The Billionaire and the Recruiters
Leon Black’s Got Some Explaining to Do
Leon Black paid an international sex trafficker with no known accounting skills $170 million between 2012 and 2017. Why – and for what – may never be definitively answered. Black’s billionaire pockets have afforded him enough top shelf lawyers to protect his privacy as long as he lives. But the public dump of millions of pages of Epstein files has opened a window into at least some of the answers.
In a March 2026 letter sent to Black, Sen. Ron Wyden, Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, said: “According to federal government records reviewed by my investigators, you have made at least $8 million in payments between 2015 and 2018 to women of Eastern European origin that were potentially involved in prostitution and possible victims of Epstein’s trafficking scheme.” Wyden also suggested that Black may have used “gifts” as a way to evade taxes and that he was “surveilling and paying off” women.
We looked into some of the women who discussed Black with Epstein, who seem to have been significantly familiar with the billionaire, and who appear to have had financial dealings with and/or received gifts from him. As Black is due to testify before the House Oversight Committee later this week, we offer up the following discoveries for potential lines of questioning.
Two of the women openly emailed Epstein about recruiting for him. Both were young Russians and both received significant sums of money from – and spent considerable time with – Leon Black between 2009 and 2019, when Epstein was arrested. The women often refer to “Leon” or “L,” a designation that Sen. Wyden believes refers to Black, as do we.
The first woman we identify as Irina Chernova. She is in the DOJ files, and Wyden has stated that Black made payments directly to her between 2009-12. That allowed us to confirm that emails to Epstein during this period referencing “Leon” from “Irina” were sent by Chernova.
Chernova was born in 1984 in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, and worked in television journalism. Based on the files, she appears to have recruited dozens of women for Epstein, and in 2011, introduced him to Karyna Shuliak, the Russian model and eventual dental student to whom Epstein later bequeathed his estate.
In one January 2011 email exchange, he pressures Chernova to bring him new girls.
Chernova was also one of the largest recipients of Leon Black’s money. According to Sen. Wyden, she received “hundreds of thousands of dollars” directly from Black’s Bank of America accounts between 2009 and 2012.
It seems Chernova was already close enough with Black in 2009 to accompany him to visit Epstein while Epstein was still under house arrest for his Palm Beach conviction. In the email arranging the trip, Irina says she plans to bring at least one [redacted] girl; Epstein replies that he will talk to Leon about the visit and says [redacted] “can bring her sister or friend” (apparently some new girls Epstein had not yet met).
In January 2010, Chernova emailed Epstein about a trip she planned to Paris and London, writing,” Leon is going to China on Feb 1 for a week.”
Two months later, she reported to Epstein that she was going to Paris, London, and then Russia for Easter, adding “It’s between us, I didn’t tell Leon about Paris, only about Russia.”
That August, after losing her phone, she asked Epstein for Leon’s number. Epstein in return asked for the number of a redacted woman. Two days later, she followed up to say he had given her Leon’s number in the Hamptons, but she wanted his cell phone number as well. In that same email, she also confirmed two appointments for Epstein with individuals whose names are redacted.
The following month, Epstein sent Chernova birthday greetings, to which she responded, “Leon just left, can you please call when you have a minute.”
In February 2012, Chernova asked Epstein to intervene and secure her “a good-bye present” from Black. Epstein assured her it would be “generous.”
Apparently, however, it was not much of a goodbye.
Five years later, Chernova wrote to Epstein that “thanks to L’s good bye gift I’ve enjoyed being a full time mom for most of this time. [We’ve been exchanging texts and planning to meet for lunch with L since I left, but we haven’t met. Yet :) Hope he’s doing good.]”
A month after that email, Epstein’s calendar showed back-to-back meetings with both Black and Chernova. Shortly afterward, Chernova emailed that she and Black were “back together” and later asked about a $100,000 payment Black had promised her. Epstein indicated that he himself had already sent her $28,000.
Another Russian recruiter appears to have also benefitted from Black’s largesse over the years that she “scouted” and introduced Epstein to women.
The second woman, Victoria Housez (now Victoria Ginzburg), hailed from the Russian hinterlands and attended South Ural State University before popping up in Paris on the fringes of the fashion world. Records in the DOJ files suggest Black may have gifted Housez more than $50,000 in 2011 and 2012, while she appears to have been actively recruiting girls for Epstein and looking to potentially establish some kind of larger-scale trafficking operation. After personally reading 1200 emails in the files from that time period and studying the email signatures as well as the instances in which Housez’s name is left unredacted, our analysis suggests the following exchanges can be connected to her.
Housez frequently discussed Black in emails with Epstein. At one point, she asked if Leon’s secretary could wire money to her account because she “does transfer all the time.” In the same email, she asked Epstein to share her Russian bank account information with Black because “french ask too many questions.” Epstein replied: “cannot”.
She also wrote that Black wanted to give her money to start a company – one that, based on the surrounding context, seemed to mean a modeling agency or another similar entity that could operate as a trafficking front. Epstein spent a considerable amount of time coaching her on how to deal with Black and present her case.
“Do not bother with business plans for agency,,, concentrate on deomstrating [sic] that you have an eye and can get the job done . we will have fun” Epstein wrote in one email. Housez replied: “As we agreed model business does not bring money. i can do scouting for something else … Lets have some Fun ;) as you say”.
While she tried to talk money, Epstein focused on rating the women in photos she sent him, chiding her for providing him with girls he rated at about a five out of ten, and berating her for not providing enough new girls.
A typical interaction between them involved questions of money and female flesh like this one from 2011:
VH: all the girls i just sent you till 21YO and much much more ))
JE: try to get real mnumbers 2.5 million is not realistic
VH: do you mean the number of users in 1,5 year?
JE: no dollars wanted for start up
VH: for scouting big network we need almost nothing,its already working, we could control all Russian model network and place models need numbers? but if you dont like the whole idea i will think about another one ;))) how are you today?
JE: send photos of you
These exchanges occurred while Black was publicly expanding his involvement with Russia during a period of relative economic détente, as Vladimir Putin sought greater investment from the West.
Epstein paid close attention.
In July 2011, he emailed his scheduler, Lesley Groff, with the dates of the Russian Direct Investment Fund board meeting with Putin in Sochi that Leon Black planned to attend. Epstein apparently intended to go himself.
In September 2011, Black was announced as a founding member of the Advisory Board of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a $10 billion state fund set up to attract foreign investment in Russia. That month, Reuters reported that he attended its launch event at the International Investment Forum in Sochi and had a private, one-on-one meeting with Putin.
In July 2011, Epstein told Ghislaine Maxwell he was thinking of making Housez his “Europe asst.” In August, Housez emailed Epstein about firming up her September plans: “You said better if i contact him [Black] directly about it. will you give him my number and to me his?” As Black was being named RDIF advisor, Housez wrote to Epstein: “I wanted to ask you, its normal that L. asked me bank account and nothing?”
Throughout the fall of 2011, Housez and Epstein frequently discussed Black, his whereabouts, her need for his money, and her hopes that he would set her up in a Paris apartment. She planned to ask Black “where he thinks i have to work.”
Some emails suggest a more intimate relationship between Housez and Black. For example: “I am at home all the time, Leon is very happy that i am not going out (like you said).” And then a few months later: “ready to go to ny next weekend, he is not answering, hope he still likes me :)” She also reported that she’d been going to the gym to be “in perfect shape for beginning [sic] of November,” when Black was due to be in Paris. She wondered at one point why he hadn’t been in touch: “still strange…that he doesn’t want to see me, i was good.”
It is not clear exactly what kind of work Housez thought she was doing for Black.
One March 2013 exchange is especially revealing. Housez thanked Epstein for Black (“for leon thank you, but i worked for it as well”) and defended her work record, while Epstein excoriated her, “after two years and thousands of euros. you can do better than thsi (sic).”
The files also contain multiple FBI raw interviews with redacted victims, called 302s, in which women (not minors) said Epstein introduced them to Black after telling them they would be asked to give massages. According to those interviews, Black instead became sexual.
One woman who met Black was later introduced to former Barclays CEO Jes Staley, another Epstein pal. She told investigators Staley “forcefully put her hands on his crotch area,” and the encounter ended in “rough sex” that she told Staley she did not want. (Staley has previously denied, as reported by The Guardian, any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.) There is also a second-hand account of a woman giving Black a blowjob she didn’t want to give and being “grossed out” by it.
What does appear clear, however, is that Housez understood the work she was doing for Epstein.
On April 4, 2012, Epstein berated her in another familiar exchange: “you have produced photo s after photos. , nothing more” to which she replied, “not just photos:)) but its true didnt have conditions for this.. help me in real to have conditions and budget and i can produce more not worse then [redacted];).”
By September of that year, things were looking up. “i found super scout for you ) .. the guy serbian 25yo, doing just this, placed in ny, london,paris ),” Housez wrote to Epstein, “you will love what he has, i spoke with him for possible collaboration.” Epstein responded: “give me your bank details.”
Housez replied, “here is my bank acc !!!! THANK YOU !!! “
Asked about the relationships with Chernova and Housez, Susan Estrich, an attorney for Black, responded with this statement:
As we have said repeatedly, Mr. Black called for an independent investigation of his relationship with Epstein. The Dechert Report reviewed more than 60,000 documents and interviewed more than 20 people —including Mr. Black— without any restrictions on business and personal matters. The investigation, which was led by a former prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, found that Mr. Black paid Epstein for tax and estate planning advice for his family office and found no evidence that those payments were for anything other than those services. The investigation further found that Epstein’s work had been vetted and approved by best-in-class law and accounting firms. It also found that he had no awareness of the criminal activities that led to Epstein’s arrest in 2019.