Jeffrey Epstein didn’t just sit in a conference room with Leon Black and Marc Rowan. But in the newest batch of Epstein files, he discussed tax strategy and business architecture with them around the early structural formation of Athene, the insurer now central to the modern PRT market. Athene PRTs have caused billions in damages to hundreds of thousands of retirees. This Epstein/Apollo scheme involved switching out a solid, low-risk, low-fee Federally insured pension with a crappy, high-risk, high-hidden-fee Athene annuity. Update 2/28/26 Apollo private credit under pressure Athene major holder. ARI the Apollo REIT which was trading at 77 cents on the dollar was sold in January 26 to Athene for 99.7% Athene appears to be hit with over $1 billion in hidden losses https://fintool.com/news/ari-athene-9b-portfolio-sale
At their core, Pension Risk Transfers (PRTs) are a mechanism for corporate sponsors to shed pension liabilities and for insurers to extract spread-based profits — at retirees’ expense. While the sales pitch frames PRTs as “risk neutral” or “equivalent” to a traditional defined benefit promise, the economic reality is starkly different: PRTs steal millions in value from retirees and redistribute it to sponsors and insurers. When a corporate pension is transferred to an insurer: PBGC insurance disappears. The insurer (Apollo) collects upfront profits and ongoing spread economics by investing assets at higher yields than they credit back to retirees.
Retiree “victims” of Athene pension-risk-transfer deals (known, publicly reported)
Below is a non-exhaustive list of plan sponsors whose U.S. defined-benefit pension obligations were transferred to Athene (or Athene subsidiaries) via PRT / group annuity contracts, plus the best publicly available participant counts where disclosed.
A. Large, widely reported Athene PRTs (participant counts disclosed)
- AT&T — PRT reported to cover ~96,000 retirees/beneficiaries.
- Bristol Myers Squibb — liabilities transferred for ~24,000 participants (plan termination context).
- Lockheed Martin — two major Athene buyouts reported covering ~18,000 and ~13,600 participants.
- Lumen Technologies — buyout reported covering ~22,600 participants (Athene listed as insurer in the P&I report table).
- Alcoa — buyout reported covering ~11,200 participants (Athene listed as insurer in the P&I report table).
- Sonoco — group annuity contract reported covering ~8,300 participants/beneficiaries.
- J.C. Penney — Athene reported closing a $2.8B PRT; some reporting pegs the covered group at ~30,000 participants (Athene press release confirms the transaction size/close; participant count is reported elsewhere).
Dana Incorporated — Dana announced transferring its largest U.S. plan obligations to Athene Annuity and Life Company (New York residents carved out to another insurer). Dana’s release does not state a participant count. https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/trending/u46aar-z-ku449kpsnreiw2
The net result is a direct transfer of value: From the retiree’s pocket → To the corporate sponsor and the insurer’s shareholders. It steals millions from retirees over the long term and turns defined benefit pensions into an orphaned credit exposure with no fiduciary backstop. The Trump DOL supports Apollo/Athene in attempting to block any litigation to protect retirees via its amicus briefs. https://commonsense401kproject.com/2026/01/11/dols-prt-annuity-amicus-brief-dismantling-erisa/ While Jeffrey Epstein is not alive to reap the benefits, his buddies Leon Black and Marc Rowan at Apollo are.
ARI the Apollo REIT which was trading at 77 cents on the dollar was sold in January 26 to Athene for 99.7% I bet Iowa regulators let Athene hide over $1 billion in losses https://fintool.com/news/ari-athene-9b-portfolio-sale
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