An accountant who worked closely with Jeffrey Epstein for more than a decade and serves as an executor of his estate told members of Congress on Wednesday that he “was not aware of the nature or extent of Epstein’s abuse of so many women until after Epstein’s death.”
Richard Kahn was one of Epstein‘s closest associates in his final years, managing his finances, investments and other minutiae, such as renovations on Epstein’s private Caribbean island. He was subpoenaed to appear before the House Oversight Committee, and testified behind closed doors that he did not socialize with Epstein.
“Had I learned of any of his horrific behavior, I would have quit work immediately,” he said, according to his prepared opening statement, which was provided to CBS News.
Democratic Rep. Suhas Subramanyam of Virginia said during a lunch break that Kahn told the committee the Epstein’s estate had reached a settlement with a person who had also made accusations related to President Trump. Subramanyam did not give further detail on what was said about that settlement or the accuser.
Early Wednesday, Subramanyam said the committee learned of “another head of state” that was mentioned as having financial transactions with Epstein. He later clarified he was referring to former Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak, whose deep financial ties to Epstein are well-known.
In Kahn’s prepared remarks, he said Epstein had “substantial yearly expenditures and a large staff.”
“We tracked the expenditures as meticulously as possible, including gifts by Epstein to women and men. The gifts represent a very small fraction of Epstein’s spending,” Kahn said. “I did not see them as red flags for abuse or trafficking.”
Kahn told the committee he “did not see anything that suggested to me that Epstein was abusing or trafficking women or otherwise acting unlawfully.”
“However, it pains me to think — and I deeply regret — that I may have unknowingly assisted Epstein in any way,” he said.
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Kahn is the first of the two executors of Epstein’s estate to testify before the committee. The other, lawyer Darren Indyke, is scheduled to sit for questions on March 19.
Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the Oversight Committee’s GOP chairman, said halfway through the deposition that Kahn had answered all of the lawmakers’ questions so far.
“He confirmed there were five clients that paid money to Epstein, and that was Les Wexner, Glenn Dubin, Steven Sinofsky, the Rothschilds and Leon Black,” Comer told reporters. “We’ve already deposed Wexner and we’re going to be deposing Leon Black very soon.”
Comer added that Kahn testified that he “had never seen any type of transaction to Trump or anyone in his family.”
Heading into the deposition, Comer said the panel had questions “about how Epstein was able to accumulate so much wealth.”
“It appears with the records we’ve obtained that there were somewhere around at least 64 entities affiliated with Epstein that we’ve discovered,” said the Kentucky Republican. He noted that Kahn has not been charged with any crimes and “no one’s accusing anyone of wrongdoing.”
Dozens of interconnected companies facilitated payments to victims, whose attorneys have said Kahn and Indyke were key figures in the management of those firms. Internal banking communications and personal emails included in the Justice Department’s Epstein files show the pair kept close tabs on Epstein’s finances.
Kahn said in his prepared remarks that in his work on Epstein’s finances, he “had no role in setting up any of Epstein’s companies, but did not view them as improper or suspicious.”
“Based on my experience and conversations with financial officers for family offices, the use of limited liability companies by wealthy individuals to hold assets — such as real estate and major assets like airplanes and helicopters — is completely standard practice,” Kahn said.
Epstein survivors have honed in on both Kahn and Indyke as critical cogs in the wealthy sex trafficker’s complex finances and operations. Documents revealed in lawsuits and the Epstein files show a sophisticated and tangled web of businesses operated by the trio.
The House Oversight Democrats claimed in a post on the X that “Kahn was a central facilitator of Epstein’s ability to exploit girls and women.”
Virginia Democratic Rep. James Walkinshaw said there were many questions Kahn said he couldn’t answer.
“Today we’ve heard from Mr. Kahn a lot of inability to recall, inability to recall emails, text messages he was involved in,” Walkinshaw said. “If he was ignorant of Mr. Epstein’s crimes, he was willfully ignorant.”
After Kahn and Indyke were subpoenaed in January, an attorney for Indyke, Daniel Weiner, said in a statement to CBS News that allegations against them are “false.”
“It is worth emphasizing that not a single woman has ever accused either Mr. Indyke or Mr. Kahn of committing sexual abuse or witnessing sexual abuse, nor claimed at any time that she reported to them any allegation of Mr. Epstein’s abuse,” Weiner said. “Indyke and Kahn did not socialize with Mr. Epstein, and they have always rejected as categorically false any suggestion that they knowingly facilitated or assisted Mr. Epstein in his sexual abuse or trafficking of women, or that they were aware of Mr. Epstein’s actions while they provided legal and accounting services to Mr. Epstein.”
Kahn and Indyke recently settled a lawsuit alleging they facilitated sham marriages in which foreign-born victims married Americans whom Epstein abused, for immigration purposes.
Kahn said in his prepared remarks that he “agreed to serve as co-executor of Epstein’s estate because, by the time of Epstein’s death, I had learned of the harm that he had caused to so many women and thought that my knowledge of Epstein’s holdings would make me better prepared to help alleviate some of their suffering.”
He said the Epstein Victim Compensation Fund, which was set up by the estate, “resolved claims by over 130 women” and the estate has reached another 60 separate settlements.
“I have done my best to balance my obligations as a fiduciary of the estate with the interest in providing legitimate compensation to Epstein’s victims,” Kahn said. “For this work, I have been the subject of attacks by plaintiffs’ lawyers and have had my reputation dragged through the mud. It has taken a tremendous toll on me and my family. But I continued to serve as co-executor because I believe it is the right thing to do.”
Kahn’s testimony is the latest in an ongoing procession of high-profile depositions of people with whom Epstein associated.
Former President Bill Clinton denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes during a Feb. 27 deposition. It was the first time a former president had been compelled to testify to Congress.
“I had no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing,” Clinton said.
His wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said she didn’t know Epstein, and suggested President Trump be subjected to a similar interview, “answering questions under oath as should others who are prominently featured in the files.”
Mr. Trump and Epstein were friends for years before a falling-out in the mid-2000s. The Epstein files include uncorroborated accusations by a woman against Mr. Trump, who has consistently denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.
Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, said before Wednesday’s deposition that he is “curious about some of the allegations against the president, the woman who made that, whether [Kahn] knows anything about that.”
Others who have testified in the committee’s ongoing probe include billionaire Les Wexner and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. Wexner, a former client of Epstein, claimed he was “duped by a world-class con man” and knew nothing of Epstein’s crimes. Maxwell, perhaps Epstein’s closest confidante, invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to answer questions during a virtual appearance before the committee.
