Robert Kraft

A 2020 Apollo Global Management proxy identifies Kraft as founder, chairman and chief executive of The Kraft Group and lists holdings spanning professional sports, stadium and real-estate operations, paper and packaging businesses, and more than 100 private-equity investments ¹. Apollo appointed Kraft as an independent director in May 2014 and initially named him to its Conflicts Committee ².

Kraft resigned from the Apollo board effective April 6, 2021 ³. These filings establish a corporate-governance relationship with Apollo; they do not by themselves establish a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein or knowledge of Leon Black's personal advisers ²³.

On February 22, 2019, attorney Jack Goldberger alerted Jeffrey Epstein to Kraft's arrest, and Epstein replied that he was trying to have Kraft hire Goldberger ⁴. At nearly the same time, Epstein told Brad Karp to let him know if Kraft needed a local Palm Beach representative; Karp answered only that Kraft would need “the best there is” ⁴. The response did not accept the offer or name a lawyer ⁴.

A later iMessage export labels a participant only as “Jack” and records that Kraft wanted him and his Quinn Emanuel lawyer to handle the matter ⁴. By March 4, Karp told Epstein that he had spoken with Kraft's Quinn Emanuel lawyer, and Epstein replied that “jack is very tied in” ⁴. The messages document later counsel-related activity, but the export does not preserve a unique selector identifying “Jack,” and the records do not establish who caused Kraft to retain whom ⁴.

The broader February–March 2019 message set also contains a separate urgent request for a lawyer for former Citigroup executive John Havens, a request for a civil attorney, Brad Karp's statement that he had ideas, and Karp's separate statement that he used Nardello for certain matters ⁵. Those neighboring messages show that Jeffrey Epstein and Karp discussed multiple legal or investigative referrals during the period, but the cited record does not assign every line to Kraft ⁵.

This separation matters because the Kraft sequence proves an attempted Goldberger referral and later Quinn Emanuel contact, while the Havens, civil-attorney and Nardello lines concern distinct or unspecified matters ⁴⁵. It does not support describing Karp as coordinating Kraft's defense team or Nardello as working for Kraft ⁴⁵.

The verified sequence involves messages among Jeffrey Epstein, Jack Goldberger, Brad Karp and an iMessage participant labeled “Jack”; it contains no message authored by Kraft to Epstein ⁴. It also contains no engagement letter, invoice or matter-opening record identifying Paul Weiss as Kraft's counsel ⁴.

The supported formulation is therefore limited: Epstein attempted to refer counsel, a later participant reported Kraft's interest in two lawyers, and Karp later spoke with Kraft's Quinn Emanuel lawyer ⁴. The records leave unresolved whether Goldberger was the exported “Jack,” how Kraft selected counsel, whether Epstein's offer to Karp was accepted, and whether Karp's later contact reflected a formal mandate, an informal referral or another role ⁴.