05:33 PM EDT, 09/04/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Apollo Global Management ( APO ) was scheduled earlier Wednesday for oral agruments in a shareholder lawsuit brought by an offshore hedge fund challenging $570 million in payments made to Apollo co-founder Leon Black and two other former managing partners at the investment advisor in early 2021.

Attorneys representing Apollo appeared in Delaware Chancery Court for Wednesday's hearing in a bid to have the suit filed by the Anguilla Social Security Board thrown out. Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster reportedly adjourned the hearing without ruling on Apollo's motion to dismiss, according to Bloomberg Law.

The plaintiffs contend the payments Black and the other defendants received from Apollo amounted to corporate waste. Instead, Anguilla argues Black was paid to step away from Apollo amid news reports at the time about his interactions with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which included a $158 million payment to Epstein for tax advice.

They "concocted a series of untenable justifications for what became their challenged payoff," the hedge fund said in its August 2023 complaint. Black has acknowledged paying for tax advice, but denied he knew about Epstein's alleged sex trafficking. Epstein died in police custody in August 2019.

Neither Apollo nor Anguilla responded to messages from MT Newswires.