For 20 years, whenever anyone in Les Wexner’s orbit had a question about his money, his foundation, or his future, the answer was always the same three words. Please ask Jeffrey.
Leslie Herbert Wexner was born on September 8, 1937, in Dayton, Ohio, to Harry Louis Wexner and Bella Cabakoff, both of Russian-Jewish origin. His father was born in Russia, and his mother was born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, making her the first American-born member of her immigrant family. The family eventually settled in Columbus, Ohio, where his parents opened a small clothing store they named Leslie’s after their son. Wexner attended Bexley High School and Ohio State University, where he joined the historically Jewish fraternity Sigma Alpha Mu.
In 1953, he won a minor award for an essay published in the Ohio Jewish Chronicle titled “Why I Love and Respect Judaism.” He graduated in 1959 with a degree in business administration from Ohio State University, served in the Air National Guard, and briefly enrolled in Moritz College of Law before dropping out.
Wexner’s business career began inside his parents’ store. He had a sharp eye for margins, and he noticed something his father missed: small, fast-moving items like sportswear generated far more profit per square foot than expensive, slow-turning items like winter coats. When Harry Wexner refused to change strategy, his son left. In 1963, armed with a $5,000 loan from his aunt matched by a bank loan, he opened The Limited in Upper Arlington, Ohio, specializing in moderately priced women’s sportswear.
The Limited went public in 1969, and Wexner used that capital as a launching pad for a relentless acquisition campaign. He picked up Mast Industries in 1978, Lane Bryant in 1982, and most consequentially, Victoria’s Secret from founder Roy Raymond for approximately $1 million. By 1992, Victoria’s Secret alone was estimated to be worth roughly $1 billion. Over the decades that followed, Wexner assembled L Brands, a retail conglomerate that at its peak encompassed Victoria’s Secret, Bath and Body Works, Abercrombie and Fitch, Express, Henri Bendel, La Senza, and others.
In the 1990s, Wexner and Epstein were involved in relocating Southern Air Transport, a former CIA front airline with documented ties to the Iran-Contra affair and allegations of cocaine trafficking, from Miami to Columbus, Ohio. SAT was used to transport goods for Wexner’s Limited Brands retail chain. In 1996, customs agents discovered cocaine hidden aboard a SAT plane in Columbus. The airline abruptly declared bankruptcy on October 1, 1998, exactly one week before the CIA Inspector General released official findings linking the airline to Contra cocaine trafficking allegations. Investigative journalist Bob Fitrakis identified Epstein as playing a crucial role in the relocation, and multiple Ohio state investigators who looked into the matter were reportedly removed from their positions.
The airline’s collapse was not the first time Wexner’s business orbit had intersected with a sudden, suspicious death. In 1985, attorney Arthur Shapiro, a partner at the Columbus law firm Schwartz, Shapiro, Kelm & Warren who personally managed The Limited’s account, was assassinated the day before he was to testify before a grand jury about his own illegal tax conduct — including seven years of unfiled returns and investments in fraudulent tax shelters. The killing was described as resembling a “Mafia hit.”
A police investigation examined possible connections between Shapiro, organized crime, and Wexner’s businesses. A police memo, later called the “Shapiro Murder File,” linked some of Wexner’s companies and associates — including the principal trucking carrier for The Limited — to entities allegedly tied to organized crime, though authorities called these connections “highly speculative.” The main suspect was Shapiro’s own business associate, Barry Kessler, who had a documented history of contracting murders of business partners and was later convicted in 1994 of hiring a hitman to kill a Florida associate. The murder was never officially solved.
Les Wexner has never been criminally charged with any offense. He has consistently maintained that he was a victim of Epstein’s deception, that he had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, and that he has not been involved in any wrongdoing. The House Oversight Committee’s investigation into his role remained ongoing as of February 2026.
In the shadow of these revelations, Leslie Wexner emerges as yet another archetype of the shadowy Jewish oligarch, wielding immense financial and political leverage while ensnared in webs of scandal that strain the boundaries of coincidence. Though no criminal indictment has yet ensnared him, the persistent drip of journalistic scrutiny and forthcoming releases from the Epstein archives promise to illuminate the full extent of his complicity, transforming speculation into irrefutable evidence. In this unfolding tableau, Wexner’s case will crystallize as a pivotal artifact in the evidentiary mosaic demonstrating that the United States is a polity steered by organized Jewry for its sole benefit.
