Bard President Received $150,000 From Foundation Created by Jeffrey Epstein

Leon Botstein, the president of Bard Faculty, personally acquired $150,000 for consulting charges in 2016 from a basis created by Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced billionaire accused of sexually abusing teenage women, The Wall Road Journal reported on Wednesday.

In a short interview with The New York Instances, Dr. Botstein confirmed the fee from the muse, Gratitude America, and mentioned that he donated all of it to the faculty as a part of a $1 million present he gave that very same 12 months.

Dr. Botstein, 76, mentioned the remainder of his donation to the faculty got here from his private financial savings and earnings. He has been president of Bard Faculty since 1975 and earned about $400,000 in 2016.

“I didn’t profit personally in any respect,” he mentioned. The cash he acquired from Mr. Epstein’s basis, he mentioned, “made it doable for me to offer as a lot as we had been capable of give that 12 months” to the faculty.

He added: “I’m not a wealthy individual.”

Dr. Botstein had beforehand mentioned that apart from an unsolicited $75,000 present and 66 laptops, Mr. Epstein had not given any items to Bard.

On Wednesday, Dr. Botstein mentioned that he didn’t disclose the cash from the muse throughout a earlier interview with The Instances earlier this month as a result of he was not conscious of it. He mentioned “the contract was signed by another person” so Mr. Epstein’s identify didn’t seem on his data. He mentioned he didn’t keep in mind the 2016 funds till he regarded into the matter after being requested by The Wall Road Journal.

Bard Faculty mentioned in an announcement that Dr. Botstein gave the $150,000 as a part of his “annual 2016 present to Bard, together with private financial savings and the remainder of his non-Bard revenue from honoraria and outdoors conducting charges, a follow he has maintained for a few years.”

It’s unclear whether or not the board of Bard Faculty was conscious of this fee. Efforts to interview James Chambers, the board chairman, and different trustees weren’t profitable.

The fee is the most recent revelation that offers a deeper look into how Mr. Epstein used his cash to purchase affect. Mr. Epstein gave prolifically to many charities and universities, together with Harvard and M.I.T.

A report in The Wall Road Journal final month confirmed that Mr. Epstein’s community was wider than beforehand thought, together with figures just like the linguist Noam Chomsky and Lawrence Summers, the previous Treasury secretary and president of Harvard. Dr. Summers sought cash for a poetry basis, led by his spouse, Elisa New, a Harvard literature professor.

Dr. Botstein repeatedly pursued Mr. Epstein over a interval of a number of years, making quite a few visits to Mr. Epstein’s Higher East Aspect townhouse. Dr. Botstein mentioned these visits had been all about cash for Bard, a liberal arts faculty closely depending on rich donors.

“He loved humiliating and dangling prospects,” Dr. Botstein instructed The Instances earlier this month. “He was sadistic. He completely strung me alongside.”

However in an announcement on Wednesday, the faculty mentioned that Mr. Epstein expressed curiosity in Bard’s music applications and launched Dr. Botstein, a conductor, to Gratitude America, which had fashioned an advisory council of consultants from totally different disciplines.

The muse’s president, Richard Kahn — a longtime adviser to Mr. Epstein and an executor of his property — invited Dr. Botstein to serve a one-year time period on the advisory board as a music adviser, in keeping with the assertion. Mr. Kahn didn’t reply to messages left with telephone numbers and an e mail tackle related along with his identify.

The faculty’s assertion added, “Had the extent and horror of Epstein’s crimes been recognized, Bard wouldn’t have accepted his help.”