Andreas Rentz / Getty Images
Bethany Cosentino has penned an open letter to Wasserman Music after it was revealed that agency CEO Casey Wasserman had a personal relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell in the early 2000s.
Founded in 2002, Wasserman Group is a major player in talent management across entertainment, with an extensive music roster beyond Best Coast including Kendrick Lamar, Lorde, Tyler, the Creator, and Laufey, among many, many others.
“As an artist represented by Wasserman, I did not consent to having my name or my career tied to someone with this kind of association to exploitation,” Cosentino said in part. Read her full statement below.
The emails between Wasserman and Maxwell in the released Epstein files date back to spring 2003. Those messages include a handful of flirtatious conversations, such as Wasserman fantasizing about Maxwell’s outfits and Maxwell offering him an erotic massage. In another email, Wasserman asks if he’ll be able to see Maxwell on a trip to New York; later, Maxwell asks Wasserman if she can fly from Los Angeles to New York with him, to which Wasserman agrees. Taken together, the emails seem to indicate an intimate relationship between Maxwell and Wasserman.
Casey Wasserman said in a statement last week:
I deeply regret my correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell which took place over two decades ago, long before her horrific crimes came to light. I never had a personal or business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. As is well documented, I went on a humanitarian trip as part of a delegation with the Clinton Foundation in 2002 on the Epstein plane. I am terribly sorry for having any association with either of them.
Maxwell, a convicted child sex trafficker, was Jeffrey Epstein’s close accomplice. In 2021, she was found guilty on five counts related to sex trafficking and the abuse of minors in partnership with Epstein and sentenced to 20 years in prison. In November, whistleblowers at Federal Prison Camp Bryan said Maxwell was receiving preferential treatment after the Trump administration transferred her to the minimum security facility in violation of Bureau of Prisons policies.
Wasserman is also the chairman for the LA28 Olympics organizing committee and has faced calls to step down from that position. Despite his presence in the Epstein files, he has received support from the International Olympic Committee. In 2024, The Daily Mail published allegations that Wasserman repeatedly slept with junior employees, including Patricia Feau, who worked under Wasserman for eight years before being hired by LA28 with a $350,000 salary. At the time, Wasserman called those claims baseless, though the controversy likely pushed Billie Eilish to leave Wasserman Music for Wiliam Morris Endeavor.
My name is Bethany Cosentino. I am a singer/songwriter, an activist, a mother, and the frontwoman of the band Best Coast. I have been represented by Wasserman Music since its expansion into music in 2021.
It has come to my attention that the founder and CEO of my agency, Casey Wasserman, had a documented romantic relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell between the years of 2001 and 2003, and multiple documented connections and communications with Jeffrey Epstein confirmed by emails now part of public record. Ghislaine Maxwell is not a neutral character in a messy story - she is a convicted sex trafficker who helped facilitate the abuse of minors. As an artist represented by Wasserman, I did not consent to having my name or my career tied to someone with this kind of association to exploitation. Staying quiet isn't something I can do in good conscience - especially in a moment when men in power are so often protected, excused, or allowed to move on without consequence. Pretending this isn't a big deal is not an option for me.
Casey's response, that these emails are “deeply regretted,” is not enough. Regret without accountability is just damage control - an attempt to move on while the rest of us are expected to sit with the discomfort of our careers being publicly tied to him. Artists are tired of swallowing scandals like this. We are tired of learning, over and over, that men who control access, resources, money, and so-called safety in our industry are given endless grace. We are tired of being asked to treat proximity to something horrific as an unfortunate situation we should simply move past - especially when the person involved still holds all the power. And we are tired of watching harm minimized or brushed off as "a long time ago," while the impact of that harm is still very real, especially for women and survivors of sexual assault.
This letter is my public refusal to accept that this is "just how things are." It is a refusal to continue lining the pockets of people so closely tied to shady business and toxic, deeply harmful people. I do not want my name on the website of a man who was ever a personal friend of an accomplice to a literal pedophile, or associated with Jeffrey Epstein himself. I have worked with my agent, Sam Hunt, for over 15 years who has done incredible work in representing me. I am in the Sam Hunt business. I am not in the Wasserman business. I have asked to remove my name and band's name from the company site. The position Casey Wasserman has put his agents in is inexcusable. This is a call for him to step down and a change of business name be imminent.
Artists are not interchangeable assets. We are people. Many of us are women. Many of us, myself included, are survivors. We deserve systems that let us work without asking us to compromise our values in exchange for opportunity.
I'm speaking out because pretending this is normal isn't normal. Because people in power can't keep skating by. And because the artists keeping the lights on at Wasserman deserve support, not to be ignored while men in power are protected. It is important for us as artists to remember: these people work for us, not the other way around.
