Accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein gave or pledged more than $335,000 to Ohio State University, a review found. Now, the university plans to make a contribution of the same amount to a state human trafficking initiative.

A financial review found Jeffrey Epstein gave or pledged $336,000 to Ohio State University, money the school said it will now give to a state human trafficking initiative.

The money from Epstein and the J. Epstein Foundation was identified in a university review of donations from the New York financier and his associated organizations. The findings come nearly nine months after Ohio State first announced it was reviewing donations, in light of charges that Epstein had sexually exploited and abused dozens of teenage girls.

Epstein made the donations and pledges to the Wexner Center for the Arts throughout the 1990s. Records reviewed by national accounting firm EY found Epstein pledged and paid $260,000 throughout that decade. An additional document indicated a potential total of $335,000 in gifts, but the review could not confirm the university ever received the additional $75,000 Epstein had pledged.

Ohio State said it will make a $336,000 contribution to the Ohio attorney general’s Human Trafficking Initiative. That amount includes an additional $1,000 gift Epstein made to the Wexner Center’s Membership Fund in 1990, which Ohio State already disclosed in July.

"All of the donations in question were made to the Wexner Center for the Arts at least two decades ago and many years before any questions about Epstein surfaced," OSU said in a Thursday news release. "However, the university has determined that, in light of Epstein’s reprehensible crimes, retaining these gifts would not be consistent with the university’s values."

Last summer, the university said it had identified a $2.5 million gift from Epstein’s private COUQ Foundation Inc., which supported the renovation of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. However, the review found that while the $2.5 million gift was made via the COUQ foundation, the funds had actually originated from the Wexner Children’s Trust and the Leslie H. Wexner Charitable fund, not from Epstein himself.

The review cost the university nearly $98,000, Ohio State spokesman Ben Johnson said.

Ohio State announced the review in July, as Epstein was indicted on charges of sexually exploiting and abusing dozens of girls between 2002 and 2005. He had pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to a state charge of soliciting a minor for prostitution.

He died Aug. 10 in a federal detention facility in Manhattan while awaiting trial. A medical examiner ruled his death a suicide.

A lawsuit filed this year expanded the scope of allegations against Epstein, accusing him of having sexually abused and trafficked hundreds of young women and girls on a private Caribbean island as recently as 2018.

In the course of the Ohio State review, EY reviewed fundraising documents dating back to before 1980, as well as university real estate, treasury and investment records. The age and "non-digital nature" of many of the documents "were a challenge that added to the time needed to complete the analysis," Ohio State said in its news release.

Ohio State did not engage in real estate, investments or purchasing transactions with Epstein or his affiliated entities, the review found.

In a statement Thursday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said he was grateful for Ohio State’s contribution to his office’s human trafficking initiative.

"The fight against human trafficking is multifaceted and everyone has a role to play," Yost said. "Through our initiative, we are working to eradicate labor and sex trafficking by building awareness, empowering Ohioans to act in their communities, strengthening victims services, and ensuring that traffickers and johns are brought to justice."

jsmola@dispatch.com

@jennsmola