Jeffrey Epstein, the financier charged with the sex trafficking of minors, has Michigan ties as a former donor to Interlochen Center for the Arts.

The Daily Beast posted a story Thursday night detailing his connection to the well-known fine arts school and camp near Traverse City.

The report said Epstein was a 1967 attendee of the school's music camp and, in later years, a benefactor. In one instance, he provided funding for a "Jeffrey Epstein Scholarship Lodge," a rental lodge on the woodsy northern Michigan campus, according to the Daily Beast.

In a 1995 story on the rental lodge by Log Home Living magazine, it is described as a barrier-free, handicapped-accessible structure built "to generate revenue for the camp scholarship fund."

A school administrator told the online news site that Epstein is no longer a donor and made his final contribution to Interlochen in 2003.

The source, Katharine Laidlaw, vice president of strategic communications and engagement, also informed the Daily Beast via email that Interlochen stopped communication with Epstein and removed his name from "all donor recognition" after learning of "his conviction."

Epstein made a controversial plea deal in 2008 to felony prostitution charges.

On Saturday -- 11 years after the registered sex offender avoided what could have been a much longer prison sentence with his plea to reduced charges -- Epstein was arrested in New Jersey. He pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of sex trafficking and sex-trafficking conspiracy.

A federal indictment charged that he "sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes" in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida, along with other locations.

More:Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein pleads not guilty to sex-trafficking claims that 'shock the conscience'

The detailed Daily Beast story said Epstein's support for Interlochen included hosting events connected to the school at the same New York City townhouse raided by federal agents last weekend.

Such an event turns up in a posting on My Retrospect, a website described as a place for baby boomers to share memories. It describes how Epstein underwrote a dinner party at his townhouse in 1997 to honor another alum, "60 Minutes" host Mike Wallace.

The Daily Beast also cited a 2011 story by Britain's Daily Mail in which the mother of a soap opera actress alleged that Epstein targeted her daughter in 1994 when she was 13 and a student at Interlochen.

Interlochen isn't the only educational institution to receive money from Epstein. As USA Today reported Thursday, he contributed $6.5 million in 2003 to Harvard University in Boston to fund a professor's research program on evolutionary dynamics.

Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture writer Julie Hinds: 313-222-6427 or jhinds@freepress.com.