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Casey Wasserman is selling his powerful talent agency as athletes and musicians revolt over his ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, he told the company Friday night. He will remain in his role in charge of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Earlier this week, several celebrities including the singer Chappell Roan and the retired soccer legend Abby Wambach dumped Wasserman over recent revelations of his ties to Epstein. Wasserman founded the Wasserman Group decades ago and represents scores of major athletes and performers.
It had been previously known that Wasserman flew on Epstein’s plane to Africa in 2002. New emails released by the Justice Department last month revealed Wasserman had a close relationship with Epstein’s lieutenant Ghislaine Maxwell, as the pair exchanged several flirtatious emails the next year.
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted of playing a key role in sex trafficking children with Epstein. Epstein was first criminally charged in 2006 and died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
In the 2003 emails, Wasserman and Maxwell traded sexually charged messages. Maxwell described “a few spots that apparently drive a man wild” and offered to “practice them on” Wasserman. He wrote to Maxwell that his desires include “You, me, and not else much.”
Wasserman said last week he had no relationship with Epstein and that “I deeply regret my correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell,” which he said was from “long before her horrific crimes came to light.”
But amid a rising backlash over the emails, the 51-year-old Wasserman apologized to his employees Friday night and said he was selling the agency.
His note to staff was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
“I’m deeply sorry that my past personal mistakes have caused you so much discomfort,” Wasserman wrote. “It’s not fair to you, and it’s not fair to the clients and partners we represent so vigorously and care so deeply about.”
In the memo, also obtained by Front Office Sports, Wasserman wrote that “The pain experienced by the victims of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell is unimaginable – and I’m glad, as I’m sure you all are, that those who helped them commit their crimes are rightly being held accountable.
“Hopefully by now you know the facts about my limited interactions with those two individuals. It was years before their criminal conduct came to light, and, in its entirety, consisted of one humanitarian trip to Africa and a handful of emails that I deeply regret sending.”
The agency is particularly influential in women’s sports, where it represents soccer stars like Sophia Wilson and Mallory Swanson and basketball players like Paige Bueckers and Brittney Griner. It also represents the pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the golfer Rickie Fowler, among many other athletes and musicians.
Wasserman said that the executive Mike Watts would run the company while it was being sold.
Wasserman has chaired LA28 since 2017 and controls its board. The Olympic committee said this week it found after a review that Wasserman’s ties to Epstein “did not go beyond what has already been publicly documented” and that therefore he should remain in his role.
Several Los Angeles-area officials have called for Wasserman to step down from LA28.
Wasserman recently returned from the Winter Olympics in Italy and spoke at a private panel at the NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles on Friday.
