Longtime Grand Theft Auto producer and former Rockstar North president Leslie Benzies was one of the people whose name appeared in the recent trove of Epstein files released by the Justice Department. It included an allegation by an alleged Jeffrey Epstein victim who accused Benzies of sexual assault. He denied the allegation via a spokesperson in a statement shared with Kotaku.
“These allegations are false, I had a 3 months consensual relationship with this person, and I have never met Jeffrey Epstein, nor have I ever visited his island, his properties or travelled on his plane. Any suggestion otherwise is misleading,” the statement reads.
The mention of Benzies appears in a 62-page file released by the Justice Department that includes allegations from Sarah Ransome, who previously sued Epstein and his long-time associate Ghislaine Maxwell for alleged sex trafficking. Ransome also released a book in 2021 titled Silenced No More: Surviving My Journey to Hell and Back.
The released file was an alleged witness list Ransome appeared to be compiling. In it she accused Benzies of sexually assaulting her at one point. She also mentions Sam Houser, the current president of Rockstar Games, but not in connection with any allegation. There is no evidence that any of the claims in Ransome’s document were vetted by federal investigators. Ransom could not immediately be reached for comment. Rockstar didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Benzies is currently working at Build a Rocket Boy, a studio he cofounded after leaving Rockstar in 2016 amid litigation over royalties. It released its first game, MindsEye, last year. The shooter was critically panned, however, and became the subject of reporting and speculation about its troubled development. One YouTuber who has released several videos about the game was recently accused by Build a Rocket Boy’s co-CEO, Mark Gerhard, of being part of an effort to sabotage the studio.
Gerhard threatened legal action against the creator, Cyber Boi, minutes after the latter published a YouTube video about Benzies appearing in the Epstein files. The video has since been deleted as a result of the threat of litigation. Build a Rocket Boy confirmed that Benzies remains employed at the studio as it continues updating MindsEye and working on its metaverse project Everywhere.
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