tech

февраль 19, 2026

Harvard cut off donations from Epstein, but emails reveal his influence continued years later

In 2008, Harvard University quietly decided it would refuse future donations from a generous benefactor, Jeffrey Epstein.

In 2008, Harvard University quietly decided it would refuse future donations from a generous benefactor, Jeffrey Epstein.

Over the previous decade, Epstein had donated $9.1 million to the university. But that June, the disgraced financier was convicted of soliciting prostitution, including from a minor, leading Harvard to try to shut down the money it took from him.

Yet six years on, Epstein was still finding ways to channel his wealth towards some of Harvard’s world-renowned scientists, including those doing pioneering work in genetics, a field that held longtime personal interest for Epstein. His plans included setting up an investment company that would ostensibly be run by a famed Harvard biologist but with Epstein controlling the money, emails released by the Justice Department show — a setup that has not been previously reported.

Emails and public records indicate that Epstein set up this company with George Church, a famed innovator of genetics research who still runs a key department at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. Church has co-founded at least 50 biotechnology companies — and is known for his long-running efforts to use gene editing to resurrect the woolly mammoth.

Epstein gave money to a number of prestigious universities, including Columbia, which this month removed two faculty members over their ties to the convicted sex offender. Epstein also cultivated ties with academics at elite institutions, and at Harvard, he focused much of his financial largesse on its scientific faculty, where his relationship with two professors — Church and biologist Martin Nowak — went much deeper.

Previously unreleased photos appear to show the two men visited Epstein’s infamous private island, and Epstein sought to funnel money towards their research priorities years after Harvard leadership said it severed ties with the disgraced financier.

This photo, released by the Department of Justice, purports to show George Church, left, and Martin Nowak on Jeffrey Epstein’s private island.

Justice Department

A 2020 investigation by Harvard revealed that Epstein helped Nowak raise funds to maintain a prestigious office space in Harvard Square. The investigation, as well as the newly released files from the Justice Department, show that Epstein frequently used Nowak’s office as his base for meetings with Church and other scientists when visiting Boston. Nowak also gave Epstein unrestricted access to Harvard offices via a key card as late as 2018, according to the university’s report.

Harvard sanctioned Nowak in 2021 over his connections to Epstein, and Nowak expressed regret for helping develop the relationship between Harvard and Epstein. Harvard’s investigation, however, did not result in either professors’ dismissal. Both men remain employed at the university.

Before Harvard decreed it would no longer accept Epstein’s money, his largest contribution, $6.5 million in 2003, went to establish the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, led by Nowak. In a will dated August 8, 2019, just days before Epstein died in jail, Epstein left Nowak $5 million.

Neither Church nor Nowak has been accused of any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein’s crimes.

Church apologized in 2019 for his association with Epstein and confirmed reporting that they had six phone calls in 2014. The newly-released emails from the Justice Department suggest a closer relationship. That includes messages about the previously unreported business venture between Church and Epstein, as well as a lunch the two had planned in December 2018, just weeks after a Miami Herald investigation brought the extent of Epstein’s crimes to light.

In response to questions, Harvard referred CNN to a November 18, 2025, statement:

“The University is conducting a review of information concerning individuals at Harvard included in the newly released Jeffrey Epstein documents to evaluate what actions may be warranted.”

Church and Nowak did not reply to requests for comment.

The making of ‘Georgarage’

In July 2014, Epstein emailed Church: “I have a great idea. lets speak today if possible.”

The next day Church outlined a 10-stage proposal for investments totaling $10 million in an email back to Epstein.

“Many thanks for your very encouraging words yesterday morning,” Church wrote, before listing a number of projects including “Supercentenarianstudy.com,” followed by items on gene-editing to make virus-resistant animals, reversing aging, and creating “cold-resistant elephants,” likely a nod to Church’s longtime goal to resurrect the mammoth.

Epstein wrote back, “lets start on first investment” and when Church asked what happens next, instructed him “decide what you would like to call your investment co.”

Church suggested three names and Epstein picked Georgarage, an apparent reference to “George’s Garage” — the working title of a newsletter Church was mulling. The “Geo,” part of the name also coincides with the acronym for “genetically engineered organisms,” Church noted — a nod to the investment group’s focus on them.

While the name, and Epstein’s email, suggest that it was Church’s investment company, later emails indicate that Epstein instructed his lawyer to file for the company’s founding in Delaware. Incorporation papers for the company obtained by CNN show that it was registered by Darren Indyke, Epstein’s lawyer. Files released by the Justice Department include a 2016 check for $300, signed by Indyke, to the Delaware Division of Corporations, made out for Georgarage.

A lawyer for Indyke did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Emails show Church and Epstein discussing investments in at least three companies using Georgarage, including a company co-founded by Church, eGenesis, that develops gene-edited organs for human transplant.

Subsequent emails with startup executives suggest those people also understood that Epstein oversaw the investment decisions.

Jeffrey Epstein is seen in this image released by the Department of Justice.

US Justice Department/Reuters

In an October 2014 email from eGenesis chief scientific officer Luhan Yang addressed to Epstein, she presents a series of stock options and rates for Epstein to invest in the company. More than a year later, after some referenced calls and a cancelled meeting, Yang writes “please kindly let us know if we can help in anyway to help Jeffrey to make decision on the georgarage investment in Egenesis” in February 2016.

Yang did not respond to requests for comment.

A spokesperson for eGenesis said the company did not receive any funding from Georgarage or from Epstein. “We are not aware of Georgarage appearing on any of the company’s investment materials, and the current leadership team has no knowledge of that entity,” spokesperson Kimberly Ha said.

Ha said Church was a scientific co-founder of eGenesis but is not involved in company operations. Yang left eGenesis several years ago.

Other conversations between Epstein and Church underscore that the financier was integral to Georgarage investment decisions and wanted key oversight on its decision-making.

In an October 2014 email, Epstein and Church discussed investing in Androcyte, a gene-editing company founded by James Clement, through Georgarage.

The three men had a conference call, Clement told CNN. According to Clement, Epstein proposed becoming chairman of the company’s board.

“I did not like anything about Mr Epstein’s proposal and immediately afterwards (we stayed on the conference line after Epstein dropped off) told that to George and that was the end of it,” Clement said in a message.

Clement shuttered Androcyte in 2017 and moved its assets to BetterHumans, a nonprofit he founded that bills itself as “the world’s first specifically-transhumanist bio-medical research organization.”

Later, in July 2015, Epstein asked Church about a California-based DNA sequencing company.

“Are you considering a Georgarage LLC investment?” Church wrote in an email after explaining the company’s focus.

“Yes,” Epstein replied.

The company’s founder did not respond to a request for comment. It is not clear in the documents whether Epstein ever reached out to the company.

There is no evidence in the newly released files that Epstein ultimately invested in any of those three companies.

According to Delaware corporate records, Georgarage’s status is currently inactive due to failure to pay taxes.

Epstein’s Harvard ties

Epstein had a decadeslong relationship with Harvard, and nearly a dozen Harvard affiliates were mentioned in the files.

In the 2020 Harvard report, the university estimated Epstein had contributed $9.1 million before President Drew Faust decided that Harvard would no longer accept his gifts in 2008. The report also concluded that members of the office of development staff were aware that Epstein was still indirectly orchestrating millions of dollars in donations between 2010 and 2015 and continued to invite Epstein to campus events.

Harvard, in its report, said that a few faculty members in 2013 asked the university to reconsider its decision not to accept contributions; the then-dean rejected that request.

Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor until he retired in 2013, also maintained a close relationship with Epstein.

In a 2015 deposition, Dershowitz lists Church among other top Harvard scientists who saw Epstein accompanied by young women frequently, though does not accuse Church of wrongdoing.

“There were none that I ever believed were in any way teenagers. And they all performed tasks. They were taking notes or they were arranging, serving coffee or doing various things,” he said. “And that’s the way Jeffrey would travel when he went to academic meetings … they were seen by some of the most eminent academics and scholars in the world,” Dershowitz said, after naming multiple Harvard academics who were present in those meetings.

“There was no hint or suggestion of anything sexual or improper in the presence of these people,” he said.

Epstein’s text messages also indicate he was communicating with at least one college student who was aware of his association with Church. One text to Epstein reads, “George Church came to speak in my bioethics class today!” Epstein also received multiple texts from a student checking with the school about their international student visa. In another text, Epstein asks someone to meet up with a mother and her daughter on Harvard’s campus on a Saturday morning.

After a release of files last November, Harvard announced a new investigation into nearly a dozen current and former Harvard affiliates over their associations with Epstein, including former Harvard President Larry Summers. Summers has since stepped aside from his teaching role over his relationship with Epstein and said that he was “deeply ashamed” about his ties to the convicted sex offender.

Harvard did not respond to questions about whether the new investigation includes Nowak and Church.

A flag hangs on campus at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on September 4, 2025.

Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

While Epstein’s interest in evolutionary and genetic science was apparent before his 2008 conviction, in the years that followed he also saw his scientific donations and relationship with these innovators as a way to clean up his image and lend him credence as a philanthropist and benefactor to scientific innovations.

In 2012 emails, a person whose name and email are redacted tells Epstein that they were able to get press releases about Nowak’s work and Epstein’s funding for it, through his foundation, picked up by major news outlets. More press releases, drawing in work with Church and other prominent scientists, were planned, the person added.

This appeared to be an effort to push other results for Epstein’s name further down in internet search engines and populate headlines with stories of his philanthropy, but with mixed success. The unidentified person wrote that they’d been told Epstein wants to stop the effort: “I completely understand because I haven’t been able to get the bad stuff off of the 1st page and that was your objective.”

Epstein wrote back that “it seems these articles are few and too much time between,” and “ther [sic] should be an article a day or every two days. not one in two weeks.”