A new account of Leon Black's rise ties the Epstein payments to a much bigger story: the fast-growing private credit market that now sits outside normal bank rules.

• Black paid Epstein $158 million over several years, officially for tax and estate work that supposedly saved him a $2 billion tax bill.
• He is now suing the House over a subpoena and refusing to sit for a deposition, alongside other billionaires named in the Epstein files.
• He gave up his CEO and chairman roles at Apollo but is still its biggest shareholder, worth well over $15 billion.
• The bigger risk is private credit: after 2008 rules pushed loans off bank balance sheets, firms like Apollo, Blackstone, and KKR stepped in, and Apollo now holds far more private credit than private equity.
• Ordinary savers are being pulled in through retirement annuities and publicly traded funds that cap withdrawals, so when loans go bad people find they cannot get their money out.

Outlook: Private credit has never been through a real downturn, and the first signs of loan markdowns and locked-up investors suggest the test is coming.