Wall Street billionaire ousted over Epstein links in talks to back Telegraph takeover

A Wall Street billionaire who was brought down by his relationship with the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein has become the latest wealthy figure to be linked with a takeover of The Telegraph.

Leon Black , who ran the $700bn (£566bn) investment giant Apollo until he was forced out in 2021, is reportedly in talks to back the bid spearheaded by Dovid Efune, the publisher of the New York Sun website.

The 73-year-old is in discussions to become “anchor investor” in the consortium bid, according to The Wall Street Journal , which said it was unclear how he would structure his contribution.

It is understood a vehicle known as Fortinbras Enterprises, run by Mr Black’s son, Ben Black, has also expressed an interest in backing a deal.

The Telegraph is being sold by RedBird IMI, a private equity fund backed by Abu Dhabi. It attempted to take control last year in a complex debt deal with the Barclay family but was blocked by new legislation outlawing state ownership of newspapers.

Mr Efune, 39, emerged as the leading bidder in an auction which concluded in October with a bid of more than £500m, which was comfortably ahead of rivals and the only offer to allow RedBird IMI to recoup its outlay. It subsequently emerged that he did not have financing in place and has been linked with a series of potential backers, several with their own links to Abu Dhabi.

Mr Black is the latest. Elysium, the firm he set up to manage his estimated $15bn fortune, opened an office in Abu Dhabi, which local market authorities said “underscores Black’s deep ties with the region”.

Mr Black’s spokesman declined to comment.

Any investment in The Telegraph would be likely to bring fresh scrutiny to Mr Black’s ties to Epstein and the sexual assault allegations he has himself faced. He has always denied any wrongdoing.

An independent review found he paid Epstein $158m for tax and estate-planning services. Mr Black said he deeply regretted his relationship with the financier, which led to him paying a $62.5m settlement in the U.S. Virgin Islands to avoid any legal claims related to a sex-trafficking investigation.

Mr Black is battling court claims that that in 2002 he raped a 16-year-old girl in Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse . His motion to dismiss the allegations was denied by a New York federal judge in September.

The Telegraph sale has been dubbed “the newspaper auction from hell” owing to its duration, now in month 20. This week politicians across party lines called on Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, to intervene to secure new ownership.

Stuart Andrew, the shadow culture secretary, said: “It was right the Tory government at the time scrutinised the takeover move for The Telegraph given newspaper freedom is an important point of principle. Now is the time to make sure there is certainty for the publication.