May 4, 2020

USA: Epstein's Personal Photographer Found Dead, In The Woods, After Going Missing In March. He Was Rumored To Have Had A Stash Of Incriminating Evidence/Photos Of Epstein's "Clientele".

Page Six
written by Tamar Lapin
Sunday April 19, 2020

The body of famed photographer Peter Beard was found not far from his Long Island property Sunday, authorities and his family said.

The 82-year-old African wildlife shutterbug — a onetime fixture at Studio 54 and pal of Andy Warhol — suffered from dementia and had been missing from his cliffside Montauk compound since March 31.

A hunter in nearby Camp Hero State Park stumbled on clothing “consistent with” what Beard was wearing when he disappeared, the East Hampton Police Department said.

The remains were soon found in a “densely wooded area” of the park, police said. There was no appearance of foul play.

His family later confirmed Beard’s passing.

“We are all heartbroken by the confirmation of our beloved Peter’s death,” said a statement from Beard’s family, including wife Nejma and their daughter, Zara.

“Peter was an extraordinary man who led an exceptional life. He lived life to the fullest; he squeezed every drop out of every day.’’

The legendary photographer — whose creations have sold for more $500,000 a pop — had a history of wandering off from time to time, even earning the nickname “Walkabout” from friends.

“Peter has always been a wanderer,” a source close to him previously told Page Six.

Close pals had been holding out hope that he’d “just gone on another joyride with one of his friends” when he vanished.

Born into Manhattan high society in 1938, Beard fell in love with Africa as a boy after seeing Museum of Natural History dioramas depicting the continent.

In the mid-1960s, he purchased a rugged 45-acre property in Kenya known as Hog Ranch and spent decades there working.

Adventure was seductive to Beard, who swam with crocodiles, was charged at by rhinos and was once trampled by an elephant.

His first two marriages were to socialite Minnie Cushing in the 1960s and then supermodel Cheryl Tiegs in 1982.

He wed Nejma Khanum, the daughter of a high court judge, in 1986.

Beard’s disappearance last month sparked a massive search, with dozens of cops and K-9 units going door to door and helicopters and drones scanning the coastline.

His family thanked law enforcement for their efforts and friends for their support.

Beard was “an intrepid explorer, unfailingly generous, charismatic, and discerning,” the family statement said.

“Peter defined what it means to be open: open to new ideas, new encounters, new people, new ways of living and being.

“Always insatiably curious, he pursued his passions without restraints and perceived reality through a unique lens. Anyone who spent time in his company was swept up by his enthusiasm and his energy.”

The pioneering contemporary artist “was decades ahead of his time in his efforts to sound the alarm about environmental damage,” the statement said.

“His visual acuity and elemental understanding of the natural environment was fostered by his long stays in the bush and the ‘wild-deer-ness’ he loved and defended.

“He died where he lived: in nature.”

👇 IN OTHER RELATED NEWS 👇
The Epoch Times
written by Staff
Sunday May 3, 2020

After recent criticism over its financial ties with Jeffery Epstein, Harvard University announced that it is donating the remainder of the money gifted by the convicted sex offender to charities that help sex crime victims.

Harvard’s president Lawrence Bacow confirmed the decision in a statement, saying that the unspent $200,937 from Epstein’s donation would be divided equally between two non-profit groups: My Life My Choice, in Boston, and Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, in New York.

“These organizations support victims of human trafficking and sexual assault, and Harvard is proud to support their important and valuable work,” Bacow wrote.

An earlier review (pdf) of Epstein’s connection to Harvard found that he gave $9.1 million to the university between 1998 and 2008 to “support a variety of research and faculty activities.” Bacow emphasized in his statement that the according to the review, Harvard did not receive any gifts from Epstein after 2008, when he was convicted by a Florida state court of procuring a minor for prostitution.

The review noted, however, that Epstein maintained close ties with Martin Nowak, a math professor and director of the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, which was founded in 2003 with Epstein’s gift of $6.5 million. Nowak gave Epstein an office at the program’s building in Harvard Square and circumvented campus security rules to grant Epstein “unlimited” access to the facility, allowing him to visit more than 40 times between 2010 and 2018.

The review also found that several other Harvard professors solicited Epstein for personal funds. Some admitted that they visited Epstein at his various homes in New York, Florida, New Mexico, and the Virgin Islands, and traveled on one of his planes. Some even visited him while he was still serving time in jail.

Harvard’s general counsel Diane Lopez, who oversaw the review, also revealed that some faculty members made several attempts to resume donations from Epstein after his conviction.

“In 2008, shortly after taking office as President, Drew G. Faust was asked to consider a new gift from Epstein,” wrote Lopez (pdf). “Though she had not heard of him at the time, after she was briefed on the nature of the allegations against him, she determined that Harvard should no longer accept gifts from him.” The same request was brought in 2013 to then-Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Michael D. Smith, who reportedly made the same decision as Faust.

“The report issued today reveals institutional and individual shortcomings that must be addressed,” Bacow wrote. “Not only for the sake of the university but also in recognition of the courageous individuals who sought to bring Epstein to justice.”
Miami Herald
written by Kevin G. Hall
Friday May 1, 2020

Harvard University joined its cross-town rival MIT in belatedly acknowledging deeper-than-disclosed, extensive ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

In a letter to alumni on Friday, Harvard President Lawrence Bacow detailed an internal review of the Ivy League school’s relationship with the late Epstein, concluding that the $9.1 million in gifts he gave directly came to a halt following his sex-crimes conviction in 2008. His relationship with the school continued, however, with gifts through surrogates and more than 40 visits to a program that he had given money to before his conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

He even maintained until 2017 what came to be “Jeffrey’s Office” on campus.

“The report issued today describes principled decision-making but also reveals institutional and individual shortcomings that must be addressed — not only for the sake of the university but also in recognition of the courageous individuals who sought to bring Epstein to justice,” Bacow said in concluding his letter to alumni.

Harvard launched an internal review last Sept. 12, barely a month after Epstein’s reported death by suicide on Aug. 10 in the Metropolitan Correctional Center amid circumstances still under investigation. At the time of Harvard’s review, the university had already determined he had given $9.1 million between 1998 and 2008. The giving ended when he was convicted of sex crimes and given a remarkably lax deal that became the basis for the Miami Herald’s Perversion of Justice series in November 2018 and later led to the resignation of Alexander Acosta, the Trump administration’s labor secretary who was a South Florida federal prosecutor involved in the deal.

The revelations by Harvard follow a similar mea culpa by MIT earlier this year. MIT released a report on Jan. 10, spelling out nine visits to the campus by Epstein and donations of $850,000, many of which occurred when Epstein was already a notorious Level Three sex offender. For both elite schools, a relationship with Epstein has proven a profound embarrassment.
Results of the deeper Harvard review released Friday — led by Vice President and General Counsel Diane Lopez and covering more than 250,000 pages of documents — show that school administrators became aware of Epstein’s predatory sexual behavior only after his 2008 conviction.

“During the years before Epstein’s criminal activity became known to the public, various Harvard faculty and administrators pursued donations from him, knowing he was a wealthy individual interested in science and philanthropy,” Lopez wrote. “Some members of the Harvard community continued their relationships with Epstein even after his conviction, but these relationships in and of themselves did not violate Harvard policies.”

But in 2008, Harvard’s new president, Drew G. Faust, had to weigh a gift from Epstein. She learned of the allegations against him and ruled against any more gifts from the financier. In 2013, several faculty members sought to overturn that, requesting reconsideration by the then-dean of faculty of arts and sciences, Michael D. Smith. He too said no.

Presumably looking to restore his tattered reputation, Epstein persistently stayed involved with the prestigious higher-learning institution. Two faculty members, the Lopez report concluded, continued to receive funding from donors they were introduced to by Epstein, although the money was not apparently from him.

“Our review did not reveal information that would establish anything to the contrary. Nevertheless, development officers at Harvard knew about Epstein’s continued involvement in encouraging others to donate to Harvard and did not take steps to discourage these efforts despite knowing that gifts would not be welcome from him,” Lopez wrote Friday. “No one violated any Harvard policy in this regard, as there is none; a matter we recommend be rectified.”

Then there is the matter of repeated visits by Epstein to campus to visit the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics. Evolutionary dynamics involves study of the principles of mathematics that researchers think guided evolution, and Epstein initially funded the program in 2003 with his biggest gift — $6.5 million.

“Epstein maintained a relationship with the director of the PED, Professor Martin Nowak, over the next 15 years, including after Epstein’s release from prison,” Lopez wrote. “While we have not been able to determine the precise number of campus visits, we understand that Epstein visited the offices of PED in Harvard Square more than 40 times between 2010 and 2018.”

Epstein’s rise from a poor kid in the New York suburbs to a high-flying financier with an estate valued at more than half a billion dollars at the time of his death is a story full of holes yet to be filled in. He never finished college and enjoyed none of the trappings associated with arriving at an Ivy League school. All that adds to the intrigue on how a college dropout later in life became a visiting fellow at Harvard, something Lopez addressed in more detail as well.

The position then and now is one of an independent researcher and registered through Harvard’s Graduate School of the Arts and Science as a graduate research student. Lopez said Epstein’s name was submitted by Dr. Stephen Kosslyn, who between 1998 and 2002 had received $200,000 in donations for his work and did not disclose it in the submission for Epstein to become a visiting fellow. The timeline of the fellowship overlaps with the timeline of Epstein’s eventual arrest and conviction — the first complaint of child sex abuse coming to Palm Beach police in late 2005 and investigation that dragged into a June 2007 indictment.

“After reviewing these records, we conclude, and no one argues to the contrary, that Epstein lacked the academic qualifications Visiting Fellows typically possess and his application proposed a course of study Epstein was unqualified to pursue,” Lopez wrote. “Epstein’s application was, nevertheless, approved, having been supported by a department chair.”

As a visiting fellow, Epstein paid the necessary tuition and showed up for registration, but Lopez said he appeared to do little coursework. Epstein applied to be readmitted for the 2006-2007 academic year and was renewed but withdrew from that appointment later following his indictment.

Harvard said Friday it had donated nearly $201,000 of unused Epstein donation money to two Boston-area charities that combat sex trafficking.

Posted by Princess Mononoke at 10:23 AM

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