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October 18, 2021

Meet Marc Rowan, the Apollo Global Management CEO tasked with taking the firm beyond Leon Black

Apollo CEO Marc Rowan with seagulls, the Montauk Lighthouse, a lobster, sailboat, and pieces of papers with the Apollo Global Management and Athene Holding logos on it on a green background. — Marc Rowan has taken the helm of Apollo Global Management.
Apollo Global Investments; Athene Holding; Kevork Djansezian/File Photo/Reuters; Samantha Lee/Insider

Marc Rowan became Apollo Global Management’s CEO in March.
Apollo’s third co-founder had been on a semi-sabbatical from the firm since the previous summer.
Senior management will discuss Apollo’s long-term growth strategy at an investor day on Oct. 19.

Marc Rowan, a seasoned private equity veteran known for arranging jumbo-size deals, taking colossal risks, and reaping billion-dollar payouts, is now facing one of the biggest challenges of his storied 35-year career.

Rowan, a co-founder of private equity giant Apollo Global Management who became its CEO in March, is now tasked with taking the firm beyond the controversies surrounding its central founder and ex-CEO, Leon Black. But Rowan must also deal with the cultural turmoil and dysfunction that has long played out behind the scenes, and that snaked all the way up to the firm’s C-suite during the Black era.

Apollo’s senior management will give an update on the firm’s long-term growth strategy at an investor day on Tuesday, Oct. 19.

Rowan was named Apollo’s CEO in January, after an independent review conducted by the law firm Dechert revealed the extent of the business ties between Black and the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Joshua Harris, a private-equity guru and Apollo co-founder who many saw as Black’s likely successor, was passed over for the job.

Rowan, Apollo’s third co-founder, had been on a semi-sabbatical from the firm since the previous summer, but the scandal surrounding Black abruptly yanked him back into the fold. A few tumultuous months later – after Black suddenly stepped down and relinquished the chairman’s role earlier than planned – Rowan officially took the helm in March.

Insider spoke with more than a dozen current and former Apollo employees, as well as Rowan’s close friends, business partners, and rivals, to better understand the man who has sought to avoid the spotlight and is less known than Black or Harris.

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Marc Rowan steered Apollo through a rough transition after Leon Black stepped down. Insiders lay out the new challenges he’s facing.

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September 21, 2021

Billionaire Leon Black accused of raping woman in Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion in 2002, according to court documents

Leon Black wears a dark grey suit, white shirt, and blue tie while speaking on stage. — Leon Black is the former CEO of Apollo Global Management.
LUCY NICHOLSON/Reuters

A woman has accused billionaire Leon Black of raping her in Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan home in 2002.
She says Epstein arranged for her to give Black a massage, but alleges Black assaulted her instead, according to court papers.
A spokesperson for Black has denied the allegations, calling them “complete fiction.”
See more stories on Insider’s business page.

A former model has accused billionaire Leon Black of sexually assaulting her at Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse in 2002, according to court documents.

The woman, only identified as “Jane Doe,” says Epstein arranged for her to give a $300 massage to Black at Epstein’s mansion in 2002, but alleges that the co-founder of the private equity firm Apollo Global Management assaulted her instead, according to court documents filed on Monday first reported by Vanity Fair.

Doe said Black later paid her $5,000 to “help with her credit card debt.”

A spokesperson for Black called the claims “complete fiction” and a “baseless smear campaign” in a statement to Insider.

“This claim is complete fiction and has no basis in fact or law,” the spokesperson said. “It is telling that it is asserted anonymously and concerns events that allegedly occurred some 20 years ago, 15 years after the statute of limitations expired. We expect that the courts will see this frivolous claim for precisely what it is.”

Doe had said in court documents that she didn’t report the rape in 2002 because a friend said no one would believe her.

The woman’s allegations were filed by the law firm Wigdor LLP, as a proposed second amended complaint on behalf its client, Guzel Ganieva, who accused Black of raping her in court filings earlier this year.

Black’s spokesperson accused the law firm of attempting to damage his reputation with the latest accusations:

“The previous complaints the Wigdor firm brought against Mr. Black were shown to be demonstrably false by objective, contemporaneous documentary evidence. Not surprisingly, in that lawsuit, Wigdor has resisted every effort by Mr. Black to take discovery, because Wigdor knows that disclosure of the facts will eviscerate their false claims. Having failed in their first two attempts to destroy Mr. Black’s reputation, Wigdor is now manufacturing new allegations that will be shown to be as false and defamatory as the last two pleadings Wigdor filed.

“It is abundantly clear that the only goal here is to publicly destroy Mr. Black’s personal and professional reputation and to defame him by perpetrating a baseless smear campaign. Mr. Black is confident that those who have abused the court process so egregiously and attacked his reputation so recklessly will be held responsible for their misconduct.”

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September 13, 2021

Insider spoke with more than a dozen people to find out more about Marc Rowan, the Apollo Global Management CEO tasked with taking the firm beyond Leon Black

SUBSCRIBE TO READ THE FULL STORY: Marc Rowan steered Apollo through a rough transition after Leon Black stepped down. Insiders lay out the new challenges he’s facing.

Read the original article on Business Insider

September 2, 2021

Leon Black has decided not to countersue a former Russian model who accused him of rape, a report says

Leon Black will drop a countersuit against an ex-model who accused him of rape, per the NY Post.
Black has denied Guzel Ganieva’s claims against him, and filed a countersuit for defamation in July.
A NY Post reports Black will not file this to focus on efforts to “defend and vindicate himself.”
See more stories on Insider’s business page.

Former Apollo Global Management CEO Leon Black has decided not to file a countersuit against a former Russian model who accused him of rape, the New York Post reported Wednesday.

The NY Post reported that, in a court filing last week, the Wall Street billionaire’s lawyers said that he did not “intend to assert counterclaims at this time” against Guzel Ganieva, and that he only wanted to “defend and vindicate himself.”

The decision means he is withdrawing the counterclaim he filed in July, accusing Ganieva of defamation, and calling her claims a “work of fiction.”

This was in response to Ganieva’s original court filing in June, in which she claimed that Black had raped her in 2014. She also sued him for defamation for claiming she had tried to extort him by threatening to make their relationship public.

Ganieva first claimed on Twitter in March that Black had “sexually harassed and abused” her.

Black denied the claims, telling Bloomberg in April that he had “foolishly had a consensual affair with Ms. Ganieva that ended more than seven years ago,” and that “any allegation of harassment or any other inappropriate behavior towards her is completely fabricated.”

In the same interview, he claimed she had extorted him “for many years” and had paid her money to “in an attempt to spare my family from public embarrassment.”

Wigdor LLP, the lawyers representing Ganieva, sent Insider court filing they made in response Black’s decision to withdraw his countersuit.

In that filing, attorney Jeanne Christensen said: “Black attempts to ‘take back’ everything he publicly asserted, without being asked for any explanation because he wants to do it without having to dismiss it on the public docket.”

Black’s lawyers, Perry Guha LLP, did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment Thursday.

Black’s decision to withdraw his counterclaims comes after Ganieva amended her initial lawsuit last month to include accusations that he took her to Jeffrey Epstein’s house in 2008 to engage in sex acts with the late convicted sex offender.

Danya Perry, Black’s lawyer, denied the new claims, and told Insider in an emailed statement at the time that “just like her June complaint, Ms. Ganieva’s story today is demonstrably and transparently false and betrays her willingness to say anything and fabricate a story in the hope that something will stick.”

In October 2020, Apollo commissioned law firm Dechert to investigate Black’s relationship with Epstein.

The report, published in January, found that Black paid Epstein $158 million between 2012 and 2017, including for “estate planning” and “tax issues.”

In March, Black stepped down from Apollo, but told Bloomberg this was unrelated to Ganieva’s claims.

If you are a survivor of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673) or visit their website to receive confidential support.

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May 20, 2021

Apollo announces that cofounder Josh Harris is stepping down, 2 months after former CEO Leon Black quit

Josh Harris, one of the cofounders of Apollo Global Management, is stepping down, the firm said Thursday.
Harris would remain on the board of directors and executive committee, Apollo said.
Leon Block, the Apollo cofounder who was investigated for ties to Jeffrey Epstein, quit the firm in March.
See more stories on Insider’s business page.

Investment firm Apollo Global Management on Thursday announced that cofounder Josh Harris would step down as managing director.

He would step down once Apollo merges with its insurance affiliate Athene, the company said in a statement. Apollo’s acquisition of Athene, which is set to create a $29 billion conglomerate, is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2022.

Harris would remain on the Apollo board of directors and executive committee, the firm said.

Harris said in the statement: “After nearly 31 years at Apollo, it is time for me to start the next chapter of my career, where I will focus full-time on the platforms I’ve created outside of the firm as well as deepen my commitment to philanthropy and social impact.”

Fellow cofounder Leon Black, former CEO and chairman of Apollo, quit the firm in March. Black’s departure followed an independent investigation into his relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which showed Black paid $158 million to the disgraced financier between 2012 to 2017.

The investigation found that neither Black nor Apollo employees were involved in Epstein’s criminal activities.

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April 9, 2021

Wall Street billionaire Leon Black denied sexual harassment allegations made by a former model, and said he paid her to keep the ‘affair’ quiet

Leon Black denied sexual harassment allegations, and said they weren’t linked to his exit from Apollo.
Black in a statement that he paid the former model, Guzel Ganieva, to keep the “consensual affair” a secret.
Ganieva tweeted in March she had been “sexually harassed and abused” by Black for years.
See more stories on Insider’s business page.

Leon Black, the former CEO Apollo Global Management, on Thursday denied sexual harassment allegations made against him by a former model, and said their “consensual affair” had nothing to do with his departure from the firm.

He also said that he paid the woman, Guzel Ganieva, to keep their affair a secret from the public.

His comments came after the New York Post reported Thursday that his exit from Apollo on March 22 happened days after Ganieva’s accusations came to light.

Ganieva tweeted on March 17 that she had been “sexually harassed and abused” by Black “for years.” She said it began in 2008, when she met him to discuss work. She “refused his sexual advances” at the time, she said.

“I was bullied, manipulated, threatened, and coerced,” Ganieva said, adding: “I was forced to sign an NDA in 2015.”

Following the Post’s report, Black issued a statement denying the allegations, and also saying they were unrelated to his departure.

“I foolishly had a consensual affair with Ms. Ganieva that ended more than seven years ago,” Black said in the statement, per Bloomberg. “Any allegation of harassment or any other inappropriate behavior towards her is completely fabricated.”

Black, 69, said that he gave Ganieva money to keep quiet about their affair. “The truth is that I have been extorted by Ms. Ganieva for many years and I made substantial monetary payments to her, based on her threats to go public concerning our relationship, in an attempt to spare my family from public embarrassment.”

He said the situation was “personal” and “has nothing to do with Apollo or my decision to step away from the firm.”

Ganieva told Bloomberg: “I stand by what I said in my tweets on March 17.”

The Wall Street billionaire stepped down as CEO and chairman of Apollo on March 22. His exit came after an independent investigation showed he paid $158 million to the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein between 2012 to 2017. The investigation said neither Black nor Apollo employees were involved in Epstein’s criminal activities.

Jay Clayton, the former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, is now chairman, and Apollo cofounder Marc Rowan has taken over as CEO.

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