The money trail: Did Jeffrey Epstein try to buy influence at Arizona universities?

By Eric R Rosenwald / Apr. 22, 2024

 

I started tracking Jeffrey Epstein’s business jets in 2016 using ADSB flight tracking services. In 2019, I published a report that included metadata that I created based on the datasets I was able to obtain. I revealed a set of outlier destinations for Epstein’s aircraft and included charts and graphs to illustrate how unusual the flights were. 

Most of the flight tracks were corroborated by later news reports. Business Insider published a searchable database of Epstein flight tracks.

I revealed an Epstein flight track to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Election Day 2016. Jeff Bezos was in Riyadh on that day. This is around the same time that Bezos’s phone was apparently hacked. Business Insider published a report based on the Riyadh flight track that I found.

Flight tracks to Tucson, AZ, Phoenix, AZ and San Diego, CA were other notable outliers. I looked into possible explanations as to why Epstein’s aircraft was in those cities.

A 2019 Science Magazine article confirmed that Epstein attended the 2017 The Science of Consciousness conference in San Diego. The conference was hosted by The University of Arizona Center for Consciousness Studies. My report revealed that Epstein’s aircraft was in San Diego during the conference.

Influential academics attended the conference, including Noam Chomsky, Sir Roger Penrose, Deepak Chopra and Ivette Fuentes. Later, Penrose and Fuentes discussed accepting funding from someone in a position similar to Epstein’s.

In 2019, Kate Briquelet reported for The Daily Beast that Epstein had donated money to The University of Arizona in 2017. Epstein’s charity, Gratitude America Ltd., was a sponsor for the conference.

The Arizona Republic reported that University of Arizona associate vice president of external communications Pam Scott stated, "At the time the donation was made by Gratitude America Ltd., Jeffrey Epstein was not listed on the board of directors and the university was unaware of his involvement.” "We have no plans to repay this contribution.” Scott said she “was not aware of any formal appearances Epstein may have made at the UA campus in Tucson.”

Noam Chomsky, a renowned political activist and pioneer of cognitive linguistics, joined the faculty of The University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona in 2017. Chomsky was a speaker at the 2017 The Science of Consciousness conference in San Diego.

In 2023, Khadeeja Safdar published a report through The Wall Street Journal which revealed that Epstein moved money for Chomsky.

Between 2017 and 2019, Jeffrey Epstein’s aircraft was in Tucson on three occasions. Epstein’s aircraft was in Switzerland prior to two of the flights. These are the only flights to Switzerland that appear in my dataset. In each case, the Switzerland and Arizona flights were consecutive outliers:

  • February 23, 2017: Zurich, Switzerland — 4-hour stop

  • February 26, 2017: Phoenix, Arizona — 5-hour stop

  • February 26, 2017: Tucson, Arizona — 4-hour stop

  • July 7, 2017: Geneva, Switzerland — 6-hour stop

  • August 15, 2017: Tucson, Arizona — 5-hour stop

  • May 27, 2019: Tucson, Arizona — 5-hour stop

Meanwhile in 2018, Lawrence Krauss, a prominent theoretical physicist and associate of Jeffrey Epstein, faced sexual misconduct allegations. Krauss retired from Arizona State University soon after. Epstein had previously donated money to Arizona State University for Krauss’s Origins Project.

In 2019, Peter Aldhous at BuzzFeed News reported that “Epstein appeared at an informal meal for attendees after an Origins Project workshop on artificial intelligence” at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. Krauss attended the February 2017 workshop. Epstein’s aircraft was in Phoenix around that time, and subsequently flew to Tucson.

Krauss defended Epstein in public statements after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting sex from a minor, stating, ”I don't feel tarnished in any way by my relationship with Jeffrey; I feel raised by it.”

Did Chomsky and Krauss know that Epstein was a donor to Arizona’s universities? If so, when did they find out? Did they inform their respective universities about the donations? Did the universities know that Epstein attended university-related events?

Did Jeffrey Epstein try to buy influence at Arizona’s universities?

I’ll report more in the future. For any tips, email me at eric.rosenwald@me.com.

Diagram Citations

A: Briquelet, Kate. “REVEALED: We Found Billionaire Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s Secret Charity.” The Daily Beast, 16 Apr. 2019, https://www.thedailybeast.com/jeffrey-epstein-has-a-secret-charity-heres-who-it-gave-money-to.

B: Mervis, Jeffrey. "What Kind of Researcher Did Sex Offender Jeffrey Epstein like to Fund? He Told Science Before He Died." Science Magazine, 19 Sep. 2019, https://www.science.org/content/article/what-kind-researcher-did-sex-offender-jeffrey-epstein-fund-he-told-science-he-died.

C: Program for 2017 The Science of Consciousness Conference at Hyatt Regency La Jolla at Aventine, SAN DIEGO. Program, 2017. THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA, https://consciousness.arizona.edu/sites/consciousness.arizona.edu/files/TSC2017%20Abstract%20Book-final-1.pdf. Accessed 22 Dec. 2023.

D: “World-Renowned Linguist Noam Chomsky Joins UA Faculty.” The University of Arizona, 17 Aug. 2017, https://sbs.arizona.edu/news/world-renowned-linguist-noam-chomsky-joins-faculty-university-arizona.

E: Safdar, Khadeeja, and David Benoit. “Jeffrey Epstein Moved $270,000 for Noam Chomsky and Paid $150,000 to Leon Botstein.” The Wall Street Journal, 17 May 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/jeffrey-epstein-noam-chomsky-leon-botstein-bard-ce5beb9d.

F: Aldhous, Peter. “Jeffrey Epstein Called Himself A “Science Philanthropist” And Donated Millions To These Researchers.” BuzzFeed News, 13 Jul. 2019, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/jeffrey-epstein-sex-trafficking-science-donations.

G: “Renowned cosmologist to champion origins initiative at ASU.” Arizona State University, 20 May 2008, https://news.asu.edu/content/renowned-cosmologist-champion-origins-initiative-asu.

H: Aldhous, Peter. “Jeffrey Epstein’s Links To Scientists Are Even More Extensive Than We Thought.” BuzzFeed News, 26 Aug. 2019, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/jeffrey-epstein-science-donations-apologies-statements.

I: “Will we control artificial intelligence or will it control us?” Arizona State University, 23 Feb. 2017, https://news.asu.edu/20170223-will-we-control-artificial-intelligence-or-will-it-control-us.

J: Critchfield, Hannah. “Former ASU Professor Defended Jeffrey Epstein Before His Own Sex Scandal Arose.” Phoenix New Times, 12 Jul. 2019, https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/ex-asu-prof-defended-jeffrey-epstein-before-sex-scandal-11326549.

K: Leingang, Rachel. “Renowned ASU professor Lawrence Krauss ousted from post after sex misconduct claims.” The Arizona Republic, 2 Aug. 2018, https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2018/08/02/lawrence-krauss-out-director-asu-origins-project/894752002/.