--- alias: - Apollo Advisors - Apollo Global Management Inc category: Private Organization created: 2026-06-20 location: New York, New York summary: Private-equity and credit firm founded in 1990 by Leon Black and other Drexel Burnham Lambert alumni, whose co-founder's roughly 158 million dollars in payments to Jeffrey Epstein triggered an independent review, Black's 2021 resignation, and a Senate investigation. tags: - Organization - Apollo - PrivateEquity - LeonBlack - JeffreyEpstein - DrexelBurnham - Finance updated: 2026-06-20 --- Apollo Global Management is an American alternative-asset management firm founded in 1990 and headquartered in New York. It was built by [Leon Black](/people/leon-black/) and other alumni of the collapsed investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert into one of the largest managers of private-equity, credit, and insurance assets in the world. The firm's co-founder and longtime leader, Black, resigned as chief executive and chairman in 2021 after the disclosure that he had paid [Jeffrey Epstein](/people/jeffrey-epstein/) about 158 million dollars for tax and estate advice, a relationship that prompted an independent board review, a U.S. Senate investigation, and, in 2026, shareholder suits alleging the firm concealed the extent of the ties.[^1][^2] ### Founding From Drexel Apollo grew directly out of the 1990 bankruptcy of Drexel Burnham Lambert, the firm where Black had been head of mergers and acquisitions alongside the junk-bond financier [Michael Milken](/people/michael-milken/). Black founded the firm, initially called Apollo Advisors, with the former Drexel executives Josh Harris and Marc Rowan, and the early partnership drew in other Drexel veterans including Tony Ressler, who later left to found Ares Management. The firm assembled a team experienced in high-yield debt at the moment the junk-bond market was distressed and many such securities could be bought cheaply.[^3] One of Apollo's formative transactions was its role in the acquisition of the junk-bond portfolio of the failed insurer Executive Life, whose assets were taken over with financing from the French bank Credit Lyonnais. Federal authorities later alleged that Credit Lyonnais had illegally used front companies to acquire the insurer in violation of laws barring banks from owning insurers, and the matter produced one of the largest such settlements, in the mid-2000s. Apollo and Black profited substantially from the distressed portfolio, and the deal established the firm's early returns.[^3] ### Growth, Credit, and Athene Apollo expanded from distressed-debt investing into leveraged buyouts, corporate private equity, and a large credit business, growing to hundreds of billions of dollars in assets under management. The firm listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011 under the ticker APO. Black served as chairman and chief executive throughout this period and became one of the wealthiest figures in American finance and a major art collector and museum patron.[^3] A central part of Apollo's later growth was its relationship with the annuities and retirement-services company Athene, founded in 2009 and managed in close affiliation with Apollo, which supplied a large, permanent capital base for Apollo's credit strategies. Apollo and Athene completed an all-stock merger in 2022, folding the insurer fully into the firm and making retirement-services and insurance assets a core of the business. The combination gave Apollo one of the largest pools of insurance-linked investable capital among alternative managers.[^3] ### The Epstein Scandal and the Leadership Transition Press and investor scrutiny of Black's financial relationship with Jeffrey Epstein led Apollo's board to commission an independent review by the law firm Dechert, released on January 25, 2021, which documented about 158 million dollars in payments from Black to Epstein between 2012 and 2017 for tax and estate-planning work and reported no evidence that Black participated in Epstein's crimes. The board accepted the findings and announced governance changes and a leadership transition the same day, with Black to step down as chief executive and Marc Rowan to succeed him.[^1][^2] Black left more abruptly than planned, relinquishing the chairmanship as well on March 22, 2021, and Rowan became chief executive. Black publicly accused his co-founder Josh Harris of working to push him out, and the two men's feud played out in the financial press as Harris departed the firm. Rowan consolidated leadership and continued Apollo's expansion, while the Senate Finance Committee's investigation into Black's Epstein-linked tax planning, opened under Ranking Member Ron Wyden, continued into 2026.[^2][^4] In 2026, after further Epstein file releases renewed attention to Black and Apollo, the firm faced securities-fraud class-action suits alleging that it had failed to disclose to shareholders the scope of Black's dealings with Epstein and the resulting risks. Apollo has said Black's relationship with Epstein was a personal matter unrelated to the firm's business, a characterization the plaintiffs dispute.[^5] [^1]: "Apollo Announces Review of Significant Governance Enhancements as Part of Continued Evolution and Institutionalization of the Firm and Leadership Transition." *Apollo Global Management,* January 25, 2021. https://www.apollo.com/insights-news/pressreleases/2021/01/apollo-announces-review-of-significant-governance-enhancements-as-part-of-continued-evolution-and-institutionalization-of-the-firm-and-leadership-transition-211534651 [^2]: "Leon Black quits Apollo months earlier than expected following Jeffrey Epstein investment scandal." *CNBC,* March 22, 2021. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/22/apollo-ceo-leon-black-leaves-follows-jeffrey-epstein-investment-scandal.html [^3]: For Apollo's founding from Drexel Burnham Lambert, the Executive Life and Credit Lyonnais matter, the firm's growth and 2011 listing, and the Athene relationship and 2022 merger, see the contemporaneous business press and the firm's corporate filings. [^4]: "How Wall Street's Apollo got tangled up again in the Epstein files." *CNN Business,* February 21, 2026. https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/21/business/apollo-epstein-wall-street [^5]: "Apollo, Leon Black sued for allegedly concealing Epstein business ties from shareholders." *Yahoo Finance / Reuters,* 2026. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apollo-leon-black-sued-allegedly-004535212.html