New York Times dubbed him Merlin of the Mall.
He later told the Times,
"I built a business so I could create my own world."
That's kind of his thing.
In the mid 1980s, Wexner was driving through farmland
in New Albany, Ohio
with his real estate developer buddy Jack Kessler
when he decided he wanted to build a house in the country.
So they had Wexner's financial advisor Harold Levin
buy up individual plots of land,
30 acres here, 90 acres there, for very cheap.
It wasn't long before Wexner and Kessler
had more than 10,000 acres to develop on.
Together, they started the New Albany Company
and transformed rural New Albany
into a self-contained town for the wealthy.
First came Wexner's mansion,
which today is worth a whopping 45 million.
Then came the country club
touted as one of the best in the state.
From there more multi-million dollar homes,
a business park, and horse stables.
Nearby they built an outdoor mall
designed by the Merlin himself.
For Wexner, building his own town
was just a fun little side project.
By that point, he was a billionaire,
and according to the Limited's former security chief
Jerry Merritt, Wexner once told him,
"I got more money than I can ever spend."
(bell dinging)
That seems like a problem most people would like to have.
Of course, when you're the sixth richest person
in the country, you want trustworthy
and experienced people in your corner.
That must be why in 1989 Wexner asked Harold Levin
to meet with a young financier named Jeffrey Epstein
on his next trip to New York.
Levin agreed but quickly identified Epstein as a fraud.
Levin told Vanity Fair,
"Epstein was trying to explain a currency trade
"he wanted to do.
"I have an MBA from Ohio State
"and I didn't understand a word the man said."
According to Levin, Epstein didn't even have a computer
on his desk.
He discouraged Wexner from doing the trade,
but Levin didn't realize how much sway Epstein already had
over his boss and his massive fortune.
Within a few months of their New York meeting,
Epstein showed up in Columbus and announced to Levin
that Wexner had put him in charge of his finances.
Levin decided to quit.
In 1991, Wexner granted Epstein full power of attorney,
meaning he could legally sign Wexner's name to any document.
Epstein and also became co-president
of the New Albany Company,
despite the fact that Epstein contributed
relatively little money to the development project.
And according to the New York Times,
a Wexner-owned mansion that was being built in New Albany
for Jack Kessler suddenly became Epstein's in 1992.
Epstein and Wexner's relationship blurred the lines
between personal and professional.
According to Vanity Fair,
when Wexner married his wife Abigail,
an attorney at Davis Polk,
Epstein arranged their pre-nuptial agreement.
Bella was reportedly concerned
about Epstein's influence over her son.
Eventually, Epstein got her seat on the board
of the Wexner Foundation.
For his successful coup of Wexner's inner circle,
Epstein was compensated very generously.
In 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported
that Epstein made 200 million from Wexner alone.
Merritt told Vanity Fair he thinks it's closer
to 400 million.
But that's not all.
According to the New York Times,
over the years Epstein acquired
about 100 million worth of former Wexner property,
including a lavish New York townhouse
and a Columbus mansion next to Wexner's.
Wexner's company also reportedly sold a private jet
to Epstein at a discount.
The Boeing 727 became the infamous Lolita Express,
which according to flight logs,
Epstein allegedly used to shuttle former presidents
and underaged girls.
- I did not have sexual relations with that woman.
- [Margaret] For years Wexner was Epstein's
only public client and he was probably his wealthiest too.
As Epstein's heinous crimes have come to light,
Wexner has denied any knowledge
of the sex trafficking operation Epstein built
in the nineties and early aughts.
But Epstein took full advantage
of his new stream of income
and the access Wexner's companies gave him to young women.
In 1993, Victoria's Secret catalog executives heard
that Epstein was posing as a talent scout.
The concerning news was quickly reported to Wexner
who apparently said he would stop it,
but Epstein never did stop it.
In a 2020 interview, the model Alicia Arden claimed
she was violated by Epstein at a hotel in 1997
after showing up to what she thought
was a legitimate audition for Victoria's Secret.
She said it wasn't until years later
when Epstein was charged with sex crimes against minors
that Arden realized he probably never worked
for Victoria's Secret.
A statement from L Brands Inc,
the Limited was renamed in 2013,
confirmed that there's no record of Epstein ever being
an employee or authorized representative of the company.
Wexner remained friends with Epstein for a decade
after the first reported fake talent scout incident.
In 2003, Wexner was quoted in an article referencing,
"Epstein's excellent judgment and unusually high standards."
Then in 2006, Epstein was charged
with sexually abusing minors in Palm Beach.
Right before he went to jail,
Epstein donated 47 million
to the Wexners' newly created YLK Foundation.
According to public records,
Epstein's was the only donation YLK received in 2008.
The foundation received zero donations in 2009,
and closed in 2010.
The remaining funds, some 33 million, were transferred
to the Wexner Family Charitable Fund.
Wexner claimed the money was a partial repayment for funds
that Epstein had misappropriated over the years.
According to the New York Times,
Wexner cut ties with Epstein 18 months
after he was charged with the Florida sex crimes.
- As someone who was so sick, so cunning, so depraved
is something that I'm embarrassed that I was even close to.
- [Margaret] Following Epstein's 2019 arrest
on federal sex trafficking charges,
in 2020 L Brands hired the law firm of Davis Polk
to conduct an independent investigation
into the Wexners' ties to Epstein.
But the findings from the investigation
were never made public,
and according to the New York Times,
"A shareholder lawsuit filed in May
"suggested Davis Polk was too close to L Brands
"to be truly independent."
That same month Les Wexner decided to step down
from his role as CEO of L Brands,
leaving behind more questions than answers.
And in the fall of 2020, a second law firm was hired
to look into Wexner and Epstein's relationship.
In 2021 Les, Abigail, and the other L Brands board members
were named defendants in another shareholder lawsuit
for various misconduct, including their ties to Epstein
and an alleged, "Entrenched culture of misogyny,
"bullying, and harassment" at L Brands.
In a company announcement a few months later,
the Wexners said they would not seek reelection
to the board.
The Epstein scandal has also rocked Wexner's philanthropies,
including the OSU community.
Wexner became heavily involved with his alma mater
starting in the mid eighties
and has donated over 100 million to the university.
He stepped down from the board of trustees in 2012,
but his wife Abigail is the current vice chair.
In 2025, former OSU wrestlers, who are also abuse survivors,
called on the Ohio inspector general
to investigate Abigail Wexner's association
with Jeffrey Epstein
and one of his alleged victims Maria Farmer.
In 1996, Epstein offered Farmer,
than a New York City-based artist,
space to work on her paintings at a New Albany mansion
owned by the Wexners.
Farmer had been living there for two months
when she was reportedly sexually assaulted by Epstein
and Maxwell inside the home.
According to Farmer, she contacted the NYPD and FBI
in August of 1996,
but to her knowledge neither agency took action
regarding the alleged assault.
In 2002, Farmer was interviewed
by Vanity Fair journalist Vicky Ward,
but Ward's editor Graydon Carter cut Farmer's story
out of the final article.
In 2019, Carter told the New York Times,
"Her misconduct allegations against Epstein had fallen short
"of their three source editorial standard."
But he also reportedly received threats from Epstein
around the time, including a bullet and a severed cat head.
The threats led Farmer to change her name
and go into hiding for over two decades.
Then in April 2019, Farmer signed an affidavit
attesting to what she claims happened to her in Ohio.
In her statement she wrote,
"While I am still afraid, I'm coming forward
"because I think it is so important to do so."
Later that year, the Wexners insisted
they hadn't heard of Farmer
before her allegations went public.
Les Wexner also wrote in a letter to L Brands employees
that, "His heart goes out to each and every person
"who has been hurt by Epstein.
"When Mr. Epstein was my personal money manager,
"he was involved in many aspects of my financial life.
"But let me assure you that I was never aware
"of the illegal activity charged in the indictment."
Maybe Wexner is just another victim of Epstein's deceit,
as he claims, but as journalist Gabriel Sherman pointed out,
"Epstein became Epstein
"during his long association with Wexner."
Even Epstein once told a friend,
"Les knows everything about me.
"He knows every experience I've had."
The billionaire is living out his retirement
in the world he designed to his tastes.
Maybe he'll use his free time to raise money
for the Center for Family Safety and Healing
where Abigail sits as the board chair
working to combat child abuse.
Epstein's alleged madam, Ghislaine Maxwell,
will stand trial in November 2021
for what prosecutors say was her role
in crimes against minor girls.
It's unclear if Wexner's name will come up.
(upbeat music)
For more on Ghislaine Maxwell,
be sure to check out the brand new docu-series
"Chasing Ghislaine" now on Discovery+.
(upbeat music)