"This was, frankly, a tremendous shock, even though it clearly pales in comparison to the unthinkable allegations against him now," wrote Wexner, whose L Brands owns Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works.

"We discovered that he had misappropriated vast sums of money from me and my family," Wexner wrote in his letter.

Wexner, 81, said he learned that money was missing only after he decided in 2007 to sever his relationship with Epstein after Epstein was placed under investigation for alleged sexual misconduct with young girls in Florida.

Epstein for years was known for managing Wexner's personal finances before the first criminal probe into his penchant for getting massages from girls became public . Numerous stories about Epstein noted that Wexner was his only known client.

"I know now that my trust in him was grossly misplaced and I deeply regret having ever crossed his path."

In a letter to his charitable Wexner Foundation Community, he added: "I am embarrassed that, like so many others, I was deceived by Mr. Epstein."

Jeffrey Epstein, the financier under indictment for alleged child sex trafficking, misappropriated more than $46 million from Les Wexner and his family, the L Brands founder and chairman said Wednesday.

It did say that a $46 million contribution that Epstein is now known to have made to the Wexner's YLK Charitable Fund in 2008 "represented a portion of the returned monies."

" We were able to recover some of the funds," Wexner said, without disclosing how much.

Epstein, a 66-year-old former friend of Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, is being held without bail in a Manhattan jail while he faces federal sex trafficking charges lodged in early July.

He has pleaded not guilty in that case, where he is accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls at his New York City townhouse and Palm Beach, Florida, mansion from 2002 through 2005, under the guise of receiving massages from them.

After Epstein's arrest, L Brands hired outside counsel to review the company's relationship with him. The company has said it doesn't believe Epstein "was ever employed by nor served as an authorized representative of the company."

Epstein is a registered sex offender. He pleaded guilty to prostitution-related charges involving an underage girl in 2008. That case was lodged by a state prosecutor in Florida.

Epstein served a sentence of 13 months behind bars in that case but spent much of his time out on work release.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis directed his state's law enforcement department Tuesday to handle a criminal probe into Epstein's jail work release and asked the agency to launch an inquiry into "other irregularities" surrounding the earlier probe and plea agreement.

Epstein's plea deal in Florida is now widely considered to have been too lenient given the fact that federal prosecutors now say he was engaging in far more serious crimes than the one that he admitted in the state case. At the time of that deal, police wanted state prosecutors to hit Epstein with more serious charges than they did.

Months before Epstein pleaded guilty in that state case, he reached an agreement with Alex Acosta, then-U.S. Attorney for Miami, in which Acosta's office said it would not bring federal criminal charges against Epstein in return for his agreement to plead in the state case and to register as a sex offender. Acosta resigned as Trump's Labor secretary last month after mounting outrage over that deal on the heels of Epstein's latest arrest.

Read Les Wexner's full letter to members of the Wexner Foundation.