Epstein used his wealth to infiltrate America’s most prestigious universities

Yet some of Epstein’s deepest relationships were with America’s most distinguished academics, developed over years through financial support, shared interests and hospitality at his luxurious properties.

Those relationships are now jeopardizing careers at elite universities as millions of Epstein-related documents released by the Justice Department show how the late sex offender spread his tentacles across academia.

This week, Nobel laureate Columbia professor Richard Axel and decorated economist and former Harvard president Lawrence Summers resigned from positions at their institutions because of their Epstein ties.

Axel said Tuesday he would resign as co-director of Columbia’s Mind Brain Behavior Institute, calling his association with Epstein a “serious error in judgment.” Meanwhile, Summers said this on Wednesday he will finish his term as a Harvard Professor at the end of the academic year. he took leave in november From teaching duties, apologized and said he was “deeply embarrassed” after the release of a batch of emails in which he asked Epstein for advice about “being horizontal” with a woman he was pursuing.

Last week, Bard College retained a law firm to review President Leon Botstein’s relationship with Epstein, as the latest emails released by the Justice Department show there appeared to be a warm personal relationship — even years after Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to charges of soliciting and soliciting minors to engage in prostitution.

In a statement earlier this month, Botstein said Epstein was not a friend and that his dealings with him were “solely for the sole purpose of soliciting donations for the college.”

Epstein’s colleagues in academia ranged from household names like MIT linguist Noam Chomsky and theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking to lesser-known but influential stars in fields like computer science and artificial intelligence.

Unlike the Wall Street titans and private-equity investors Epstein courted, the professors and researchers could not give him access to his vast wealth. But he also helped debunk the myth of intellectual genius that was essential to his rise.

For example, in a 2007 New York magazine profile, Axel confirmed Epstein’s unique intelligence, saying: “He has the ability to make connections that other minds can’t. He’s extremely smart and probing. He can get information very quickly to think about a problem and identify biological problems without all the data a scientist has.”

Epstein himself played the role by repeatedly wearing Harvard sweatshirts, spending time on campuses, and attending TED conferences dedicated to discussing the future of science and technology. He also hosted a gathering for physicists in the Virgin Islands in 2006. One of the Justice Department documents was a “list of scientists” that contained 30 names and what appeared to be contact information blacked-out.

Epstein had launched a campaign to rehabilitate his image as a science-oriented philanthropist after his 2008 criminal conviction, so academia was a useful recourse. Some remained steadfast defenders.

Reminiscent of the banter that ran openly between some powerful men in the pre-MeToo era, messages between Epstein and his academic colleagues were often sprinkled with offensive comments about women, particularly graduate students, in documents shared by the Justice Department.

For example, in December 2010, American virologist Nathan Wolfe invited Epstein to dinner with an investor and “some attractive interns from the WEF”, he wrote. The two remained in touch till the end of 2018. “Hey Jeffrey,” Wolfe wrote. “It’s been forever. I’m in NYC this week. Are you around? Let’s meet.”

A Stanford spokesperson said Wolff’s visiting appointment at the university ended early last week, when it was scheduled to happen. Wolfe did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In an email to Epstein in 2011, Yale computer-science professor David Gelernter described an undergraduate as “a cute little blonde.” Gelernter did not respond to a request for comment.

For Epstein, money was the primary means of infiltrating cash-hungry academic institutions, which may employ hundreds of people in their development offices. Fund-raisers often beat the bushes and alumni networks to develop relationships with potential patrons.

In a May 2020 report, Harvard revealed that Epstein had contributed $9.1 million to the university in the decade before his sentencing. Most of that – about $6.5 million – was a pledge to establish the School’s Program for Evolutionary Dynamics under Professor Martin Novak in 2003, during Summers’ presidency. On Wednesday, Novak, a mathematics professor, was placed on paid administrative leave in connection with the university investigation into his relationship with Epstein, a Harvard spokesperson said. Novak did not respond to a request for comment.

That multimillion-dollar gift appears to be an exception. More specifically, Epstein’s gifts to individual scientists totaled tens of thousands of dollars, making it a relative bargain among his investments.

This is consistent with the feast-or-famine environment of higher education. While a handful of star researchers at the forefront of science attract federal grants in the tens of millions of dollars, faculty in the social sciences and humanities often struggle to generate six figures.

Robert Trivers is an example of this. In 2007, the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences awarded Trivers, now a professor of anthropology at Rutgers University, the Crawford Prize, a prestigious science award that is often mentioned alongside the Nobel. His research ranged from honor killings to the evolutionary dimensions of human altruism and the logic of deception and self-deception.

March 2019 in emaill Contained in Justice Department documents, Trivers—who had by then left Rutgers—listed thousands of dollars that Epstein had lavished on him over the years.

“When you once said, probably in Palm Beach, that there would never come a time when you would not support me, I joked to friends that it was better than Social Security,” Trivers wrote, praising Epstein’s “personal integrity.”

In a separate email to Epstein that month, Trivers said she had faced backlash for public comments in which she defended Epstein’s conduct, saying it was not “so disgusting” because teenage girls now mature far earlier than their counterparts decades ago. Trivers received an automated email response with a message saying he was now in poor health and asking for privacy.

Sometimes, one Epstein academic contact opens the door to another. This appears to be the case with Nouriel Roubini, an American economist and New York University professor known for predicting the financial crisis of 2008-09.

Roubini was introduced to Epstein by another, lesser-known academic, Gino U. “It was great to see you at the Majestic in Cannes earlier this week,” Yu wrote to Roubini in 2018, according to the released emails. “I’ve CC’d Jeffrey Epstein who funds some of my research. Maybe you two can meet after I return to New York.”

Yu signed off: “Hope to see you in Playa in August or Davos in January.”

Later that year, emails and calendar entries showed Epstein’s assistant coordinating with Roubini to arrange a meeting.

Roubini told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that he met Epstein only once for half an hour in his office and never spoke with him again. Roubini said, “He wasn’t really interested in my ideas, but more interested in name dropping.” He said he learned of Epstein’s 2008 conviction in 2011. Yu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

There was something else that academics offered Epstein beyond the cloak of respectability: access. Or, at least the pretense that he can help the children of his wealthy contacts get into Ivy League schools.

In a series of 2016 emails included in Justice Department documents, Epstein appeared to arrange for Axel to help smooth the way to Colombia for banking family scion Alice de Rothschild.

In September, Epstein wrote to Axel: “I’m in Paris, I’m bringing the 18-year-old Rothschild girl to New York, trying to convince her to go to Columbia, psychology or cognitive science. Who should I call?”

Axel replied: “Send me your CV or better yet his application. I’ll take a look and reach out to the right people.”

In October, Epstein wrote to Axel again: “The Baroness and daughter would like to see the Columbia on Thursday… She is the richest woman in Europe.”

A Columbia spokesperson said that Axel “is often asked to speak to prospective students interested in applying to Columbia” but “has no role or power in the admissions processes.”

In February 2017, Axel gave Epstein bad news: Alice de Rothschild had been denied entry.

She will study biology at NYU from 2017 to 2022. A family spokesperson said: “Alice de Rothschild’s university admission to the United States, as well as her rejection, is entirely due to her grades. Alice cannot be held responsible for the unilateral actions of Jeffrey Epstein.”

Write to Joshua Chaffin here joshua.chaffin@wsj.comon neel mehta neil.mehta@wsj.com and on Douglas Belkin Doug.Belkin@wsj.com