Newly released Justice Department records from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation provide detailed insights into the financial network connecting the convicted sex offender, a billionaire financier, and a Ukrainian-born art adviser who received millions in personal transfers.
The documents show that Epstein played a significant role until at least 2018 in coordinating the financial affairs of Anastasiya Siroochenko, a former model who became an art adviser and collector. His involvement included liaising with accountants and auditors, overseeing tax documentation, and tracking funds moving between her personal accounts and art-related companies.
According to the email correspondence, Siroochenko received at least $2.5 million in personal transfers from billionaire Leon Black, co-founder of Apollo Global Management, between 2011 and 2015. Black was a longtime Epstein client who paid him approximately $158 million for tax and investment advice.
The records do not allege criminal wrongdoing by Siroochenko or Black, nor do they show Black directing the exchanges. However, they offer a detailed view of how Epstein operated as a financial intermediary, inserting himself into complex arrangements involving wealthy clients, younger associates, and opaque financial structures in the art market.
Siroochenko, now 38, met Epstein in 2010 when she was 22 and working as a model, having signed with an agency run by a close Epstein associate who later died in French prison awaiting trial for sex crimes. She subsequently built a public career in the art world, organizing exhibitions and serving on cultural institution boards in New York.
In 2013, she founded an art consulting company, with Black becoming a client through hundreds of thousands of dollars in art purchases. A proposed 2017 commission agreement would have paid her company $1.8 million for arranging the sale of a Paul Klee painting valued at $7.8 million.
The overlap between Siroochenko’s personal income from Black and her business dealings with him raised concerns among accountants, with one warning about potential conflicts of interest. Another accountant resigned citing disagreements over property transactions in Ukraine.
Black stepped down from leadership roles at Apollo Global Management in 2021 following scrutiny of his relationship with Epstein. He has acknowledged relying on Epstein for financial advice but claimed unawareness of his criminal conduct.
Siroochenko stated in a written response that her name appears in the correspondence solely in connection with private financial matters from nearly a decade ago with no connection to any criminal cases, emphasizing that her professional activity has always been public and transparent.