Harvard University announced it has donated the remaining funds donated by the late convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.
On Friday, the Ivy League university said it discovered over $200,000 left unspent from over $9 million in donations Epstein made from 1998-2008, providing them to charities promoting female empowerment.
“In line with the commitment I shared in September, those funds have been divided equally between My Life My Choice, based in Boston, and Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS), based in New York. These organizations support victims of human trafficking and sexual assault, and Harvard is proud to support their important and valuable work,” wrote Harvard President Lawrence Bacow to members of the university’s community.
Harvard’s general counsel Diane Lopez later noted that, after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for sex crimes, some faculty attempted to resume their relationship with the disgraced billionaire.
“During the years before Epstein’s criminal activity became known to the public, various Harvard faculty and administrators pursued donations from him, knowing he was a wealthy individual interested in science and philanthropy. Some members of the Harvard community continued their relationships with Epstein even after his conviction, but these relationships in and of themselves did not violate Harvard policies,” Lopez wrote in a letter to Bacow.
Some of those faculty members also put in formal requests for the university to continue their official financial relationship with Epstein, according to Lopez.
“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.
Epstein was found dead in his Manhattan correctional facility cell while awaiting trial for new charges of child sex trafficking last August. A chief medical examiner in New York City later determined that the disgraced billionaire killed himself.
