Leon Botstein, the president of Bard College, personally received $150,000 for consulting fees in 2016 from a foundation created by Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced billionaire accused of sexually abusing teenage girls, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
In a brief interview with The New York Times, Dr. Botstein confirmed the payment from the foundation, Gratitude America, and said that he donated it all to the college as part of a $1 million gift he gave that same year.
Dr. Botstein, 76, said the rest of his donation to the college came from his personal savings and earnings. He has been president of Bard College since 1975 and earned about $400,000 in 2016.
“I didn’t benefit personally at all,” he said. The money he received from Mr. Epstein’s foundation, he said, “made it possible for me to give as much as we were able to give that year” to the college.
He added: “I’m not a rich person.”
Dr. Botstein had previously said that besides an unsolicited $75,000…
This article was written by Vimal Patel and originally published on www.nytimes.com