Legal disclaimer: This article is based solely on documents released in the federal EFTA (Electronic Filing and Text Archive) production, made public through litigation, supplemented by the archive's entity index. All facts are drawn from those documents. This article does not assert guilt, wrongdoing, or criminal conduct on the part of any individual. Language such as "documents indicate," "records show," and "alleged" reflects the evidentiary basis and does not constitute a legal conclusion. Minors are not identified in this reporting.
Melanie Spinella, who identifies herself in her own email signature as "Assistant to Leon D. Black, Apollo Management, LP," appears in more than 5,175 records in the InvArchives repository. Documents recovered from the EFTA production show Spinella corresponding directly with Jeffrey Epstein from at least April 2011 through July 2018 — scheduling Black's visits, forwarding Black's confidential estate-planning paperwork to Epstein for review, fielding Epstein's questions about the corporate structure behind a boat purchase, and receiving personal gifts that Epstein arranged to send her. Leon Black, the billionaire co-founder of Apollo Global Management, has previously been reported to have paid Epstein $158 million for financial and tax advice; the documents examined here do not address that payment directly but show the operational channel — Black's own executive assistant — through which Epstein stayed connected to Black's household and financial affairs.
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The earliest dated email in the set reviewed for this article shows Spinella writing to Epstein's jeevacation@gmail.com account in April 2011 to confirm a visit: "Hi — Yes Leon is coming at 10:30 Sunday- Have a good weekend," signed "Melanie Spinella, Assistant to Leon D. Black, Apollo Management LP" (email, Apr. 29, 2011). Similar short scheduling notes recur for years, including a 2013 message that simply reads "Leon is on his way" (email, Apr. 24, 2013). The consistent signature block across hundreds of messages in the archive is the basis for identifying Spinella's role throughout this reporting.
A separate April 2012 email, carrying the subject line "MRA check," shows Spinella writing to Epstein: "Leon said thank you for the check, but he said it was supposd to be $1,500,000, so can we have the other $500,000!!!!" (email, "MRA check," Apr. 25, 2012). The surrounding correspondence in the archive does not further explain the purpose of the payment or resolve whether the remaining $500,000 was sent.
The archive's most striking documents show Epstein as a direct participant in correspondence about Black's personal estate planning. A September 2013 email to Epstein and to "Eileen Alexanderson" — copied throughout the archive on Black family-office matters — reads: "Attached is the revised Estate Planning Overview prepared by US Trust. As I mentioned, the prior Overview was inaccurate because their program was not updated and calculated the tax using the 35% rate in effect for 2012. The attached Overview reflects the 45% tax rate currently in effect," and goes on to reference the "1997 Trust and the 2006 Trust already decanted into the Heritage Trust." Epstein forwarded the message to Spinella himself in April 2014, adding only "the new one? when?" to which Spinella replied that she was waiting on updated financial information before asking "US Trust to start the Estate Flow" (Fwd: Estate Overview email chain, Apr. 12, 2014). A related Bank of America Private Wealth Management document in the archive, an "Estate Planning Overview" prepared for "Leon D. and Debra R. Black" and dated April 16, 2014, values Apollo Global Management stock referenced in the plan at $25 a share (Estate Planning Overview, Apr. 16, 2014).
Epstein was also copied on paperwork tied to a large annuity payment from one of Black's GRATs (grantor retained annuity trusts) in January 2014. An email forwarded to Epstein and then to Spinella laid out the mechanics: "the first annuity payment from the APO1 GRAT you created on October 25, 2013 will be paid to you tomorrow… your first quarter annuity payment will be approximately $116 million. It will be paid to you with cash of $47 million and roughly a 2.2% interest in BFP." Epstein's only reply, copied to Spinella, was "Do not re grat until tues" (Fwd: FW: Documents for You to Sign Tomorrow re GRAT Payment, Jan. 24, 2014).
A November 2014 email chain shows Spinella had authority over Black's personal finances beyond scheduling. Heather Gray of Elysium Management LLC wrote to Epstein that "payment for all art purchases — whether made by Leon for his personal collection or by Leon on behalf of the children's trusts — should be handled by the family office," adding: "Currently, Melanie is paying for Leon's art purchases for his personal collection directly out of his bank accounts on which she has power of attorney." Epstein forwarded the note to Spinella and replied that the decision was Black's to make (Re: art purchases – who arranges payment, Nov. 14, 2014).
In a June 2013 exchange, Epstein asked Spinella directly about a boat: "great,, who owns it, it what corporation." Spinella answered, "The Boat is owned by BJAV MARINE LIMITED — it's Caymen [sic] Company," and noted that a wire sent that March had funded the purchase (RE: Re:, Jun. 3, 2013). Epstein pressed further, asking "who controls the bank account for the boat," and Spinella replied that a colleague identified only as "Eileen" would need to know what paperwork he wanted (RE: Re:, Jun. 3, 2013). The archive does not identify the boat further or explain Epstein's interest in its ownership structure.
Spinella also handled paperwork for Epstein's charitable giving. A January 2016 email forwarded to Epstein, cc'ing Epstein's scheduler Lesley Groff — the subject of a separate InvArchives article on her role coordinating Epstein's calendar — carried an invoice and thank-you letter from the Melanoma Research Alliance's acting CEO confirming Epstein's pledge of "$225,000 for a Young Investigator Award," tied to his "continued support" of the organization's research and a benefit dinner at Sotheby's (FW: MRA/Epstein Letter and Invoice, Jan. 28, 2016).
Separately, Epstein sent Spinella personal gifts over several years. In December 2014 she wrote to thank him for one and offer to arrange a pickup (RE: Gift for You!, Dec. 17, 2014). In December 2016, Groff emailed Spinella directly: "Hi Melanie..A gift will be coming over to you today from Jeffrey…Thanks and hope you enjoy! Lesley," to which Spinella replied, "Thank you — I will!!!" (RE: Gift for you from Jeffrey!, Dec. 21, 2016). As late as July 2018 — roughly a year before Epstein's arrest — an internal alert logged "$2000 gift card for Melanie Spinella" (Alert – email re: $2,000 gift card, Jul. 23, 2018), and a December 2015 gift-card authorization form for Spinella was separately forwarded to Bella Klein, a member of Epstein's household staff profiled elsewhere in this archive (Fwd: Gift Card Credit Authorization Form for Melanie Spinella, Dec. 14, 2015).
Taken together, the record shows a seven-year channel between Jeffrey Epstein and the executive assistant to one of his most significant financial relationships. The documents place Epstein inside Leon Black's confidential estate and trust planning, aware of and commenting on a nine-figure GRAT annuity payment, asking pointed questions about the corporate ownership of a boat, and maintaining a personal gift-giving relationship with Black's assistant that continued until the year before his 2019 arrest. None of the documents reviewed assert that Spinella did anything improper; the record instead documents her position as the administrative point of contact between Epstein and Black's household and financial affairs over nearly a decade.
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