While there is no implication of wrongdoing, a once-prominent Chicago media figure is among the notable names appearing in the Epstein files.
Michael Ferro, the former chair of the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, was set to meet with Jeffrey Epstein at the disgraced financier’s home in Palm Beach, Florida, on April 15, 2019, according to emails published online by the Department of Justice.
On the morning of the scheduled meeting with the convicted sex offender, Ferro’s assistant emailed an eleventh-hour cancellation.
“I found out who he was, canceled immediately,” Ferro told the Tribune. “Never met the guy in my life, never talked to him.”
Ferro was connected with Epstein on April 8, 2019, through an introductory email by a mutual acquaintance. Three days later, Ferro agreed to meet with Epstein.
Confirmed via email for 1 p.m. on April 15, the meeting was canceled by Ferro’s assistant at Merrick Ventures, his technology investment firm, who notified Epstein just three hours before it was to take place. The reason given was that Ferro was unavailable and had been “called out of town,” according to the email posted online.
There are 27 documents referencing Ferro out of the 3.5 million pages published by the Justice Department in compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. All of the Ferro mentions were related to setting up a possible meeting with Epstein. There are no subsequent references to Ferro after he abruptly canceled the April 15 meeting.
Ferro, a successful tech entrepreneur who became one of the largest, and at times most controversial, Chicago media owners during the new millennium, is just one of many prominent figures whose name was released as part of the congressionally ordered Epstein files publication.
Other entries on Epstein’s April 2019 itinerary — besides the canceled meeting with Ferro — included lunch with new age spiritual leader Deepak Chopra and dinner with “Woody and Soon Yi” (an apparent reference to Woody Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn), according to documents published on the government website.
Epstein pleaded guilty to Florida state charges of solicitation of prostitution with a minor and received an 18-month sentence in 2008 that included a widely criticized work release provision.
In July 2019, Epstein was arrested on federal charges that he engaged in sex trafficking of minors. Epstein died one month later of an apparent suicide in his New York prison cell.
Ferro’s one-week email exchange and canceled meeting with Epstein was ostensibly the extent of their relationship.
In March 2018, Ferro stepped down from the board of Tribune Publishing, then known briefly as Tronc. Ferro had been chair of Tribune Publishing’s board since February 2016, when he took a major stake in the Chicago-based newspaper chain that included the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and other publications.
In 2011, Ferro entered the Chicago media business at the helm of Wrapports, a local investor group that bought the struggling Sun-Times and 38 suburban newspapers for about $20 million.
Ferro relinquished his interest in the Sun-Times and became the largest shareholder and nonexecutive chair of Tribune Publishing in 2016 when he spent $44.4 million for a 16.6% stake.
In November 2019, Ferro sold his accumulated 25.2% stake in Tribune Publishing to Alden Global Capital for $117 million. In May 2021, the New York-based investment firm purchased the Tribune Publishing chain for $633 million and took it private, folding it into a growing newspaper portfolio.
Ferro and his investment firm have since relocated to Florida.
rchannick@chicagotribune.com
