Harvard says it accepted gifts from Epstein before 2008 sex-crime conviction

FILE PHOTO: U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein appears in a photograph taken for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services' sex offender registry March 28, 2017 and obtained by Reuters July 10, 2019. New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services/Handout via REUTERS

(Reuters) - Harvard University expressed remorse on Friday for accepting millions of dollars in gifts from Jeffrey Epstein in the years before his 2008 sex crimes conviction and said it regretted its association with the disgraced financier.

Harvard President Lawrence Bacow said Esptein donated about $9 million to the university between 1998 and 2007, before Esptein pleaded guilty to prostitution charges in 2008. Harvard said it knowingly rejected a gift from Epstein in 2008 following his conviction, but that its internal review is still ongoing.