Harvard admits to receiving $9 million from Jeffrey Epstein

Harvard University reportedly acknowledged that it received about $9 million from disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and his foundations over a 10-year period that ended in 2007. 

Harvard President Larry Bacow also said in a letter to the community that the college would extend its investigation of its connections with Epstein to find out whether Epstein also helped the university gain donations from others, according to The Boston Globe. 

“Epstein’s behavior, not just at Harvard, but elsewhere, raises significant questions about how institutions like ours review and vet donors,” he reportedly wrote. “Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes were repulsive and reprehensible. I profoundly regret Harvard’s past association with him.” {mosads}

The newspaper reported that Bacow said the university had rejected a gift from Epstein after his 2008 conviction on prostitution charges and that the university has said it did not take money from him after 2007. 

Bacow reportedly said in the message that Epstein’s largest gift to the university was $6.5 million for its Program for Evolutionary Dynamics in 2003 but for the first time also acknowledged an additional $2.4 million for other research. 

He additionally said that the university found $186,000 in remaining contributions from Epstein that will be donated to nonprofits that assist human trafficking victims. 

The Hill has reached out to Harvard for comment. 

The news follows revelations that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab reportedly hid the role that Epstein, a convicted sex offender, played in its fundraising. 

The New Yorker reported that Epstein was listed as “disqualified” from donating after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting sex from a minor, but that the Media Lab continued to accept gifts from him. 

Epstein was arrested in July on sex trafficking charges and died while incarcerated in August.