Lifetouch, the amount pictures firm identified throughout the US and Canada for its faculty picture program, has issued a press release after the title of a company investor was included within the Epstein information, telling mother and father that the corporate “does not – and has never provided – images to any third party.”
The statement comes after the title Leon Black was discovered within the Epstein information, the recently released 3.5 million pages of paperwork detailing the investigation into the disgraced former financier, Jeffrey Epstein, who died in jail awaiting expenses of intercourse trafficking. Black is the previous CEO of Apollo Global Management, the asset agency that owns a majority share of Shutterfly, the mum or dad firm of Lifetouch.
According to Business Insider, the information point out that Black was investigated for sexual assault allegations from 4 girls, however by no means charged. Black additionally paid Epstein $170 million for monetary and tax recommendation over a six-year interval, Forbes indicates. Black’s monetary ties to Epstein first came to light in 2021; he stepped down as CEO two months later, citing well being causes.
The connection between the previous CEO of the wealth administration firm created a web based panic as mother and father took to social media to query the privateness of their youngsters’s faculty images.
Lifetouch, nonetheless, wasn’t immediately talked about within the information, and its mum or dad firm Shutterfly is one in every of a whole lot of firms with ties to Apollo Global Management. “Lifetouch is not named in the Epstein files,” wrote Lifetouch Group CEO Ken Murphy. “The documents contain no allegations that Lifetouch itself was involved in, or that student photos were used in, any illicit activities.”
“Funds managed by subsidiaries of Apollo Global Management are investors in Shutterfly, the parent company of Lifetouch,” Murphy defined. “Neither Apollo nor its funds are involved in the day-to-day operations of Lifetouch and therefore no one employed by Apollo has ever had access to any student images.”
Murphy additionally pointed to the picture firm’s longstanding relationship with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, including that Lifetouch was “the first school photography company to sign a voluntary and enforceable privacy pledge—reaffirming our deep commitment to protecting school communities.”
Lifetouch pictures over 25 million college students a 12 months at over 50,000 faculties, according to the company’s website.
As of January 2026, Apollo Global Management’s portfolio includes 158 acquisitions.