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A charity once overseen by convicted sex offender Jeffrey E. Epstein steered $100,000 to the Hasty Pudding Institute of 1770 in 2018 and 2019, according to tax filings reviewed by The Crimson — gifts the organization did not disclose when it publicly addressed an earlier Epstein-linked donation.

Gratitude America, the U.S. Virgin Islands-based charity founded by Epstein, donated $50,000 in each of those two years to the Hasty Pudding, the umbrella group that oversees the Hasty Pudding Club, Hasty Pudding Theatricals, and the Harvard Krokodiloes.

The contributions, which have not been previously reported, show that Epstein continued to route significant sums to Harvard-affiliated organizations in the months leading up to his final arrest and subsequent death in prison in 2019.

The Pudding drew scrutiny in 2019 when The Crimson revealed a separate $50,000 gift that Epstein’s charity had given the Pudding in 2016. After members and alumni expressed outrage, the organization announced it would donate a matching $50,000 to an anti-sex trafficking organization, Girls Educational and Mentoring Services — a decision that was made public at the time.

But the 2018 and 2019 donations drew no such attention. The Pudding did not disclose them when the 2016 contribution surfaced, nor in the months or years that followed. The donations raise new questions about how the organization handled Epstein-linked money, particularly given the Pudding’s response to outcry surrounding the 2016 gift.

Asked about the later contributions, Hasty Pudding Institute Chairman Andrew L. Farkas ’82 wrote in a statement to The Crimson that the 2018 and 2019 donations had also been redirected.

But Farkas declined to provide documentation or identify the charities that received the funds. Instead, he supplied The Crimson with an undated list of charitable donations worth more than $919,000 made by the Hasty Pudding Institute, primarily to arts and music organizations, including the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Arthur Miller Foundation, and Lalela, which provides after-school arts education to students in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Pudding’s charitable giving has totaled more than $1 million, Farkas wrote, adding that the listed gifts were not exhaustive but “include the redirection of contributions received” from Epstein.

The list included a $50,000 donation to GEMS that appeared to match the Pudding’s publicized 2016 contribution. It did not show any additional gifts to the group, and it was not clear if any contributions on the list corresponded to redirections of the later Epstein gifts.

In 2019, the Pudding disclosed GEMS as the recipient of a $50,000 donation after a student petition called on it to send the Epstein-linked money to an anti-sex trafficking charity. At the time, the Pudding did not present the contribution as a response to criticism over the Epstein gift.

In a Tuesday statement on behalf of the Hasty Pudding Institute’s graduate board, Farkas wrote that the list of contributions provided “more than adequate proof of the philanthropic core of The Pudding and its perpetual focus on doing right” and defended the institute’s fundraising practices.

“Absolutely nothing was deliberately hidden at any time ever,” Farkas wrote. “The Pudding acted appropriately and properly at all times.”

Farkas — a prominent real-estate investor who has donated millions of dollars to Harvard — has longstanding ties to the Pudding, having served as president of the Hasty Pudding Club as an undergraduate and as chair of the Hasty Pudding Institute since its creation in 2012. His position placed him at the center of decisions about how to manage contributions from Epstein’s Gratitude America, which has not received any money or made any disbursements since 2020.

Epstein founded Gratitude America in 2012 with the stated purpose of supporting “the expression of gratitude for the ideals of America.” In practice, after Epstein’s 2008 conviction, the foundation became a primary vehicle for his philanthropy and influence, funneling grants to academic, cultural, and scientific institutions.

But further examination of the nonprofit’s activity uncovered troubling discrepancies. In 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported that the foundation’s handling of funds appeared designed to confer tax benefits on Epstein, and multiple organizations listed in filings as donation beneficiaries said they received no money from Gratitude America.

Farkas’s association with Epstein is also well documented. In 2007 — nearly a year after the first reports emerged that Epstein was under investigation in Florida for soliciting minors for prostitution — the two went into business together to operate a marina on St. Thomas.

Their relationship extended into the last few months of Epstein’s life, according to emails released by Congress last week — including one exchange that showed Epstein invoking Farkas in the spring of 2019 as he corresponded with Joi Ito, then the director of the MIT Media Lab.

In a string of messages beginning in February, six months before his death, Epstein attempted to help arrange donations to MIT. After Ito informed him that a $25,000 gift from “your foundation” had been rejected, Epstein immediately suggested turning to Farkas instead.

“i can have andrew farkas , he gave a building to the hasty pudding harvard. fund plant guys,” he wrote, before asking how Farkas should route a gift.

When Ito responded that Farkas could contribute directly to him at MIT and asked about the amount, Epstein replied: “100-200.”

Epstein relied on Farkas in other situations as well. In January 2014, Epstein called on Farkas to help a spokesperson for former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers fly off of St. Thomas after she and her family became stranded there.

The spokesperson, Kelly Friendly, later wrote to Epstein that Farkas had taken “very good care of us.”

​​—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.

—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.