Restaurant chain CEO ignores owner Leon Black’s link to Jeffrey Epstein in memo

It may be that the average patron of Huddle House or Perkins Restaurant & Bakery, a pair of chains that specialize in hearty breakfasts at more than 600 locations across the United States has never heard of Leon Black. 

But Black happens to be the owner of both family-dining chains through his investment firm, Elysium Management. He’s also a New York billionaire who grabbed headlines this spring when he left the helm of Apollo Global Management amid controversy over his ties to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.  It also may be the case that Michael Abt, the chief executive of the two chains, was assuming on May 26 when he wrote a letter to franchisees — titled “The Right Way Is the Only Way” — that none of them had been reading the papers recently. Or, at least, that’s the best some franchisees can guess.