Leon Black's Office Called Epstein to Reach Ivory Coast's Mining Minister

February 6, 2012. Lesley Groff, Epstein's assistant, relayed a request: "Leon Black's guy, Ali Rasheed, says he would like to meet with the minister of the ivory coast today, Monday Feb 6th. Ali just needs to know where and what time." The signature read "leon Black's office." A Google Calendar entry the day before had logged it as "Leon blacks guy see ivory coast minister." Melanie Spinella, assistant to Leon D. Black at Apollo Management, had emailed Groff that morning: "Good morning, since I did not hear from you over the weekend, I am assuming no meeting today?" Epstein forwarded Spinella's email with a one-line instruction: "Please advise how to respond." The meeting never happened. Spinella wrote back hours later: "Never mind — just spoke to Lean — apparently they spoke and the Minister has left!" (vol00009-efta00420435-pdf-2). Two days later, Groff followed up: "I have asked Jeffrey twice and he never answered me!" (EFTA02549298-0, EFTA02174962-0, vol00009-efta00420435-pdf-2, EFTA02012993-0, EFTA02175671-0).

The same week, a contact named Unik emailed Groff asking about Epstein's Ivory Coast travel dates. Unik wanted to thank Epstein "once again for taking the time to meet as well as his advice" and proposed a side trip: "I was just speaking to a dear friend whose father is the Prime Minister of French Guinea and they would like for us to come for a visit if we are in the area." A calendar entry logged it as "Unik and ivory coast/guinea trip." Epstein's reply to Groff: "lets put him on todays call list" (EFTA01847908-0, EFTA01841292-0, EFTA02174811-0).

Epstein had visited Abidjan in January 2012. His schedule there included meetings with President Ouattara, the minister of economy and finance, the minister of interior, the CEO of the port, and General Amadou Gon Coulibaly. Within weeks of that trip, Leon Black's office at Apollo Management was routing a request to meet Ivory Coast's Mining Minister through Epstein's assistant. The identity of the minister, and whether any subsequent meeting occurred, is not documented in the archive.