The sports and entertainment talent agent said in a memo to staff on Friday night that he had “become a distraction” to the company’s work and had started the process to sell the firm. Mike Watts, a longtime executive, would take on day-to-day control of the business, he said.

Wasserman’s name came up in the trove of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents and emails released last month by the US Justice Department. The files contained flirtatious 2003 email exchanges between Wasserman and Ghislaine Maxwell, an Epstein confidante who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting girls for sexual abuse by Epstein and for participating in some of the assaults.

Wasserman has said he went on a 2002 humanitarian trip as part of a delegation with the Clinton Foundation and traveled on Epstein’s plane. He said he never had a personal or business relationship with Epstein and apologized for having any association with either Maxwell or Epstein.

“I’m deeply sorry that my past personal mistakes have caused you so much discomfort,” he wrote. “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.”

The Wall Street Journal earlier reported on Wasserman’s memo to employees.