New York CNN —The Senate Finance Committee is looking into whether billionaire investor Leon Black’s $158 million payment to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein was part of a greater strategy to avoid paying over $1 billion in federal gift and estate taxes. “The payments were inexplicably large; well in excess of what Black paid any other financial advisors and far higher than the median compensation of Fortune 500 CEOs at the time,” Wyden said in a statement released Tuesday. “At every stage of the committee’s investigation, Black has refused to answer questions or provide any documents that could demonstrate how Epstein’s compensation for tax and estate planning services was determined or justified,” Wyden said in the statement. Black has cooperated extensively with the Committee, providing detailed information about the matters under review,” Whit Clay, a spokesman for Black, said in a statement to CNN. An internal Apollo investigation that documented his $158 million payment to Epstein following the New York Times’ reporting, however, found no wrongdoing.

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Persons: Leon Black’s, Jeffrey Epstein, Epstein, Ron Wyden, Wyden, Dechert, ” Wyden, “, Black, Mr, Whit Clay, ” Epstein, Dechert didn’t, Joanna Rose, ” Organizations: New, New York CNN, Finance, Apollo Global Management, Oregon Democrat, Dechert LLP, Apollo, Fortune, CNN, New York Times Locations: New York