US faculties cancel class photographs over hyperlinks to Epstein

Some college districts within the US dropped plans for sophistication footage after widespread social media posts linked a billionaire with ties to Jeffrey Epstein to the images big Lifetouch, which on Friday (native time) referred to as the claims “completely false”.

The disruption to highschool image plans in Texas and elsewhere started after on-line posts linked Lifetouch, which images thousands and thousands of scholars annually, to the funding fund supervisor Apollo Global Management. Apollo’s former CEO is billionaire investor Leon Black, who met frequently with Epstein and was suggested by Epstein on monetary issues.

Black led the corporate in 2019, when funds managed by Apollo purchased Lifetouch’s dad or mum firm, Shutterfly. The US$2.7 billion deal closed in September 2019 — a month after Epstein’s loss of life by suicide behind bars as he awaited trial over allegations from federal prosecutors that he sexually abused and trafficked dozens of ladies.

Both 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 photographs.

“No Lifetouch executives have ever had any relationship or contact with Epstein, and we have never shared student images with any third party, including Apollo,” Lifetouch mentioned in its assertion Friday. “Apollo and its funds also have no role in Lifetouch’s daily operations and have no access to student images.”

The cancelled college footage are one other ripple impact over the discharge of thousands and thousands of recordsdata from the Epstein investigation, together with paperwork exhibiting Epstein’s common contacts with CEOs, journalists, scientists and distinguished politicians lengthy after a 2008 conviction on intercourse crimes prices.

In the small Texas city of Malakoff, the native college district cancelled a scholar image day after a number of dad and mom advised the district they weren’t snug with Lifetouch photographing their youngsters, spokesperson Katherine Smith mentioned in an announcement e-mailed Friday. Several different faculties and districts in Texas additionally cancelled or modified plans, in addition to a constitution college in Arizona, in line with Facebook bulletins posted by the faculties.

“We decided our students and families would be best served by keeping all of our pictures in-house for the rest of this year, and we are looking at all of our options for the 2026-2027 school year,” Smith mentioned.

Parents involved about Lifetouch included MaKallie Gann, whose youngsters attend faculties in Howe, about 97 kilometres north of Dallas. She mentioned she was frightened about how a lot info Lifetouch collects on college students.

“Whenever you order the pictures, it has their name. It has the age, of course. It has their grade, their teacher, the school that they’re in,” she mentioned.

No proof of Epstein or anybody in his orbit seeing Lifetouch photographs has emerged from information organisations’ evaluate of 1000’s of paperwork launched this month by the US Department of Justice, although there are no less than 1.7 million information.

The evaluate reveals Black’s identify appeared 8200 occasions, although that determine possible consists of some duplicate information. Black stepped down as Apollo’s CEO in March 2021, saying he needed to deal with his household, well being, and “many other interests”.

That was two months after a committee of the company’s board issued a report concluding that Epstein had advised Black personally on estate planning, tax issues, charitable giving and running his “family office”, however offered no providers to Apollo or invested in no Apollo funds.

The report additionally mentioned the evaluate — which Black requested — discovered “no proof” that he was concerned with Epstein’s alleged legal actions “in any way” or “at any time”.