Jeffrey Epstein had meetings with officials at Harvard University in person and over the phone at least six times in 2014, likely about genetics research, according to a new report.
The convicted pedophile, who made a $6.5 million donation to the university’s Program for Evolutionary Dynamics in 2003, was in touch with Dr. George Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard, NBC News reported Friday.
The two met at the Harvard Medical School’s Genetics Department building on April 22 of that year, had a phone call the next day and had lunch together on June 21, according to Church’s online calendar obtained by NBC.
The lunch date included the note, “Martin Nowak’s Institute” — a likely reference to Martin Nowak, a professor of biology and mathematics at Harvard and director of the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics.
Epstein, a billionaire financier, has touted himself as a co-founder of the program, which uses math and genetics to research cures for cancer and other diseases, NBC said.
Epstein and Church had another phone call on Sept. 12 and were on a teleconference together the next month, which also included biomedical researcher James Clement.
Church’s calendar listed a dinner on Nov. 30 with Epstein and others, including Nowak and Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, and Joi Ito, a venture capitalist.
It’s unclear whether the men were aware that Epstein was a registered sex offender.
Hoffman declined to comment, while Church, Ito, Nowak and Clement didn’t return messages from NBC.
An official for Harvard University said it does not control whom faculty members meet with or talk to.
Epstein, 66, faces up to 45 years behind bars on federal child sex trafficking charges.
He is accused in an indictment unsealed this week of targeting underage victims between 2002 and 2005.
After allegations of child sex abuse against Epstein first emerged in 2006, Harvard said it wouldn’t be returning his multimillion-dollar donation, NBC noted.
Epstein attended Cooper Union and New York University but dropped out of both.