An ongoing investigation into University affiliates’ connections to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will expand to include donors, as well as faculty members, a Harvard spokesperson confirmed this week.
Newly released documents from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) have revealed links to a number of Harvard donors, including business moguls Andrew Farkas ’82, Leslie Wexner, and Gerald Chan, S.D. ’79.
Several Harvard faculty members are also mentioned in the most recent cache of Epstein files, which were released on January 30 and included Baird professor of science Lisa Randall, professor of genetics George Church, and York professor of physics Andrew Strominger.
University spokesperson Jason Newton did not specify a timeline for the expanded probe or give details about which Harvard donors and other affiliates will be included. News of the probe’s expansion was first reported by The Crimson.
Harvard began the current investigation into Epstein ties in November, following the release of a batch of emails by a U.S. House of Representatives committee that detailed a close relationship between Epstein and Eliot University Professor Lawrence H. Summers. The two men had remained in contact until 2019, when Epstein was arrested on federal human trafficking charges, and they discussed, among other subjects, Summers’s pursuit of a relationship with an unnamed woman described as his mentee. The emails also revealed Epstein’s apparent role in soliciting a donation for a poetry project led by Summers’s wife, Cabot professor of American literature emerita Elisa New.
On November 18, the University put out a statement saying it was “conducting a review of information concerning individuals at Harvard included in the newly released Jeffrey Epstein documents to evaluate what actions may be warranted.” Two days later, Summers, who served as Harvard president from 2001-2006, took an indefinite leave from his teaching duties.
An earlier Harvard investigation into Epstein’s history as a donor to the University, published in 2020, had enumerated several instances in which Epstein brokered major gifts to Harvard. That report also led to the sanctioning of professor of mathematics and biology Martin Nowak in 2021 for maintaining ties to Epstein after his 2008 Florida conviction for child prostitution. (Harvard lifted the sanction in 2023.)
The DOJ’s most recent release of Epstein documents includes millions of pages of financial records, correspondence, and photographs dating back more than a decade. The donors mentioned in the files include major Harvard benefactors. Farkas, a real estate and banking magnate, is the chair of the Hasty Pudding Institute, which received at least $375,000 from Epstein between 2013 and 2019, according to a recent Crimson report. Wexner, who built a global retail empire, has donated more than $42 million to Harvard Kennedy School, and one of its buildings bears his name.
Chan, a real estate investment scion from one of the wealthiest families in Hong Kong, is the founder of Morningside Group, a private equity and venture capital firm. In 2014, he and his two brothers donated $350 million to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the second largest gift in the University’s history, and the Chan School now bears their father’s name.
