Some faculty districts within the US dropped plans for sophistication photos after widespread social media posts linked a billionaire with ties to Jeffrey Epstein to the pictures large Lifetouch, which on Friday referred to as the claims “fully false.”
The disruption to highschool image plans in Texas and elsewhere started after on-line posts linked Lifetouch, which pictures hundreds of thousands of scholars every year, to the funding fund supervisor Apollo International Administration.
Apollo’s former CEO is billionaire investor Leon Black, who met often with Epstein and was suggested by Epstein on monetary issues.
Black led the corporate in 2019, when funds managed by Apollo purchased Lifetouch’s guardian firm, Shutterfly.
The $2.7 billion deal closed in September 2019 — a month after Epstein’s dying by suicide behind bars as he awaited trial over allegations from federal prosecutors that he sexually abused and trafficked dozens of ladies.
Each Lifetouch and Apollo famous that timeline in statements Friday, two days after Lifetouch CEO Ken Murphy mentioned in an Instagram publish that neither Black nor any of Apollo’s administrators or traders ever had any entry to Lifetouch images.
“No Lifetouch executives have ever had any relationship or contact with Epstein and now we have by no means shared pupil pictures with any third get together, together with Apollo,” Lifetouch mentioned in its assertion Friday. “Apollo and its funds additionally don’t have any function in Lifetouch’s each day operations and don’t have any entry to pupil pictures.”
The canceled faculty photos are one other ripple impact over the launch of hundreds of thousands of information from the Epstein investigation, together with paperwork displaying Epstein’s common contacts with CEOs, journalists, scientists and distinguished politicians lengthy after a 2008 conviction on intercourse crimes prices.
Within the small Texas city of Malakoff, the native faculty district canceled a pupil image day after a number of mother and father advised the district they weren’t comfy with Lifetouch photographing their kids, spokesperson Katherine Smith mentioned in an announcement e-mailed Friday.
A number of different colleges and districts in Texas additionally canceled or modified plans, in addition to a constitution faculty in Arizona, in line with Fb bulletins posted by the faculties.
“We determined our college students and households could be greatest served by preserving all of our photos in-house for the remainder of this 12 months, and we’re all of our choices for the 2026-2027 faculty 12 months,” Smith mentioned.
Mother and father involved about Lifetouch included MaKallie Gann, whose kids attend colleges in Howe, about 60 miles north of Dallas. She mentioned she was frightened about how a lot data Lifetouch collects on college students.
“Everytime you order the images, it has their title. It has the age, after all. It has their grade, their instructor, the college that they’re in,” she mentioned.
No proof of Epstein or anybody in his orbit seeing Lifetouch images has emerged from information organizations’ overview of 1000’s of paperwork launched this month by the U.S. Division of Justice, although there are at the least 1.7 million information.
The overview reveals Black’s title appeared 8,200 instances, although that determine doubtless consists of some duplicate information. Black stepped down as Apollo’s CEO in March 2021, saying he wished to deal with his household, well being, and “many different pursuits.”
That was two months after a committee of the corporate’s board issued a report concluding that Epstein had suggested Black personally on property planning, tax points, charitable giving and working his “household workplace,” however offered no providers to Apollo or invested in no Apollo funds.
The report additionally mentioned the overview — which Black requested — discovered “no proof” that he was concerned with Epstein’s alleged legal actions “in any approach” or “at any time.” ___
Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas. Additionally contributing was Related Press author Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota.
