Harvard To Keep Billionaire Perv’s Gift

Moolah is moolah. It’s perfectly innocent, right? After money manager Jeffrey Epstein was charged in July with soliciting sex from prostitutes, several recipients of his donations distanced themselves from the New York billionaire. But though Epstein wrote a $6.5 million check to Harvard—with the possibility of additional millions down the line—the University said yesterday that it has no plans to return the gift.

The donation, first announced in 2003, finances the work of mathematical biologist Martin A. Nowak, the director of Harvard’s Program for Evolutionary Dynamics. Epstein agreed to consider raising his total contribution to $30 million after a review of the program’s progress. That review has not yet taken place, according to the University.

After Epstein was charged with soliciting prostitution at his Palm Beach, Fla., mansion, several politicians who had accepted campaign money from the billionaire returned the donations. They include Eliot L. Spitzer, the New York attorney general who is running for governor; Mark A. Green, a Democratic candidate for attorney general of New York; and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, according to the New York Times and New York Daily News.

Harvard will not join them. “Mr. Epstein’s gift is funding important research using mathematics to study areas such as evolutionary theory, viruses, and cancers,” a Harvard spokesman said yesterday. “The University is not considering returning this gift.”

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