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High-profile execs are caught in the Epstein fallout...
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February 17, 2026View Online | Sign Up | Shop

Good morning and happy Lunar New Year to everyone celebrating the Spring Festival. Today we leave the Year of the Snake behind and gallop into the Year of the Horse—or Fire Horse, if you want to get specific.

Children born in the Year of the Horse are said to be bold, confident, and ambitious. And that’s before you add the Fire. “Imagine the untamed spirit and relentless drive of the Horse...Now, set that spirit ablaze with the vibrant, transformative energy of the Fire element,” an astrologist told the New York Post.

So perhaps it’s fitting that today is also Mardi Gras, the climax of Carnival season when everyone tends to embrace their inner Fire Horse. Laissez les bons temps rouler.

—Sam Klebanov, Molly Liebergall, Adam Epstein

MARKETS: YEAR-TO-DATE

Nasdaq

22,546.67

S&P

6,836.17

Dow

49,500.93

10-Year

4.056%

Bitcoin

$68,479.09

Walmart

$133.89

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*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 10:00am ET. Here's what these numbers mean.

  • Markets: The stock market was closed yesterday for Presidents Day, but there’s a lot on tap later this week, including earnings from Walmart on Thursday and the release of new government financial data on Friday. Walmart’s stock is already up 20% this year, thanks to the growth of its e-commerce business.
 

BUSINESS

The Epstein files are toppling business bigwigs

Jeffrey Epstein

Véronique Tournier/Getty Images

Besides bringing a windfall to crisis communications consultants, revelations in the Jeffrey Epstein files recently released by the Justice Department are spurring a parade of high-profile resignations across the business sector.

Some VIPs appeared to have been chummy with the disgraced late financier even after his crimes became Googleable. Many of those caught in the files’ fallout are now putting in their two weeks:

  • Hyatt Hotels Executive Chairman Tom Pritzker announced yesterday that he’ll retire from the board, citing his Epstein ties. Pritzker said he “exercised terrible judgment” after emails showed that he planned meetings with Epstein in the years after the financier was convicted of soliciting sex work from a minor in 2008.
  • Goldman Sachs accepted the resignation of its top lawyer, Kathryn Ruemmler, who corresponded with Epstein extensively in the late 2010s, thanking him for luxury gifts and addressing him as “Uncle Jeffrey.” She recently said she regrets having ever known him.
  • Hollywood talent agent and 2028 Los Angeles Olympics Chair Casey Wasserman is selling his agency after several celebrity clients like Chappell Roan defected over revelations that he exchanged flirty emails with Epstein’s convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. Wasserman said his communication with Maxwell happened before her crimes were revealed publicly.
  • Brad Karp, the chairman of white-shoe law firm Paul Weiss, vacated the role (but remained at the company) after his emails with Epstein suggested the two were closer than previously known.

The files have also sent shockwaves through DC: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is facing bipartisan calls to resign amid accusations that he downplayed the extent of his relationship with Epstein. Lutnick said they didn’t have a personal relationship but acknowledged stopping by Epstein's private island with his family in 2012.

The fallout is global…with the head of Dubai’s largest port operator, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, leaving the position last week over Epstein links. Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s chief of staff departed earlier this month for his role in appointing Epstein’s friend, Peter Mandelson, to the US ambassadorship. Mandelson was sacked from the post last year and resigned from parliament earlier this month.—SK

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