Epstein frequented Harvard, had own office, report finds

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein visited Harvard University’s campus more than 40 times after his 2008 sex crimes conviction and was given his own office and unfettered access to a research center he helped establish, according to a review of his ties to the school.

The review, completed at the request of Harvard’s president, also found that the university accepted more than $9 million from Epstein during the decade leading up to his conviction but barred him from making further donations after that point.

About $200,000 of that funding remains unspent, the school said, and will be given to groups that support victims of sexual violence.

The report found that while Harvard’s top leaders cut ties with Epstein in 2008, he maintained close ties with Martin Nowak, a math professor and director of the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, a research center created in 2003 with $6.5 million from Epstein.

Nowak gave Epstein an office at the program’s building in Harvard Square, the review found, and circumvented campus security rules to grant the financier a key card and “unlimited” access to the facility.

Epstein frequently visited Office 610, which was known as “Jeffrey’s Office,” and met with scholars to hear about their work, the review found. He brought his own rug and hung his own photos on the wall. Nowak argued that the office was Epstein’s in name only, the report says, but others in the building said it was commonly known to be reserved for the financier.