Harvard donates Jeffrey Epstein cash to victim groups, says some faculty asked to resume accepting money from sex criminal in 2013

Harvard University said Friday that it has donated more than $200,000 remaining from a total of $9.1 million in gifts from convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein to groups that support victims of sex trafficking and assault.

At the same time, the Ivy League school revealed that some Harvard faculty unsuccessfully tried to get the university to resume taking money from Epstein in 2013, which was five years after the school stopped considering donations from him and five years after he had pleaded guilty to sex crimes in Florida.

And a Harvard program funded by an Epstein gift “maintained an office for Epstein’s use and granted him keycard and passcode access” to the program’s off-campus location, “findings which raise questions about possible violations of Harvard policies,” according to a report released Friday about the registered sex offender’s ties to the school.

Harvard President Lawrence Bacow said in a statement that a full review of the now-deceased Epstein’s donations to the university confirmed that the wealthy investor, who never attended Harvard, had donated that $9.1 million in combined gifts from 1998 through 2008, “to support a variety of research and faculty activities.”

The review found that no gifts were received from Epstein following his conviction in 2008 in Florida on state charges, one of which involved soliciting sex for pay from an underage girl.

The largest single gift made by Epstein, one for $6.5 million in 2003, “established Harvard’s Program for Evolutionary Dynamics (“PED”), led by Professor Martin Nowak,” the report said.

“Epstein’s $6.5 million gift to PED enabled Harvard and Professor Nowak to create and pay for a separate research facility for PED in a Harvard Square office building leased from a private owner,” according to the report. 

The report also said that “it is likely that he visited PED’s offices more than 40 times between 2010 and 2018, including visits as recently as October 2018.”

“His visits ended after a number of PED researchers complained to Professor Nowak about Epstein’s con-tinuing relationship with PED,” according to the report, which was overseen by Harvard’s general counsel, Diane Lopez.

The report, found that even after his conviction and subsequent 13-month stint in jail, “Some members of the Harvard community continued their relationships with Epstein,” Lopez noted in a letter to Bacow released Friday.

“In 2008, shortly after taking office as President, Drew G. Faust was asked to consider a new gift from Epstein,” Lopez wrote.

“Though she had not heard of him at the time, after she was briefed on the nature of the allegations against him, she determined that Harvard should no longer accept gifts from him.”

Lopez also wrote, “In 2013, several faculty members requested that Harvard reconsider accepting donations from Epstein.”

“That request was put before then-Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Michael D. Smith, who, after being briefed about Epstein, reached the same conclusion as President Faust, and denied the request to entertain the possibility of gifts from Epstein,” Lopez wrote.

“In his interview, Dean Smith explained that he concluded at the time that it would be inconsistent with Harvard’s commitment to address sexual assault and harassment at our institution to accept gifts from Epstein,” Lopez wrote.

Harvard’s endowment last year was valued at more than $40 billion, making it the largest endowment of any university in the United States.

Bacow, in his statement Friday, said, “The report issued today describes principled decision-making but also reveals institutional and individual shortcomings that must be addressed — not only for the sake of the University but also in recognition of the courageous individuals who sought to bring Epstein to justice.” 

Epstein, a former friend of Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, as well as of Britain’s Prince Andrew, was arrested last July on federal charges of child sex trafficking.

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/01/harvard-donates-jeffrey-epstein-cash-to-sex-victim-groups.html