The chairman of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee defended keeping Casey Wasserman at the helm of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics despite scrutiny over his past interactions with convicted sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
“He’s the guy who has been doing it for a dozen years, he knows more about it, and he’s actually done a really good job,” said Gene Sykes, a Los Angeles-based executive with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. who chairs the committee overseeing US participation in the Games.
“We did the review. This was some weeks ago, and the review said we didn’t see anything else, some other issue,” Sykes said Wednesday on the sidelines of an investing conference in Santa Monica, California.
Wasserman’s name appeared in Epstein-related documents released in January by the US Justice Department, including flirtatious emails he exchanged with Maxwell in 2003. Wasserman has said his only connection to Epstein was joining a 2002 humanitarian trip with the Clinton Foundation aboard Epstein’s plane and that he never had a personal or business relationship with him. He has apologized for the association.
The LA28 executive committee last month backed Wasserman after reviewing the matter, saying his relationship with Epstein and Maxwell didn’t go beyond what has already been publicly documented.
Since then, Wasserman has faced continued calls from politicians, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, to step down as head of the LA28 organizing committee.
Separately, Wasserman put his sports and entertainment agency up for sale last month after clients including singer Chappell Roan and retired soccer player Abby Wambach left the firm. This week, the agency was rebranded as The Team, removing Wasserman’s name.
With more than two years until the torch is lit in Los Angeles, the 2028 Games have lined up more than $2 billion in sponsorships and licensing agreements, surpassing the 2024 Paris Games.
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The 2028 budget is more than $7.2 billion, which organizers have pledged to raise privately, though the city of Los Angeles and state of California would be responsible for cost overruns.
“These games are not going to cost taxpayers any money,” Sykes said. “That’s the pledge. That’s the commitment and certainly that’s the expectation.”