Longtime accountant tells House committee he had 'no knowledge' of Epstein's crimes

Lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee continued their probe into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein this week, by deposing Richard Kahn, his longtime accountant and the co-executor of his estate.

Kahn sat down with committee members behind closed doors Wednesday. Testimony from Epstein’s former lawyer and others in the disgraced financier's orbit are expected to take place into this summer.

Kahn was the seventh witness — none of whom have been accused of wrongdoing — to speak with lawmakers as part of the panel's probe into Epstein’s crimes, said committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky. He added that the investigation has also sought Epstein's financial records and since learned that there were at least 64 entities in his financial portfolio.

“There was a lot of money that was being transferred around,” Comer said on Wednesday.

“We're bringing in anyone that we feel has any information that will be helpful to our investigation and hopefully we'll be able to get the truth to the American people and provide some type of justice for the victims,” he added.

Authorities believe Epstein, who died of suicide while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019, abused more than 1,000 girls and young women over time.

The committee is scheduled to depose Darren Indyke, Epstein’s former lawyer, next week. Lawmakers also requested testimony from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Epstein’s former assistant, Lesley Groff, among others, in the coming months.

Speaking later in the afternoon during a break in Kahn’s deposition, Comer said that the accountant told lawmakers there were “five clients that paid money to Epstein,” including Ohio billionaire and Victoria’s Secret founder Les Wexner and private equity investor Leon Black.

Wexner provided his own closed-door testimony to the committee last month, and Comer had requested that Black’s deposition take place in May.

Comer told reporters Wednesday that the accountant believed “Epstein made his money as a tax adviser and a financial planner.”

“The question is –– at one point (Epstein's) estate was worth over three quarters of a billion dollars,” the Kentucky lawmaker said. “Where did that money come from?”

Comer said that Kahn told the committee he had “no knowledge” if any transactions were connected to Epstein’s crimes.

In prepared testimony shared with CBS News, Kahn wrote, "Epstein told me that his 2006 arrest was a mistake, that he did not know the woman was underage, and that nothing like that would happen again."

Epstein pled guilty in 2008 to state charges in Florida of soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution, allowing him to avoid federal charges. Epstein’s accusers have long sought more information about how that plea deal came about.

In a statement, Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the committee, contended that Kahn’s testimony “only raises more questions.”

“Every witness has said that they never saw anything inappropriate from Mr. Epstein, so we're going to continue,” Comer said.

The committee voted last week to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi for her testimony over her department’s handling of the disclosure of millions of records made public from the Justice Department’s investigations into Epstein, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick agreed to sit with lawmakers over his ties to the disgraced financier.

Comer said he hopes both depositions will take place “very soon.”

Lutnick said in an interview last year that he had cut ties with Epstein in 2005. However, the commerce secretary later testified at a congressional hearing that he, his family and another couple had lunch with Epstein on the financier’s private island in 2012.

Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were also deposed separately by the committee last month.

“Every deposition that we’ve had so far has led to more depositions and more witnesses coming in,” Comer said.

The Kentucky lawmaker also noted Wednesday that he was “glad” that New Mexico authorities had launched a search of Epstein’s former estate earlier this week.

“I don't think that we can conclude an investigation without thoroughly searching that property because there are a lot of suspicions and theories about what may or may not have happened on that property,” Comer said.

Among documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice in recent months was an anonymous and seemingly unverified 2019 tip that alleged two girls died of strangulation and were buried on the grounds, then named Zorro Ranch.

Separately, ABC News reported on newly unearthed email correspondence also made public as part of the DOJ’s massive trove of released records, detailing a “potential hack” into FBI databases on Super Bowl Sunday three years ago.

An FBI agent wrote that investigators “noticed strange IP activity that took place yesterday from two IP addresses” in a message dated Feb. 13, 2023, and that “activity included combing through certain files pertaining to the Epstein investigation."

A request for comment made to the FBI was not immediately returned.