Casey Wassermans name dropped from agency

Casey Wasserman’s name has been scrubbed from the agency he based a long time in the past, changed with an amorphous moniker: “The Team.”

Monday’s transfer comes amid the lingering controversy over the sports activities mogul’s decades-old affiliation with Ghislaine Maxwell, confederate of the late intercourse trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Following revelations of Wasserman’s salacious 2003 emails with Maxwell, a number of musicians and athletes — led by pop artist Chappell Roan and soccer star Abby Wambach — said that, to keep true to their values, they would go away the agency then recognized as Wasserman.

Fears of a broad flight of artists and brokers prompted Wasserman to announce that he was promoting his expertise illustration and sports activities advertising and marketing firm. Talks with potential consumers have been ongoing, according to a individual close to the agency but not approved to converse publicly.

For now, the agency is still owned by Wasserman and non-public equity firm Providence Equity Partners.

Wasserman continues to lead LA28, the nonprofit group that will likely be staging the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in two years. The LA28 board’s government committee unanimously voted to keep Wasserman as chairman, after reviewing recognized particulars surrounding his more than 20-year-old flirtations with Maxwell and his “strong leadership” of the Games.

Visitors to the Wasserman agency web site have been greeted with a message saying the firm, as of Monday, was rebranding as the Team.

“For 24 years, this company has been shaped by our work, our people and our unifying belief in the power of Sports, Music and Entertainment,” the message read. “That philosophy remains the foundation of who we are — and where we are going.”

Wasserman was not talked about in the web site messaging. Nor was he pictured in its pictures depicting smiling brokers. Old press releases have been modified to refer to the company as the Team, not Wasserman.

The web site’s background is now adorned with a grid of T’s.

In a Feb. 13 memo to his workers, Wasserman acknowledged his look in a latest batch of paperwork launched by the Department of Justice associated to the late intercourse trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell had “become a distraction.”

Wasserman said he was “heartbroken that my brief contact with them 23 years ago” had introduced hardship to the agency he created in 2002.

“I’m deeply sorry that my past personal mistakes have caused you so much discomfort,” Wasserman wrote to his workers. “It’s not fair to you, and it’s not fair to the clients and partners we represent so vigorously and care so deeply about.”

Wasserman seems to have met Maxwell on a September 2002 humanitarian journey through Africa, sponsored by former President Clinton.

Wasserman, a prolific Clinton fundraiser whose well-known grandfather helped the Democrat win the 1992 presidential election, was joined on Epstein’s jet by his then-wife, Laura, actor Kevin Spacey, Epstein and his longtime companion Ghislaine Maxwell and others, including security brokers.

It’s not clear when Wasserman and Maxwell started corresponding via e mail. The messages contained in the Justice Department recordsdata are from March and April of 2003. In them, Wasserman writes about wanting to see Maxwell in a tight leather-based outfit and she supplied to give him a therapeutic massage that can “drive a man wild.”

Maxwell was convicted of inappropriate abuse in 2021.

Wasserman has labored practically a decade to convey the Olympics to Los Angeles.

Former Mayor Eric Garcetti recruited him to help L.A. win its host bid and the International Olympic Committee reportedly have been impressed with Wasserman’s “network of contacts.”

Behind the scenes, there have been tensions with Los Angeles political leaders. Mayor Karen Bass has said that Wasserman ought to step down from the high-profile position overseeing the Games. Bass said that “we need to look at the leadership” of LA28 and that her job is to make sure that town is “completely prepared” for the Games.