Harvard has revealed that it received about $9million directly from disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and his foundations

Harvard has revealed that it received about $9 million from disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and appointed him a visiting fellow, as it vows to direct the funds to victims of sexual assault.

The elite university admitted that it received the funding over a decade period that ended in 2007 and that the pedophile was listed as a fellow in the psychology department in 2005.

In a letter to the community published on Thursday night, Harvard president Larry Bacow said the school was expanding its Epstein probe.

The convicted pedopohile

'Epstein's behavior, not just at Harvard, but elsewhere, raises significant questions about how institutions like ours review and vet donors,' he stated.

'Jeffrey Epstein's crimes were repulsive and reprehensible. I profoundly regret Harvard's past association with him.'

Harvard has previously admitted that Epstein gave them a $6.5 million contribution to establish their Program for Evolutionary Dynamics in 2003.

However, Bacow conceded in his letter that $2.4 million in donations to support Harvard between 1998 and 2007.

Epstein is pictured in a Harvard sweater during a chat with Professor Alan Dershowitz in 2004

The professor says most of the money was given to the college for immediate use, and has already been spent.

However, the Harvard Crimson reports that Bacow says he has identified a around $186,000 of an Epstein donation that has not yet been spent.

He has vowed to direct the money to groups supporting victims of sexual assault.

Meanwhile, the professor's letter also confirmed that he recently learned that former faculty member Stephen Kosslyn named as Epstein as a visiting fellow in the psychology department in 2005.

Bacow says Harvard is trying to gather more information about the appointment, according to The Boston Globe.

The previous year, Epstein was pictured wearing a maroon Harvard sweater as he met with Alan Dershowitz- a professor who taught at Harvard Law School for decades.

The elite university admitted that it received the Epstein funding over a decade period that ended in 2007.

Harvard's letter comes less than a week after another elite Massachusetts college was embroiled in another Epstein donation scandal.

On Saturday, MIT's Media Lab director Joi Ito resigned after emails he sent the pedophile in 2014 - after he had been convicted and incarcerated for child sex crimes - were published.

In one, he brazenly asked Epstein for $100,000.

In his resignation, he wrote: 'After giving the matter a great deal of thought over the past several days and weeks, I think that it is best that I resign as director of the media lab and as a professor and employee of the Institute, effective immediately.'

According to emails obtained by Ronan Farrow for The New Yorker, the college's Media Lab continued to accept money from Epstein despite him being removed from its donor list.

In total, he personally gifted the school $1.7 million and secured funding from his well-heeled friends which amounted to $7 million.

Joi Ito, the director of MIT's Media Lab, resigned on Saturday after it emerged he had taken more donations from Jeffrey Epstein and hidden them in accounts by saying they were from an anonymous donor

President of Harvard's letter to the community September 12, 2019 Dear Members of the Harvard Community, All of us have been horrified by the revelations regarding Jeffrey Epstein, and I write today to update our community on steps we are taking in view of current information about his philanthropy to Harvard. Let me start by emphasizing the obvious: Epstein’s reported criminal actions were utterly abhorrent. They flagrantly offend the values of our society and this institution, and we condemn them. We also recognize the profound pain that Epstein caused to his victims and their families, and we commend their courage in coming forward to bring his crimes to light. Epstein’s connections as a donor to this University, and other institutions, raise important concerns. With that in mind, two weeks ago I asked for a review of his donations to Harvard. Our decentralization makes such a review more complicated than it would be at some other institutions. I want to emphasize that this review is ongoing. Our review to date indicates that between 1998 and 2007, Epstein made a number of gifts to support various faculty and institutional research activities across the University. The largest of these was a $6.5 million gift in 2003 to support the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics. The University received other gifts, which totaled approximately $2.4 million, based on current information. Each of these gifts from Epstein and his affiliated foundations to Harvard University predates his guilty plea in June 2008. To date, we have uncovered no gifts received from Epstein or his foundation following his guilty plea. Moreover, we specifically rejected a gift from Epstein following his conviction in 2008. We have also recently learned that Stephen Kosslyn, a former faculty member and a beneficiary of Epstein’s philanthropy, designated Epstein as a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Psychology in 2005. We are seeking to learn more about the nature of that appointment from Dr. Kosslyn, who no longer works at the University. The majority of Epstein’s gifts were designated for current use, not as endowed funds, and nearly all were spent years ago for their intended purposes in support of research and education. Our ongoing review of these gifts has identified one current use fund and one small endowment designated to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences with a total unspent balance of $186,000. After consultation with the Dean of the FAS, we have decided that the University will redirect the unspent resources to organizations that support victims of human trafficking and sexual assault. This is an unusual step for the University, but we have decided it is the proper course of action under the circumstances of Epstein’s egregiously repugnant crimes. The issue of the gifts given to institutions by donors at Jeffrey Epstein’s suggestion, is also one that has emerged in recent days, and we are looking into this as part of our ongoing review. Epstein’s behavior, not just at Harvard, but elsewhere, raises significant questions about how institutions like ours review and vet donors. I will be convening a group here at Harvard to review how we prevent these situations in the future. I also hope to engage our peer institutions to consider how we can collectively improve our processes. We can all learn from each other. Let me end where I began. Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes were repulsive and reprehensible. I profoundly regret Harvard’s past association with him. Conduct such as his has no place in our society. We act today in recognition of that fact. And we do so knowing that the scourge of sexual assault continues to demand our close attention and concerted action. Harvard is not perfect, but you have my commitment as president that we will always strive to be better. Sincerely, Lawrence S. Bacow Advertisement

MIT president admits cover-up of $800,000 donated by Jeffrey Epstein and that he wrote him a thank you letter in 2012 - four years after the pedophile pleaded guilty to sex crimes

The president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology admitted concealing donations from Jeffrey Epstein and that he wrote him a thank you letter in 2012, four years after the pedophile pleaded guilty to sex crimes.

President Leo Rafael Reif called the message to Epstein a 'standard acknowledgment letter' in a statement to the university community posted on its website.

'I apparently signed this letter on August 16, 2012, about six weeks into my presidency. Although I do not recall it, it does bear my signature,' he said.

The donation came four years after the well-connected Epstein, who committed suicide as he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges, was convicted in Florida on one count of paying young girls for sexual massages at his Palm Beach mansion.

Reif (speaking at MIT in 2012) said in a statement: 'Because the members of my team involved believed it was important that Epstein not use gifts to MIT for publicity or to enhance his own reputation, they asked [MIT Media Lab Director Joi Ito] to agree to make clear to Epstein that he could not put his name on them publicly.'

Epstein donated around $800,000 to the university over 20 years and had provided gifts to the Media Lab in 2013 and 2017.

Reif's statement came followed an independent investigation by law firm Goodwin Procter revealed donations had continued even after Epstein was listed as a 'disqualified donor.'

'It is now clear that senior members of the administration were aware of gifts the Media Lab received between 2013 and 2017 from Jeffrey Epstein's foundations,' Reif said.

'Because the members of my team involved believed it was important that Epstein not use gifts to MIT for publicity or to enhance his own reputation, they asked [MIT Media Lab Director Joi Ito] to agree to make clear to Epstein that he could not put his name on them publicly.'

He also admitted that he was at a meeting where his senior colleagues discussed Epstein's conviction and donations.

Reif's statement

Reif's admission comes after Joi Ito resigned as director of MIT's famous Media Lab Saturday after The New Yorker magazine revealed he had downplayed and concealed funds from Epstein.

Reif said in his letter to staff that several members of MIT's administration were aware of gifts given by Epstein between 2013 and 2017, and that they asked Ito to ensure that they were kept anonymous so Epstein could not use them to rebuild his reputation

'I am aware that we could, and should have, asked more questions about Jeffrey Epstein. We did not take time to understand the gravity of Epstein's offenses or the harm to his young victims,' said Reif.

Epstein was arrested in New York in July on multiple charges of trafficking underage girls for sex. He killed himself on August 10.

Director Joi Ito's resignation came after The New Yorker reported that the Media Lab had a more extensive fundraising relationship with Epstein than it previously acknowledged and tried to conceal the extent of the relationship.

Carol Mack, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell attend the Henry Street Settlement Event on May 16, 1995 in New York City

One email from 2014 showed that Ito brazenly asked Epstein for $100,000.

Reif also said that Goodwin Procter's investigation found that senior members of MIT's administration were aware of gifts the lab received between 2013 and 2017 from Epstein's foundations.

'Goodwin Procter has found that in 2013, when members of my senior team learned that the Media Lab had received the first of the Epstein gifts, they reached out to speak with Joi Ito,' Reif wrote.

'He asked for permission to retain this initial gift, and members of my senior team allowed it. They knew in general terms about Epstein's history - that he had been convicted and had served a sentence and that Joi believed that he had stopped his criminal behavior.'

Epstein, 66, killed himself in jail on August 10 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Federal prosecutors in New York had charged him with sex trafficking and conspiracy, alleging he sexually abused girls over several years in the early 2000s.

Dozens of victims have described him as a sexual predator who used young women as his sex slaves. Prosecutors have pledged to charge any co-conspirators.