Harvard prof wanted to retain Epstein's gifts even after his guilty plea
Professor Michael Nowak, has now been placed on administrative leave, according to Harvard.
By DONNA RACHEL EDMUNDSThe exterior of The Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University.(photo credit: REUTERS/KATHERINE TAYLOR/FILE PHOTO)
Harvard University has donated in excess of $200,000 outstanding from a $9.1 million sum they received in gifts from convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, CNBC has reported. The money will go to groups supporting victims of sex trafficking, the school said.On Friday Harvard released a report, prepared by general counsel Diane Lopez, detailing Epstein's links with Harvard. It revealed that some faculty members tried to persuade the university to recommence taking gifts from the financier in 2013, some five years after he had pleaded guilty to sex crimes in Florida.“A number of the Harvard faculty members we interviewed also acknowledged that they visited Epstein at his homes in New York, Florida, New Mexico or the Virgin Islands, visited him in jail or on work release, or traveled on one of his planes,” the report noted in a footnote, according to CNBC.Harvard stopped considering his donations in 2008 when the investigation against him was underway. Among the crimes Epstein, now deceased, pleaded guilty to was paying for sex from an underage girl. Despite this, the report found that Harvard's Program for Evolutionary Dynamics (PED), which was funded by Epstein's gifts, “maintained an office for Epstein’s use and granted him keycard and passcode access" to the program's off-campus location even after his convictions, raising "questions about possible violations of Harvard policies,” the report notes.The program's leader, Professor Michael Nowak, has now been placed on administrative leave, according to Harvard.“The actions taken by [Nowak] as described in the report warrant review to determine whether FAS policies and standards of professional conduct were violated and if additional steps must be taken,” Dean Claudine Gay, the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said in a statement.“We do not take this step lightly, but the seriousness of the matter leads us to believe it is not appropriate for Professor Nowak to continue in his role, other than what he will be asked to do to complete the semester.”According to the report, Epstein’s gift of $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.”The report further notes: “it is likely that he visited PED’s offices more than 40 times between 2010 and 2018, including visits as recently as October 2018.”However, following a number of complaints by PED researchers to Professor Nowak regarding Epstein's continued relationship with the program, his visits stopped.The report further found that Epstein had helped Nowak to obtain further gifts in 2011 and 2014, again, after Epstein's guilty plea, totaling $6 million from Leon Black, CEO of Apollo Global Management, and his wife Debra, in addition to another $1 million gifted by the Black Family Foundation in 2015.The Harvard report states that a representative for Black told the school: “Jeffrey Epstein introduced Mr. Black to the research that was being undertaken by Professors Church and Nowak.“Mr. Black met with Professors Nowak and Church to discuss their research in Cambridge, Massachusetts and, in the case of Professor Church, also at Mr. Black’s New York office."“The gifts made in support of Professor Church’s and Professor Nowak’s research were made by Mr. Black. None of the funds were provided by Mr. Epstein and no attempt was made to conceal the source of these gifts.”Harvard President Lawrence Bacow said in a statement: “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.”In total, a sum of $200,937 of gifts from Epstein was found by Harvard to have remained unspent, from a total $9.1 million in combined gifts granted between 1998 and 2008.“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,” Bacow wrote.
