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Case 1:19-cv-03377 Document 1-8 Filed 04/16/19 Page 15 of 16
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2003/03/jeffrey-epstein-200303

that he owned $7 million in securities, $1 million in cash, zero in residential property (although
he told sources that he had already bought the home in Palm Beach), and $11 million in other
assets, including his investment in Riddell. A co-investor in Riddell says: “The company had
been bought with a huge amount of debt, and it wasn’t public, so it was meaningless to attach a
figure like that to it … the price it cost was about $1.2 million.” The co-investors bought out
Epstein’s share in Riddell in 1995 for approximately $3 million. At that time, when Epstein was
asked, as a routine matter, to sign a paper guaranteeing he had access to a few million dollars in
case of any subsequent disputes over the sale price, Wexner signed for him. Epstein has
explained that this was because the co-investors wanted an indemnity against being sued by
Wexner. One of the investors calls this “bullshit.”

Epstein’s appointment to the board of New York’s Rockefeller University in 2000 brought him
into greater social prominence. Boasting such social names as Nancy Kissinger, Brooke Astor,
and Robert Bass, the board also includes such pre-eminent scientists as Nobel laureate Joseph
Goldstein. “Epstein was thrilled to be elected,” says someone who knows him.

After one term Epstein resigned. According to New York magazine, this was because he didn’t
like to wear a suit to meetings. A spokesperson for the Rockefeller board says Epstein left
because he had insufficient time to commit; a board member recalls that he was “arrogant” and
“not a good fit.” The spokesperson admits that it is “infrequent” for board members not to be
renominated after only one term.

Still, the recent spate of publicity Epstein has inspired does not seem to have fazed him. In
November he was spotted in the front row of the Victoria’s Secret fashion show at New York’s
Lexington Avenue Armory; around the same time the usual coterie of friends and beautiful
women were whisked off to Little St. James (which he tells people has been renamed Little St.
Jeff) for a long weekend.

Thanks to Epstein’s introductions, says Martin Nowak, the biologist finds himself moving from
Princeton to Harvard, where he is assuming the joint position of professor of mathematics and
professor of biology. Epstein has pledged at least $25 million to Harvard to create the Epstein
Program for Mathematical Biology and Evolutionary Dynamics, and Epstein will have an office
at the university. The program will be dedicated to searching for nature’s algorithms, a pursuit
that is a specialty of Nowak’s. For Epstein this must be the summit of everything he has worked
toward: he has been seen proudly displaying Harvard president Larry Summers’s letter of
commitment as if he can’t quite believe it is real. He says he was reluctant to have his name
attached to the program, but Summers persuaded him. He rang his mentor Wexner about it, and
Wexner told him it was all right.

An insatiable, restless soul, always on the move, Epstein builds a tremendous amount of
downtime into his hectic work schedule. Yet there is something almost programmed about his
relaxation: it’s as if even pleasure has to be measured in terms of self-improvement. Nowak says
that, when he goes to stay with Epstein in the Caribbean, they’ll get up at six and, as the sun
rises, have three-hour conversations about theoretical physics. “Then he’ll go off and do some
work, re-appear, and we’ll talk some more.”

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